TG’s WEBlog (Known
as a BLOG or Blogging) 2003
January Blogs: Off
to Lorne, e-networking, Chess, Sports Day, Genes, Kill the Peer, More Networking Theory, Morphing
Fun, Two Types of Salespeople, Intellectual
Property at School, Bowling for
Columbine, Chinese Maglev, and 10
year predictions, New Weapons, Man United, What’s Wrong with British Sport,
Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, SPAM, Inventing Fun, SUN, Search Optimizer,
Camden High, And Even More Contacts,
Teenage Nightmares, Receiving it Back, Weasel, Diet, Networking, Technology 2003, Top Weblogs,
Back to Tennis and My New T-Shirt, Moneymaking, Get Connected, Gravity
Travels at the Speed of Light!, Mapping
Coincidence, Hot Day, Scary, Theories of Networking, Evil,
Google Fun, Georgia’s First Words, Back Ache and Update, Happy New Year Resolutions
Feb
Blogs: Fast Company on the Money, Man Utd at Juventus, and Parenthood, Fast Company of Friends, and Networking,
Values Journey, War Deaths, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins, World
Politics, Who is Tony? False Memory Syndrome,
Ideas into Money, Georgia’s First Day at Crèche and EFT, You Never Know,
Monday All Change, Time for Change, Sleepless n Seattle, and 1993, Valentines
Day, and a Puzzle, Ignorant Enough to Make a Fortune, First Day at School –
Improv, The Office – The End?, Man Draws with Machine, The Shuttle, Sick of
Doctors, More Network Mapping, Network Mapping, 42 Happy Birthday!, Wisdom,
Dating, and more Jacko, Michael Jackson, Chess Distraction, EFT,
Ultrasound Risks, Shuttle Disaster, Great Ocean Road, Digital Licensing.
March Blogs: The Palaeolithic Diet, Julie
Burchill and Journalism, Brabantia, Iraq, Free Downloads, My Music
Rant, Family Photo, Improv,
Iraqi Freedom, Iraq and
Opinion Polls, and The French, Sneaky
Fucker Theory!, Rollerball War, Weasels are from Venus, Who are The Kurds?, The
War in Iraq, Cold, and Sore Throat, The Luck Factor, Again!, Mum’s Birthday, Sales
Call Plan, Biggest Threat to Humans,
The Luck Factor, Football
Modelling, b2bcafe, Improv, and Tom Peters!, Time Out, Family and Values,
Beermat Entrepreneur, Sick
Sofa, Nigerian Scam
Baiting, and World End, Nothing Day, People Frustration, Gibberish,
It’s Monday – Just Do It, Man Utd v Liverpool, League Cup
Final, Stepping Up To The Mark.
Monday 31st March 2003
What did the Hunter/Gatherers
eat?
I just found a resource guide to
Palaeolithic nutrition.
So what?
Why might this be so important?
Well, if we knew what our
ancestors ate, and which diets over the last 500,000 years made us the most
healthy, we’d know what to eat!!
And the more links I followed
today, the more interesting it became, culminating in this long article, which
is so fascinating, and explains it all.
Palaeolithic Diet vs. Vegetarianism
It’s a great article which I haven’t
read all of, but this guy has really done his research, and he seems to have
tested out most diets himself, as well.
His point is very simple. Let’s
look at what science had found our ancestors to have eaten to work out what’s
best for us.
And also he dispels a few myths
by done some great research and reading, and even updating the article.
Please read it, it’s good for
your health!
I’d forgotten the joy that is
Julie Burchill.
Just reading through The
Guardian archives.
She’s nearly always spot on.
It reflects the right wing
liberalist I’m becoming!
I loved this one
Guardian Unlimited |
Columnists | Name and shame
And these
Guardian Unlimited | The
Guardian | Julie Burchill: Don't take my name in vain
Guardian Unlimited |
Columnists | Three cheers for adultery
And this one about
journalists particularly appealed to me because I’ve come close to seeing
journalists, and my own limited experience made me realise what peculiar
creatures they are well described by Julie Burchill who knows better than me.
Guardian Unlimited |
Columnists | People in class houses
It’s that sneering attitude,
or thinking they know better than anyone else or they have to find an angle on
something.
Once a journalist always a
journalist, even when they’re dressed up as something else.
And two good examples of this
type of lizard….
I’m beginning to detest Geraldo, who I first saw hosting a
pre Jerry Springer show on my first visit to the States in ’92. There’s something about him that makes my
flesh creep. And I don’t think I’m the only one
And the other one, who
exploits people as much if not more than the others is Maurey Povich. What gets me about this guy is he seems so
nice but is even more exploitative than Jerry Springer who at least doesn’t
claim to have any high moral ground.
Once a journalist always a
journalist.
And talking of crap, I found
this whilst looking for Julie Burchill.
The Observer | Review |
Net Porn
This is a typical piece of
journalism using a standard formula to get paid a decent amount of money. Let’s take an interesting idea, interview two
people from the extremes of the idea and say absolutely nothing.
Compare that article with
this by Julie Burchill which doesn’t take the usual formula.
Guardian Unlimited |
Columnists | Smug rebel yells
You have to give
credit where credit is due.
Yet again Brabantia have come up trumps.
Our bin lid
broke. Great bin, a joy to use.
You wouldn’t
think you could get so much pleasure from a bin.
Dropped it off at
the local department store for repair.
Expected to pay
quite a lot and get ripped off.
And you know
what?
They replaced the
bin lid for free, no charge, with new one.
Now that’s good customer
service which creates loyalty and I tell other people about it.
So buy
Brabantia. Good products, and great
customer service.
This is the
second time they’ve provided exceptional service beyond the call of duty.
Friday 28th March 2003
This article by
Andrew Sullivan is right on the money for who is responsible for the Iraq war
and why it’s happening. Of course he
takes a centre/right approach but it’s well written and makes some good points.
www.AndrewSullivan.com - Latest Posts
Amusing piece
about how a guy who offered his book for free on a download, but miscalculated
the number of people who would run the download and now has to pay for the
bandwidth. Me thinks that this is also a
chance for some “free” publicity. He
doesn’t seem to have harmed his chances of making money in the long run, but
maybe was a bit naïve in using a single server.
Wired News:
When a Free Download Isn't Free
And downloaded
music for the masses to pay for. That’s
all we ever wanted; good music at a reasonable price.
Wired
News: Streaming Music to Monied Masses
The trouble is,
it may be too late now. We’ve been
ripped off for years by the music industry, and besides, there isn’t that much
good music around. I’m still thinking
about the claim on Nigel's Golden Days
“To me, 1984 was the last truly great year for music. True that 1985's
'Live Aid' concert was one of the greatest moments in musical history, it's a
concert that could not be bettered by substituting today's most popular acts
for the acts taking part that day. But brilliant though it was, music seemed to
go into slow decline from then on. I will not rule out the possibility of
featuring the years 1985-1987 at some point in the future as (I repeat), it was
a slow decline. But I don't see myself going beyond that. 1987 saw the
introduction of House Music to the chart, and Tuesday 20th January 1987 was a
very sad day for music. It was the day that Steve 'Silk' Hurley hit number one
with "Jack Your Body". I can still barely believe that such an awful
noise could get to the summit of the UK Chart. Later in the year something just
as bad repeated the trick, "Pump Up The Volume" by M.A.R.R.S. I had
always been a fan of dance music, but that changed during those last 3 years of
the 80s. As 1988 rolled in, the chart began to get dominated by these awful
noises that made me feel irritable (and dare I say Violent ?) every time I
heard them, and the chart has remained in this state ever since.”
