It is often assumed that great success in youth will translate into the same success in later years. Though I couldn’t help noticing that Gael Monfils won 3 junior slam titles in a row yet at senior level the closest he has come to winning one is reaching the semi finals of Roland Garros. Huge success at junior level had no effect on …
Margins
How well you play has a lot to do with how well you stay within your own margins and how well you push your opponent beyond theirs. they idea is that with any shot there is a way you can play it reliably. That is your comfortable level. As you increase the difficulty through adding power, aiming to tougher targets, …
Want to win: Pick your battles
Sport reflects the competition inherent in life and picking your battles is the lesson we learn from watching Tennis. From Stanislas Wawrinkas recent success at the Australian Open to Novak Djokovics dominance over Rafael Nadal, through to Rafaels and Roger Federers ongoing rivalry. Each of these battles has been a series of campaigns with each combatant having periods of dominance …
Strategy: Did you lose or were you beaten
All top competitors hate to lose but they can accept being beaten. That’s how I see the general reaction from players like Serena, Federer, Rafa and others. If they feel they could have played better and might have won they are annoyed with themselves because they let themselves lose. If however they gave everything. That’s the best they could have …
Do You Have Entrepreneurial DNA? A Test To Help You Decide
So I found Do You Have Entrepreneurial DNA? A Test To Help You Decide while readingYour weird behavior is the key to finding your career niche. Business and sport go hand in hand. I’m not the first to think that. What was interesting was the list of traits that predict future success. Check them out and see what you think. They’re …
13 Ways to Keep Your Debt from Holding You Back
To compete you must take risks and the way you go about this will define what you achieve. However the problem with taking risks is that you must recover because all risks generate their own debt and while some times this debt is small, many times its big and other times it’s hidden. We see on the tennis court that …
Why only drinks that stimulate thirst are profitable
So I’ve had this niggling question for quite a while now. ‘Why do most drinks available not quench your thirst?’. for along time I’ve been ordering a separate glass of water with any drink at a restaurant. In a club or bar I just accept that each drink is going to make me want another. But why is this the …
Adapt: Is there evolution in business?
For me the answer is a definitive yes. The more I apply evolutionary principles in thinking about business the more I see it fits and the more I feel I understand business. It’s why I like capitalism. It’s a very harsh approach, which I don’t like, but then is’n’t natural selection. Natural selection is about competing for energy and essential …
Funding education: A novel approach
funding is one of those key things that underpin learning and teaching. In funding education, a novel approach I explain how you could use the latest payment approaches to fund new learning tools. Rather than apply for big grants and go through the related bureaucracy. In this age of empowerment you could just deliver a tool and provide cheap simple options to …
Shared knowledge and experience will make us free
I just had a realisation on the walk to work that I just had to write down. It suddenly hit me that there is an interesting parallel between the role of DNA in our bodies and the knowledge and experience we share in our communities. DNA is essentially a massive encyclopaedia of knowledge about the building blocks of human life. …
Nothing to hide
I remember being on an IT helpdesk as first line support. It was telephone support not face to face or email. This meant I was the first person people would speak to about their problem. So I gave the initial impression of the quality of support. I learnt a lot about how to build trust while supporting applications and products …
How does innovation flourish? Nestia the UKs innovation hub
I have always wondered where you’d go if you had an idea that you think could help others that’s also, in your mind, ahead of it’s time. I just came across Nesta an organisation set up to help those with ideas that can help to get those ideas in place and working. Thought it would be useful in time. I …
How do you measure and improve defect rates?
It’s probably been mentioned a thousand times elsewhere. defect rate to me is essential to understand. It’s effectively how much time do I spend developing code compared to how much spent fixing it. The essence being if I wrote it right first time then I wouldn’t have to keep going back to fix it. I’ve read many articles before that talk …
What I need to deliver a project well
The main issue for me is always communication. Not just face to face but info about what occurs in meetings etc when I’m not around. Things like the project direction. this is often being discussed regularly among people related to the project but I have no idea what the outcomes were and whether I should adjust my project plans accordingly. …
Copying Silicon Valleys Model
I didn’t realise it but apparently I follow silicon valleys model of success . Apparently the model they use is about embracing failure as a part of learning. By accepting this they see each failure as the next step to success. Don’t see the point in worrying too much about my failures. They’re a part of life. It’s best to …
Achieving your goals means being good at fixing mistakes
I just had to write about this presentation I just watched by Jeff Hawkins founder of Palm computing on how our response to failure is key to learning how to succeed. The presentation is focusing primarily on business but to be honest I just feel it applies to life. I was lucky that in certain areas of my life, particularly …