News & Blog by Peter Sheahan
Read the latest news and bulletins, essays, features, opinions from our bestselling authors. Find out what's being said, debated, and discussed in the world of books and ideas.
You can’t contemplate your way to greatness. All the thinking, strategising and imagination in the world will amount to nothing unless at some point you take your offer to market. Ideas evolve tremendously when they are actually applied. This principle is recognised by celebrated economist Richard Thaler who provides, amongst a broad ranging body of work, groundbreaking analysis of the effect...
Flashes of inspiration don’t exist! Some people claim to have been in the shower when they thought up this genius business idea that made them millions. This is a myth. It quite simply is not true. Sure, they may have gained some additional clarity in the shower, but they were working on and thinking about what underpins that idea for months and even years before the genius struck. There...
The easier it is to measure the value we add, the easier it is to get someone to buy. I, like almost everyone else with access to a newspaper, have been following the afghan war very closely for the best part of a decade now. Through invasions, surges and casualties. And still the debate rages as to how effective it has been and whether it is worth the lives. News of the biggest coalition offensive...
Whether you like to admit it or not, the world is one big marketplace: buyers and sellers coming together to exchange things of value. What you value may be money, time, energy, insight, connections or influence. And there is someone else who has it, can give it to you, or at the very least has some impact on your ability to get it. The biggest mistake most of us make in our jobs, businesses...
I hate to be blunt here, but there is no point getting excited when your friends tell you that your business idea is a good one. Seriously, friends and family saying “that’s a great idea” is not the same thing as getting someone to write a cheque with your name on it for that very same idea. Plus there is a reason they usually agree your idea is a good one; you communicate it in such a way that it...
