When I think of talent vs effort, I think of a 100m race.  An unfair 100m race where not every runner starts from the same point. Instead of everyone beginning from 0m, your starting point is determined by your level of talent.  Those who have been gifted with immense talent are starting extremely close to … Continue reading The Talent race →

Petunia is thinking about making the move to working 15 hours a day.  10 hours wasn't enough and neither was 12.  '15 should do the trick!' Petunia thought to herself. I think if Petunia wants to live a happy, well rounded life then adding more hours to her workday isn't going to achieve that.  I also … Continue reading Petunia’s 15 hour days →

After playing tag rugby for a few years I have found that, when the game is on the line, there are players who scream for the ball and there are players who shy away.  I think this comes down to people’s aversion to failure.  Nobody wants to be held responsible for losing their team the … Continue reading I want the ball! →

What is 427 x 935? Back in the day, to solve this problem, you had to sit down with a pencil, a piece of paper and wrestle it into submission.  But these days we have calculators and calculators have robbed all the difficult problem solving from this equation.  Instead of learning our times tables off … Continue reading Calculators stealing problems →

In an individual sport, you are solely responsible for your success or failure.  In a team sport the performance responsibility rests with the collective and this can be a blessing or a burden.  In an ideal world the workload will be shared evenly throughout the team, in reality the effort exerted is rarely uniform.  A … Continue reading Hiding in Teams →

When you play rugby union there are coaches, training sessions and matches.  When you play tag rugby there are only matches.  Tag rugby is a social amateur sport and therefore lacks a regular development programme.  After mastering the basics of tag rugby you may find your growth plateauing.  The absence of coaches and training sessions … Continue reading Tag Rugby learning →

Mistakes are inevitable. It’s one of the terms and conditions of being a human being. Even the highest performing individuals in the world can’t avoid mistakes.  The greats aren’t great because they never made mistakes, they’re great because they recovered well from mistakes.  So if you can’t avoid mistakes I think the next best thing … Continue reading Recovering from mistakes →

Every month Bertie has to fill out a report and he hates doing it. He has such a small window to write the update that it causes him so much stress. He has to consolidate information from many locations and come up with decent commentary all in a matter of hours. Usually Bertie has to … Continue reading Bertie’s report →

Being the big fish in a little pond certainly has its perks. In particular the security of being the best.  You know it, everyone in the pond knows it and it’s immensely satisfying.  You’re king of the jungle, top of the food chain, and living in the penthouse. But… … If the big fish wants … Continue reading Big fish growth →

“Solve world hunger, tell no one!” The Grinch in ‘Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch stole Christmas’ 2000 - I was watching Avengers End Game last night and a particular moment struck me.  The Avengers have an idea for saving the world and they are pretty confident their plan will work. The only hitch is they … Continue reading Grinch v Tony Stark →