What are we doing...?
It's Friday night. 7:20pm.Robbie, Jake and I are in the office, working.
This is a sign of many things:
a) we love our jobs
b) we have no lives
c) we're addicted to our email accounts
d) we love our jobs
Chen Ping - Girl in the City
Chen Ping - Room late afternoon, 2008 (Girl in the City Collection)
I just stumbled across this artist, Chen Ping. He's Chinese-Australian and I was immediately interested because of the similarities I saw between his work and that of Francis Bacon; one of my favourite artists.After a little digging, I found that Bacon is one of the main influences for his work.
Egypt v2
This is me at the Pyramids of Giza, March 2008.
This is me at the Pyramids of Giza, March 2009.
I'd just finished attending a conference and flew back to Australia the next day to finish my final quarter as a National Director of AIESEC in Australia. In the time between these photos, I moved to Sydney, attended seven conferences and meetings (including one in Egypt and one in the Netherlands.In the time between these photos, I've developed an incredible network, both professional and personal all around Australia and the world. In the time between these photos, I've become more self-confident and aware of my strengths and weaknesses. In the time between these photos, I ran for MCP. Who'd have thought?In the time between these photos, I became a mentor.It's been a busy year, full of experiences. I've definately grown alot.Do I look taller?
Mrs. Riches
Dear Mrs. Riches,
I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your wedding, so I sent a telegram to share my thoughts on the day and to make up for my absence.
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Dear Mrs. Riches Makeup Artist,
Apologies for making Mrs. Riches cry, and that you had to fix the mascara.
My bad.
Keeping a level head
There's so much discussion about the financial crisis at the moment. Most of what I've heard has been panic. So far, there's only been two clear, calm voices that I've heard so far, and both have told me the same thing.Firstly, a speaker from AIESEC MENAXLDS in Egypt who said: "The financial crisis means that we need to rethink the way that we do everything."The second, has been Seth Godin. I've recently read Godin's book 'Tribes'. The below text is a section from Godin's blog:When industry norms start to die, people panic. It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed. Changing everything is too difficult.Consider for a minute the pivot points available to you:- Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make.
- Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them.
- Keep your providers, but change the profit structure.
- Keep your industry but change where the money comes from.
- Keep your staff, but change what you do.
- Keep your mission, but change your scale.
- Keep your products, but change the way you market it.
- Keep your customers, but change how much you sell each one.
- Keep your technology, but use it to do something else.
- Keep your reputation, but apply it to a different industry or problem.
Simple examples:- Keep the musicians, but change how you make money (sell concerts, not CDs).
- Keep making guitars, but make bespoke expensive ones, not the mass market ones that overseas competition has made obsolete.
- Keep the punch press and the lathe, but make large scale art installations, not car parts.
- Keep your wealthy travel clients, but sell them personal services instead of trips to Europe.
- Keep the factory that makes missiles, but figure out how to make high-efficiency turbines instead.
Doors
They say that when one door closes, another opens. I applied for President of AIESEC in Australia and then of UAE, but was not selected. Two doors closed.
Then things were quiet. I spent alot of time thinking and reflecting on what I should do next, but not really making any progress on my thoughts.
However, conferences are great in changing all that.
I've had ten days of conversations. I've spoken with people in the back of crowded taxis, over dinner, over shisha, in Gmail chat windows and managed a few brief words squeezed into the final brief minutes before returning to sessions.
I now have some serious options and a CV to update.
Impromptu Bookclub
I haven’t updated my booklist in a while because I’m still chewing through the epic which is my current read: Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I expect to be finished it by the time I get back from Egypt.
A few nights ago on the train, I was sitting back reading (and thoroughly enjoying) my brick of a book when I noticed the man across the aisle smiling. He eventually said ‘Have you got to the part with the radio monologue? I’ve never wanted to put down a book more in my life, never more than for the radio monologue…it goes for about 40 pages…maybe even 100…’
As it turned out, I wasn’t up to that part, but I now consider myself suitably warned. We ended up talking, with both of us going away with each other’s reading recommendations hastily jotted on scrap paper.
Happy Birthday
I’ve been very fortunate to have been surrounded by really great people for most of my life. This really came to the fore over the weekend with my Dad’s 50th birthday party.
My Dad has achieved an incredible amount over his life so far, but when it comes down to it, he just loves life, his family and friends, and fast cars. Even though he’s 50, it’s blatantly obvious that he’s still a big kid – always having a laugh, a drink and a good time. From him, in the very least, I’ve inherited the love of fast cars and the love of a good drink.
Both of us have seen plenty of the world: his birthday party was squeezed in between his trip to Singapore, and my trip to Egypt. We’ve had memorable airport experiences in Fiji and celebrated my graduation in the Netherlands with a fifty Euro bar; ending with some challenging cobbled Dutch streets.
My Mum and Dad have what is best described as a ‘close circle of friends’. Great people that they’ve known for a really long time and you can absolutely count on. However, ‘close’ implies small, which isn’t quite the case.
On the weekend I caught up with around fifty ‘close’ friends, people I’ve known my whole life, who have known my parents in business and socially, people from all walks of life and experiences.
It was a day full of stories, memorabilia and photos, of catching up over a beer and promising to see each other more often.
The amount of effort that was put in was phenomenal. There were your usual novelty gifts and gags, but it was the speeches that made the day. A long time family friend spoke with incredibly sincerity to say “I know almost everyone here, because I’ve met them through you, including my beautiful wife.”
I heard the words of a business partner, who spoke of my father’s attitude towards business, and why he was like no other.
I received a passing comment over the dessert table from a long time employee and friend of my parents. “I’ve been looking at all your family photos and they feel like my family photos because I’ve seen them all before. I think it’s because most of the time, because I’ve been there.”
These are all people who make up my extended family. People from every walk of life and background, people that support me and that always keep me grounded.
A few years ago, while my Mum was being interviewed, they asked me for my comments on growing up in the family that I have. I told him that I didn’t really know; for a very long time I thought everyone’s parents were like that, and that I never felt that my situation was out of the ordinary.
It always takes something special, like a birthday, to reflect on, and appreciate a life less ordinary.
Happy Birthday Dad.
It's Friday night. 7:20pm.
This is me at the Pyramids of Giza, March 2008.
