Be the Good Consumer: buy nothing
November 28, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
Be the Good Consumer; with a new video Neil Boorman from The Bonfire of the Brands ask you if the brands you choose makes you happy (osocio)
Source: Kortjes
Billionaires That Lost Big Bucks
November 27, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
Remember that sinking feeling when you last dared to take a glimpse at your IRA? Well, imagine taking a little gander at your finances only to spot of billion dollar losses. Yes, billion with a B. For a handful of the world’s wealthiest business elites, the downward spiraling world economy meant jaw-dropping dips. The biggest losers included: Indian billionaire Anil Ambani ($32.5B lost), Lakshmi Mittal ($30.5B lost), casino magnate Sheldon Adelson ($30B lost) and Warren Buffett ($13.6B lost.) Ouch, remember to save up those pennies for a rainy day (or year.)
Source: Truemors
The Bottom Billion, by Paul Collier
November 27, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
Political correctness requires that we separate the world into two categories when talking about development - the developed and the developing nations, with one billion people living in the first set, and the other five making up the rest. These categories are insufficient, says Paul Collier, because there are some countries that are not developing, but actually moving backwards. Lumping them in with developing countries is to miss the much more serious problems facing them. The world’s billions should be divided 1-4-1, with a billion who have reached prosperity, four billion dispersed across a range of countries, some richer, some poorer, but all moving in the right direction. Then there’s the bottom billion, a “ghetto of misery and discontent”, who are getting poorer every year. “Picture this,” he writes, “as a billion people stuck in a train that is slowly rolling backwards downhill.”
Source: Make Wealth History
Financial sense and adventure
November 27, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE 64 was the first man to have reached both the North and South poles on foot.
Source: Telegraph Finance
YouTube - Fireside Chat with Timothy Ferriss
November 26, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
Health vs. wealth
November 26, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
The Economist reports this week on new research on the relationship between Health and Wealth. The long and the short of it is that improvements in health don’t necessarily lead to higher incomes, as counterintuitive as that sounds at first. (As always, the causation may be running the opposite direction - higher incomes lead to better health.) In one of the papers, researchers from MIT looked at the impact of medical advancements like penicillin that improved health in developing countries but clearly were not the result of improved incomes in developing countries. They found that income per head dropped despite improvements in life expectancy.
Source: PSD Blog
Bad bosses may damage your heart
November 26, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
Inconsiderate bosses can not only make work stressful, they may also increase the risk of heart disease for their employees, experts believe.
Source: BBC
Uncertainty can be more stressful than clear negative feedback
November 26, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
We are faced with uncertainty every day. Will our investments pay off? Will we get the promotions we are hoping for? When faced with the unknown, most people experience some degree of anxiety and discomfort. Exactly how much anxiety someone experiences during uncertain times depends on his or her personality profile.
Source: Brainmysteries
YouTube - Fireside Chat with Timothy Ferriss
November 26, 2008 by Graham Brown · Leave a Comment
War and Common Sense, good bedfellows
November 4, 2008 by gbrown · Leave a Comment
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labour of peace - Andre Gide
I’ve riffed already about Common Sense and truth.
Common Sense can dominate truth through hero worship by elevating the values of our heros to exemplifying the moral code we should all be following.
Soldiers who die in combat are heroes. That’s what our leaders keep telling us.
At school we learn of the “heroic” conquests of Custer, Wellington, Montgomery and Napoleon. All soldiers whose claim to fame lay on the battlefield.
The irony is that Common Sense needs us to believe ib these heroes. If there is no higher heroic sacrifice than giving your life for the political ambitons of our leaders then there will be plenty willing to do so both from the Madrassars of the East and the forces of the West.
Military heroism is no more than Common Sense coercing us to the bidding of our political leaders. Soldiers who die in combat are not heroes but the unfortunate victims of a political game beyond the average person’s comprehension.
Of course there are many instances where soldiers engage in heroic acts of self sacrifice and altruism but these ultimately were in the interests of their buddies, civilians or innocents and were not achieved through staring down the barrel of the gun.
There is nothing heroic about taking another person’s life. Ironically as our leaders make us fearful of the unpredictable and insane threat from suicide bombers - individuals so devout they are to give up their life for the cause, we with the other hand sign up countless youth to do the very same.
