RS - Personal blog of Rob Smith

Personal development up a gear

admin — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:05:03 +0000

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m very into my personal development - Anthony Robbins, Bob Proctor, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, and many more including many more business related books, audio and articles. I like to learn and put into practice new techniques that can further me as a person

Past week or so this has gone into overload a bit what with a bunch of stuff from Property mastermind, meeting loads more people doing that kind of thing and recognising it’s value more and more in different places.

Great stuff.

Property overload

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:21:14 +0000

Lots of stuff going on at the moment with the Property investment - not much time for much else! Better update and musings soon

Property Mastermind here I come

admin — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:07:16 +0000

In the interests of always expanding my knowledge on property, yesterday myself and Adrian attended our first property mastermind session. It’s a course split over twelve months that teaches you the various ways to invest in property. The big difference is this is backed up by the very powerful mastermind principle where the whole group helps each other to source, evaluate and buy property. Add to this the preferred suppliers and how they all work together very fluidly and you have a superb mix that can help me ramp up my investing activities.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.

Simple profitable web business

admin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:24:08 +0000

David Heinemeier Hansson, the founder of Ruby on Rails posted an interesting video from Startup which is about how they at 37 signals have built a profitable business. Check it out here:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/981-the-secret-to-making-money-online

He posts a very simple message overall. That with all the web 2.0 hype that is still around, all the websites based on eyeballs and advertising, there is one thing to build a profitable web business:

A good application, a price and that’s it. If your product is good enough people will pay.

Doug Richard and Business Link

admin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:09:43 +0000

Myself and Adrian went along to an event run by Business Link at Chester Racecourse yesterday whose key note was presented by two series dragon from Dragon’s Den- Doug Richard.

He gave a very entertaining and quirky keynote that I’m sure not to forget for some time. I would throughly recommend going along to see Doug if you get the chance as he’s got a great style and some refreshing honesty.

The key lessons/advice that I liked was:

Clean desk CEO: A CEO or boss who is doing a great job should have a clear desk and no problems. Every single aspect of the organisation should be being run by the person responsible for that function and the CEO should be leading the way.
Be ruthless: If something isn’t working then change it, change it quickly and don’t support half measures.
But not too ruthless: If something is working, don’t break it.

User centered advertising at the Cube

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:55:31 +0000

Myself and Ben went along to Chinwag’s first Manchester based event for the Digital industry up North, helped along by Manchester Digital.

It was a great little session with an interesting panel and an engaged and vocal audience which always helps keep the conversation flowing. I didn’t pop along for the networking afterwards but I will be doing so at future events as it’s one of my goals this year to become much more integrated with the Manchester digital scene and everything to do with the industry.

Here’s the event listing:
http://www.chinwag.com/events/2008/04/chinwag-live-user-centered-advertising

Hell Run North

admin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:32:37 +0000

Normally each year I have a bit of a challenge that I want to achieve during it, a few years ago it was three peaks, last year I didn’t have one (booo) so this year it’s been reinstated with the Hell Run North. It’s 10-12 miles in Delamere forest running through mud, streams, over hills and all that jazz.

Should be fun but I really need to get training if I’m going to do it in a decent time - gives me a good excuse to get to full fitness over the next 6 months though!

The picture to the right gives you a bit of an idea what I’m in store for! There’s quite a few of us from Blueleaf that are doing it: Myself Duncan and Chris are all signed up already and with the promise of Adele, Ben, Sarah and Adrian also signed up soon.

Some books I’m reading

admin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:30:25 +0000

I’ve got a few books on the go at the moment, some not so serious dip in and out books and some read all the way through books.

Tycoon by Peter Jones: A book on Peter Jones’s experience of how he has turned his ideas into millions. At first I really didn’t like his writing style but am now getting into it more. Worth a read maybe on paperback but I prefered Duncan Bannatyne’s life story book more and it’s not a patch on Richard Branson’s autobiography.
Rules of Wealth and Rules of Life by Richard Templar: I haven’t had chance to read through this properly, much more dip in and out but so far seems to be an interesting synopsis of much conventional wisdom. But after all we should know that common sense is generally uncommon
Property Magic by Simon Zutshi: Haven’t started reading yet but Simon has been a good friend for many years - should be interesting.
Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill: A constant book I read and see more each time. Everyone should have a copy without a doubt.

Tougher times in the UK

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:50:29 +0000

Tougher times in the UK at the moment. A small economic slow down is in progress - many companies are findings things tighter, cutting down their spending on various different parts of the business.

The property market’s down and generally the cost of livings a bit higher. Fuel prices have risen 20% in recent times.

After all of that negativity you’ll be wondering what my point is. Well my point is this. In these tougher times where budgets are smaller - both in business and personal life we need to concentrate our resources on what matters. It’s actually a pretty good lesson to live by generally. Switch the lights off, drive a little slower (ooops) and many other small changes.

Now is the time to set yourself up for success.

Also it’s worth remembering that more people make a lot of money than lose money in times of crash.

Do not flinch, do not second guess

admin — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:09:05 +0000

So recently I’ve been very into Battlestar Galactica - a show I didn’t know existed until Verity (my girlfriend) had it on while I was at hers. Now I’m hooked. I have a weakness for amercian TV shows - 24, West Wing, Nip Tuck to name a few.

What I find interesting is that very often these shows and their writers can deliver compelling and inspiring messages that strike a chord with me. Today Battlestar did just that.

It was a speech about not flinging, not second guessing yourself when you know what needs to be done. This message resonates with me - more often we should make a decision and see it through, and not second guess so much along the way.