I
agree. Maybe we’re beginning to sound
like our parents talking about the death of music after swing and Sinatra,
with Rock and Roll and The Beatles, but
music has almost ceased to be melodic.
Sometime around the mid 80s, music became rhythmic and not melodic. That’s why music sales are in decline,
because most of the music driven by the music industry is crap. They’re not
appealing to the mass audience. They
think that they have to sell music to youth, forgetting that the most wealth is
with the baby boomers. And they can’t keep fobbing us off with re-works of the
same old Greatest Hits albums.
I
ask you this. How many post ’84 albums
do you repeatedly play? How many albums
have enough good songs on them that you keep playing the album instead of
selectively picking the best 3 on the album?
I can’t think of a single album where some of the tracks don’t drive me
mad. The Proclaimers stuff is pretty good
track by track. That’s about it. Oh and of course Roxette! In fact I knew something was wrong with music
when I bought an Ace of Base album and listened to it in the car. It was appalling, badly produced and with no
melody. Now compare that with Roxette. Now I know I’m not talking about everybody’s
taste in music here, but look back and realise that the great albums came from
the late 60s and 70s.
Hey,
maybe it’s me and my era and taste in music.
But ask yourself this, why are music sales in decline. My answer.
Because music has become samey rhythmic shit, that most of us don’t want
to buy, so we’re stuck playing the same old albums we always played.
They
try to fob us off with some good looking mid twenties chick, sitting at a
piano, but actually the music isn’t that good, it’s just better than whatever
else is out there. If Shania Twain is
they best they can to then let’s forget it.
She’s very good, but is that all there is?
Goodbye
Yellow Brick Road, Band on the Run, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Dark Side of
the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Bat Out of Hell, Darkness on the Edge of Town,
The River.
I’m
not sure I believe this list for all time greatest album sales The Best Selling Albums of All Time,
but I think it illustrates the point.
Thursday 27th March 2003
Here’s a family photo
taken yesterday.
And what a fight
just to get this one photo.
The camera is set
on auto. So I balanced it on some video
cassette boxes.
Of course Georgia
wanted to play with the camera and the video boxes as soon as I stacked them
up.
Improv last
night. Master/Slave. Great practise for general acting. Where you cast your eyes. Your body’s demeanour. Making sure all parts of you are congruent.
More thoughts on
Iraq.
Is Freedom worth
paying any price to achieve?
I was wondering
just how many people are going to die in Iraq and just how destabilised the
country will be after the war, versus leaving the tyrannical dictator in place.
It convinces me
even more that America is doing it for the greater strategic good of the Middle
East, and because they perceive a terrorist threat from Iraq. But I really wonder now what is going to be
left in place after the war. Are all
Iraqis just going to live happily ever after?
Oh and Matthew
has a name for President Chirac.
Ch’Iraq!!
Wednesday 26th March 2003
Are you like me,
getting sick of opinion polls which conflict each other, rigged, depending on
how the question is being asked?
Most are in
favour of the war. Most are against the war.
Prime Ministers
and Presidents are becoming more popular, No they’re becoming more unpopular.
The Allied forces
have made a bit of rod for their own back.
If they thought
they could trundle through Iraq and everyone would surrender in gratitude, and
be thankful for the aid, then it’s not quite working out that way.
The one area
where the UN or independent agencies may have been of use is in dishing out the
aid. Maybe The French who
of course are the humanitarians of the world could send their people in to dish
out the aid!
They’re such nice
people The French, I’m
sure that all Iraqis would welcome their kind gestures.
I’m finding for a
second day that the TV channels are really struggling for news in a 24 hours
delivery of “War”. Each channel is covering the war in the same way, with the
same single item being covered each day.
Nobody knows where the most people are being killed, because we keep
focusing on where the camera or reporter happens to be. I don’t know if the Americans are near
Baghdad or bogged down in Nasiriya.
And of course,
the Turks are sending more reserves to the Iraqi border!
Tuesday 25th March 2003
I’ve been meaning
to quote this for a while. It’s taken
from David Thomas’s book, Not Guilty
(ignore the “book description” part on Amazon it’s got nothing to do with the
book!).
“Amongst deer, for example, stags fight amongst themselves, thereby
establishing a hierarchy and, or so it has always been assumed, reserving all
the most attractive young does for the Monarch of the Glen. But as Dr Jones
explained to me, it doesn't necessarily work like that. Scientists have
recently discovered that the sex life of deer (and some other combative male
mammals) follows a rather different pattern.
With modern techniques of genetic fingerprinting, it is possible to
follow bloodlines with extreme accuracy, so that one can determine exactly
which stag in a herd fathered a particular fawn. What has become clear is that
while the dominant male of the herd is off fighting other males, digging up
turf with his mighty hooves and bellowing his masterful cries throughout the
length and breadth of the forest, other, altogether more wimpy males, are
having it off with compliant does behind their master's back. This is known,
with all the calm, considered categorisation for which the scientific community
is renowned, as the Sneaky Fucker Theory.
The same theory applies to human life as well. Much aggressively male
behaviour is predicated on spending as much time as possible apart from
females, except for brief periods of sexual activity. Traditionally, men who
spent too much time in the company of women, talking to them and taking an
interest in their affairs, have been considered effeminate. The fact that they
may actually have enjoyed a much higher sexual success rate does not seem to
have reduced the opprobrium they faced for not concentrating on more
appropriate activities, principally killing other men in the service of king
and country.
Students of Hollywood will note that the muscle‑bound heroes of
all those blast‑a‑minute action movies are generally far too busy
blowing up downtown Los Angeles to waste any time on mere women. On the other
hand, wimpish comedians like Dudley Moore and Woody Allen always seem to end
their movies in the company of an adorable, and adoring, female mate.
Those of us whose physique (if not our taste in young women) is closer
to the Allen model than the Arnie can be grateful that nature blessed us with
the attributes of the Sneaky Fucker.”
Monday 24th March 2003
I’ve been watching
a lot of the Iraq War coverage over the last 48 hours.
A kind of fatal
fascination, like watching Rollerball.
Countries and
Cities fighting, except this is for real.
I’m getting a bit
angry now at the coverage. The TV
stations act on what is fed to them.
How many times in
48 hours do you think I’ve seen the same bomb exploding in Baghdad?
The same
situations are repeated time and time and time again.
And suddenly the
coverage is switched to American moral indignation about the captured and
killed American soldiers, as if that’s the only thing going on. They bring it on themselves by over reporting
so much. They talk of demoralising and
making the US troops angry and yet they’re the ones who are doing it.
And what about
the cock-ups. The American soldier
turning on his own commanders. The RAF
plane being shot down by a Patriot Missile.