Real heroism is the bravery demonstrated by those unfettered by the shouters and the cultural demands of Common Sense in refusing to be silenced about the truth.
Sean Penn is attacked by Fox News and denounced by the wider media for being critical of the US foreign policy - drawing a line between it and the Islamic world’s wider loathing for Bush’s ambitions in the Middle East. The heroism lies in his desire to let it be known regardless of the apparent negative impact on his career.
It’s the same heroism demonstrated by John Lennon in his solo works highlighting the fallacies of Common Sense that underpinned countless politically charged conflicts in the 20th Century. As a musician, Lennon was never mainstream in comparison to McCartney because of his refusal to compromise his principles for public opinion.
The legacy of a PR game well played by avoiding offense may have made McCartney’s estate significantly richer than Lennon’s but compare for example “Mull of Kintyre” with “Imagine” or any of Wings’ offerings with “Working Class Hero”.
The irony is that as much as it’s needed, being truthful isn’t a great shot in the arm for your career. Politcians, actors and musicians all know that saying what you really think will alienate the wrong people. It’s a tough call - many would compromise in order to protect their careers. Yet, this is the nature of true heroism that lies at the heart of Uncommon Sense - endeavours that reduce suffering in the world without violent means which themselves put your own life and career at risk. That is real sacrifice.
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” Einstein
Currently reading: A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield
Technorati Tags: andre gide, john lennon, einstein, jack kornfield, a path with heart, common sense, graham brown, grahamdbrown, sean penn, fox news
Uncommon sense of the truth, or why do people like the bad guy?
October 26, 2008 by gbrown · Leave a Comment
Ask any hollywood actor about the role they’d next like to be cast in and its inevitably the bad guy. The reason? “It’s more fun”.
The reason why we admire the guy we’re often supposed to hate is that he’s consistent to his values, whatever they are.
Watch any budding singer nervously waiting for the panel’s response on Xfactor or Idol and it’s Simon Cowell’s opinion they all value. Hate him as you may, he’s upfront and consistent in what he says and believes.
That’s the reason we loathe so many politicians; politicians get lost in popularity contests and are haunted by the mistakes of their peers rather than motivated by the opportunity to make a difference.
Indiana Jones is the eternal heroic archetype that is the antithesis of the modern day politicians. A rougeish swashbuckler that has strong, unswerving principles yet riddle with imperfections and human weaknesses that would fill a year’s supply of tabloids.
Tony Blair epitomizes this paradox of the good guy we love to hate. With youthful zeal he took office ushering a change following 4 terms of stale and decaying political infighting. His motives were noble and his words resonated with the optimism of the time reflected in their party anthem “Things can only get better…”
Yet Blair’s downfall was no different from any professional politician - they feared making the mistake that would exocet their career.
That’s why I can’t help but admire politicians and pundits, like Cowell, who say it as it is and you can either like it or lump it. Names such as Ron Paul, George Galloway and commentators Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore. Whether you agree with their political standpoint or not you know exactly what you’re getting.
Hitchen’s “Love, Poverty and War” is an interesting collection of his writings. I don’t always agree with what he says but I admire his quest for finding the truth.
His opening chapter demonstrates his bravery in taking on an icon of hero worship - Winston Churchill. Common Sense holds that Churchill was a heroic, stoic leader who galvanised the masses with his wartime rhetoric. Yet, how much of this “aura” is genuine?
Obviously somewhere between 0 and 100 percent. The nub of this riff is, however, not how much is true but how people react to being inquisitive about the nature of the truth.
Our Common Sense creates a communal identity that stands challenged when tested by such questions. If, for example, Churchill wasn’t as heroic as I once thought does that itself challenge the nature of “Britishness” and thus my own identity (should I care about such things). If I did, the question would be an uncomfortable one and best shouted down.
So you have to respect the names I’ve already mentioned in having the balls to stand up for truth in the face of Common Sense constantly shouting them down. Ron Paul, for example, is on record stating that US foreign policy is the root cause of the Sep 11th terrorist attacks at a time when hysteria prevented many from making such claims for fear of being, in modern McCarthyesque terms, labelled “unpatriotic” or, worse still “siding with the terrorists”.
