Connecting the dots

As a little boy, like most people, I used to love doing dot-to-dots. It's one of those things that can be so much fun - at first a collection of random black points and after a while, as if by magic, a picture appears of an elephant, a bus, a truck or Yogi Bear... Today, my dot-to-dots are still a reality. Everything that we do has a connection in some way with something else that we have done. In marketing and sales, nothing is more real - we develop networks of people, like-minded individuals who want to work together to achieve common goals or who simply enjoy helping one another out. In soccer, we join the dots - thinking ahead a few steps, before we take that next step and kick the ball.

Connections are often made deliberately, although for me 9 times out of 10, they happen 'by chance', or at least, the ones that really spur me on do! Having a focus and vision and staying true to it is what creates these 'by chance' connections.

Going to a conference recently I caught up with a few faces, and connected them together - now they are working with one another - joining their own dots.

Comments

Fear

It challenges us all. We all face up to it. We all tackle it. We all shy away from it. More important than that is how we face up to ourselves. Being honest with yourself is not as easy as it sounds, and it is often the cause of significant angst and negativity. It is always easier to blame someone else...rather than be honest about what we have committed ourselves to doing. Trouble is, it is a slippery slope!So, maybe the answer is to yield - to accept ourselves for who we are, and act accordingly. We make mistakes, we make the wrong decisions - the important thing is to be totally honest with ourselves and others and accept that sometimes, we have to admit that we have taken a wrong turn or made the wrong decision. Hiding from that is not good, it cuts across our ability to love ourselves for who we are.

The simple things

It is Easter and I am sitting in the Old Post Office B & B in Paparoa, a village of a few thousand (max) people in the heart of the Kaipara District of New Zealand. It is quiet, there is a full moon, and Amelie my 3 year old princess has just run into the sitting room and said N Niiiight, kissed me on the cheek, given me a hug and bounced off to her bedroom for a story ... She gets distracted by the pieces on a chess board as she goes, 'this one here, that one there' .... Ammeeeliiee, her mum calls - oh oh she says and toddles off to hear the story. There is a clock ticking close by, the lighting in the sitting room is soft, it is peaceful. How lucky to be here - how lucky to have the simple things in life laid out before me, no hassle, no complexity, no need to think, no need to relax, I can just be. We do make our lives complicated sometimes don't we - more often than not because we desire or want something, or someone to do what we want them to do, or maybe thi...

Call me a cynic, but are we all being fooled?

As the 21st century continues on it’s merry way, life and how we live it continues to change. The rich are now obscenely so, and we ask ourselves ‘who really needs to be a billionaire’? The corporate juggernaut Goliath barrels its way along the highway, smashing any who look anything like David with his slingshot, worried of the impact on their mission for global domination. The average wage for the average Joe Worker doing a 40 hour week, (packing more in now than ever before thanks to the wonders of the internet) is not a lot. We travel faster, we receive information and send information.. faster, we do more in less time. Is the average Joe Worker better off for living the dream and buying their first car, or saving for their first house with all the furniture and trimmings…(noting the fact that it is likely that a significant proportion of their deposit will come from their parents, who now provide some 40% of the lending to newbie owners).. The issue isn’t just confined to families...

A simple step

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