Fear stories are told, often unsolicited, to us by others. You’re having a baby, and someone needs you to hear their childbirth horror story. You’re starting a business, and someone is adamant it will go wrong, as it did for them. You’re looking forward to the theme park and they remind you of that rollercoaster crash. You’re taking on...

1. Life is more peaceful if you are always early instead of always late. 2. Being tired knocks points off your IQ and patience. 3. You should never attribute to malice what is probably stupidity. 4. Jack Grealish is the most fouled footballer because he is one of the most talented. 5. Netflix documentaries are funded by people with a l...

Here are the articles written for Forbes during June: How to develop a world class memory within a year Brilliant business relationships are built on memory. Remembering someone’s name and the name of their spouse or kids. Remembering their interests and preferences; how they take their coffee, how long they have been a customer or wha...

An obsession with the new. The latest, the shiny, the first of its kind. New collections, new issues, breaking news. We are obsessed with the new and it has many implications. Shop displays must update every week to catch our attention, as must website banners. To halt our scroll, social media content has to be fresh. Stock photos lose...

But it’s not impossible. Records are broken every day. Things once considered beyond human capability happen. Someone spots a way forward, they break through, they make it work. Those determined enough can see the possibility. They aren’t deterred by the prospect of impossible. But as soon as you believe it's impossible, you will stop ...

You can wake up in the morning and decide to have a bad day. You can choose to see the bad in whatever comes your way. You can notice the litter, the traffic and the cold. You can find fault in a colleague, friend or partner. You can fly off the handle at any comment and misinterpret any email. If you want to have a bad day, you can ma...

As social creatures, we unconsciously imitate the people around us. Groups of friends start dressing the same. Kids develop the same mannerisms as their parents. Spend ten minutes talking to someone with a strong accent and you’ll pick up a twang. If all your friends are starting YouTube channels, guess what your next move will be. We ...

1. When the weather is grey you must work harder to maintain your brightness. 2. It’s impossible to argue with someone who refuses to bite. 3. Football matches have 22 people on the pitch and 40,000+ people in the stands. The ratio holds for artists and critics. 4. Being normal is not aspirational and should never be put on a pedestal....

If I fancy ordering some soft drinks for the week ahead, I might run a search on Google to find some to buy. What I’m not going to type: sweet-tasting sugar-free brown bubble water What I am going to type: Pepsi Max The best form of SEO is people searching for your name, not being one provider in a sea of many.

Valuing security means you make certain decisions. You might choose to find a job rather than start a business. Buy insurance. Live in a different neighbourhood. Avoid the unknown and stick to what is certain. Take the dead cert rather than risk the gamble. Ironically, what you think is secure rarely is. At any moment, a global pandemi...

For a reason I don't quite know, I kept all the rejection emails I received when applying for jobs and graduate schemes after university. Perhaps my former self knew I would be writing this with a smile one day. Three are included below but there were many more. Supermarkets, banks, the NHS, even KFC. All rejections. Finally, I was acc...

We are social beings, you and me. We evolved to live in groups and create connections with tribe members. Technology advancements since caveman times mean we have myriad ways to connect to others, email being one of them. Our primal brains seek the same connections they always have. Whilst we can rationalise that our overflowing inbox ...

Passing comment or opinion on the actions, appearance or words of another person creates distance. In your mind, it puts you above them. You feel you have a right to be heard. It creates disdain and superiority. On a long enough timeframe, separation leads to loneliness. Loneliness leads to suffering. Sooner or later, someone will need...

In August of 2011 I was twenty-two and fresh out of a graduate scheme, so I decided to start my own social media agency. My business plan was two words: get clients. Over nearly ten years I had a wonderful time building a brand and working with inspiring people, fabulous clients and team members. In March, the agency was acquired by a ...

Life feels like it’s getting back to normal but it might be a trap. 2020 and its forced changes showed us that something was wrong. Very wrong. We had to take five steps back to reassess and reorganise. In doing so, we lost some freedom but we found ourselves. Sure it was tough, but there were countless silver linings for each of us. S...

