Archive for 2010

“I want vanilla ice cream.” No, I don’t really want vanilla ice cream. What I want is an elusive “something.” But vanilla ice cream is what I have in the freezer, right now. I know I don’t have any strawberry ice cream, which is what I’d prefer, because I recall eating the last of that…

Yesterday I posted about people who are trying to hire great talent inverting their list of requirements, and inevitably a friend responded with “Yeah that’s fine, but what would you look for in a new candidate?” Simple. Apply the philosophy that Southwest Airlines use when hiring their flight attendants. “Hire for attitude, train for skill.”…

Ever had to write out a list of required skills for a job advert? Ever read a list of skills for a job advert? Whatever list of skill requirements you have come up with where you put in order of importance the required skills for the job, it is guaranteed that you’re listing everything in…

“Your call is important to us, please hold and operator will be with you shortly.” Words we dread to hear. We could fix it simply enough “Your call is important to us, there are 350 people in the queue ahead of you, we are responding to 4 callers per second. Your call will dealt with…

If taking public transport doesn’t give you enough reason to improve your life, nothing ever will.

Working in the service industry you sell the illusion that you are in control of a situation. The customer trusts you to ensure that the organized event goes off without a hitch, that the celebrity speaker shows up on time and sober, that little Belgian chocolates are placed on each pillow of the hotel suite.…

Our brains are wired to have an internal heckler. If you’ve ever done stand-up, you know you don’t engage with the heckler. Don’t even acknowledge them. No matter how clever, deep, insightful or funny your comeback is, you’ve engaged, and that is their cue to continue to seek your attention. The inner heckler is the…

I want the latest model Ferrari with a primer coloured front wing, a coat hanger aerial and a bumper sticker that says “I brake for Jesus.”

We often look at an activity or an opportunity and think “that looks risky.” But frequently it’s not. An appearance of risk and actual risk are not the same. It is valuable to learn how to distinguish the difference between the two as that will permit you to do things that appear risky to others…

Customers, like the proverbial squeaky wheel, have learned that if they squeak loud enough, they’ll get taken care of. Customers have figured out that if they pose a risk to your bottom line, you will take care of them. How far in to your bottom line are you willing to cut for that squeaky customer?…

Seth Godin probably doesn’t care, he’d probably attribute it to some marketing nonsense such as “being dazzling and edgy and not trying to please everyone” but this post for his free three-day seminar alienates me and has incensed me enough that I have removed him from my daily reading list and doubt I will be…

Has business gotten faster because we now communicate faster? Or are we now realizing that business moved slow because humans were, and still are, in the way?

A lot of skill, a little luck, a little talent, a lot of persistence will always be able to achieve the ludicrously difficult.

The job that a lot of people who read my blog do, didn’t exist yesterday. I’m amazed when I think my job didn’t really exist thirty years ago (video game developer) and I’m working with people (social network community managers) whose job didn’t exist three years ago. Next year there will be jobs and job…

How do I know the nonsense you are peddling isn’t real? There’s two simple tests that I can perform to find out. The National Geographic Monks in a Monastery Test Has National Geographic done an expose about a group of Tibetan monks living in a remote monastery somewhere concerning whatever mysticism you’re pushing on me?…

Kleptomaniacs take things literally. It’s a pun. It’s also why you can never explain one to them.

If you’ve got information, the more the better, it will have two distinct attributes, both of which involve money. The information will have one or the other attribute, or even both at the same time. 1) Someone, somewhere will be willing to pay money to gain access to it. 2) Someone, somewhere, will be willing…

The one thing I’ve learned about anything I do is that if I love doing it, nothing will stop me from doing it. Software development, writing, making music, doodling badly drawn comic books, furniture building. But none of the things I do are an instant step to making a lot of money. If you are…

I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months and perhaps I am behind the times with it, but why does music radio still exist? Traditional radio stations that play a mixture of music and news with a DJ that makes announcements. Why are they still around? With the rise of music on demand…

I thank my parents for teaching me that I am never too good to take on a shitty job that’s beneath me.