legacy
73 posts
The Advantage Of Not Knowing For Sure
Success is as unpredictable as failure. Nobody knows for sure what will be a hit or a miss. Every runaway success is only obvious with hindsight. And yet we expend so much of our creative energy trying to be successful to our detriment. When you liberate yourself from the pressure of having to win,
A Question Of Choices
Our choices not only determine our priorities, plans and results—they are also clues about what matters to us.
The Daily Opportunity
Meaningful progress doesn’t happen in a single, magical alignment of the stars. Opportunity can’t pass us by because it’s available to us in this moment and the next one.
People Want Places, Not Platforms
Whatever you’re building, think beyond features, functionality and design and think first about how the person you serve wants to feel when she arrives at the place you’ve built.
Growing Small
I remember landing my first ‘real’ job like it was yesterday. One of the big British supermarket chains was opening a huge store not far from where I lived in Dublin. It was good news for the hundreds of people who would be employed there—more jobs, more choice for consumers—a win-win. At fifteen, I
The Stories We Live And Leave
In the end, all that will be left of us is the stories other people share about us. How can we make those the stories worth telling?
Immeasurable Success
How we keep score changes the stories we tell, the businesses we build and the societies we shape.
The Power Of Owning Your Work
When we own the work we’re proud of it becomes more valuable to the people we serve. How are you owning the work you’re proud of?
Being Heard Is Overrated
It’s easier to be heard when we shout. But being heard shouldn’t be our ultimate goal.
Why Next?
We make more right moves when we stop to think how the next thing we’re about to take on aligns with our values, and if it’s helping us to get to where we ultimately want to go.
The Bounds Of Possibility
Now that we are no longer bound by the constraints of probability, we must face the fact that we have a responsibility to own what’s possible. Opportunity abounds.
10 Benefits Of Strategic Storytelling
Stories do more than help us to tell and sell. Shared narratives are powerful catalysts for change and the building blocks of our culture.
The Myth Of Significance
Lately, we have come to believe in the myth of significance. Put our faith in being chosen, becoming ‘the one’. Striving to be bigger, noticed or more than, while simultaneously recounting a narrative of never enough. In our minds, significance boasts a title, resides in a corner office, speaks from
Small Acts Matter
How we serve we serve matters. Our smallest acts have the power to make the biggest difference.
Build Your Darlings
Build your darlings for the people you care about serving. Those people who will fall in love with how your work enables them to live the lives they want.
Better Work Happens By Design
My parents both left school in their early teens. They and most of their peers were manual labourers, who didn’t get to choose the kind of work they did. They worked in factories or on building sites for most of their lives. Work for them was a means to an end—a way to contribute to…
Build A Trust Engine
In the golden age of the advertising businesses of all sizes relied on ads to promote and sell their products. Giant corporations reached us via TV and whole page newspaper ads. Small businesses got our attention by placing small ads in the local newspaper. In the past advertising allowed average pr
The Opportunity Cost Of Pursuing New Opportunities
Time. We can sell it. We can buy it. But we can’t get it back. And yet when it comes to resourcing opportunities, we sometimes believe we can have it all. All we need is to be disciplined about how we spend our time. When we choose to pursue a new project or goal we’re…
Tell Me About Your Company
If you were asked to describe a friend in three words you’d have no problem. Maybe you’d say he was fun or kind, perhaps you see him as loyal or generous. But if I asked you to tell me about your company’s attributes or brand’s characteristics you’d probably struggle. We invest a lot of time…
Pitch Perfect
The two falafel makers at the weekend market sell an almost identical product but achieve very different levels of success. The marketing tactics they use are similar. Make eye contact with potential customers, offer them a small sample to try and use the time they’re chewing to launch into your sal
