A business book you'll want to read

I must have read dozens of business books. Some have been autobiographical in nature (like that of Victor Kiam, the man who bought Remington because he liked the razor) and some have been more philosophical. Most have been quite 'dry' with, you sense, a good deal of inconvenient truths left out.

So where do place a book with all the inconvenient truths left in? At the top of your reading list if you run or would like to run a small or medium size business. Which book would this be? "Get Off Your Arse" by Brad Burton. Brad is well known in the UK as the Managing Director of the largest Nationwide Networking organisation, 4Networking.

The book is part autobiographical, part motivational and part plain old common sense with splashes of earthy humour. Let me say that the provocative style will not suit every reader; there are no spreadsheets or graphs and very few notes on how to construct a business plan. And yet.......this may well be the most valuable business book you will pick up. Why? Beacuse through Brad's anecdotes and tales of lost opportunities, glorious mistakes and finally resounding business triumph, you will see the way to secure your path to a great business.

This book will not tell what markets to be in or what location to choose but there many simple practical tips here that can be applied to almost any business. This is a motivational shot in the arm that will have you ditching excuses and taking action that moves your business forward. As Brad might put it, "If sitting around in your underpants is not working" then buy this book.

It may not change your world but it could just change your approach enough to get you back on track to growing your business. Highly Recommended.

It's that time of year when...

The newspapers talk about weight loss or maybe just being fat a lot this time of year.

Swedish weight watchers cause floor to collapse. Oh well there goes the stereotype of the slim Swedish blond.

Only eat raw food and lose weight? Well you can do it that way; here's what happened.

You could try the military boot-camp approach...

Or you could start to re-educate your body and mind with this...

It turns out that stress does cause cancer

An article on the Daily Telegraph web site reports on a paper published in Nature that seems to show that common, everyday stress can cause genetic mutations in different cell types. These different cell mutations then form a kind of pathway allowing the faster growth of tumours.

The work was conducted on fruit flies whose genetic sequence is well known.

It seems it is more important than ever to find ways to let go of the daily stresses of live to stay healthy.

One way to do that is try one of my MP3 downloads on http://www.gift4life.com.

Of course you already know how to reduce stress, the tricky thing in this social and economic environment is how to achieve it.

Not more snow?!

There was a very dicey moment for me in the car going up, rather than down Vagg Hill, Yeovil. I pressed the brakes and nothing happened...or rather the wheels just locked. Not a nice feeling at all as you slide towards a road junction, even at just 5 miles per hour.

I took this picture today, it's the view from Vagg Hill looking towards Yeovil.

Part of me is dissapointed...

Part of me (probably my inner child) is just a bit disappointed by the lack of snow today.

Others will explain that their business has taken a financial hit and that people are frustrated because they can't get to where they would like to be but...

Even so, I would still love to see, great big fluffy flakes of snow fall from the sky and cover everything with at that all enveloping, perfect whiteness that only new snow can bring. I know that it causes problems but aren't people just a tiny bit happier when they share their 'awful' snow stories. Perhaps it's just me finding some good in what for some will no doubt be a miserable experience. (I'm glad I'm not attempting to travel by air for example.)

Sadly for my inner child, sleety rain seems to be the best I can hope for tomorrow but Wednesday...could be more snow then.

The trouble with wind turbines

The trouble with wind turbines is that when you most need the energy they produce, they produce nothing at all.

This one outside the Innovation Centre in Yeovil (near the Football Ground) has not turned a blade in weeks.

If all we have for renewables is wind energy, we will need some very effective energy storage systems in the near future.

What's happened to the water?

Confused ducks at Ninesprings, Yeovil

Icicles

There are some beautiful things to see in the most unlikely places.

Here are the icicles hanging from the edge of my shed roof in Yeovil

Do they have a death wish?

It seems that a warm car negates common sense on icy roads (God I sound like an old fogey).

It's -5 degrees C outside, roads are only slightly gritted and yet I see people driving as if it were a warm and sunny day. My guess is that many of them are young enough not to recall the last really cold winters we had in the early 80s.

My prediction for the day: lots of small traffic shunts and a large pile of insurance claims.

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Change your diet and change your live

Use the snowy weather to make plans

More snowy weather today and a quick trip in the car (very slowly) this morning had -10 degrees C registering on the dash display.

With lots of people working from home it's a great time to be putting together your plans for 2010. You do have plans for 2010 don't you?

New Resolutions looking a bit battered?

Since around 2001, I have been on a journey exploring the world of personal development. I have worked with NLP, hypnosis, EFT and other techniques first to change me and then to show others how they might change.

Traditionally this is the time of year when people make new commitments to make a positive change in their life. From dropping a bad habit to dropping a dress size, it is the New Year that has us resolving to make a change.

Most of these resolutions get broken within days, old habits are restarted and months may roll by before a new start is made.

So here is an alternative idea for you; commit to making a change even though you might fail. Commit to making a change even though you may not know how you will achieve your goal. Think about a child learning to walk, we KNOW that at first they will fall over (fail), and yet we will help them up as many times as required UNTIL they learn to walk.

We never say "Well that's it, this baby is never going to walk!"

We keep going UNTIL it happens.

So if your new year resolution has already taken a battering, pick yourself up, start again and keep going UNTIL your reach your goal. You'll get there eventually.

Snow in Yeovil

The snow has now arrived in Yeovil. A good fall of about 2 inches came down overnight although it does not feel that cold outside.


















I expect that the usual traffic chaos will ensue. The weather forecasters say there is a better than even chance of more falling through the day.

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed the post Christmas obsession with weight loss?

We have adverts from every weight loss company in the country on TV, in the papers and of course on the internet.

It is a lucrative business as most people actually, lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, gain weight etc. etc.

If you would like to see or hear my take on changing your body shape then take a look at this http://www.gift4life.com/acatalog/Slimmer_You.html