In a interview this week with Jon Yarker, a reporter for Insider Engage, one of the foremost insurance industry publications, James shares some uncomfortable truths on the super-contentious role of risk taking, and business interruption insurance.
Archive for March, 2021
Interview with James
Tuesday, March 30th, 2021
Second Careers
Monday, March 29th, 2021
A steely focus on achieving results rather than tasks is great, so long as you are not kidding yourself about the priority, and the commensurate improvement in your’s and other’s lives.
This past year has led to greater insecurity amongst many corporate career professionals, and a volition to seek and pursue a “second career” (a side gig that could become a full-time option).
What I observe is there is a huge difference between a “hobby” (entrepreneur, interior furnishings or a eBay collector) and a “main occupation” (something you are passionate about, great at, and serves a market need you can build a career around). Don’t confuse the two.
Debate
Thursday, March 11th, 2021
You don’t have to look far for people wanting to express all manner of opinions on subject matters that they have little expertise in (business, media, Twitterati, Facebook etc.).
They feign interest in a reasoned debate, when really they aren’t interested. They want to “steal” your mind for a few seconds and minutes, and impress upon you their superior viewpoint.
This week’s topic de jour in various global communities I am active in, is UK constitutional changes and the governing system post- “The Oprah Show”. The “commentators”, I say that term very loosely, look at strains or distinctions (separation of powers, control and influence) in the UK system, and immediately deduce it is out of date and not “fit for purpose”. They overlook the fact that those strains (non-catastrophic) are what makes those the very system less fragile and less susceptible to collapse in the future.
It is a valuable reminder with any offer to debate, is it really worth it? What are you going to achieve? If you must, only debate with those, who are “at risk” from the outcome (“skin in the game”).
Brevity
Tuesday, March 9th, 2021
There are times I have to remind myself or I get reminded by my own family about brevity, brevity of communication. I meet very few people, who have really mastered it. A technique I find invaluable, is a simple two-part question of myself: “Why should the other person really care?” then, “What do they really need to know?”
I find so much of communication in a business and social setting is time filler and naked self-interest (ego), and overblown with endless or vague background information (I am lost). If you doubt me, scroll throw your business or social media timelines, or your email inbox.
Reading this you might have gathered patience is something I work at daily!
Public Opinion
Monday, March 8th, 2021
A “term” traipsed out frequently by social scientists and journalists to largely impress other social scientists and journalists with the force of their “straw man” arguments, not the wider public.
Let’s be factually correct in most instances. One person or a small collective’s opinion, nothing more.
Family Affair
Monday, March 8th, 2021
Can anyone be “spooked” as one commentator referred to it this weekend by family members that don’t get along with each other?
In any multi-generational family organisation, business or investment office, a version of the Warren Buffett maxim, “you must survive, in order to thrive” applies.
I recall meeting a sixth generation Swiss cosmetics family, who a decade after a painful episode, couldn’t talk to me about their experience without spitting vitriol about each other.
It is rarely the organisational mechanics (how they operate) that are the cause of trouble but the people doing the work. The inability to reconcile their emotional and psychological issues.
I observe decisions are taken with cold, hard logic, and zero regard for individual family members’ emotional imperatives (purpose of a family’s wealth, investments, capital allocations, capital distributions, asset sales etc.), or on an emotional whim that defies any rational logic.
Exceptional family therapists or advisers, are scarce, and worth their weight in gold.
The need to embrace both logic and emotion must be absolutely paramount but rarely is.
Action
Sunday, March 7th, 2021What must you really address now that you have been putting off for months, in some form of “lockdown procrastination”? Why have you not made progress to date? What must change now?