The ITN crew being hit by “friendly” fire.
I love also the
over optimism, which turns to indignation of the ex-services American Officers
who commentate on the war, sitting in the warm studio. I especially loved the American Colonel
watching the troops dealing with the Iraqi resistance at Umm Qasr. He implied that if an American commander had
been in charge then of course it would have been handled much quicker with
sending the planes in. Oh yeh sure, just
like the firing on the ITN car driving towards you, with big “TV” written all
over it.
It’s very clear
to me why the cameras are being let in. It’s
to justify the current and increased spending on “Defence”. We see what a good job the boys are doing and
spend more money on defence and war games.
It’s like NASA suddenly announcing that Mars would be a good idea, and
look at all the good we’ve been doing.
Public relations to justify funding.
And is it just me
or do the studio anchor-people cut off the reporters when they’re about to say
something really important, or offer a personal opinion, or describe something
that isn’t a carbon copy of what’s already being reported. And the interruption
is never as important as what the reporter was about to say.
Meanwhile back in
Iraq, we humanise the allied forces and use the excuse of the Geneva Convention
to not show Iraqi soldiers, but we then dehumanise them as “shadowy figures” (I
think that’s what they’re called) before we send a rocket into their
building. Also, I wonder what these
artillery shells actually do, when they explode above trenches. They don’t tell us that. I was particularly moved by a picture of
trench with two dead Iraqi soldiers holding a white flag of surrender.
There is no right
and wrong. War is a dirty business and
sometimes necessary.
Generally I’m in
support of this war, but I hate the propaganda, and the way it’s presented to
us that we’re right and we’re the goodies and they’re the baddies and “shadowy
figures”, and of course they’re the only ones who play dirty tricks. We’re allowed to send a rocket into a
building, but they’re not.
I don’t have the
answers. It’s not easy, but I guess what
I’m saying is the camera does lie. TV is
a serial feed of the experience, and the war is going on, on lots of fronts,
and we see just a small narrow view of what it’s all about, and make that the
truth.
And the big
questions are not being answered. It’s
clear that the American/Allied forces will surround Baghdad. What’s going to happen then? What if the Iraqis lob a chemical or
biological weapon from Baghdad? What’s
going to happen in the North with The Iraqis, The Kurds, and the Turks? What’s going to happen there over the next
few months, and what is going to be agreed upon as the way forward?
Whilst I think
the French have been despicable in all of this, I take Russia’s point that this
war could destabilise lots of countries.
I don’t believe that “freedom” and “democracy” are always the highest
goals worth fighting for. Just look at
Yugoslavia over the last decade. Was it
worth it?
And still I watch
and have an urge to switch the TV on and flick between SKY, FOX, CNN, BBC 24
Hours, and the Aussie terrestrial channels, but it’s all the same with the
shared news feeds. Yesterday it was Umm
Qasr, and today it’s been the American prisoners of war, but I’m sure much much
more than that is really going on.
And still I watch
this made for TV, Rollerball War.
In fact I wonder
if this war has been made for TV.
There’s a
realistic and yet surreal edge to it.
Sunday 23rd March 2003
I’ve been meaning
to post this one up for a while, taken from Scott Adams’s book
Amazon.com: Books:
Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel
It made me laugh
out loud and not with recognition.
“I realize
that everything I say about women in this section is a gross generalisation,
unfair, untrue, and the result of my poor perception. In other words, it's just
like everything else I say. Later in the book I will say bad things about men
to even up things.
That said,
there are two types of women: the ones who are currently in discomfort, and the
ones who are actively seeking it. That's why women are more effective weasels
than men‑because women get some sort of bizarre enjoyment out of feeling
bad.
In the first
group‑the women currently in discomfort‑the most popular causes
include childbirth, menstrual cramps, headaches, men, and wearing bad shoes.
In the second
camp‑the voluntary pain‑seekers we have the women who feel fine but
are planning to watch sad movies, imagine bad things that don't exist, pick
fights with men over things the men didn't mean to say, and shop for
uncomfortable shoes.
Here's the
basic difference between men and women: As a man, if I get tricked into
watching a sad movie, and it's a well crafted film, it makes me feel sad. As
far as I can tell, feeling sad is exactly like feeling bad. I don't like it. If
tears are shooting out of my eyes, I take that as a sure sign that I'm having a
bad time. But a woman can watch a depressing movie, cry a river, and come away
thinking it was a good time. She might oven buy the book so she can feel bad
again later.
Men are
comfort seekers and discomfort avoiders. I think I speak for most men when I
say we only enjoy pain when it happens to other people, also known as
entertainment. To illustrate my point, consider these two choices for things to
do on a Saturday night:
Sit on a comfortable couch
and watch television while sipping delightful beverages and belching.
Or
Drive for two hours to
visit people who only talk about their collection of porcelain frogs and their
health problems.
A man will quite sensibly choose the couch. A woman because women are
more "social"‑will choose a night of intense anguish followed
by a long drive home while recapping the more dreadful points of the discussion
in case the man succeeded in not listening the first time.
Women know
how to inject pain into any situation. If a man has no reason to fight with a
woman, she will sense the void and talk non-stop until some sort of pain is
generated. For example, a man might begin to doze off or attempt to change the
subject. That's proof that he doesn't care about the woman, and it's grounds
for a fight.
When you
combine the natural pickiness of women with their ability to endure pain, you
have a formula for total weasel domination. It begins with small corrections to
men: "Don't step there," "Don't eat that," "Hand me
that," and "Clean that up.' Men might not agree with these little
corrections, sometimes thinking they should step there, should eat that, should
hand over something else, and should clean up later. But they've seen enough
Star Trek episodes to know it's easier to obey than to get into a fight with an
entity that enjoys pain.
Over time,
men are trained to do what they are told so they can avoid discomfort. Show me
a man who has been married for thirty years and I'll show you a man who has no
opinions whatsoever.
Men Are Unacceptable
Someday historians will look back at our time and marvel how women
convinced men that socially unacceptable means the same thing as male. It will
be considered the greatest weasel manoeuvre of all time.
If you think about all the characteristics associated with men, you
notice a pattern. Here's a partial list of things men do:
·
Scratching groin in public
·
Being too loud
·
Making sexual comments
·
Swearing
·
Using sleeve as napkin
·
Ignoring family to play
golf
I could go on, but that's enough to make my point: everything that is
normally identified as typical male behaviour is either flat-out illegal or at
least socially unacceptable. This situation evolved gradually so it struck up
on men. In the 1600s a guy could do everything on that list plus carry on a
lively romance with livestock and no one would think twice. Then someone
invented the napkin and it's been nothing but trouble ever since.
Glass Ceiling
Now I'm going
to blaze a trail into politically incorrect territory, displaying a death wish
even more intense than in the first part of this chapter. I begin with a
thought experiment. Imagine two individuals who have identical talent and
experience. They are both presented with the goal of running to the top of a
mountain. The only difference between them is that one desperately wants to get
to the top of the mountain (because he thinks it will help him get sex later)
and the other would be happier complaining about snakes. Which of these two
people is more likely to make it to the top first?
