Good morning my dear friends We’re back. I trust you have had a good start to your year. I started my year compiling my 2024 reading list (These were my favourite books in 2023). Let me know what you think is missing…
Dear friends Thank you for your messages after last week’s letter. Although it broke format and ran much longer than usual, it appears it resonated. I appreciated the feedback and the conversations that followed. Appropriately for the second last letter of…
Good morning good people This week, I intended to share insights from Shafiq Morton’s A Mercy to All, which tells the story of Gift of the Givers and its founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman. And then, on Thursday morning, Ahmed Abbasi, the…
Dear friends For those of you inspired by the Springboks, but despairing that South Africa (indeed the world) seems to not have many other leaders, I have just bought Imtiaz Sooliman and the Gift of the Givers by Shafiq Morton and…
“…exclusion levies emotional, financial, social, and other costs that affect not just those who are excluded, but those who exclude and work to keep that exclusion in place. The more inclusive a society, the more it is perceived as a…
Good morning friends If you’ve had the kind of week I had, then you’ll appreciate this baffled tiger and this curious baby elephant. In fact, even if you’ve had the best week of your life, these snippets will make you even happier. If…
Dear Friends Thank you for your messages following the Love + Work and Build Better Teams letters. I appreciated understanding how they were useful for you. If you’d like to comment on last week’s letter, you can do so here. Today’s…
“All around the world, we feel uncertainty and want to connect with what roots us to heritage, to the past, with something that has meaning.” – Manchán Magan Dear Friends This is the 160th edition of Strategy, Soul and Self…
This week’s letter was meant to be about war. I have sensed that the metronomic coverage of war with its detached geopolitical, strategic, and bland technological-capability-of-the-weapons aloofness was obscuring my vision of the truth. As we approach South Africa’s Human…
“Essentially, the whole process is: intuition plus iteration” – George Saunders Good morning friends I have wanted to write this letter for many months, but it has felt too difficult to get right, and then – surprise, surprise – I convinced…
“Leaders are the emotional thermostats of those they lead, and our habits as leaders can spread like a contagion” – Chip Conley Dear Friends At the end of last year, I asked how I could improve this letter. Many of…
Well, we’re into the final weeks of the year. Cicero’s reflection that “It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment; in these qualities old age is…