Grab a coffee, grab a seat, get some quiet and read.
I’m on a plane. I’ve just had a moment.
Before I tell you that moment I will tell you why I am on a plane.
I have been invited to visit a 21-year old salon business that has become layered with unnecessary ideas, old concepts and systems that have dragged it down and stopped its movement (in some areas reversed its movement and momentum).
That can happy so easy and I have seen it so many times before. So, I went, stayed the day, slept the night, walk their wonderful beaches in the morning with my darling wife and son and then flew home.
Here’s something worth sharing with you at such an early stage. The timed we spent together I slashed tens of thousands from their expenses. That money can be added to their profit line.
It’s an amazing high-street shop in the centre of the most beautiful stone city. This is a long-term client and I am excited about the changes I am making for them.
Maybe I will share more in the future with their permission.
It can be so easy to weigh a business down as time goes on. It can be so easy to weigh it down from day one with bad advice and ideas.
But …
They woke and I am going to fix this and revive this business (it is doing well anyway) like never before.
Exciting. And the beach was beautiful.
Here is my thought.
If you have a business that is underperforming why are you putting up with that when there are fixes available?
Is this sinister?
Almost everyone is wearing an Apple Watch. There goes a Matt black one on the hostess. The other hostess has rose gold with the rose gold strap. A good percentage on this plane are wearing them. iPhone is the same. A lot of people are on the same iPhone watching the same Netflix and listening through their same white Apple pods or same cable ear phones.
Same apps.
Same news.
Same feeds.
Sameness through manipulation is here.
Disconnection through connection is here.
The impact is standardised humanity in one thought yet thought through manipulation of the mind.
Think this way!
Act that way!
React like this!
Do as we say!
Adjust your thoughts for the few!
Manipulation of the many!
Creating addiction through an unreal reality that has been projected as real.
It’s masterful and it sells.
The buyers are no longer buying they are simply addicted, no longer lugged in but part of a system designed to standardise thinking.
Not for the greater, not for the better but for mastery over the few.
What’s smart about smart technology?
Why rave and rant about the genius of A.I?
What does this mean for you and me? I’m typing on my iPhone and earring an Apple Watch whilst wearing my Air Pods.
For me, this raised a question.
Do these things enhance my life or are they marginalising my life through feeds?
That fact that I’m being targeted to read where my attention is being waved and flagged through images they know I like or so glued words I am attracted to?
Even worse.
They know what I am saying, they know what I look at and they and taking control of my mind through a subtle connection that eventually pulls me inside and fully connects me to what others need and want rather than what I need and want.
Today, I walked on a beach with my youngest 4-month old son Demna. For that moment, we were together and alone. I enjoyed him touching the water, seeing the vastness and listening to the waves.
Then we took photos, then we took video and then I realised that everything I did today with my youngest son has just been uploaded into the cloud as data that will now be used to manipulate my thinking. I am going to buy a camera.
How about you?
My youngest son.
I can’t believe how fast he is growing. It felt like yesterday he was born (it was really) but at four months he is starting to even look like a boy rather than a baby.
Fatherhood as an older father is very different for me. I have the time, the energy, the patience and the curiosity to be more aware. I don’t have a regular job so I can do what I want when I want (within reason). This gives me time to wake slowly, be awake all night (yep) or sit and watch my little darling babble and gurgle whilst staring into my eyes.
I love it. It feels like an overwhelming moment that is harder to explain but it also feels very tuned in. Thinking about a new baby later in life? Do it.
I feel compelled
These days I am feeling more than compelled to write what I would call a book of life for my family.
All of my kids have jobs. Jobs are something I have never really had. They work for a little per hour where I work for a lot per hour but also feel like I have mastered the art of something bigger.
My son asked me recently.
Dad, what is it you are doing? You are always out and about, drinking coffee, relaxing, playing with Demna (my baby son) or jumping on planes and doing whatever you do from Tbilisi?
Years ago, I feel like I gained my mastery over my own value. My own value then becomes an exchange with someone that wants and is grateful for the value exchange. For example, if I bring business back to life or quadruple turnover I feel I should be rewarded. Well. This is my/our value exchange.
This means I have to value my own value. My biggest value for myself outside my health is time. If I am over short on time I cannot do the things I need to do like coffee and travel and hanging out. So I mastered the art of using my mind to create power surges when doing projects.
This has a double value.
First, the power surge delivers a better result and second I can do in 3-days what most will spend a month doing. And my results have always been more than remarkable. This is due to one thing and that is understanding the value of my own time.
Today’s weather has changed. It is the first morning we left the house and we could see our own breath in the air.
As they said in the game of thrones… Winter’s coming.
Have a wonderful day.