Answer 1
think we can all agree that the person with the strongest incentive to get to
the top of the mountain will get there first, all other things being equal.
Now consider
men and women and their careers. (Here it comes.) The "correct"
viewpoint is that men and women have equal talent but women are prevented from
getting to the top of the corporate mountain by the "glass ceiling"
of discrimination. I have to confess that the "correct" viewpoint
seems a bit dodgy to me. I agree that discrimination is part of the story, but
I think there's something else going on here too.
To set the
stage for my elegant point, let's enjoy another wonderful analogy that's more
relevant to the business world. Imagine a man and a woman of equal talent who
enter an ass‑kissing contest. They walk into a huge airplane hangar that
has a line of overweight, middle‑aged men bending over and dropping their
pants to present their rumps for kissing. The winner of the contest‑the
one who can make it the farthest down the line without quitting‑becomes
the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. At this point the woman will organize a
committee to talk about the glass ceiling while the man is about halfway down
the line, kissing every cheek and slipping his business card in every crack.
Years later a survey will show that all CEOs of major companies are men. The
conclusion will be that discrimination prevented women from climbing the
corporate ladder.
I blame this
whole glass‑ceiling problem on the practice of door‑holding. Women
are used to having doors held open for them by men. They get served first at
restaurants, they get to leave elevators first. It's hard to move from that
mind‑set to kissing a huge line of asses in an airplane hangar. By
contrast, men are the ones holding the doors and getting served last. For us
it's not such a big step to drop and pucker, so we're more conditioned for
managerial success.
I haven't met
many women whose goal was to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Most of the
women I know prefer to be in careers that involve hanging around with people
who are suffering, presumably so they can watch. For example, women are drawn
to the health‑care field (to watch people die), and they are well
represented in law schools (to watch people get sued or executed).
You're
probably racking your brain and thinking of all the exceptions to my gross
generalizations. I'm sure you know several men and women who don't fit my
stereotypes. But forget about your statistically irrelevant anecdotal
information. Just show me the results of the following survey.
HYPOTHETICAL SURVEY QUESTION
If you could become CEO of a Fortune 500
company, and all you had to do to get there was kiss one thousand fat, white
asses and never see your own children, would you do it?
If men and women answer that survey question the same way, I'll admit
I'm wrong and that the glass ceiling explains everything. But I think 100
percent of women would say, "No thank you," whereas a healthy 30
percent of men would say, "Let me get my business cards out of the
car."
Saturday 22nd March 2003
Following on from
my fears yesterday, guess what?
Turkey has sent
troops into Northern Iraq.
It’s great for
Turkey now, they get the Americans to soften up Iraq with their airpower, and
then they can waltz into Northern Iraq and with their own troops. And this is a
NATO country!
We’ll see how
moralistic this war is for America with what happens in Northern Iraq.
I was wondering who
The Kurds are and found this link.
When you see what
percentage of the population are Kurds, in both Turkey and Iraq, let alone Iran
and Syria, you can see why this may be the biggest problem in the Iraq
War. I heard today that The Kurds are
the biggest group of people without a country.
Are the Americans
going to protect them, or let them get slaughtered again?
Why is more fuss
not made of the Kurds compared to The Palestinians?
It could be that
it serves none of the four Arab countries in which the majority of Kurds live
to let them have a homeland, but it’s ok to support The Palestinians against
Israel.
I don’t know all
the facts, and just like when Israel gets it in terms of The Palestinians, I
don’t know what each side’s arguments are with Turkey and The Kurds. But I’ll bet you one thing. More Kurds have died at the hands of Turkey
and Iraq than Palestinians have died at the hands of Israel. In fact I’ll bet it’s 5 to 10 times the
number. Actually, I’ll bet it’s more
than that.
So how come we
don’t hear that much about The Kurds?
Friday 21st March 2003
Andrew Sullivan’s
article is nearest to my view of why America is set on this war in Iraq.
“But what these neoconservative figures have long
advanced is precisely an argument. You can agree or disagree with them. But the
argument should surely be dealt with on its merits. Perle, Feith and Wolfowitz
believe that the abject failure of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s showed
that the Palestinian leadership was less interested in a viable state than in
maintaining a state of war against the existence of the state of Israel. They
further believe that the rest of the Arab world uses the Palestinian question
as a way to avoid facing up to their own need to reform and democratize; and
that several malevolent powers - the mullahs in Iran, the Wahhabists in Saudi
Arabia and the totalitarians in Baghdad - are aiding and abetting both
anti-Israeli terrorism and making a solution of the Israeli-Palestinian
question impossible. So, after years of frustration, they want to move the
region forward with a jolt: destroy Saddam, foment democracy in Iran and
disengage from Saudi Arabia. Then, with a new set of power relations in the
neighbourhood, the Palestinians might have a different attitude in accepting
the 98 percent of the West Bank and Gaza that Ehud Barak once offered them and
which they suicidally refused”
I have doubts about why Bush is doing what he’s doing and
wondering how much it has to do with oil, but I’m beginning to believe it’s
being done for the greater good, not just to rid America of a tyrant and a
threat, or just for oil, but to change the face of the Middle East, by
“installing” a democracy, attempting to put pressure on Iran, neutralise Saudi
Arabia and Syria, and bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table.
I heard a worrying programme on the radio the other night,
about Turkey’s claims to Northern Iraq, and the fight that may occur between
the Kurds and Turkey for control of Northern Iraq. You don’t think that Turkey is allowing USA
planes to fly into Iraq, but no ground forces, so that Turkey can take Northern
Iraq and slaughter the Kurds? I don’t
know enough about Turkey’s claim to Northern Iraq, and the Kurds’ situation in
Iraq, but it sounds dire, and potentially bloody. There’s a lot of oil at stake!
John Howard here in Australia seems to be deeply involved so
as to suck up to the Americans for favourable trading arrangements. Yes of course we want to rid the world of
tyrants, but why now, why Iraq, and why is John Howard to public and vocal
about this. It’s not Australia’s
fight. Yes we can be against Iraq and
support America, but do we have to do it so vocally? Maybe I’m being a coward about this from down
under.
Interesting that Israel has more reason than Australia to
fight Iraq and get rid of Saddam, but for obvious reasons they’re not getting
involved with the war.
As for Tony Blair, I think he believes Saddam Hussein is
Hitler. And just as his father fought
Hitler alongside America, so Tony Blair will help rid the world of Saddam with
America. Both despotic dictators’ names
begin with an ‘H’ and they both have a moustache.
I hope this war finishes quickly with very few casualties,
and that a true peaceful democracy happens in Iraq, that they don’t start to
fight over oil and power. That the Kurd
situation is sorted out peacefully, and that Israel and The Palestinian are
brought to the negation table and agree on a lasting and satisfying peace.
Though I have my doubts about America’s desire for the world
sometimes, looking at the map of democracy for the last 100 years, you have to
say the world is becoming globalised and democratised and hopefully as a
result, more peaceful.
Map - Political Systems
of the World in the 1950s
Map - Political Systems
of the World in the 1990s
Map - 20th Century
Governments
The will of America is prevailing.
