Making your own luck

It has been an incredibly busy week. A combination of my children going back to school, and what that means in family life. And then the world of business kicking back into gear after the summer holidays. It's definitely created a perfect mental and emotional storm.

Audio link to episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ppDC4JXqJk4pS3NZy20dH?si=DlMdMntuQvuLoLBfPtAg8g

My son starting high school

My son starting high school has of course taken me back to when I was at school. How much I disliked the education side of it, due to being very shy and my dyslexia. I've been incredibly proud of how he has handled it all.

After taking the classic first day photo of my son, my mum found a photo of me on my first day at high school. Wow, look at that central parting!

If I'm honest, I'm surprised how happy I looked! But I had a great group of friends around me and that makes a huge difference. And my son has the same. It's also a good reminder that all the things I found hard at school have shaped who I've become and what I do. The main things being my love of technology and people. I wouldn't change anything upon reflection.

Lunches out, and a beer

I've had a number of meetings and lunches out with people this week, one of which included a very wet day in central London. The main reason? To find out how they're getting on and what's going on for them. They included CEOs of partner businesses we work with, clients, and someone from the local council.

It's just amazing how good it is to sit down with people and have a proper conversation. And everyone I met with said the same. As one of them put it, "You can't beat sitting down with people face to face. The world needs more of it."

I even treated myself to a beer over one of those lunches, which I rarely do anymore.

One of the meetings was a walk and talk. We ended up discussing the Netflix documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. If it's not something you've seen, I'd highly recommend it.

It's about these pockets in the world where people live for much longer than the national average. It's down to a number of traits, but there's a really great lesson in there that can be applied to anyone. Things like diet, things like movement, things like community and engagement.

Talking about it has reminded me to work on all the areas they uncover, starting with diet. It's possible to create a life like a blue zone, no matter where you live.

Kingston Giving's new grants programme

At Kingston Giving, a charity I am Chair at, we had our monthly board meeting this week, and the primary topic was launching our new grants programme.

There are likely to be two programmes. One to award grants to organisations and charities doing good locally, and one, more reactive programme, for individuals (awarded through organisations).

Over the last few years we've awarded 126 grants, worth more than £148,000, and supported more than 57,000 people. So I'm incredibly excited to be close to launching this next stage so we can continue to make a real difference in the local community.

And of course we're looking for support from local businesses, from individuals, from anybody who can give and wants to help.

One of the things we're really focused on as a charity is adding value to those around us. So it isn't only about the impact we have on the community. I think it has to start there, and in return people will hopefully support us and the incredible work we do.

We launched the new 7DOTS brand

We've felt for some time that our old brand didn't reflect who we are, or resonate with our audience. So the new one is designed to reflect where we're going as a business, and that stems from where the world is going.

There is no denying that the digital world is more important than ever, but also harder to get to work than ever. And the companies that get it right are the ones that succeed.

We exist as a business to help companies do that. To solve their digital challenges, and turn those challenges into growth. We do that through a combination of technology, data and creativity. But what's really important to us is the deep understanding of humans underneath all of it. Because if ultimately what you're doing doesn't solve people's problems, then you're not delivering value, and the business is going to struggle.

So the brand is launched. It's a reflection of that expertise, but also the balance of humanicity that we bring to digital. Not sure humanicity is actually a word, but I'm going with it!

It has taken six months of hard work to get here, and tens of thousands of pounds in time and cost. But it's worth every penny.

We've also got really big plans for where 7DOTS is going. I'm excited and buoyed by what lies ahead. And of course went out for beers afterwards to celebrate, which might explain my slightly croaky voice this morning.

DealCraft is a couple of weeks away

DealCraft, which is a joint venture startup we founded a couple of years ago, is about to launch a brand new platform. It's a platform of over fifty specialist agents, orchestrated together to act as a coworker for salespeople, right through the sales process.

We're literally a couple of weeks away from the big relaunch. So it's been a really busy week on product development, final revisions and final testing, making sure everything works brilliantly and delivers value for people at every single step. It's a lot of work, and many hours, but it's exciting work. And of course there's a new website launching in a week's time too.

Entirely my fault

I'm really annoyed. I double booked myself. It rarely happens as I meticulous about planning and diary organisation. And typically, it was a meeting with an important public figure, and a client, at the same time. It was my fault entirely.

I've been beating myself up over it, even though the meeting can be rearranged.

It connects to something else I've been thinking about a lot this week after watching the SpaceX documentary on Netflix. Something Elon Musk said stuck in my mind.

If I had a superpower, it would be luck.

My father-in-law always says you make your own luck. And I actually think he's right on this one.

You do it by putting yourself in the position where you slightly improve your odds. Even if that's only a fractional chance that something might happen.

Which, thinking about it, is what all those lunches and walk and talks were this week. None of them had an agenda beyond finding out how people were getting on. But that is exactly the kind of thing that fractionally improves your odds.

And the double booking was the opposite of all that. Which is probably why it has played on my mind so much.

I think trying to make your own luck should become a constant practice.

For me it comes down to two things. Keeping myself positive, which I do through exercise, reflection, learning and staying on purpose. And trying to make a difference for others. Whether that's for individuals personally, or businesses commercially. Usually it's a combination of the two.

But it always starts with having an impact and adding value, before expecting anything in return. It's when you go at it the other way around that things don't work out.

Before you go

I would really love to get some feedback from people. Are the topics I talk about interesting? Would you like more personal things? Would you like more professional things? Do you just want to hear what I've been up to, or do you want more in-depth thinking about the industry I work in and the areas I specialise in?

And what do people think about me having a guest on here once in a while, so we can hear other people's Friday takeaways, what their weeks have been like and what they've been up to?

Drop a comment, email or a direct message if you want to keep it private and confidential, which I totally get. Sometimes I think no one's interested, so it's good to get some feedback!

Until next week...