I so love this speech on TED because Sir Ken Robinson puts forward such a powerful argument contrasting what he sees as the current failure of the education system in the USA and his proposed alternative. I often wonder if education is being ruined by political correctness? Now don't get me wrong, I am all for behaving well and being aware of our behaviour toward other cultures, ideals, religions and the opposite sex; I just don't think people always think differently, they just know 'what not to say', and that's not the same thing. I often observe situations where I believe people are To View More >>

Photographers, and my other blogger friends, I have decided to take the "31 Days to a Better Blog challenge" by Pro Blogger. I downloaded the book last week and, having read it, decided it it has a lot to offer, especially at a time I'm considering how to bring more focus and value to my blog. Please Join Me I'd love to find photographers, and any other bloggers, that would like to undertake the challenge with me. If you would like to join me on this exciting and rewarding adventure, you will need to buy the book here, and if you constructively, and honestly, give feedback on my progress I To View More >>

'How did you become so wealthy?' is a question I've asked plenty of people in my life. But the answer I got from a very successful colleague of mine when I worked at Xerox wasn't about a product, or a service, or a sales  or marketing strategy. It was about a belief that underpinned everything he did. His answer was this. "I got rich by making other people rich... I add value to peoples lives." He took it upon himself every day, to go out and add value to peoples lives - whether it was his clients', or his customers' or his friends'. Now you're not necessarily going make people rich simply To View More >>

Yesterday I let you know that I was going to take the "31 Days To A Better Blog" challenge and I am getting more and more excited. Day 1 The task for today was to write an "elevator pitch for my blog". This was something that had been on my mind for a while, as I felt I didn't have a strong focus around what I wrote. I genuinely think I could go "toe to toe" and hold my own in a discussion on most of the issues I write about, but I wasn't providing any depth of information. We have deep experience and knowledge in HR, IT, Marketing, Relationships, Leadership, Strategy etc but I didn't want to To View More >>

I'd like to think that I am more of a Greenie than some of the Greenies I know, so here is the good business stuff you can learn from the environmental movement. Only a little is about being green, and for some this might be only about the profit baby :-) I don't believe it's right to assume business is anti-environment, although our track track record could be better. But what we can learn from our environmental friends is that our environment is a reflection of us ... a reflection of our choices ... a reflection of our behavior and most importantly a reflection of our values and focus. Not the To View More >>

The presentation by Merlin Man and John Gruber was called 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility. In reality it was a discussion about authenticity and how you blog. It brought into focus what I've been thinking about for the last couple of months and made me realise what I have been trying to deny for a while now. That is that blogging is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. I'm used to being successful, but blogging hurts I've had a blessed life. By blessed I mean we worked like crap to provide a great product, have awesome experiences and try like hell To View More >>

When I say danger, I am not exaggerating. If you are online and geotag your photos you risk being robbed, raped or murdered if you aren't very careful. I do apologise, I don't like having depressing stuff on my blog, but you do need to be a little scared; you do need to consider how you work online. If you value your property and especially your life read on. So what is Geotagging Wikipedia describes Geotagging as: the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds, and a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually To View More >>

I went to a Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar a few weeks ago, which got me thinking about the wealthy men in my life and what I have learnt from them. Six came to mind almost immediately as they had taught me some very deep and fundamental lessons. The seminar itself was fairly disappointing apart from hearing Emi Kiyosaki talk about how to avoid regret, but like all things it did prompt some self-reflection and fortunately reminded me of these lessons. These men are all different, but in some ways the same They are by no means the richest people I have known, and might seem on the To View More >>

Yesterday I introduced the fact that going to a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar had me thinking of the wealthy men in my life. I started by talking about Les Harvey the unlikely property developer and how he taught me to 'set my own rules', 'be humble' and 'love my company more than my product'. One of the most successful salesmen I worked with at Xerox was a guy called John Burke (Burkie). It's been almost 15 years since I last saw him so I have no idea what he does today, but the lessons he taught are still with me. He is a great guy and I really appreciate the time he spent working with me; he was To View More >>

I found myself in trouble on Twitter this morning ... ok "in trouble" might be a bit strong, but a tweet I received did make me realise something I was doing was causing offence and of course don't want to do that. In my "Direct Messages" (inbox) I received the following tweet. At first I thought #DM meant "Deep and Meaningful" ... what no deep and meaningful conversation?, what a weird thing to say ... but then I realised more seriously that they meant "Direct Messages". So what happened, and why is this important? juhasaarinen seems like a pretty cool person. Certainly they have an interesting To View More >>