Went in search for the Addington Coffee Co-op, took a wrong turn and ended up driving past the old abandoned Wood Bros flour mill. A quick google search reveals “The mill opened in 1891 and was powered by steam, lit by electricity and serviced by the railway line next door. The storage buildings pictured here were built in 1924. By 1936 it had the largest output of flour in the South Island. In 1970 Wood Bros Limited sold the mill complex”.
Wood bros no longer exists as a company.
It’s a reminder that even the most successful companies of their era, like the people who run them, will eventually fade away.
Author: Andrew (Page 20 of 43)
Waiting for a response can be like watching a clock slowly tick the seconds by. It can be frustrating and annoying when action is not happening. We can feel like we are wasting precious minutes, hours and days.
At the moment I am waiting on a person to enable me to take the next step in a project. Because it’s a collaborative effort, I can’t go any further with the project without this persons help.
I am starting to resent the waiting.
Tick
To get annoyed.
Tick
Then I realise, I need to get over myself. For 2 weeks, I reacted slowly, I was the time waster, I was the one being waited on. My slowness made this persons response time harder.
I realise that I do this often. Fast to expect action, slow to act.
It’s winter. The 1st of June brings the official change in season, then the season lives up to its reputation and delivers rain.
With the darker days comes much difficulty and a lack of energy for my 365 project. 251 days down, 115 to go.
Agoge means conduct, although I use the word ‘being’. It’s a word that is meant to connect our way of business (day to day) with our purpose (people matter, leaders, ingenious, lucrative) to bring a common story. It means to ‘be’ day to day the things we have said we want to be.
Unfortunately too often in the last 18 months we have struggled to connect our actions to our purpose.
While we have had some great stories, we have had some really bad stories as well.
All this goes to show that as the leader of Agoge I have a lot to learn.
I can’t remember my first day at school, but my dad can. He was told off for eating his lunch at morning-tea time. Told off as in 1940’s told off.
Schools have changed significantly over the years. They are more creative, more interactive, with better teaching and more opportunities. They have also made huge in-roads into catering for various learning styles.
I think the next big leap for schooling is focusing on strengths. Our national program still seems to focus on creating students who are all OK at everything. They still struggle to deal with a kid who excels in Math, but has work to do in reading.
The focus goes on reading, which reduces the enjoyment of the child and therefore effects math.
Took this photo as I was wondering how Jayden’s first day of school would go. All 3 of our children have hit school at 3 very different strengths.
I wonder what his strengths will be?
I took Jayden to kindy for his second to last day as I was travelling on his last day. Realised that this is it, Kindy is over for me. 🙁
Maybe one day I will get to go to grandparents day at kindy, but for now it is done.
A Social Enterprise is a business that makes profit to effect social change by giving its profits to a charity or cause. It has been touted as the way increase funding for charities beyond donors.
At first glance it seems easy. Set-up a business, make money, give the profits away.
The reality is a lot harder. As a business you still need capital, profit and cash. Did I mention cash!
Added to that is the complexity of trying to tell an honest story about what you do (do, as in actually do, not plan to do). There is also inherent social and brand responsibilities to actually deliver profit to the cause, as many of your customers purchase from you because of your story. Finally social enterprise is generally driven by the conviction of founder, which makes failure so much hard.
For the record I consider myself a social entrepreneur. I love business and long to make social change through it. Social enterprises are not impossible, just significantly harder.
A couple of cool social enterprises are Café Agora (www.agora.net.nz, where this picture was taken) who sell Wurld Water (www.wurld.org.nz) check them out.
Was thinking the other day about things we own just in case we need them. A fire extinguisher is an extreme example. They hang around looking all red and waiting for its big moment that we hope will never come.
But that’s at the office surely we don’t have ‘just in case’ things at home. Like appliances packed at the back of the cardboard, just in case. Or clothes we never wear but keep, just in case. Or exercise equipment we will never use but keep, just in case.
I wonder how much money I have spent or misused or wasted, just in case.
A significant amount I would expect.
A study was conducted that reviewed all the weather forecasts in the US to see which one was the most accurate. They discovered that the most accurate weather forecast is this.
“The weather tomorrow will be the same as today”
It’s true. Its not completely accurate by any means, but it is more accurate than what you see on the news. If the weather is changing the news will be more likely right.
The weather in Hamilton was raining today. The long term weather forecast on the news says it will rain for the next week. But then so does the short forecast above.
In life, this also reminds me that tomorrow will be by and large the same as today. Same things, same routines, same people. They change from time to time. But forecast is generally “tomorrow will be the same as today”.
Star Wars, X-men and soon even Lord of the Rings will all share one thing in common; Prequel’s. Prequels are the story before the central story, the journey of characters and lives that connected and ultimately lead to the finale.
This shot is of the basic storyboard for ‘Jesus: The Prequel’, coming to a theatre near you. Well maybe not, but spent some time with Campbell and Dean mapping out the themes and stories and characters and nation that lead to Jesus. By understanding what went on before we learn so much more about God and the context into which Jesus came.
So that got me thinking about the prequel to my life, about the themes and stories and characters that went on before me that indirectly shaped whom I am. I realised that I know very little about their stories and I have very little knowledge or heritage to pass onto my kids.
Thinking ‘prequel’ could shape conversation at the dinner table of our parents moving forward.