Assorted Wisdom, The Do Lectures 2015
- 1. ASSORTEDWISDOM DO LECTURES 2015 MAKING EPIC SH*T HAPPEN “Let it settle,” David Hieatt said. So I did. Here’s what settled.
- 2. Big ideas + Hard work = Meaningful change
- 3. Be generous. To find your true fans, your loyal customers, first you’ve got to give (before you try and sell).
- 4. Trust the audacity of youth. It might just give us a chance.
- 5. Spend time with your toolbox. There are more tools than ever. But few people spend time really learning how to use them.
- 6. Be brave enough to pick a big problem. It will free your mind.
- 7. Keep on experimenting. Experiments won’t kill you but they might just make you.
- 8. Recognise that somewhere along the way we became the grown ups. That makes us responsible. But having something to lose mustn’t make us timid.
- 9. Celebrate the joy of eating.
- 11. Know why you get up in the morning. …to get more people drinking great beer… …to get my town making jeans again… Have a purpose – and really mean it.
- 12. Create spielzweig: the feeling of rightness. “I approach everything in my life the same way: if it feels right, I know it.” Kenny G “Everything that’s meaningful is invisible to the eye.” Saint-Exupery
- 13. Say “I don’t know”. It’s the key that unlocks learning.
- 14. Overcome your fear of reduced status. It will unleash the power of responsibility in others.
- 15. Fight fear within your organisation. It reduces your chances of success. Because stress makes you less effective.
- 16. Acknowledge we face a daunting challenge to rescue our planet. But it is foremost a challenge of leadership not technology.
- 17. Learn magic: focus the audience’s attention on something specific and always be one step ahead.
- 18. Embrace the obstacles: what stands in the way, becomes the way “Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” Joseph Campbell
- 19. Wake up and smell the scary shit*… There may only be 100 harvests left. We own twice as much stuff now as in 1973. 50% of edible food is wasted in the UK. We spend $1tr a year subsidising fossil fuels. *Some of these facts may be made up
- 20. Create a simple food chain: happy people growing produce… …to be used in a happy kitchen… …creating food that makes other people happy…
- 21. Remember: Often wisdom seems to come from the mouths of cheesemakers.