A February 2019 podcast conversation between Tim Ferriss and Jim Collins introduced me to John McPhee. I’d never heard of the Pulitzer Prize winner McPhee who has written thirty-three books, all of them non-fiction (he prefers the label ‘factual writing’)…
I hope that January has treated you well. It’s over tomorrow. That feels ridiculous to say, but it is. At some point, I will write to you about time, but that’s not today’s journey. As you may know, I live…
Before you start reading today, try this…Pause. Think about a place that you love. Close your eyes and go there for a while…see it, smell it, hear its sounds, feel it, be there… I hope that your eyes are closed…seriously,…
This delicate sculpture by Atang Tshikare will make your heart smile. He created it in the heart of lockdown. It speaks of life, of growth, of the possibility of renewal. I thought we all need to be reminded of that possibility.…
Good morning everyone I wrote today’s letter from bed. Generally, my week is made up of a trilogy of foundational habits – yoga, meditation, journaling – overlain with regular dips into great fiction. In the last 10 days, I have…
Good morning everyone Over the past week I have been overwhelmed by the countless news articles and consultant reports on the economic gloom that we are in and the depression that is likely to deepen. Understanding the reality of…
Good morning friends In Good to Great, leading business thinker Jim Collins developed the concept of the flywheel. In an accompanying monograph he writes, “No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In…
Good morning friends When I started this weekly letter, I couldn’t clearly state why I thought it was useful. One impulse was rooted in the Aristotelian position that “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act…
Happy Sunday Everyone Today I am writing to you from the Cederberg mountains. We are here because it is here, 13 months ago that I made my decision to leave media. It was a hard decision. I love what…
Good morning everyone In last week’s letter, I included quotations about love from Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul. Thank you to Maryse Barack who shared this quotation from Chilean biologist, Humberto Maturana, “Love, allowing the other to be a…
Good morning friends Cape Town has been buzzing with love. The love of love (Valentine’s Day), the love of art (the Investec Cape Town Art Fair) and love for SA’s favourite son, Trevor Noah who played in last weekend’s Match…
Do you force or do you lead? Horst Schulze started his career as a restaurant busboy at 14. He went on to be the co-founder of the Ritz Carlton Hotel group, famed for its high levels of customer service –…