Learning from failure In his excellent book Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed examined how individuals and businesses can learn from failure, through marginal gains, rigorous testing of what's working & what isn't, and adjusting course appropriately. He cites the fascinating (to me, anyway!) case of Unilever's laundry detergent nozzles, which… full article

We're all selling something You may or may not work in a defined sales role, but in a sense we're all selling something these days. In any case, you'll likely be involved in many transactions through the course of a productive working week, so it makes sense to understand a… full article

Blind beginner's luck I'll never forget the first time I set foot in a casino as an unworldly teenager, as the mate I went with immediately won an improbable 35 to 1 payout on a single number bet. I strongly suspected he had no idea what he was doing, but… full article

Ladies, liquor, leverage I was having a yarn on Twitter this week with some smart finance types & recounted a Charlie Munger quote about there being only 3 ways to go broke: 'Ladies, liquor, & leverage'. Sidekick Warren Buffett quipped that Munger only added the first two because they begin… full article

No accounting for taste I rarely pause to consider how fortunate I am that my better half is financially savvy. We first met at work - she was my boss, sadly - and I marvelled at her ability to solve seemingly impossible equations & accounting disclosures when preparing consolidated group… full article

Like there's no tomorrow I think it's fair to say that you could have given the 18-year-old me practically any sum of money & I'd have found a way to spend it. After all, I had a theoretical wish-list as long as my arm, ranging from exotic holidays to an… full article

Life's little knock-backs It's interesting to look back and recall with extraordinary clarity so many of the times in life I've experienced rejection. And from such a broad spectrum of arenas, too, from not being selected for sports teams, University rejections, and being turned down by prospective girlfriends (especially cringeworthy),… full article

New horizons When I was 13 my parents told me we'd be moving house to another part of the country - my Dad's job was in probation and corrective services and he had to relocate for work - and this would mean a change of school for me, possibly to… full article

Matching Johnny do-it-all Many of us can recount envy of people for whom everything in life appeared to come all too easily, as epitomised by the charmed life of schoolboy character David Watts in the Kinks song of the same name. On the other hand, I know of people who… full article