After a rainy couple of days in the mountains we are on the beach.
The thick bush reminds me of the Kenyan coastline.
We have had scores of whales hanging around for the last few days.
Spouts of water rising up in the air and lazy gigantic tails flopping down onto the surface of the sea.
It’s absolutely beautiful.
The rain has set in. The last few days on holiday have been hot and humid but now the cold front is here and we’re enveloped in cloud and cold air.
No hiking with the little ones. We’re playing table tennis and dominos with other guests at the hotel to pass the time.
For a few years we were in a drought, missing the rain in Cape Town. One wet winter and I find I’m wishing for the drought again. Fickle and selfish thoughts set in when you get bored I guess.
For now, indoors and bunkered down is the way forward. I find I am rearranging the apps in my phone for no particular reason.
The mind is a funny thing.
We went on a beautiful hike this morning. You can get an idea of the vibe from the pic below.
When I got back I had a look at my phone: Meeting requests, complaints, fires to put out all over the place from work.
The contrast is jarring. But at least with a software based business it is possible to travel and work at the same time.
I need to practice juggling the two because I’m loving the hikes but I need to pay for it somehow!
Tiger Woods has completed a comeback for the ages, winning his 80th (!!) PGA tournament after huge public meltdowns, divorce, multiple surgeries, and all the uncertainty that goes with it. I am a big fan. I think this comeback is a great thing.
Why is this great? I saw on Twitter a person questioning why so many people are interested and are applauding Tiger when he has clearly shown his faults and vices to us over the years. The basic gist was that he’s a nasty man not worth celebrating. He’s a womaniser and a snob. A drunken philanderer. A thug Alpha Male. But this simplistic assessment misses the point.
So what is the point then? The point is that we see ourselves in Tiger. We see a microcosm of all our talents, our possibilities, all our failures and all our potential for redemption. His is a complete comeback story with a near-perfect arc in terms of drama and recovery. To write off such a story as immoral and uninteresting is to misunderstand what being a human is. We humans relate best to stories. To archetypes. Tiger’s story has everything required for an amazing spectacle. He has been through hell and come out the other side with a new back and a changed personality. And my God, he plays nice golf!
Judging celebrities is easy. What’s rare is a celebrity who can offer us such a journey to the top, the bottom and back up to the top again. Enjoy the drama as it unfolds in real-time. I’m backing him to win another major soon.
An important assignment, a mission is focussed.
It works towards the dream and vision you might have, but it is very much grounded in the real world. It is specific. Many missions may achieve a larger dream or a vision.
If my dream is to sell solar power to the world, my first relevant mission might be to become an accredited environmental engineer, or a solar technician.
A mission is an important task and it has a beginning and an end. It is a clarification of what is important and what is not. Do this, don’t do that.
Guided by the vision, a mission zooms in on the day to day stuff that needs to be executed before a dream comes true.
That’s my take.
I have found a useful framework for planning a project. Its origins are mostly from the military. Its application to the business world, and in fact to any dream you may want to fulfil are most useful.
I will be outlining each section and then over the coming days running through what I think each one means practically.
So, the sections/framework:
There is an interesting mix of harder and softer stuff in there. Culture and values being softer in my mind than tactics or strategy.
I’m finding it useful to focus and to plan. Something I can always use help on.
I would like to pass CFA level one. I have already tried the exam twice and failed! Like anything this is a multi-variable problem – I have a job and 2 young kids, I never did maths at school, I don’t have a lot of time for studying. Etc. Etc. But I was very close to passing the last time.
Previously all the reward for studying has been intrinsic. But now I am going to give myself some sort of extrinsic, materialistic, awesome enticement for passing the next exam in December. Hopefully this sort of motivation works. It can’t hurt. Candidates for the prize include:
I am stretching the limits with this exam, but I like the challenge and am lucky enough to be able to try.
To be chanted like the Americans chant: C F A…C F A…C F A
If you need to run a business, this might help you.
It’s a very valuable repository from a very generous Venture Capitalist:
I can’t sleep. Insomnia is hard to shake because the more you worry about not sleeping, the less likely you are to sleep. When this cycle happens I eventually make a call – It’s time to get up and drink coffee.
So here I am listening to my newfound, favourite TuneIn radio station “American Routes”.
This has me thinking about America and American culture. I am not American in any way – I come from Kenya and South Africa, but in many ways America is always on my mind. I grew up on American cartoons, toys, series and movies. Whether it is the brunt of our jokes, our jealousy or our ambitions, America is a place and an ideal that is all over Africa: “Stupid American tourists” “America is keeping us in debt”. “America is killing our traditions”. “America will save us”. “God bless America”.
At a personal level, this relationship between myself and America is at its most peaceful when American music is playing. For the last 20 years, hiphop has taken Africa by storm. But this is the tip of the iceberg. Blues, jazz, soul, folk, country, bluegrass and gospel traditions of America have enriched my life like little else. All merged together into the melting pot that is Rock n Roll, I would feel starved without American music in my life.
The world is your oyster. (Or as they say in Kenya, the world is your ostrich). This is a fine saying full of hope and optimism, but how do you know what part of the world/oyster/ostrich to focus on? How do you define scope for your next project?
Scoping your work is probably the most important part. Scope is what lets us understand where to allocate time and resources to a project. It sets the boundaries, and it is very subjective.
How to decide on a focus and a scope of a project then? Stick with what you know. This is hard because the internet and TV can convince you that you know about all sorts of stuff. But to quote Seth Godin: “There’s a difference between being aware of the emergency of the day and having firsthand experience and firsthand empathy for different people in different places.”
Focus then on something which you understand through first hand experience. Perhaps you can show people how to do something (check out my mate Martin’s excellent Vlog series for his art). Or perhaps you know exactly where there is a gap in the market. The point is – take the real, personal interactions you have in the world and grow the project from there.
Chimpwithcans 