Hitchens is equally admirable.
He publicly is critical of religion for its influence on modern society which he sees generally as negative. “God is not great” is the title of one of his books, giving you an idea on where he stands on the whol creationist debate. I don’t agree with him on many of his points but I respect his ability to demand an open forum for enquiry which questions the rationale behind so much of our Common Sense when so many try to shout it down with emotive terms such as “unAmerican” or “blasphemous”.
It’s ironic, then, I should use a Churchill quote in summary: “the truth is incontrovertible”.
Ironically though Common Sense is often the main reason why it will never win out because the good guy, like the politician has to do everything but make a mistake and the truth is all about inviting criticism in.
Currently Reading: “Love, Property and War: Journeys and Essays” by Christopher Hitchens
Technorati Tags: graham brown, grahamdbrown, christopher hitchens, hitchens, noam chomsky, michael moore, tony blair, george galloway, ron paul, truth, love poverty war, churchill
Graham Brown on Uncommon Sense
October 24, 2008 by gbrown · Leave a Comment
Technorati Tags: uncommon sense, common sense, jack kornfield, a path with a heart, ts eliot, sipadan, graham brown, marketing
Common Sense - down to your last £10m
October 19, 2008 by gbrown · Leave a Comment
From £400million to £10million
Common Sense is about living out other people’s agendas and the fear of sheer nakedness in having to decide what’s important and what really doesn’t add to the aggregate of your life experience.
Often we are exposed to common sense through the desire (read “hunger) for success. We all, to some degree, chase it.
Why? Because we feel that our lives our incomplete until we have arrived committing ourselves to a life of chasing the next goal to somehow exorcise the demon that propels us.
A friend of mine who had the opportunity of floating his company on the FTSE back in 1998 during dot-com mania once related to me that his driving ambition was to make money - because he was “sh*t scared” he was down to his last £10m. Once with a net worth of £400m, the contrast is absurd.
He had it all. A villa in Monaco, the Bentley Arnage, the SL55 AMG and the RR sport and the mansion in Berkshire. And when I mean mansion I mean a neo-Georgian folly with 35 rooms, an indoor pool, gym and marble columns that graced the entrance facade costing £250k each!
He had everything that was, apart from peace.
Common Sense means striving for more
October 18, 2008 by gbrown · Leave a Comment
Tiger Hill, Sikkim, Himalayas
On a cold, Himalayan morning we rose from our uncomfortable slumber in the minibus to the distant voices of guides ushering us up to the viewpoint on Tiger Hill.
It was the very same destination I had read about in Jonathan Gregson’s book “Kingdoms Beyond the Cloud”. The same peak that Gregson stood on 10 years prior and his own grandfather back in the post war period during the decline of the British Empire. As dawn broke you could see the cloud bank rolling across the plans of Bangladesh to your right, the distant pavilions of Tibet in front marked by the awesome sight of the holy mountain Kanchenjunga and to your left the glistening peak of Everest reflecting the morning sun from the East.
All my life I had dreamed of climbing Everest because I believed it could bring me peace, or exorcise the hunger that drove the entrepreneurial spirit. It was simply common sense - an agenda that was not my own.
Yet, standing here on Tiger Hill, it became meaningless. Ask any mountaineer and they’ll tell you that standing on Everest, the only thought that possesses their mind is not “what a view” but “how am I going to get down alive?” Life is so much enjoyable when you’re not climbing mountains but enjoying the view.
Working Hard is the Lazy Option
October 14, 2008 by gbrown · Leave a Comment
“Life moves pretty fast. If you dont stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it”
Not the words of Nietszche, Plato or even Tony Robbins but high school drop out Ferris Bueller in the 80s teen flick “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“.
Despite his lack of academic prowess, Bueller embodies many of the positive attributes a man should aspire to be - charming, curious, gregarious, subversive, loyal, witty, daring and ultimately free.
Ferris’s aphorism is one of happiness through a journey of self-discovery. The symbolism isn’t lost on Ferris’ wanton joy-ride through life courtesy of his buddy Cameron’s rich dad’s 1961 Ferrari GT California - the car so precious is was kept constantly under lock and key in the garage.