I hope it’s for the right reasons.
Thursday 20th March 2003
I’ve had a cold
and sore throat for a week, and training today and talking so much hasn’t
helped it, so I’m off to bed early tonight.
Wednesday 19th March 2003
Continuing to
read The Luck Factor,
and it’s amazing that just by reading the book, some of the luck I’m due for
the amount of work and meetings I’ve put in recently, appears to be paying off.
I had 3 meetings
today. The first meeting looks like
business from a first meeting, just like that, but the contact came through
someone I’ve know and been in contact with for nearly 18 months.
I then met up
with someone who has a great contact.
And finally I met
a company who seemed to like me and I like them, and at this stage just from
today’s first meeting, they want me to work with them.
I also had a
message from a company who’d seen my course overview because I’d met someone
last week and gave him course overview to give to them, and they’ve called me
back, and I reckon with my salesperson’s gut feel that this will lead to
business.
It’s been a real
eye opener doing business here in Australia.
From setting up 18 months ago, it took me 6 months to get things
going. And then it was slow last Jan and
Feb, and then suddenly took off in March, and until last October there was
almost more business than I knew what to do with, and then suddenly dead again
in mid October. And until now in mid
March it’s been quiet. So this means
that half the year I have had loads of work, and the other half I have very
little work. The work in the good half pays for the quiet time in the other
half. But it means I’m only delivering
training for half a year, and there’s even less days in half a year than in a
full year! So either I need to plan what
to do now to make sure there’s business from mid October onwards, or I accept
it as the way it is, and plan from October to March to start developing my
products for the long term. Now that
would be cool, to train for half a year, and write and develop for the other
half. I’d like that!
As long as what I
develop brings me substantial income in a few years time!
Improv last night
was at times difficult. For the first
half of the evening, I just couldn’t get my words out. I was tongue tied. The first warm up, we had to continue telling
a story when we were pointed at. I just
couldn’t get my words out, and usually I can do that.
We were learning
character development last night.
Movement,
changing our walking style, imagining a silver ball was dragging parts of our
body.
Characters
developed by changing our mouth shape, showing our upper or lower teeth, voice,
and movement.
My favourite was
being a person but with the characteristics of a chosen animal, playing with
two other human, but with animal characteristic. I was an Elephant, up with a French Poodle
and a Ferrett. I was a bit too elephanty
at first, but got it in the end.
It was taken a
stage further to have a meat pie and a carrot sitting together on a tram!
Also, learning to
give people names in a scene and remembering what the names are.
And finally playing
inanimate objects in a scene.
All cool stuff.
Tuesday 18th March 2003
It’s my Mum’s 70th
birthday today.
I can’t believe
she’s 70.
She doesn’t look
it, and she doesn’t act it.
And she doesn’t
want everyone to know she’s 70!!
At the other end
of the scale, I’m looking after Georgia today.
It looks like
this is going to be the routine of me looking after her on Tuesdays.
I ask myself
what’s the most important thing to me, and it’s Georgia, Annie, Family and
Friends, so it makes sense that I spend time with her like this. It’s the only thing which slows me down. Even at the weekend I’m sitting at the
PC. Mind you I’m sitting here now typing
away whilst she’s asleep, and her fishfingers are cooling down ready for when
she wakes up.
And then I’m
taking her to the beach and meeting a friend.
This is the
life. Beats working.
Improv
tonight. I’ll report back.
Monday 17th March 2003
Today started as
one of those do nothing kind of days.
I just didn’t
want to make any calls.
So I did what any
brave person would do!
Lot’s of filing!
In fact it was
very useful to file things today, because I found lots of my material ready for
the training course I’m running on Thursday because I’m running it with my new
material.
And better still,
by mid-afternoon I started developing a new Sales Call Plan sheet to give out
to the attendees so they can plan their sales calls on a single sheet, for when
they’re in role-plays and meetings.
I’ve used lots of
them over the years and never really liked any of them, so I’ve written my own.
And I think it’s
great, and starting to look great.
So in a one day,
I’ve done something which lots of sales courses should do which is to have
better Sales Call Plans!
Good going Tony.
Sunday 16th March 2003
What do you think
is the biggest threat to the human race?
In terms of
wiping us out, probably an asteroid.
How likely is
that in the next 100,000 years?
I think there’s a
lurking threat that we’re not taking seriously enough.
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Alert
issued as flu fears grow
BBC NEWS | Health | 'An invisible killer in
our midst'
I’ve thought
about this for a long time.
We don’t really
know what killed so many people in 1918 with the “Spanish Flu” outbreak.
40% of humans
were affected and it killed 20-40 million people.
This wasn’t
“foreigners” somewhere on the other side of the world, or other people.
This was us, less
than 100 years ago.
I fear that most
people dismiss this outbreak as something that happened to other people a long
time ago, and that the modern world and modern medicine can deal with it.
Think again.
Viruses like this
are more likely to spread now in the modern world.
We live closer to
each other, in bigger populations and we can incubate these viruses many
thousands of times on the planes that fly round the world every day.
I’m being
alarmist, but I don’t think we’re putting enough money into protecting
ourselves against such an outbreak or stopping such an outbreak.
Do we have the
capability to stop this early enough?
Could we
manufacture enough vaccines, if that’s what it took?
Would there be
enough face masks or whatever is needed?
Could hospitals
cope with the shear level of patients?
This raises a
much bigger question which I occasionally bang on about.
Relative Risk.
Most humans seem
incapable if assessing relative risk.
What is it we do
on our every day lives that is a risk to our lives?
We are conned and
hypnotised by the news media to believe some things are risky that relatively
aren’t. Meanwhile, other risks are kept
low because they’re not newsworthy.
What is a risk to
us in our everyday lives? I’d suggest
for most of us driving a car, and the food we eat causing long term heart
disease and cancers, not getting enough sleep.
But where does
the risk of a 1918 type flu outbreaks sit as a risk?
It doesn’t come
often, but when it does watch out.
I was just
reading some more on 1918 outbreak, and it seemed to kill more males aged
20-49! Now either males aged 20-49 react
against the virus the most, causing other complications, or it was the
population back from war, nutritionally weakened, from their efforts. Let’s hope that in the modern day, our diet
and lifestyle can protect us.
One final
thing. We never seem to be told all the
facts when looking at a disease outbreak.
We’re not told
the health state of the people contracting a disease or dying from it. Were they run down anyway? Were they old and
infirmed? In the case of AIDS we don’t
get to know the lifestyle of the people who’ve contracted AIDS, or the sexual
practises or other factors that cause it.
If indeed “AIDS” is a single “virus”.
We’re just told “Heterosexuals get AIDS as well so beware!” Assuming that we’re too stupid to be given
the real facts about what is risky.
What is the outbreak
of AIDS in Africa down to? If it is
AIDS!
Poor living
conditions?
Poor lifestyle?
Poor nutrition?
Promiscuity?
Different sexual
practises?
Environment?
Shared needles in
hospitals?
Untreated open
sores?
Hey it just
happens to Africans?
And if we can’t
answer these questions, then how the hell are we going to stop a rapidly moving
deadly flu virus?
