African Authors (47) Building Culture (54) Business Case Study (32) Business Fundamentals (37) Creative Leadership (35) Leadership Examples (35) Leadership Fundamentals (73) Personal Mastery (83) Powerful Habits (41) Resilience (45)
Personal Mastery
306: Time + Attention = The Life We Live
Dear Friends Two weeks ago, I wrote Return of Trust. The letter used Eric Ries’ provocation that we all want trust. Accordingly, he argues it should be at the centre of…
281: Who is really in charge?
Dear friends I am revisiting Laozi’s Book of Dao, through a recent translation by one of my favourite authors, Ken Liu (a Christmas gift from my parents who have graciously…
278: Self-Doubt and Success: What J.M. Coetzee Teaches Us About Becoming
“A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us”Summertime, J.M. Coetzee Dear Friends Success always seems so neat, coherent and, in its perfection, unobtainable. We…
259: Heisenberg, Hawthorne and Milan Kundera
Dear friends First, a quick announcement, there won’t be a newsletter next week. I am freeing a little time to focus on some longer-form writing. Don’t ask what, it’s a…
253: Quartermain’s Safari Camp. Think with the world. Act.
Dear friends First, I must apologise. A few weeks ago, one of my favourite young winemakers, Banele Vakele released his most recent vintage and I didn’t tell you. My fussy…
251: Stephen King and Strategy. Choose what you worship. Celebrating Africa.
Good morning friends /strategyStephen King provides this week’s strategy. Yep, that Stephen King. Monster-under-the bed-guy. The link is, perhaps, a little oblique, but I suspect the occasional unconvention is part of…
248: Oreos. Meera Sodha and Getting Started. RF Kuang and Making History.
Good morning dear friends I hope you’re well. It is book prize season. This week, the 2025 Orwell Prize for political writing announced their finalists. You can find them here.…
247: How Not to Grow. Know Yourself. Halfaampieskraal.
Dear friends It’s good to be back. I hope you’re well. The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. As always, I am reaching for my credit card whilst dreaming…
245: How to learn a lot; Be Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
““The world is like a mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place”Chinua Achebe, adaptation of an Igbo proverb in Arrow of…
244: Build Buffers, Be Better
Good morning friends This time is hard. Every day, we are bombarded and destabilised. Whilst the world undoubtedly needs disruption, we have more than enough resources to ensure that no…
#243: Lessons from Love and Fury
“That’s what maps mysteriously do: They obliterate information to provide some information at all”.Zia Haider Rahman – In the Light of What We Know Good morning good people Our last…
#241: the courage to find better ways…
Dear friends If you need a smile (who doesn’t?), this video of two playful leopard clubs may do the trick. If you’re more of a fashion-loving sort, then these collabs…