Jack Bauer loves information, he knows where to find it, how to get it from people using maverick interrogation techniques, but most of all, he likes a steady stream of updates (preferably to his PDA) in “real time.” He would love Twitter search. This week I was trying to purchase tickets for the much loved […]
People Pleasing Paralysis
At school, work and even when self-employed, you may be familiar with the “People Pleasing Paralysis”. What has been ingrained in you since you were young, could well be stunting the growth of your personality – and your success. We were taught to make the teacher happy, make your boss happy – even if it […]
Funny How Time Slips Away – Making The Seconds Count
It’s Sunday, a regular Sunday, nothing out of the ordinary. I know people out there are sleeping off the night before and relaxing, so that should be okay for me right? Yet there’s something that’s making me restless, and it’s the thought that I should always be working harder and longer than I am. When […]
Are you and your characters passive?
Since the beginning of the year, I have been submitting one short story a week for competitions / magazine entries. Having to review so much material for submission, I began to see in some of my older work, a common trait with main characters in stories that I was unhappy with: they had a tendency […]
Kicking Out Self Doubt for Freelancers
One of the hardest aspects of working for yourself is that you are self-reliant on picking yourself up, offering encouragement and motivation even when the chips are down. The phone hasn’t rang for a couple of days, your inbox looks a little empty and your Twitter updates are falling on blind eyes. I was on […]
Jimmy Osmond and Networking for the Introverted Entrepreneur
“Excuse me…” I asked, knocking on the glass partition of the first class train carriage. “Are you Jimmy Osmond?” I was on a train back from London late last night when I spotted the youngest of the Osmonds. I’d like to say that I walked over to him confidently, introduced myself and began chatting easily […]
Springsteen Philosophy – Don't let the past eat you up.
Anyone who knows me, knows how much I admire Bruce. He has record breaking eye sight because every time I’ve been to see him I swear he’s managed to find me in the crowd and sing right at me… Dreaming aside, the Observer Music Monthly caught my eye in January for featuring an interview with […]
Your chaotic thought process isn't wrong!
Ever wish you had linear thoughts? I sometimes think it would be nice if my ideas formulated in order, from start to finish, and grouping themselves in the correct order of importance and theme. Only sometimes though, because I also quite like the way our brains want to naturally work, chaotically swirling and stewing ideas […]
Persistence …and Isaac Asimov
In a second hand bookshop I stumbled upon a three book collection of Isaac Asimov’s First Orbits. It’s a collection of his early science fiction works with commentary in between each story with biographical details of how the pieces came to be with an evaluation of each work. As I began reading, it seemed like […]
Dreaming big when starting small
Last Wednesday I attended the £5 app meet at the Werks. I was drawn by the idea that great on line applications and businesses can be built with resistance and passion and not necessarily millions of pounds. The main showcase for the evening was a new interactive text based adventure from the Guardian presented by […]
