The government has a new plan to undo unemployment as well as to rocket revenues. I’d like to share it with you. The Film and Publications Board, (FPB), those fine people who forced Scope magazine to put stars on top of anyone brave enough to wave their assets about back in the seventies, have decided … Read more

Last year I arrived at Oslo airport late one evening. My luggage did not. A lot of fellow passengers had the same problem. It was late. We were tired. The last train loomed before long hours of no transport from midnight to 5AM. Other than a taxi, of course, but that would cost more than … Read more

We take our tools for granted. A mind map, for instance, is the best way I know of to capture a load of information in a single page, and remember it. Mind mapping is the most useful tool I have ever used. I still use it everyday. You can use it with any operating system: … Read more

Whenever I step off the plane in Johannesburg I am inspired. South Africa bursts with sun and smiles. So much so that one unsmiling person seems surly. It’s different in Britain and Norway. You will find lots of unsmiling faces. It’s not that they are unhappy. They are just not happy enough to smile. The … Read more

When we get a letter from our Govt, we get really anxious before retiring to change our briefs. Government is not known for frivolous missives. So when you receive one from the Department of Justice telling you boldly about the imminent “Removal of your company details” you take instant action. That logo looks the same … Read more

Some years ago my brother was invited to a meeting with the bank manager of one of his clients. This bank manager had invited their mutual client to a round table discussion so that a sister insurance firm could pitch for his business. My brother had looked after this wealthy client for some years. They … Read more

I have worked with 30,000 brave men and women in the past two decades. Almost all are involuntary entrepreneurs. Hearts of steel, although not one of them would agree. They would tell me how scared they are and how ashamed they are because of it. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the … Read more

You know those days when nothing seems to go right? Every single thing that you try does not work out the way you want it to? You go home and take solace in a stiff Shiraz or six while you tell yourself what a hard life this SME thing is? I had such a day … Read more

Business success in two sentences. The two crucial things I have learned at the helms of my own businesses since 1984 are: Call prospects within 30 minutes. Each call offers massive upside and zero downside. More here… Don’t sign a suretyship. Each signature offers zero upside and massive downside. More here… Upside = how much you will win. … Read more

I took my daughter to the local library on Saturday. It’s one of the best in Norway. I asked to see all the books they have on setting up a firm in Norway. I now have all those books piled on my desk. All five of them. They have more Nelson Mandela biographies than they … Read more