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My top 10 highlights from 2011

2011 – what a year! It’s always good to look back on the year and figure out whether you’ve achieved or not, above and beyond the financial goals you may have set yourself. 2011 has been an amazing year for me in many ways and so I wanted to document my highlights to look back [...]

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10 things I learnt by watching a top comedian at work

Up close and personal with Dara O’Briain On Monday night this week I was fortunate enough to see a work in progress and I learnt a lot. Myself, my wife and 58 others crammed into the most gorgeous, tiny theatre on Monday evening to watch a work in progress – it was a warm up [...]

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You have to start somewhere

No one goes to great overnight. Even those who appear to have risen to success quickly has had a long, possibly hidden journey. I live in Bray, Berkshire – about 100 metres from the home of Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant. I just stumbled across this description of how he got started and wanted to [...]

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Just start. And then iterate.

Keep it simple… I wrote about Newton’s 3rd Law a while back – and I still subscribe to it – pretty much every day. To paraphrase Isaac himself: For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. A friend of mine taught me this a long time ago and I’ve never forgotten it. It’s the [...]

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Approaching 40 part 3: The day I turned 40

I’ve been wanting to write this story for a long time. I turned 40 2 days’ ago and it seemed like the right time to do it. If you’re having a bad day, I hope it raises your spirits. If you’re having a bad time generally, I hope it helps you to put things into [...]

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Approaching 40 part 2: The day I found out I had Leukaemia

I’ve been wanting to write this story for a long time. I turn 40 in 3 days’ time and it seemed like the right time to do it. If you’re having a bad day, I hope it raises your spirits. If you’re having a bad time generally, I hope it helps you to put things [...]

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Approaching 40 part 1: The day my life changed forever

I’ve been wanting to write this story for a long time. I turn 40 in 6 days’ time and it seemed like the right time to do it. If you’re having a bad day, I hope it raises your spirits. If you’re having a bad time generally, I hope it helps you to put things [...]

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50 things I learnt by taking a 6 week mini-retirement

A year in the making, my wife, 7 year old son and 4 year old daughter headed off for the whole of the UK’s school summer holidays on a round the world trip, inspired by my co-founder of Customer Thermometer and Tim Ferris’s concept of the mini-retirement… To quote Tim Ferris: A sabbatical is a [...]

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It’s OK to change direction

As I say to my children, “Go with what you DON’T know” So many people start a business and continue with the same proposition, despite changes in the market and what their customers are telling them. As the old adage says, there are two things which are certain in life. Death and Taxes. I’d like [...]

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Richard Branson talks about being an entrepreneur

The awesome folks at the I Love Marketing podcast team have managed to record this excellent video with Sir Richard. They film him on his Necker Island retreat and ask him a whole bunch of different questions. One of my favourites is at 3’48″ – What advice do you wish you had when you were [...]

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