Musings by Stephen Mulvey

Some people can't help but light up their stage, whatever it may be. They are invaluable because they make life wonderful. They prompt passers-by and customers like myself to remember and spread the word, long after the fact. My library use their 'community corner' to exhibit books on a particular theme each week, such as 'Traveling in Asia' or 'Cooking for Beginners'. On a recent visit I saw they were between exhibits. No display. Only a table with empty book holders. But they put up a sign: 'Next week we will have an exciting new display in place. For now, please enjoy our collection of invisible books'.  I passed a pub in Galway, Ireland with a sign for non customers: 'You can use our toilets, but please make a £1 donation to our chosen charity at the bar'. In line at a Pret a Manger. A miffed customer ahead of us turns and pushes past my friend, muttering darkly. The barista gives my friend a coffee on the house. 'I'm sorr

I aspire to be an artist in my work. It's a lofty claim, and one that leaves me open to derision. But I mean it. I mean it, because in my work I endeavor to surprise and delight people - to take projects beyond the baseline expectation and create value. And on a good day this might affect someone. It might change them. It might challenge them. And that is what art does. I learned this ethos from Seth Godin, perhaps the most influential marketer and business writer in the world. I think his attitude is downright terrific (I get a hit of Seth-ism every day from his blog ). He writes in Linchpin :   'people do their art where they find it'. Shakespeare did not create the play, he wrote them because that was the sort of thing available for reinvention at the time. I don't think Elon Musk was born to transform payments systems. He was just born to transform things, period. Folks like that do astounding things across time. They pick up where the previous generation left

Strategy can be an elusive thing to define, in part because we are all given to using the word loosely in casual conversation, muddying its precise meaning. But when it comes to crafting good strategy, an imperfect grasp on the concept is problematic. Online you can find a scrum of jostling definitions which are, if not outright contradictory, certainly wrench the locus of meaning back and forth, like tipsy suitors vying for the attention of a damsel on the dance floor. Just to cause trouble, I'll toss a further definition into the mix: Strategy is an articulation of  how a business will get to a desired point by way of identifying obstacles, deciding on an approach for dealing with them (in keeping with your strengths and resources), and setting out actions. It ought not wax philosophical (like a vision or mission statement), nor does it get into the operational weeds (tactics). A popular read for those seeking to spot strategy on sight (or indeed the absence of a strat

I recently completed 100 days alcohol free. The experiment was prompted by a succession of particularly heavy nights (and vicious morning afters) last autumn. I noticed some things: I didn't like who I was when drinking The hangovers were too much There is always that nagging sense that you are holding yourself back by boozing - curtailing your ability to bring your best self to your work and relationships Why 100 days? A month off would be too short. I needed to fully drain the toxins from my system (which takes some time) and consolidate new social habits. I wasn't going to avoid boozy events. I would simply engage with them in a different way. I read two books to bolster my chances: I was inspired to rethink my attitude to sobriety from reading Catherine Gray's The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober . Gray, a recovering alcoholic rebrands sober as a visceral, lush state, rather than something austere and mundane. As for my method, I used Allan Car's Easywa

Why do business? It's worth thinking about. We spend a lot of time working. Sure, as George Bush put it, you need to 'put food on your family'. But beyond this? Here's two reasons: 1) business can be an agent of civility, cooperation and trust 2) business can be art Business as an agent of civility, cooperation and trust... On a recent visit to Belfast, a city once plagued by sectarian violence, I learned something remarkable. On its darkest days, after a bomb explosion or a riot or abduction had left the high street ashen, small business owners would signal they were open by displaying signs reading 'Business As Usual'.  Business as usual . It's a hell of a gesture. With shards of glass on the ground, armed soldiers on patrol and civility flagging. Business as usual . It means means something like... we're not having that . Its a community's refusal to be be capsized by frenzied radicals. A resolve to show up and transact. We aspire to c

In any given context, “a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually leads to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.”  This is observable everywhere in life.  Therefore if you pay attention to your efforts and results, you can single out the critical minority of things having the greatest effect, and drop the time consuming, ineffectual majority of efforts giving you little joy.  Parkinson's Law is also worth bringing up here. Work expands to meet the time you have to do it. That's quite a double whammy. If you show up having decided preemptively to work eight hours or more, and get bogged down in the less effective inputs in whatever you are working on, it is easy to see how you can spend a lifetime doing not that much.  The inverse of this is powerful. If you constrain how long you have to do something (set ambitious deadlines and work in a focused manner within that timespan) and tend toward the more critical inputs, you'll do a lot in very little time

What are the practices that have been most helpful for me that I would recommend to my friends? Abandon social media Avoid watching/reading the news. It gave me a very dark, inaccurate impression of the world. I still look up sports results constantly, however. Adopt financial planning, even at its simplest. Budget weekly or monthly. Get a pension going. Articulate your financial goals. Be deliberate about where you put your savings Play a sport. Any sport at any level you can manage. 1) It's important to practice fair play 2) It's good for your health and your social life.  Simplify your life: Inventory your stuff and cull the things you don't value. I own: two capsule wardrobes (business and casual), a guitar, a bike, a pile of books, and a laptop.  Every so often (daily, monthly - whatever you can manage) sit down and write for a few minutes. The topic can be a problem you're having, how your weekend went, your love of McDonald's chicken nuggets - anyth