Saturday 28 June 2008

Amazing Piece of Synchronicity!

If you follow my Blog you'll know I am fascinated by the 'Law of Attraction'.

Yesterday I experienced an amazing example of it...

About a month ago I received an email from a guy called Paul Avins who'd read my book Business Nightmares, thought it was great and wanted to send me a book on the Law of Attraction as a thank you for writing it.

The book duly arrived, I read it, thought it was fabulous and sent Paul an email to the address on his compliment slip to thank him. The email bounced back, so I left the compliment slip on my desk with the thought 'I must find a way to thank him'.

(Of course, logically, that meant when I got a moment to look up the original email or visit his website for a different contact address. However, when you send a message of pure intent to the Universe it will always find the most elegant way of bringing you your request.)

Anyway, there the compliment slip sat, not really at the top of my priority list, but still to be dealt with at some point.

Yesterday I had a free invitation to go along to a Christopher Howard event; I almost decided not to go, but then decided I really should make the effort... I arrived about 20 minutes late, went to the VIP check in desk, and who should arrive immediately next to me, also apologising for being late, was a guy saying his name was Paul Avins!

I didn't immediately make the connection, but said to him I'm sure I've heard your name from somewhere? To which he replied 'I'm the one who sent you the book'!

Wow, I said, that's amazing! I have your compliment slip on my desk, your email address wasn't working and I've been wanting to find a way to thank you!

There were about 2,000 people at this event, the place was 99% full when I arrived, so the chances of meeting this guy at that exact moment were slim to say the least.

One other spooky aspect was that for the second exercise of the day where you had to pick a partner, I chose Paul. The purpose was to share our life goals - and strangely enough on a professional level our goals turned out to be almost identically the same.

This thing is incredibly powerful!

To me the Law of Attraction is an incredibly interesting area - and I'd really like to hear about your experiences of how synchronicity has also manifested in your life.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Sexist Comment?

Seems I have caused a bit of a stir in the UK Business Forum over a comment in my last Post that 'women tend to have much more emotional attachment to the companies they create than men'.

A lot of (male) comment that it's a sweeping statement and I offer no evidence etc. etc.

Well, you may know that I have an Entrepreneurial Profile Test on my website and having just run an analysis of c3,000 entrepreneurs profiled so far, here are the results:

54% of men profile as having strong money/material drivers vs 45% having predominantly emotional drivers, whereas only 34% of women have strong money drivers vs 65% having strong emotional drivers.

I think this safely proves that my comment is pretty accurate - and all the anecdotal evidence I have points to the same theory too...

Put that in your pipe and smoke it gentlemen!

Saturday 21 June 2008

The Boycotts

Just to let regular visitors to my Blog know that I have removed the two recent tongue-in-cheek 'boycott' posts, following today's Sunday Times article, which I think has rather taken everything too seriously.

I really don't want to cause any trouble, the point of the original post was that in business I think it is a mistake to insult women as they now make or influence 70% of all purchasing decisions.

As to Red Letter Days being my 'baby', the comment I have made in the past is that I think women tend to have much more emotional attachment to the companies they create than men. However to me my Red Letter Days era has long since passed, and while the company now owned by Peter and Theo has the same name, it bears little resemblance to the company I created.

And because so many great things have happened for me in the past few years, it would be impossible for me to wish that I was back owning or running it.

New Masterclass Dates

Following this week's successful event at the wonderful state-of-the-art new training facility at the British Library Business & IP Centre, I have now added two new dates for my Entrepreneurial Masterclasses on Thursday 11 September and Thursday 23 October - full details are on my website.

Apocalypse 2012

I really don't wish to worry anyone, but in just the past few weeks I have been alerted by four completely separate and random sources about an apocalyptic event which is due to take place in 2012.

As you may know from my earlier posts, many strange and synchronistic events are happening in my own life at the moment, and experience has taught me that these events cannot always be considered to be coincidences!

Further research suggests this Apocalypse was originally prophesied by the Mayans, the exact date being 20 December 2012... The ending of a 26,000 year cycle.

There is a mix of opinion as to what will actually take place; certainly a breakdown in financial markets, possibly the catastrophic effects of climate change, a shift in human consciousness, even a comet colliding with Earth.

Naturally there will be the usual cynical readers of my Blog who will think that this is a load of poppycock - I'm not really interested in hearing from them on the subject; however, what would be great is to receive any insights from the more enlightened visitors to my Blog about this 'event'.

It would seem to me that already processes are starting to take place to help us to prepare and I am contemplating what else needs to be done to accelerate that preparation.

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Where did it all go wrong?

Fascinating to watch last night's Channel 4 Dispatches programme on Gordon Brown.

Although the answer really is very simple.

Never make the FD the CEO - it always ends in tears.

Monday 9 June 2008

WOW! That was great service...

Lest you think my Blog is full of negativity, I thought I would share with you a wonderful way of recognising great customer service when you encounter it.

I regularly set off from Bakewell to various events and meetings around the country and my first port of call is usually Costa Coffee at Tibshelf services on the M1 (near Jct 29). Normally the service is agonisingly slow, but I put up with it simply because I love their latte! Then, on one occasion I arrived on a particularly busy day and noticed how a new lady behind the counter was managing to serve everyone extremely quickly and efficiently while still staying friendly and polite. Her name was Annette and because I was so impressed by her service, I nominated her for a WOW Award - it's a simple and free (for both nominee and recipient) way of recognising great customer service.

Here I am with Annette and her regional manager, presenting the Award... She was chuffed to bits and even invited her friends and family along to see her receive her certificate!

We all love to complain about bad service in this country, so it's nice to have a mechanism to reward people when you notice them doing great things.

Thursday 5 June 2008

The Power of PR

My PR Louise Third of Integra is doing one of her fabulous PR workshops with Daily Express journalist Maisha Frost at the British Library next Thursday evening (12 June from 5pm to 7.30pm).

Last time I recommended this to you, an entrepreneur called Tony Kinch who runs The Real Tea Company went along - and a few weeks later secured himself part of a half page article with picture in the Sunday Times! Worth probably £25,000 in equivalent media value.

Tony came along to the Business Start Up Show to thank me in person for recommending the workshop.

So if you are around in London next Thursday it's well worth attending - if you can still get a place - the cost is £47.50 + VAT and details are on Integra's website.