Dear friends Before we get to this week’s letter, a quick reminder of last week’s announcement that for this year, we will have 8 weeks of letters, followed by a 4-week production break. I am creating space for advancing deep…
Dear Friends In this Tim Ferriss interview about his new book – The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness – Harvard professor Arthur Brooks offers unexpected advice: “Stop looking for your significance at the macro…
Dear friends Thank you for last week’s birthday wishes. I appreciated them. It was a wonderful weekend with all my favourite things – kayaking, good wine (2017 shiraz from Mullineux and Saronsberg, because I know you want to know), good…
““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 God. Good morning friends Today is my birthday, for the…
Good morning good people If you’re growing a business (or even a division in a large corporation) you must read Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up. His genius is distilling the world’s best business thinking into clear, actionable frameworks. One day, when…
Good morning friends Today is more essay than letter. It’s a bit long. I apologise, but is about your self-care, about self-care for leaders. It needed the words. I’d love to know what you think. You can find me on LinkedIn…
Dear All My holiday break, of course, included wine, I live in Cape Town after all. There was a lazy Winemaker’s lunch beneath Rust en Vrede’s oaks. Despite summer’s heat, the sirloins demanded their Estate Syrah, it wasn’t a mistake.…
I apologise. I know that all effective conversations have four components – establishing relationship, deepening understanding, exploring possibilities, and agreeing action. Last week, I ignored this. It was a month since I’d written to you, and I felt pressured (my…
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…
Good morning my friends Let’s start with some sweetness… If you have young children, Cape Town freediver Zandi Ndhlovu’s book Zandi’s Song is a gorgeous celebration of the ocean’s beauty. It’s a wonderful way to introduce them to nature and…