I have a strange abnormal admiration for the window cleaner guy. Not only does he charge significant coin but now he seems to have an employee to do the dirty work.
Make no mistake he has provided the valued staff member with a waterproof jacket. Which is handy given that the boss hoses down the windows directly over, around and through, the employee as he scrubs the windows with a brush.
Definitely a nominee for ‘the worlds greatest boss’ awards.
Author: Andrew (Page 21 of 43)
As evening approaches the mist rises slowly from the ground. By daybreak it will be thick heavy fog that will blanket the Waikato for most of the morning.
I understand what causes fog, but I don’t understand why fog exists. Maybe fog’s purpose is to reduce our view, to dim the sun, to close airports and make us feel gloomy.
Maybe fog’s purpose is to enhance our enjoyment of the sun and beauty and the use of airports more once it clears. Once it is lifted. Once things return to normal.
NB: There are life lessons I’m sure from fog, just not sure what they are yet. As fog season has arrived I’m sure I’ll get the opportunity to think of some before my next fog picture.
I took this photo while I was exasperating daughter. While the shot is random and not normal and partially blurry due to the light, I like the colours and effect.
Above all I love her smile and think its beautiful.
Pete Murray’s song, Smile, says
‘I have seen days
When your smile goes on forever
You light up the room
In the deepest darkest weather’
That is true of smiles. It is true of my daughter.
Today, Talia decided to make a movie. A movie in which she was the writer, the director and the only star.
If your life were a movie, what would be the story line? How would the movie end? Would it be an epic story that people remember? Would your movie be an adventure, a love story, or a tale of overcoming the impossible?
Like me, your life isn’t likely to become a movie.
But we are still the writer, director and star of our movie, of our life. As individuals we choose to live a memorable story of adventure, love and triumph.
Or not.
Our lives are all partial reflections of others.
We all in someway reflect the people and events that have had an impression on us.
In some cases, repulsive and negative things done may be reflected in us. Things we would rather forget and wish they had never happened.
For the most part we reflect the good people in our lives. They may be parents or teachers or colleagues or friends or Jesus, and regardless of how independent we think we are, we are all small reflections of them.
So if my life is a partial reflection of others, how will I ensure that their reflection of me is a blessing, vivid and good?
You may believe that rolling two dice all is chance. That guessing the combined number is luck. And to a certain extent you are right.
However adding two dice to equal 7 is six times more likely than a rolling double 6. (1+6, 2+5, 3+4, 4+3, 5+2, 6+1 compared to 6+6)
You may also believe that being successful is luck. And to a certain extent you are right. However add knowledge to the randomness of life, and you are 6 times more likely to succeed (I just made that up).
The point is this: Just as two dice can appear to the uneducated to be just luck, so also success can appear to be just luck.
“Come around an get your feet under the table,” Jack would say. What my mentor from 20 years ago meant by that was, ‘come around, sit at our table, enjoy Grace’s home cooking, and lets talk or chew the fat together’.
Long meals, great food & drink, laughter, discussion, debate, hospitality, genuineness, caring and love. That’s what getting your feed under the table means.
At our place getting our feet under the table is a priority. Eating my wife’s incredible cooking and discussing everyone’s day connects us, it forces us to ask and teaches us to listen.
It strengthens us, and our kids really enjoy it.
[232|365 Food that connects us – Went in search of story on the way home and found Mizzoni selling woodfired pizza. It looks good, and they do lunch at Maui St on Wed/Thu]
Is this train leaving or arriving?
It’s a question, and there is incredible power in questions. With great questions come amazing answers and stories. Because of questions, problems are solved and ideas are formed.
Yesterday, at a client who uses other companies, I asked, “What do our competitors do really well?” It’s an amazing question because you don’t get some canned answer of what they would like, rather you get a real answer about the service they enjoy. It also gives permission to ask, “What could they do better?”
Questions are the key to listening. They really are!
From time to time you will find people who have a different view to you (shock horror). You can either spend all your time trying to explain your view, OR you can spend all your time trying to understand their view by asking questions.
Talkers do the first. Listeners do the second.
Sometimes asking questions is really hard for both of you. But after you have listened and understood, you are almost always invited to share your opinion, to input into the conversation, to contribute.
AND
You will almost always say something wiser and more relevant.
All because you asked great questions.
Moses once wrote ‘Teach us to number our days so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom’.
It’s almost as if he is saying we need to measure our time. Nowadays we measure almost everything, our bank balance, our speed, our weight, or our kids performance.
Yet we don’t measure our time to see if we are using it well. We rarely look back and make sure we are making the most of time.
At the moment, indirectly through 365, I am measuring time. It has been around 60% of the year since I began the 365 project. That’s 230 days or close to 20 million seconds.
Seeing how fast time is going, seeing pictures from 2 months ago, that feel like yesterday is really scary.
And a good reminder!
People who have grown up with Apple computers think they are intuitive, easy to use and everything makes sense. People who have grown up with Windows computers think the same.
Intuitive is a word that describes learned actions. It is really hard for something that someone has never used to be intuitive.
My Macbook, as a Windows user is counter-intuitive. It does some cool things in really difficult ways, that take all of the fun out of them.
Windows = Alt-Print Screen
Mac OSX = Control-Command-Shift-4
The Windows version is easier to remember. The Mac version is harder to use not intuitive at all, but is way cooler.
A reminder that when we create processes or web or tools, we need to make them both cool and intuitive.