Saturday 15th March 2003
I’m reading a
remarkable book, The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman.
It looks at why
some people are lucky and others are unlucky.
An amazing book,
not because it’s deep and insightful but because it carefully lays out some
thinking and research as to why some people are lucky and others aren’t.
It’s along the
line of what I’ve written about before which I call “Create Chaos, Create Fate”
But it also looks
into what other factors influence people’s fate and luck.
For instance,
which of the following psychological factors vary with lucky and unlucky
people?
You’ll have to
read the book!
Friday 14th March 2003
Thinking about
the debacle at Sunderland,
I was wondering last night if a computer could run a football club better than
a chairman and board of directors!
Sophisticated
modelling tools to set parameters for a football club.
You know the
income being generated from the crowd, you know the sponsorship and merchandise
income coming in, so it’s not difficult to work out the income coming in, and
in most cases it’s not going vary greatly, unless a very rich benefactor comes
in or something really creative happens.
And as for mortgaging or selling the football ground, well that’s a
dangerous thing isn’t it.
You know the
expenditure, players’ wages, other wages, and maintenance, so it’s not as
though it’s not easy to calculate the expenditure.
I guess the only
things which really mess things up are a long injury list, including your best
players, and on the plus side, a young player worth a fortune to sell.
Once you know the
amount of money you have, you can then cut your cloth accordingly in terms of
how much you spend on the team, and squad.
You could even set values and wages for Forwards, Midfield and Defence!!
This hasn’t even
taken into account the manager’s ability yet.
So I wonder if it
can be done? Is it so difficult to run a
football club?
Am I missing
something?
Is it not like
any other business with more of fixed income and market than most other
businesses? Mind you, it’s not the sort
of business that should be on the stock market, because one bit of bad luck and
relegation, can make the shares very volatile.
But as a business you can model for what happens if you are relegated.
What it has also
made me realise, is that a big club, including Man Utd could go down the pan
and be relegated. With the transfer
windows, it means you can’t buy your way out of trouble, so what if, a big club
had a bad start to the season, and a run of injuries? You couldn’t buy your way out of it until
January, and by then it may be too late to settle the new players in, and would
they want to come to a big club in trouble?
I sometime wonder
if anyone in a football club even knows how to use a spreadsheet.
I guess for
football clubs which are publicly floated, someone must be looking at the
finances. I do wonder sometimes though.
Thursday 13th March 2003
Went to a talk
last night arrange by www.b2bcafe.com, a Melbourne thing.
Good networking
event, and two very interesting speakers.
And a polycarbon exhibition poster invention.
Shane Huntingdon
talking about Nanotechnology,
And Rhonda
Selleck talking about her company Citrus Sensation.
“It’s a shame someone can’t come up with a peeled orange.” An irresistible challenge to someone with 40 years deep interest in health and nutrition – Rhonda Selleck. In her own kitchen, Rhonda captured the synergy at the molecular level, which enables the peeled orange (and later all fruit and vegetables) to taste magnificently, while extending their shelf life. This is a challenge many multi-national R&D millions have been unsuccessful at! Rhonda has launched a company, Citrus Sensation, and secured multi-territory patents around her unique ‘fresh cut preservation process’, which has the potential to revolutionise the fruit & vegetable fresh-cut industry. The Citrus Sensation process can extend the shelf life of fresh-cut fruit/vegetables from the current 3 to 5 days to 21 days (or more), enabling supermarkets to minimise wastage and expand their product ranges – without disrupting the packaging and transport aspects of the industry value chain. In the US alone, the fresh cut fruit market is estimated at $1 to $2 billion, and fresh cut vegetables at $5 to $7 billion. At the March B2Bcafe, Rhonda will share her experiences from beginning in the kitchen to her current position on the cusp of delivering ‘disruptive IP’ to the world”.
An amazing story.
Met some
interesting people last night. Everyone has a story to tell, and some great
things in common. I find it’s best to
stay talking with one person and deepen the chat instead of looking over their
shoulder and see who you can talk to next. Quality not quantity.
Some may differ
from this approach.
Wednesday 12th March 2003
It’s just too
late to write much today.
Improv lesson
last night.
Learning to speak
more gibberish.
Playing out
Master and Servant.
And most
educational and informative of all, was using moods and feelings to play out
the same scene. We played the same
scenes in different moods, angry, jealous, lustful.
Amazing how you
can play the same scene, and improve it by taking on a mood.
Best of all was
watching four people play out a dinner party improv, where they had to treat the
other three people as one of, Sexy, Humorous, Stinky. So all four people were treating their fellow
dinner party guests as one of Sexy, Humorous, or Stinky!
Re-bought Tom
Peters’ The Brand You 50
Great book, and
he’s such an inspiring writer and speaker.
Tuesday 11th March 2003
I’ve spent all
day (from 5-30am!) on my own with Georgia, so not got much work or anything
else done. I guess when you look back
it’s not the extra day of work you’ll remember, or the missed opportunities
(like as if there would have been any today), but time spent with Georgia.
They call it
bonding I think. Well we need a bit of
that, because she’s so clingy with Annie.
I bit of play,
some TV, 2 walks, 1 Park, 1 sleep, 1 lunch, and a short drive to pick Annie up.
That’s the day
filled in!
Improv tonight so
I’ll probably report in on that later.
Monday 10th March 2003
Bank Holiday
today so it was mostly a family day.
Went to Melbourne
Zoo today. The usual Zoo things, plus
marsupials.
I’ve had a dream
for 35 years. To see a Duckbill
Platypus.
I guess it must
be from my Rolf Harris annual.
So today was my
big chance.
And guess
what? No Duckbill Platypus. Duckbill Platypus asleep in some burrow
somewhere. Damn.
We had to leave
the Zoo early because Georgie was getting tired and tearful.
We’ll be back.
It’s great taking
kids to the zoo.
Later I took her
down to sea, where we went for a walk, had a play on the playground, and she
kept running down a steep hill and falling into my arms. Pure bliss.
Had a look at my
values again today.
Some very
interesting things going on.
I’ve done my current
values, or what I thought were my current values.
I’ve looked at
the values I’d like to have in a year’s time.
But what I did
today was look at the values I’m actually living, rather than the ones I try to
live by. So in other words, though
Health is my top value, the reality is that I’m not living it day in day out.
So I looked at
what values I really live by, and what takes up my time, and the order of
values looks very different from previously.
Curiosity
Self-Analysis,
Friendship,
Integrity, Intelligence,
Loyalty,
Creativity,
Learning, Self-Respect, Faith,
Family, Trust,
Open Mindedness, Personal Growth, Fairness.
These values are
very different from that I thought they were a week ago.
And even more fun
is to look at which values I’m fulfilling most today.
These are even
more different today because it’s a bank holiday.
Family
Self Analysis,
Curiosity
Creativity,
Intelligence, Pleasure
Learning,
Relaxation, Recreation, Intimacy
Loyalty,
Friendship, Health, Quality of Life, Self Respect.
I heard yesterday
that Adam Faith died, and now I hear Barry Sheen had
died.
Blimey, what’s
going on?
