As a leader you must be liked, not loved
If you’re the leader can’t be one of the boys. You can’t gossip by the coffee machine. You can’t be friends with your staff. You can’t be loved. If you need to be
- December 1, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Is your startup a caterpillar or a pig?
Both caterpillars and pigs are ugly. If you wait long enough, a caterpillar will turn into a butterfly. No matter how long you wait, a pig will always be a
- November 30, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Try hard, but not too hard
You have to do your best, try your hardest, all the time. Everyone knows that. The secret is not to try too hard. Don’t force it. Trying too hard leads
- November 29, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
There’s a difference between being friendly and being friends
There will be times where you must have hard conversations with your staff Hard conversations are not possible with friends. You can’t be friends with your staff. By all
- November 28, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
There is a difference between laudable pus and stinking ooze
You’ve had a big setback in the business. Lost a big customer, or partner, or employee. It has been painful, the company is wounded. Around the wound there is an
- November 26, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Beware your ego’s self defence mechanism
Everyone has an ego. And everyone protects it, consciously and unconsciously. For example, if you have an ugly nose, your brain eventually tricks your eyes into not seeing it every
- November 25, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
The most important reason to ignore your parents
Fact: Your parents love you. They do not want you to be hurt. Having lived life, they will know the only way to avoid pain is to avoid taking
- November 24, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
7 tips for converting from corporate employee to entrepreneur
Here is a short list for setting up your own business, especially for those coming out of big companies in the brave new world of start-ups… Do not
- November 23, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Be generous when times are tough
Being generous is one of the golden rules of life. Easy to do when times are good. A lot harder when you’re in the vortex. That’s when it counts.
- November 22, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Wherever you find cockroaches, you will find more cockroaches
If you uncover scandal/dodginess with a person/business you’re considering hiring/dealing with, pause. Reconsider. Ignore all proclamations that it was a “once-off”, that there will be no more unexpected surprises. Wherever
- November 21, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Don’t implicitly trust anyone until you’ve gone to war
It’s only in the fight that you find your true friends. So don’t 100% trust anyone until you’ve been in a fight.
- November 20, 2024
- Alan Knott-Craig
Don’t plan too far ahead
You need a goal, and you need a plan to get you to your goal. The goal is more important than the plan. Get that wrong and everything else