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 >>

Why can't you be more creative? well, maybe it's because we aren't having fun!. Play, according to Tim Brown, is a crucial part of fostering creativity, and in the following inspiring video he talks about "play", a topic he is obviously very passionate about.   From the TED website : At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't). It's not just about "play" it's about having fun. Lets face it, through 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 >>

One of the things I love most about my job working in the wedding industry is the feeling of love, union, and joining together of people, families and our collective story. Sadly some people think that because we are ambitious business people and work hard that, we are all about business and nothing else. The truth is that our connection with humanity is deep and our love of people precious to us, therefore when I came across this website "I Take The Vow" I was moved by the the organisations ambition to have 100 million people take a vow of Non Violence In Their Thoughts, Their Speech and of course To View More >>

It's been a while since I shared a music video, so yesterday  spent a little time on YouTube and found: How Soon Is Now? by t.A.T.u from their album 200 km/hr In The Wrong Lane It got my attention because a couple of days ago I wrote a post "Be mischievous, Get Noticed", and you can definitely put these singers in that category. Lena & Yulya (aka Lena & Julia) are affectionately open about their relationship, which is great, but I am sure it also helps with publicity. This from their official website ... Brazenly, after promising not to kiss on the Tonight Show, they engaged in a long, To View More >>

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 received this tweet a couple of days ago in responce to a tweet I wrote about Geek Bait. I must say it made my heart race momentarilly ... Was I being a Dork, I like being a Geek but am I a Nerd? OMG Who am I? So lets start by saying I am a Geek ... no question about that, but I don't think I am a nerd. Since then it's been the topic of some office discussion ... I work in an office surrounded by software developers so there have been a few varying thoughts on the topic. Anyway, as any good Geek would do I went to Google ... Ok that's not true, I went to WolframAlpha but when their definition To View More >>

As I watched an introductory video for the WolframAlpha launch, my memory raced back to when I first saw the internet in the early 90's and told my wife how it was going to "change the world". WolframAlpha isn't a search engine like Google, it's something completely different. In my opinion there is a place for both as they do things differently ... but if this gets hold this will change the world. It's offers a completely revolutionary way of looking at data and for the average person to explore relationships. As Danny and I discussed today, we can in our heads imagine how the search works at 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 >>