Sunday 9th March 2003
Nearly finished
reading the Beermat Entrepreneur,
which arrived on Friday.
It’s a book about
setting up business from one person, growing to five people, then 20, and
beyond. Quite simplistic and common
sense but hey, maybe that’s what it takes.
Don’t knock it
until you’ve tried it, or been in the same situation where you know better.
It’s made me
wonder if I really want to be an entrepreneur.
Do I have the
consistent drive and passion for a single idea?
Am I capable of
sharing and working with four other people?
Could I find the
right four people?
At least the book
has set me thinking, if nothing else, and it’s a quick easy read, written in a
light-hearted way. It doesn’t take
itself too seriously or have any airs and graces.
Georgia, having
been ill yesterday, woke up five times in the night, and I went each time to
settle her. She was really hot, but not
sweating. I was worried. But she’s been fine today.
A bit of shock Adam Faith
dying. One of those people who’s been
around with you all your life. And then
they’re gone.
I watched parts
of the Melbourne Grand Prix on TV. So
proud I live in Melbourne. How many
cities have a Grand Prix in the centre of the city? Can you imagine London have a Grand Prix in
Hyde Park? Albert Park here is the equivalent to Hyde Park in London. When it comes to sports, it’s one thing the
Aussies really make happen quickly here.
Look at how long it’s taking to build Wembley stadium. Here, they’ve knocked down part of the MCG
and are rebuilding it probably before Wembley is even touched.
Lloyd who I
bought my cars from is good friends with David Coulthard,
and Coulthard used to stay with Lloyd and his family when he was a young
driver. Amazing. Fun to see him win today, not that I’m a
Coulthard fan. I’m not really a Grand
Prix fan. There are so many sports I’d
watch before the Grand Prix. Now put
them go-karts, where there’s more opportunity for overtaking and I might be
interested.
Saturday 8th March 2003
Georgie wasn’t
well this morning.
Listless and
falling asleep in my arms.
So we lay down on
the sofa with her on top of me, asleep.
Suddenly I hear,
her stomach rumbling.
And yes, you
guessed it, a minute later, she’d been sick everywhere, all over me and the
sofa.
I had to call out
to Annie to help us, because I was so covered in it.
It’s only the
third time she’s ever vomited. She has a
rock solid constitution.
An interesting article
in the Jerusalem Post, about the history and governments of Arab
countries. We forget how the Middle East
is a 20th century invention from post colonial powers. It explains
why there are no Arab (or very few) democracies.
You need to
register to read it. Worth it though.
Israel News : Jerusalem
Post Internet Edition
Friday 7th March 2003
Two nice
links. Scam Baiting. Playing the Nigerian Scam merchants along at
their own game. Two goals here. How long can you string them along, and how
much money can you get out of them.
And a good piece
by two of the Cluetrain boys, Doc Searls and David Weinberger,
World of Ends Is this a new Cluetrain
Manifesto?
A bit more active
today, dropped Annie off at work, Georgia off at crèche. It cut me up when Georgia cries as I leave
her, but she was playing on a rocking horse when I walked out and round to the
car. A few calls today, and one just
made me laugh. I’d been given the name
of someone to call, and they forwarded me on to someone else who when I spoke
to them about Sales Training, said she’d take my number and ask around if
anyone wanted Sales Training.
This was a big
corporate, and she’s going to ask people if they want Sales Training?!!!
Yeh sure. I clearly wasn’t compelling enough.
And Rohini, has
done it again. Not only is she the only
person in 18 months to email me after a meeting, but to add to the contact she
gave me, she’s sent an email to them and copied me in, so she’s made the
introduction. Top Networker.
Oh, and I
completed an Economic Activity Survey I’ve been putting off for months. Why
they chose little me in my first year as a sign of Australian business
activity, I’m not sure, but at least I’ve done it.
Thursday 6th March 2003
One of those
nothing days when I got nothing done.
What did I do
today?
Surfed the
Internet, chatted to Di and Jules, listened to the end of the Man Yoo v Leeds
game, sent an email with my updated CV, bought a new toilet seat and fitted it,
bought a present and card for Rob’s 40th, replaced the bin lid,
created a new folder to show people, bought the folder and inserts to create
the file, thought some more about values and replotted my own values from
previous work I’ve done. Er that’s it!
Not even an
interesting link to a website.
I guess you could
call it thinking time. Calming down
time, because I’ve been a bit worked up over the last week. But it’s amazing how time drifts by in a
day. I must say though, allowing myself
to do nothing since I have my own business, has meant that I’ve created a lot
more than working for a company. Strange
that isn’t it? When we work for a company, especially a corporate, we’re more
busy busy, but have less to show for it.
I’ve allowed
myself to not prospect today, but I’ve not gone the whole hog and gone down to the
sea or out for a cycle or roller-blade.
I should have done that. Actually
what I have created is a folder of my work to show clients and it’s set me
thinking about what I need to add, and what I need to do to brand myself to
stand out from the crowd, to be a bit different.
I re-bought Amazon.com: Books: The
Brand You 50 : Or : Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an 'Employee' into a
Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion! by Tom Peters,
having left my last copy on a plane.
That’s a good start to marketing myself.
Time for some
Passion and Fun!
Wednesday 5th March 2003
I’m getting deeply
frustrated with people.
Not all people
but some people.
If I had a dollar
for every person who said they’d call me back and don’t, I’d be getting quite
rich by now. In fact that’s a great
idea. I could take dollar bets with people when they say they’ll call me back!
I had a meeting
yesterday with someone, and they sent me a thank you email today, and suggested
a network group we can meet at next week.
They also said they’d bring some people along.
As far as I can
remember, they are the only person in over 18 months to send me an email,
either before I’ve emailed them, or even sent a thank you email at all (I
apologise if anyone who has emailed me after a meeting, and I’ve forgotten.).
What does that
say about all you so called Salespeople and Networkers out there?
It tells me
something. This is the kind of person I can work with.
Conversely, I
just had the most frustrating phone conversation today.
Some people just
don’t listen.
I was talking to
a friend tonight and we compared how similar our situation is in dealing with
our respective suppliers. The suppliers
are both successful companies, passionate about their product. They think they are right about everything
and just don’t listen. It’s funny but my
friend was saying that he and the other distributors secretly hope this guy and
his company gets his comeuppance, even though the distributors are successful
via the suppliers’ success. It feels a bit like people who describe dealing
with Microsoft
I almost feel the
same thing sometimes. These guys I deal with just won’t listen. They always
know best. It’s always implied to be my
fault. They are the only ones who have
integrity. I like them for 80% of what
they are. Is that good enough? There’s something that doesn’t feel right
about the whole thing. I’m not listening
to my twanging gut feel. What does my gut feel tell me? Get the hell out. What are other people
telling me? Get the hell out. So why do I stay and continue to deal with
them?
Everything is
never what it seems with these guys, there are always smoke and mirrors, and
they don’t lie but leave an impression about things which turns out several
times isn’t how they originally described it or gave the impression of
something that wasn’t. It’s like you
start to doubt your own memory with what they say. It’s an economy with the truth to create a
good impression. That’s the best way I
can put it. And they persist and persist
and persist with something instead of moving on, going down blind alleys, but
still persisting with it.
