Greg Hahn got fired from a global-prestige job in COVID.

When he was weighing up which way to go, his wife knew what the best option was before he did.

He opened his own business less than three months later. Barely three years on, it’s widely regarded as the best in the world.

This week: the people around you can tell how you really feel before you. Listen to them.

Links:

The Jon Evans interview

The Mischief manifesto

Buy my book

How McDonalds touch screens create dirty stores. Lessons in unintended side-effects when you think you have a genius idea to cut costs and lift revenues.

And now McDonalds are letting customers down on the things they've relied on for decades. "All that’s missing is a bucket bong on the straws-and-napkins counter."

Links:

Rory Sutherland on why Usain Bolt trains on Chicken McNuggets

More Rory on why guys buy more burgers from touch screens

Buy my book

Enough of people posting about how they gave up alcohol and how great they feel and you should do it too.

Alcohol, in responsible amounts, makes so many people happy. Quit preaching to them about your new-found clarity.

This week: the case for the defence for alcohol.

"One reason Donald Trump is the next President of the United States is because a lot of normal people are tired of killjoys and do-gooders telling them what they shouldn’t be doing."

Here’s a way to make your work life easier, and save a heap of time and effort.

Stop your futile efforts to bend people’s essential nature to your corporate will.

So much time gets wasted on this, so much unnecessary friction. Here's an alternative approach that's much more productive and pleasant for everyone.

Some clients are just a soul-destroying, high-maintenance burden on you and your whole organisation. They do not appreciate all your efforts in the slightest. Working with them does not spark joy. You’re just doing it for the money.

How would it be if you just waved those clients goodbye?

You can do this and it will make your business and your whole life better. 

I know because we’ve tested this theory for you. Because we are privately-owned and can do these things without pressure from head offices or VC creeps. 

Learn how and why to reduce your target market in this week's story.

An essential, yet depressing lesson on buyer behaviour from the US election.

A terrible tale of what happened to a serial shout-evader at industry events. (Or round-evader for international listeners).

What you do at industry social events can build your personal brand into something that will pay off handsomely your whole career.

Or the opposite of that. Find out how to take the first option in this week's story.

Often spending money in your business is outright enjoyable. Hiring more staff. New assets. Those payments bring a pleasant feeling that you’re going places, with happy hopes of future returns.

Then there are expenses that just suck, bring you zero

Everyone’s different, but these are my Top 5 Business Expenses That Can Get In The Bin.

Ian's mum Erica became a major fan favourite after he took her on breakfast TV to be interviewed about being ripped off by her insurance company.

She's back this week, or rather a story about her. And how she inspires 65,000 people every year.

Link the story I mention about my Dad: How A Hermit Introvert With No Digital Skills Got 65K+ Followers

Customers and the people you work with will defy all logic on a daily basis. You’ll provide them with all the cold, hard, objective facts. Then they will make choices that seem to be, as the song goes, insane in the brain.

This week, why that is and what to do about it.

And why Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman’s best-seller Thinking Fast and Slow nearly killed my will to live.