My first post-lockdown 2.0 business trip was super-productive and an absolute joy. It was a reminder how powerful and energising face-to-face contact is.

Zoom won't get you where you want to go.

You can always find an excuse for not pushing yourself out of the safe, warm digital burrow you’ve built for yourself. But don’t complain if you don’t get reach your success goals. To get there, you must do the uncomfortable stuff and make more of an effort.

Other people's jobs are harder than you think. Saying “low-hanging fruit” reveals that you think everyone who came before you was stupid. 

That’s a big, egotistical assumption. This week we look at that, Chesterton's Fence, the Streisand affect, and other ways of thinking to help you make better decisions for the long term.

Read about Chesterton's Fence and second-order thinking here https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

Written version of this story here: https://ianwhitworth.net/low-hanging-fruit-the-helicopter-view-people-are-not-idiots/

One of our businesses nearly got killed by a random decision made by software at one of our giant tech suppliers.

One day, with zero warning, our payment processing provider emailed to let us know that we were operating illegally.

So they shut us down immediately. Even though it was their mistake: they assumed US laws apply worldwide.

Business is full of sneaky risks, and often the weird ones that take you down.

Class action I referred to - link here: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/industries/retail/tyro-eftpos-terminal-outage-fifth-week/

Why do estate agents always say a house is 'nestled'? Why do newsreaders talk about 'revelllers' when nobody else does?

Every industry has its cliches. Here's a quick 3-step cliche reduction checklist to help your proposals, websites and tenders.

Written version here: https://ianwhitworth.net/adjective-massacre-time-to-kill-your-sales-and-marketing-cliches

Flamboyant real estate copy I refer to is here: https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-sawtell-137823914

I just bought a house up the coast. I thought finance would be a mere formality, as a comfortably well-off business owner.

That's where I was wrong. The whole system is stacked against business owners, because banks prefer you to be a salaryperson.

I learned a lot, and it's all in this story, along with 7 essential tips to lower your risk if you're a business owner trying to get a home financed.

Here's the link I refer to on checking your public credit file, it's free for one-off checks https://www.mycreditfile.com.au/

Bert Newton was one of the happiest men alive and beloved by people of all ages.

This week: how and why to be more Bert in business and everywhere else.

If your business goes all-virtual, you'll have no company culture, no matter what your HR slide deck says. 

Yet ordering everyone back is inefficient and demoralising. It's going to be a balance of remote and office. 

Here are some ideas on why and how to get people back to the office some of the time. And how that might look and feel.

I'm chatting with my friend Fionn Bowd, whose firm is re-shaping how city lawyers work. She's worked at a senior level in both big law firms and in household-name corporations.

Fionn is full of thoughts and ideas on how to get better results out of knowledge workers in any field, not just lawyers.

Research suggests that 40% of workers want out of their current job within six months. That’s a Code Red hazard warning for traditional employers. But with that comes opportunities for your own business if you can adapt quicker than the big guys. This week, a look at the best way to turn it your advantage. Plus the new trend of people doing two full-time remote jobs without the other employer knowing.

Nine essential tips on increasing the number and quality of your ideas. 

There's no easy answer when you're dealing with the liars and fantasists at work.

You have 3 short choices.

This week, some classic work liar tales and what to do about it.