As I sat down to write this I wondered about my title, I tossed between "Don't forget your belt" and "Drinking $200 bottles of wine". "Don't forget your belt, was a travel tip for men. If you are going to go away with your wife for the weekend, heed my advice and pack early, if not you will be like me rushing out of the house late, forgetting your belt and will spend all weekend pulling up your jeans. :) Anyway, I'm sitting here buzzing after a weekend away with Sonya where we spent two amazing days exploring a jewel in our own back yard, Waiheke Island. As many people know I am passionate about To View More >>

I came accross the following statement on Deborah Day Poors website tonight "Pleasers have good hearts. They are willing to give much, and all they want in return is for everyone to be nice. However, their best attempts to please and create peace backfire. They end up leading chaotic, hectic, hellish lives." It's hard to find a truer word said. In fact, I was at a Tony Robbins event, "Date With Destiny (DWD)" on the Gold Coast last month, and this concept of being a "Pleaser" was central to many peoples problems. One guy had it so bad he affectionately became known as "Pussy Boy" I certainly have To View More >>

A few years ago while attending a Leadership course in San Diego I saw a presentation by Gary King. It was incredible, not only did he talk from the heart, but what he said was profound in it's simplicity and as he touched my soul he changed my life. At that event he issued, and I accepted, a challenge ... that challenge was called the "The 24 Hour Truth Challenge" It was hard, especially as 24 hours turned into a week, then a month and now a couple of years. I have learnt a lot about myself during that time as I did find I told some little white lies, as I think we all do. More importantly however To View More >>

I had my first play with WolframAlpha this morning. I was watching the launch on justin.tv and saw the search url people we using. By doing this I got around the opening soon window ... Hope that's ok. Anyway very cool. Sorry for the poor video really just recording my play. The big thing is knowing what you can do and how to approach searching. Was very fast until they started load testing and then things started timing out. Cool as a first experience though. To View More >>

  I asked a few friends, colleagues and my family a weird question, which was ... What do you think I am an "expert in"? What I was curious about was, how do people perceive me? What did they think I was an expert in, and where do I add value? I've long been the 'go to guy' when you have an IT problem you can't beat. My knowledge is both deep and wide and when you combine that with my ability to quickly research, while looking at the big picture and delving into the detail there aren't mainly small to medium size IT issues I can't resolve. Not trying to big note, but it has always been my To View More >>

What a cool weekend. I spent yesterday helping Sonya and Lorraine prepare for last night's Fire Brigade Christmas party. That in itself was lots of fun, but the party was even better. It's always great getting together with this group, but last night was particularly special as it was held at our house. The food was amazing, a few people drank a little to much, but that was harmless, and we sat outside around the fire until the wee hours of the morning talking. Very nice. At 9 am however it was back into professional mode, as we had the important task of transporting Santa around the neighborhood To View More >>

On Thursday I called our Prime Minister, Helen Clark a mad cow, and I want to say sorry. LOL Ok I was going to say that's not fair on real cows and their unfortunate condition, but that would just be another cheap joke at someone else's expense. Funny thing about my blog is not many people leave comments, in fact almost never, but I get quite a number of emails directly and comments from friends and family. On Friday at a party Dad told me I was being a "tough customer" and my Sister said that it "wasn't my style, and would come back to bite me when I was Prime Minister." Something about Karma? To View More >>

The New Zealand Herald ran a story this morning about Kevin Roberts joining the board of New Zealand's Telecom. Some stories honestly just make me go, OMG, what? Here is one of my business heroes joining the board of a company (Telecom) that "I hate to love". I continue to support them despite myself, and despite the way they present themselves to their clients. But I would love to love them. In the interests of full disclosure, our company are pretty big telecommunication users. We are heavily dependent on Telecom for our international telephone presence, and we're big users of high speed internet. To View More >>

Well I am sitting at the airport in Melbourne, waiting for a plane home to New Zealand after an amazing week at an event more like a rock concert than your usual financial course. This morning I feel a weird mix of tired but buzzy from attending another Tony Robbins event, this one called Wealth Mastery. What an incredible week. It's always nice to escape for a while with your wife, but to attend a life changing event like this with her was pure magic. We signed up a few years ago to Tony's Mastery University, and this week graduated having completed the three events "Life Mastery", "Date with To View More >>

I was walking the dog this morning and it occurred to me how much of the last week has been full of paradox . In no particular order ... 1, Do you find as often as I do that food that's good for you isn't usually as good for your wallet as food that's not? 2, Business is like a snow ball rolling down a hill: it grows faster the bigger it gets. So why don't we focus on getting the small snow ball right and rolling first? 3, I was shocked to realise a while back, and was reminded often last week, that the information (learning) we most need to hear is often the stuff that irritates us the most. 4, To View More >>