Author Archives: NCS

I was once late getting off a plane in New York as I was behind two Canadians in an argument. The argument was over a dollar that had been picked up off the floor. Both of them were insistent the other had dropped it. In what appeared to be a never ending game of ‘noContinue reading “Two Canadians and one dollar bill”

I am not a doctor, I have no medicinal training. In no way I should be looked to for professional psychological, or well being advice. However, I can recommend you a book for your illness or Malady. There is a novel for every condition that a person may face. Reading is a particularly focussed activity,Continue reading “For the love of Reading and readers”

We have all felt the compulsion to monitor our inbox for incoming high priority messages or actions. You can kid yourself that this is work but it is not. Not efficient impactful work anyway. It doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t require too much thought. You get that dopamine hit of doing something. But it isn’tContinue reading “Email is fake work”

I am somewhat of a ‘Self improvement addict’. That has to be contradiction of terms. Several of the podcasts and books I read recently kept mentioning this book called ‘Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player’ by Simon Ramo. So I gave it a read over the Christmas break. It was worth it even though IContinue reading “Ace life advice to follow”

I was watching an interview with Stephen King he said the following quote: “You know what talent is? The curse of expectation” it got me thinking about the kids I coached in football and the young consultants I have mentored in the last 20 years. I have learned to abhor the word ‘potential’ it isContinue reading “The curse of expectation”

Watching the news there is a clearly a big gap between what people think and what they do; They are doing things despite knowing it to be immoral, wrong or stupid. Why? I ask. My psychologist daughter tells me this is called ‘cognitive dissonance’. This is when a persons actions are inconsistent with their beliefs.Continue reading “People can face anything but reality”

The story I am going to tell today is about understanding your market dynamics and flexing when necessary. The story begins 25 years ago. I was living in Croydon, South East London and commuted daily to my University in South West London Kingston. There was one bus that went from Croydon to London Heathrow andContinue reading “Know your market and flex”

I touched briefly on democracy in Friday’s post when I wrote Hate leads to fear I finished with a conclusion that democracy is a fragile political commitment. Winston Churchill is attributed for saying “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” Democracy is fragile because itContinue reading “Thinking on Democracy”

In a previous job we had an employee, he worked in the post room. This guy had been at the company for a longer than anyone could remember. I dropped by his retirement drinks. We had a small gathering of colleagues to see him off with his gold watch. During the send off he toldContinue reading “An ordinary life is in the living”

Hatred is a sentiment that leads to the extinction of values Ortega Y Gassey I am somewhat of an Americanophile, I have always been enamoured with ‘the bold experiment in democracy’, I have read everything written by the founding fathers and the giants of politics compared to almost all politicians today. I have travelled toContinue reading “Hate leads to few, anger and jealousy”

I did not write this but read it recently and wanted to share. Hope you enjoy it. This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody didContinue reading “Everybody, somebody, anybody, nobody”

I am feeling much better this morning, the migraine has gone and I can breathe better at least. The migraine stuck around a lot longer than they usually do. Today’s post is on charity. I always think more about charity on cold days. I know there are so many deserving charities but the needs ofContinue reading “Charity sees the need, not the cause”

Happy New Year readers. I would like to use today’s post to say thank you. I have received a few Christmas gifts from readers who sent me some lovely reading/writing inspired gifts. I am humbled that you did this. I wanted to start putting out something daily and plucked up the courage to do so.Continue reading “Thanks and a Happy New Year”

Lessons can be learned from every experience and from every memory. My mother used to tell me when I was 7 years old “Nathan, watch that man”. She was referring to the street sweeper, a man with a broom and cart who would clean our street every week for years. “Watch that man and tellContinue reading “Lessons from a street sweeper”