In business, there is no gift as overlooked or inevitable as failure. Learn to relish failure. Savour it, wallow in earn, learn everything you can from it. Failure is a gift.

In business, there are some key moments. A critical Board meeting, or sales pitch, or deal negotiation. These are the moments that determine your fate. It’s at these moments that you must remember: Don’t leave the table. You have to stay at the table to the very end. Put family aside. Sleep aside. Health aside….

In the heat of the moment, everything can seem very important. The sale, the cashflow, the PR, the whatever. It’s all do or die. That’s when its useful to remember that you will be dust one day. No one will remember you. No one will remember your deeds. Eventually, nothing. So don’t things too seriously.

Bitterness is a poison that eats you up and distracts you from the job at hand. You can’t focus if you’re bitter. You cannot eradicate bitterness if you don’t forgive those that have wronged you. To win you need to focus. To focus you need to forgive everyone. Even your greatest foe.

One day, as a young man, Hercules was walking along an unfamiliar path and came across a fork in the road. Unsure which path to take he was confronted by two goddesses. The first was a beautiful woman called Kakia, made up and dressed in fine clothing. She claimed her friends called her Eudaimonia, meaning…

How you conduct business is up to you. Litigation, intimidation, bullying, these are all valid tools. Just remember if that’s how you’re going to play the game, others will play the same game back to you. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

It’s hard not to swear. Swearing can be funny. It can let you blow off steam. It can communicate seriousness. But it’s not gentlemanly. There is no business upside, only potential downside by offending others. Better to not swear.

No matter what you achieve in business, you can’t be satisfied. Business is too dynamic. If you’re not getting better you’re getting worse. Celebrate your victories. But after your celebration, go back to the drawing board. Dream up new ideas, new products, and start at zero the very next day. Never be satisfied. (Inspired by…

The newspaper industry is a good example of folks that are trying to solve a supplier problem rather than a customer problem. The advent of the internet (and arrival of Google and Facebook) means newspaper revenues have been wiped out. Why run an advert in the Sunday Times when you can much more effectively and…

When you start your company, it’s hard. You’re chasing greatness, but every day is a struggle. The struggle makes you hard, and eventually the hardness makes you great. The trouble is when you reach the peak of the mountain, the temptation is to chill and enjoy your rewards. You can’t do that. If you do,…

When you are kind, generous, honest, and respectful with people, you water the grass. If you’re anything less, the grass quickly dries and the smallest spark can light it on fire. Better to avoid the risk of unnecessary fires. Go with wet grass. [from a Shane Parrish tweet]

You’ve got a game. Your director has a game. Your shareholder has a game. Every one has a game going on. People have hidden agendas, that’s just life. Don’t worry about the other games, just play your game.