You can’t change what you won’t acknowledge One of my guiding principles is something I’ve taken from Ray Dalio’s book “Principles” and its really very simple, but not at all easy: Accept reality and deal with it. It sounds obvious. It isn’t. Most people spend a surprising amount of time Read more
And What You Achieve Most business owners spend a large proportion of their time surrounded by people they lead. Employees. Customers. Suppliers. All important, but all looking to the owner for direction. Which means something is often missing. Challenge. Not criticism. Not negativity. But genuine, constructive challenge from people who Read more
But Your Business Doesn’t Need to Be The human mind has a built-in bias towards negativity. From an evolutionary perspective, that made perfect sense. For most of human history, survival depended on spotting threats quickly. The person who noticed what might go wrong — the rustle in the bushes, the Read more
It Will Eventually Run Your Life Most people start a business for a good reason and it’s never to work harder or longer than they ever did before. Often, it’s some form of freedom. Freedom to make their own decisions.Freedom to build something of value.Freedom to earn well and live Read more
Most business owners want their business to improve. They want better margins.Better customers.Stronger teams.Less pressure. But there is a point most people try very hard to avoid. Acceptance. Not acceptance in the sense of giving up.Acceptance in the sense of recognising something uncomfortable: Your business runs the way it runs Read more
Below £5m? The Constraint Isn’t Your Market. I work with scientific manufacturing, general manufacturing, joinery and cabinetmaking, property development, hot tub retail, HVAC engineers, classic car restoration, aerospace, training organisations and engineering firms. Different sectors. Different products. Different technical challenges. Same problems. Lack of clarity.Wrong customers.Margin pressure.Operational inefficiency.Owner dependency.Inconsistent leadership. Read more
There’s a point in many businesses that doesn’t get talked about very much. It’s not the startup phase.It’s not crisis.And it’s not failure. It’s the point where the business is working… but it is just harder than it should be. Most owners at this stage are experienced. They’ve made good Read more
The Most Important Work You’ll Do This Christmas As this year draws to a close and as this is my last article until January, I want to take a moment to wish you a genuinely Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. But more than that, I want to invite Read more
What Success Doesn’t Teach People talk about failure like it’s something to avoid at all costs. In business especially, we’re trained to fear it, hide it, deny it, or dress it up as something else. But here’s the truth I’ve learned working with leaders for over two decades: Failure is Read more
What Your Brain Can do That Ai can’t – Yet I was learning about Ai the other day and the presenter, Arthur C. Brooks, a behavioural scientist, author, and Professor Harvard Business School, made a really good point about how out brains work and what Ai can and can’t currently do Read more