Here are the articles written for Forbes during May: Seven common errors great leaders don’t make Tiny cracks can undermine the actions of an otherwise brilliant leader. They start small and build, until they take over and it’s too late. Why being a jack of all trades is essential for success "Jack of all trades" has become somewhat of...

You’ll probably never find the time to renovate that room or darn that sock or write that novel. The space to create that masterpiece or pen that musical won’t just fly into your calendar. Time is not found. Time is snatched and stolen. It’s a minute here and there to jot down ideas. It’s that key bit of research whilst on hold or in a...

Going forward with the wrong thing, the suboptimal allocation of your time or attention, costs more than just doing the wrong thing. There’s all the gain of what the right thing would have brought. Now that time is spoken for, now you’re spoken for, the right thing cannot find you. A calendar filled with 7/10s is the cost of the 10s th...

People become what we label them, especially kids. The kid labelled as clumsy will start tripping over more because they take on that trait. In turn, that reinforces the label and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The creative one, the academic one, the nervous one, the loud one. It’s said, it sticks, it becomes who we are; part of o...

During a trip to Honolulu, physicist Richard Feynman spoke with a Buddhist temple’s tour guide, who explained the Buddhist religion for tourists. On each tour, the guide left attendees with a proverb of the Buddhist religion that Feynman never forgot: To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of...

If you put an iron in the fire every day, over time you have more than you know what to do with. Each creates an option, a possibility, an opportunity, the freedom to choose. What counts as an iron in the fire? A proposal A question An application A submission A follow up A good deed An FYI A recommendation Putting them out there consi...

If a business takes off, suddenly there are copycats. Someone shares a marketing hack they tried, and others try it too. A book is published promising a blueprint or a tried-and-tested method. Methods, blueprints and formula work for science experiments but rarely for commercial success. It’s a trap. Mark schemes are relevant for regur...

“Working on my novel” is the title of a book by Cory Arcangel that poignantly prints tweets from various writers saying that they are working on their novel. However, at that exact moment in time, they weren’t working on their novel. They were tweeting. The book explores the concept of instant communication and distraction in a light-h...

Architects are artists. They study, research and plan. They dream, imagine and create. They take a vision and turn it into reality for all to enjoy. They craft every detail of their masterpiece and obsess over minutiae. When it’s ready, it’s presented. Bulldozers are not artists. They march in and tear down. They survey a site and dism...

I joined friend Mark Leruste, host of the Unconventionalists podcast, to talk about building a bulletproof mindset, how to write a book every three months, living like an explorer versus settler, plus other juicy topics. We discuss: • What it’s like to sell a business after ten years of building it • The benefit of focusing on enjoymen...

In 2001 our phones could make calls and texts. Some had Snake. In 2021 they have cameras and apps. They have social media and payment methods. We learn, entertain and record with them. What’s the prognosis for 2041? Have we reached peak phone and will it stabilise? Or will the next twenty years see us become even more at one with our d...

Be happy because you’re lucky to be the person you are, living the life you live, at this moment in time. Be happy because you’re becoming the person you always knew you could be. Be happy because you have the freedom to choose how you respond. You can always say no. Be happy because every pain, struggle or hardship shall pass. You’ll ...

These are the most popular articles I have recently written for Forbes: How to block out distractions and stay focused At any given time, dozens of things are fighting for your attention. Pop up banners want your email address, ads want you to look at them, colleagues want you to respond to them and friends want you to talk to them. Pl...

In powerlifting competitions, you have to perform each lift to a specific standard. Squats must hit a certain depth, you can’t hitch a deadlift. When bench pressing, the bar must be stationary on your chest before receiving the press command, your bum must remain on the bench and your feet must be flat on the floor. In lifting and in l...

During a video call or interview, ideally you are looking at the person you are talking to whilst also looking down the lens of the camera. Not only do you have a better connection with the person you are speaking to, because you are looking into their eyes, but recordings look better because you’re looking at the audience rather than ...