What Successful People Don’t Do In The Morning…

…or in the evening, or even on weekends. They don’t look for someone else’s secret sauce on a “what successful people do” list, even if there are 730 million search results to tell them how it’s done. It’s easy to confuse other people’s solutions for your answers. You don’t have to be defined by what’s…

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Price Is A Story We Tell Ourselves

I’m worth it. It might be gone tomorrow. You could make it at home for half that. This is a one off. People pay for intangible value all the time. Consider Uber, “the app that connects you with a driver at the tap of a button” on your smartphone. If you simply need to get…

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Seth Godin Is Coming To Australia

Seth’s never made it to Australia before, but he’s finally coming next year. Yes, those were cartwheels you imagined! Anyone who has been following Seth’s work for a while knows that this is a big deal. I’ve got no idea if he’ll make it back ever again, but I’m thrilled that he’s coming this time.…

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The Biggest Problem Facing Entrepreneurs…

…is love. People with great ideas (and average ones too) are in love with the idea itself. Because we’re human, we become irrationally seduced by the potential of our own solutions. This blinds us to what matters most, to the thing that gives the idea the best chance to fly. Being in love with the…

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Why Is The Next Time Never Like The First Time?

Twelve years ago we took our boys on a family holiday to Tuscany. We spent a whole magical day just wandering the beautiful walled city of Lucca. It was there that we had our first taste of real Italian gelato. It turns out that Lucca is the perfect place for circling back on yourself, which…

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What Customers Believe Is Your Competitive Advantage

Ask any business owner about how they stand apart from the competition and they’ll probably begin with the tangible, the things they can easily explain. “We offer a more competitive interest rate.” “Our products have more features. “We have better distribution.” In 2008 Windows accounted for 84% of personal computing devices shipped. Today that number…

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What If Your Customers Could Talk?

When was that last time you couldn’t wait to click on a banner ad? Marketers will spend $500 billion on advertising this year. Someone clearly believes advertising is working, even if it’s not. We still think that marketing is how we talk to people about ourselves. Marketing is giving people something to talk about. Image…

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How To Write A Mission Statement

By definition a mission statement is the official line on the aims and objectives of your organisation. Academic papers have been written about how mission statements must be cogent (possibly one of the ugliest words in the history of the English language in my opinion). Your mission statement should describe your key market and your…

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Doing Work That Matters

My maternal grandfather died in his sleep, while my mother aged just four, lay breathing next to him. She was number ten of eleven children. Ten years later mum was sent to work at a biscuit factory. She hated it from day one. At the end of that first shift she told her mother that…

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