Good Luck to
them, I’m sure they’ll succeed but somehow it doesn’t feel quite right.
I’ll sleep on it.
Tuesday 4th March 2003
More Improv
tonight on my Improv Course.
We were talking
Gibberish.
In other words, speaking
in a made up language of our choice, translating the Gibberish back into
English and performing Improv in Gibberish, with the occasional English
translation.
Quite difficult
this one.
Also, one person
stands up in front of us, and we have to feed them each action they take.
I get us to think
about the minute detail of acting/improv and not be so keen to move on to the
next big think in scene. Sometimes the
humour and acting is in the detail.
Had some great
meetings today. A friend, some networking and talking about ideas for
networking, and a meeting to revive a client from last year. Looks promising. And all because I bumped into someone I’d
trained last year whilst meeting with someone else from the same company a few
weeks ago. So if I hadn’t networked my
way to the meeting a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have had the meeting today.
Monday 3rd March 2003
I don’t know who
wrote this but it seems pretty simple and profound.
One of those
emails in circulation.
“Too many people put off something that brings them joy
just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule,
didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day
about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that
fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little
more flexible.
How many women out there
will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until
after something had been thawed?
Does the word
"refrigeration" mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids
dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on
television?
I cannot count the times I
called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in a half hour?"
She would gasp and stammer,
"I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty.
I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain."
And my personal favourite:
"It's Monday."
She died a few years ago. We
never did have lunch together.
Because Americans cram so
much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.
We live on a sparse diet of
promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We'll go back and visit the
grandparents when we get Stevie toilet-trained.
We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.
We'll go on a second
honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of
accelerating as we get older.
The days get shorter, and
the list of promises to ourselves gets longer.
One morning, we awaken, and
all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going
to," "I plan
on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit."
When anyone calls my 'seize
the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps
an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with
her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of
Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched
ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream.
It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a
spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car
and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I
would have died happy.
Now...go on and have a nice
day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list.
If you were going to die
soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what
would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to
the end; you will understand why I sent this
to you.
Have you ever watched kids
playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever
followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading
night?
Do you run through each day
on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do
you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?
Ever told your child,
"We'll do it tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch? Let a good
friendship die? Just call to say "Hi"?
When you worry and hurry
through your day, It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away... Life is not a
race. Take it slower.
Hear the music before the
song is over.”
That reminds me; I must go and have some chocolate mousse at Café
DeLancey in Camden, except being in Melbourne it’s a bit more difficult.
Georgie comes into my office and interrupts me so I can read a book to
her.
I’m not sure she even wants me to read the book, but just to express her
power over me.
I always succumb.
Sunday 2nd March 2003
Man United
haven’t won a cup for a while.
In fact when did they
last win a cup, except for the Premiership?
1999 F.A Cup
Final? Nearly 4 years ago.
I don’t know
whether to stay up tonight and watch it, as I’ve not been well today so I need
my sleep. I’ll decide later. It’s only the League Cup, but it is against
Liverpool.
I don’t remember
the last time they won it against Forest in ’92?
Is that
right? They beat Nottingham Forest in
’92?
Schmeichel,
Parker, Bruce, Pallister, Irwin, Kanchelskis, Ince, Phelan, Giggs, McClair,
Hughes, and Sharpe was the sub coming on for Kanchelskis.
That’s a bloody
good team except for Phelan, who did his bit at the time.
In fact they won
the first Premiership the following season with the same team, except of course
one magic ingredient was added. Eric
Cantona.
Saturday 1st March 2003
What does it take
to set up business?
I ask this as
someone who’s left the corporate world, set up independently a business to
sales train corporates. Ok, I can do
that. All I need is myself, some material,
and the networking and selling skills.
That I have and I’ve done it successfully. No Problem.
I can find up to 100 days of business each year at an increasing day
rate, or per person rate. I can do half
my days through my own good work, and the other half by collaborating with
other suppliers to the market and being an associate to them. I’m doing that.
Next, I can
continue to develop my own material and/or use and sell other people’s material
into the market. I met a guy yesterday
who successfully does that. No Problem
with that either.
But what I’m
struggling with, is I have at least 5, Billion Dollar ideas. They’re not inventions, but ideas which each
can be developed into big businesses.
I’m good at seeing the gap in markets and predicting the future. It’s a talent I have. I’m also creative, and more and more I
channel and express my creativity. I’m
not happy to just use other people’s products and tools. I want to create things myself. To contribute.
And this is the
struggle for me.
What does it take
to develop these ideas into a business which grows and grows?
Does one have to
take big risks to achieve this?
Does it really
need a business plan and a bank loan or venture capital?
Can’t I take a
more pragmatic approach, and grow slowly from demand, by finding a client
interested in one of my ideas and then funding to supply this client?
The trouble is,
starting this Monday, do I concentrate on the short term delivery of my Sales
Training business, and continue to develop the tools for that, or do I focus on
these long term ideas and bringing them to fruition?
The interesting
thing is that most of the ideas I have combine and complement each other.
I’ve said it
before; if someone approached me and said,
“Hey Tony, we
think you’re a great guy, here’s $1m (or $10m, or $100m) to invest in your
business.” I wouldn’t currently know what to do with that investment for my
ideas.
I reckon that
when I know what to do with $100k and the rest, then I’ll attract that level of
investment.
It’s not the
business plan, or gaining investment, I’m not sure that’s the issue for me.
It’s down to what
do I do on Monday that would set the ball rolling.
Or what should I
stop doing on Monday to set the ball rolling?
Who should I talk
to? Should it be a mentor, a friend, an
ex-colleague?
How have people
in the past taken a good idea or ideas into a viable business.
I get it, I
really get it. It’s about a good idea,
it’s about passion, it’s about persistence, it’s about networking, it’s about
having something memorable, it’s about cashflow, it’s about belief, it’s about
making sure there’s a market for the product or service. I know all that.
Lord knows there
are enough books out there on how to be mega-rich.
And dealing with people
is so damn difficult.
It always follows
the same pattern.
You spend weeks
trying to get to talk them and not leave a message on their voicemail.
Eventually you
get a meeting with them.
They love you
think you’re great and they say they’ll call to arrange another meeting.
And they don’t.
Lots of people,
lots of really nice meetings and contacts, and then nothing happens.
And I’m left
wondering should I chase them?
Do I want to work
and collaborate with people I have to chase all the time?
Can’t I meet some
really buzzing people who want to make a go of it?
I reckon what I
need is, a mentor, a good can-do HTML programmer, a person I can brainstorm
with, a good database person to make sure what we start with is scalable, a
young enthusiastic designer who isn’t full of bullshit.
Build a
demo. Talk to a few clients, get one of
the clients to pay for the development, we keep the Intellectual Property, they
get something at cost, and we’re cooking.
In the meantime,
and before Monday sets in I’d better order the next book which is going to make
the difference,
Amazon.co.uk: At a
glance: The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Ideas into a Great Business
Funny, but
reading the Amazon review, what I’ve just written above is the advice of the
book from the review!
Just Do It, Tony.