After failing to land a job that was designed with me in mind, I was moaning about it to my brother-in-law when he asked, ‘You’re not one of these idiots who thinks doing a good job is good enough, are you?’ At that moment I finally learned the usefulness of networking. It was a hard
I’ve always had a problem with ‘risk management’. It just seems so self-deluding and so manifestly untrue, judging by what I observe. More commonly, risk is either a problem you failed to anticipate or a lucky escape. It isn’t something I see much evidence of being managed. Risk is the uncertain, unknowable future. When taking
‘Never go into a business partnership 50:50′. My father didn’t often give me advice, but that one stands out in my memory. A couple of decades earlier, he went into a partnership with a business associate. For many years the business did well. Their roles were well defined because my father did the books, mostly
What will you be doing on your very last day of work? The Japanese have a phrase that describes one approach to retirement – amakudari. It translates as ‘descending from heaven’ and carries with it ideas of the older generation passing on knowledge to the next generation, of respect for that knowledge, but also a
Is going shopping morally bad? Many seem to think so. Anti-consumerism is an unpleasant blend of right-on academic snobbery and a conservative’s natural suspicion of change. Lefties believe that buying things is worse than making things, conjuring demons such as finite resources being used up, and people taking empty fulfilment from superficial pleasures, leading ultimately