Leadership

10 Invaluable Life Lessons You Can Learn from the Movie Troy

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The great thing about classic tales is they’ve stood the test of time. And so has all the great advice you can get from them … Never judge a book by it’s cover. Just because a guy is wearing a leather skirt and a funny hat, doesn’t mean he can’t still kick your ass. Never … Read more

Failure is The Breaking Point and Not One Second Sooner

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Bluebells in the Forest

Stuff happens. Stuff goes wrong. If it doesn’t, then something really is wrong. And when stuff goes wrong, sometimes we have to get as close to failing as we can possibly get to see the right course of action …

A number of years ago I was driving down a highway here in Vancouver with my girlfriend at the time. It’s a 4 lane highway and there’s the odd light-slash-intersection. As I was driving, a woman coming the other way decided to turn left in front of me.

She started to turn; she had all the time in the world. And then she just stopped. In my lane. She froze and I was barreling straight towards her.

And there was no way I could stop in time.

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Leadership Hats: The Sombrero

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Mexican Sombrero

I know, I know … you’re a machine. And I know if they could bottle the drive and passion you put into every second of the day, a crate of the stuff would be worth a king’s ransom.

But even machines need an oil change and a tune-up once in a while.

A Very Important Leadership Hat

Out of all the different hats that leaders wear, the sombrero (or as I like to call it, the siesta-time hat) earns the least respect. But it’s one of the more important hats you can wear. And probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.

Yes, the sombrero combats fatigue and burn-out and helps you bring some balance to the mad dash of whatever you’re pursuing. It also does two other very important things:

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Risky Business: Crafting Your Break-out Moment

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There’s an anecdote I love that says “Poor people are crazy. Rich people are eccentric”. And that leads us into a chicken and egg question … Are celebrities wild and crazy because they’re rich and famous, or are they rich and famous because they’re wild and crazy? It’s pretty easy to argue that one feeds … Read more

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership … Challenge

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If you’re like me, you’ve flipped through a few books on leadership and business. Well, when it comes to leadership, there’s only one book I couldn’t not buy. And that’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell. It’s a great book and the things John teaches should be practiced. So I’ve put … Read more

Losing Momentum and Restarting the Fire

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Sooner or later we all come to the realization that we’re human. And there’s only so much that’s humanly possible. And when we’re stretched to the breaking point and need a break, the worst thing to do is to take one without a plan to restart the fire afterwards. All our momentum is gone. And … Read more

Gaming the System. Are you Playing or Paying?

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When I was about 10, we flattened a bunch of bottle caps with a hammer. Then we trimmed them down to the size of a quarter with some heavy-duty scissors. We took a pocketful of these slugs down to the local coin-op car wash and had the waterfight of the century. For free. We gamed … Read more

Breaking Out of the Comfort Zone

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I went out to Hicks Lake with some friends this weekend to get some very important things done. What I noticed along the way is that our world insulates us. And that insulation has a nasty side effect … It can make us too comfortable. Too intolerant of anything remotely uncomfortable. Too wary of taking … Read more