While very few of us could claim to owning the Ferrari GT California, we all democratically own time and happiness and the vast majoirty have, like Cameron’s father, kept it locked in the garage for that “some day” - that elusive future day when the toiling is over, we’ll put up our work-weary feet and declaire “I have arrived”.
Often it’s difficult to value that which we take for granted until it’s taken away from us. My father, in many respects was like most males of his generation. Born a farmer’s son on the Yorkshire Dales in 1940, he only knew hard work as the route to escape poverty. Left school aged 15 to join the marines, get an education, see the world. On return to civvy street they told “get a safe job, one with benefits, one that will look after you when you retire” and so he found himself an assistant role at the University in Portsmouth where he worked the rest of his life in the comfort that there waited an annuity that would take care of himself and my mother through their “golden years”. Dad’s generation was one driven on the one hand by the spectre of poverty in old age and on the other a general economic inability to enjoy life until the yoke of a life’s work was finally dismissed.
Yet, the irony was Dad was never to enjoy those golden years he had been promised. Diagnosed with cancer and forced into an early retirement ahead of plan aged 59 he spent his last few years bravely fighting an uphill battle against a menace that took hold of his life and reduced a once fit, proud man into a skeletal bag of hair, tubes and bones.
He wasn’t the only one. Male mortality doubles in the 5 years following retirement. A generation of human doings with nothing to do. I wonder what Dad would have made of Soren Kirkegaard’s quote “Life must be lived forward but understood backwards”. Probably not very much as it offered little solace on his deathbed aged 63 and even less when he had me aged 33. He was too busy building a family, building a life.
I wonder though, if he had known there were to be no “golden years” how we would have played it differently. Would he, like the rest of us, realize that Ferris Bueller’s instruction to “look around once in a while” could signal a greater need amongst us all to enjoy living in the moment rather than deferring everything until that “some day”.
I recall the poignant graffiti scrawled on a derelict wall in downtown Mission, San Francisco during a business trip to Silicon Valley in the 90s. “The best things in life aren’t things”. Yet, by the time my father had passed, I had spent the best years of my youth chasing “things” - the cars, the titles, the houses.
To say that his death would have evoked my own epiphany would be a lie. I became obsessed with the “things” because I had become obsessed with other people’s agendas - the notion that I wouldn’t find peace or respect until I had “achieved”, I had “arrived”.
What happened next would for many have seemed to be a step in the wrong directions - a step backwards, a retirement, a loss of drive, a settling for less. Einstein once remarked that common sense was no more than a collection of other people’s prejudices. Common sense was the key theme of our candelight discussion in the Himalayas during a visit to the remote mountain kingdom of Bhutan. Alongside a group of backpackers and guides we shared ideas and opinions over a bottle of the local tipple into the early hours each offering their 2 cents to answering the question “what’s it all about”. It, for the purpose of our discussion, was simply “life”.
It was 1972, the year I was born. Concerned about the problems afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth, Bhutan’s newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, decided to make his nation’s priority not its G.D.P. but its G.N.H., or gross national happiness. The year I visited for the first time, Bhutan was preparing itself to legalize TV.
The common sense view held that TV meant progress. It’s all very well to wax lyrical about remote shangri-las preserved in theme park tourism but progress, the argued, meant playstations, BMWs, health care, TVs and American Idol.
“I opened this country. I made this town what it is. I bought jobs and industry. I built an empire with my own hands, and I’ve never asked help from anyone. Those squatters, Reverend, are standing in the way of progress.” screached Lahood to Preacher played by Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider referring to the local Mexican villagers who were “in the way” of the progress of expanding his mining empire. To which Eastwood replies “who’s - theirs or yours?”
As Ferris Bueller helps us discover through the journey without destination, there are no absolutes in defining how you measure your success in life. From driving a top of the range 5 litre, V8 S class Mercedes to a relatively humble family Toyota, from managing 35 people in 3 countries to none, from working 60 hour weeks to less than 15 - one could argue that many of the life changes I had made were counter intuitive.
To the voices and the common sense, I’d reply - you know what? you’re right. I opted for less, to simplify and like, Ferris Bueller to “stop and look around once in a while”.
