Ministry Of Entrepreneurship Life Story No 1

Ministry of entrepreneurship is my latest social venture. The aim will be to support 1 million purposeful entrepreneurs, providing them with an digital environment to share, learn, communicate, network and be seen and heard.

As part of the journey I recently visited India (Feb 2011) and Africa (Nov 2010). Whilst I was in India I sought to 'walk my talk' by putting my money where my mouth is and to start to understand what it is that street entrepreneurs and the underprivileged need from us.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks I will share the first 6 real life stories of people whose lives I hope that I will be able to positively benefit. As you will hear their needs and circumstances are different and yet there is an undeniable truth that runs throughout. My aim through this process was to seek to deliberate aim to make a difference, learn some lessons and role model purposeful leadership.

I intend to invite a small group of people to join me again later this year to visit India to see how these stories are progressing and also to provide them with the opportunity to make a contribution to the lives of others. If you are interested please drop me an email through to Darren@darrenrobson.com.

Real Life Story No 1 Raju

How we met…

So I turned up in Mumbai on a Monday morning, finally ending up in Colaba region of the city. My taxi driver wasn't able to find my hotel and so out of sheer tiredness I asked him to drop me off, informing that I would find my way. It was 4am in a place I hadn't visited before. I got out of the car coincidentally just outside McDonalds in Colaba.

As I threw myself out of the cab grabbing for my rucksacks, whilst doing my routine check for passport, wallet, phone, camera etc…..I was finally ceremoniously dumped on the kerb in a strange place. As the cab pulled away I heard a friendly call from across the road……where are you going, what do you want etc….

This was to be my first interaction with Raju, as it turns out he would help and show me kindness and I would return the favour…..neither of us was to know this at that time…..Raju would be the start of my Ministry of Entrepreneurship adventure.

To say the hotels along the main strip of Colaba are dreadful is probably a bit of an understatement…I'm too embarrassed to actually share a photo (well I will anyway). After looking at 2 dingy, dreadful options I finally realised that none of the hotels here were going to be what I was looking for and so I gave up and decided to just get my head down for a few hours before heading off the next day to find somewhere more suitable.

Raju had guided me around these various options and so I gave him the equivalent of £1.50 to say thank you for his time and that was that.

The next day……

The following day I headed out of the aptly named hotel Vulgar and found myself a much nicer and more comfortable place to sleep. The irony of this sentence is not lost of me when I consider that Raju was sleeping on the streets below me with no protection what so ever.

After I found my new bed for a few days and I went off in search of adventure on the streets of Mumbai, taking in the sights, sounds, environment and loving the people watching whilst being constantly reminded of how lucky mine, my families and much of our societies lives are. I can't put into words what it does to you to see a young mother and her 3 children lying in rags on the street, begging for some food or change, for me it's one of those life moments where with an image that is now permanently seared into my mind and will always come back to me, to act as a positive reminder of how lucky I am!!

McDonalds Colaba, Mumbai

As I was wandering past McDonalds in Colaba when I heard a familiar voice calling out, I turned around and of course it was Raju beaming at me with his bright red teeth (chewing pan or however it is spelt). He was friendly, chatty and of course remembered me from last night.

We got chatting and I knew that I wanted to interview him and so I invited him to have a chat with me in McD's……a quick aside, I ordered food and drink for Raju and as I was staring at the list of offerings I was wondering 'where are the burgers and Big Mac's…….'it took me a couple of hours of pondering to finally make the connection with the Hindu faith and the privileged place that cows hold in their society….even now my cultural blind spot makes me smile!).

Raju's Life Story……..

Raju is 30 yrs old, he has been living on the streets of Mumbai since he was 14 yrs old, he hangs out with his 'crew' of fellow street people. He is the middle child of a family of 6 boys and I don't fully understand why he left at 14but clearly something wasn't right. His family still live in Allahabad village and he hasn't seen them since he left.

So imagine this, travelling for a day or so on your own at 14 to leave your family and to end up living on the streets of Mumbai, whatever was driving him to leave his family home it couldn't have been a good thing. His aspiration as a slightly naive 14yr old boy was to come to Mumbai to 'make business' and eventually make enough money to return to his village to 'build a home'.

Those dreams still burn within his eyes, but you sense that 16yrs of living with the hardship of street dwelling have dampened his resolve, passion and ultimately belief that this dream is ever going to be a reality.

He told me about the reality of living on the streets, everyone looks down on you, no one trusts you, the police dish out regular beatings and then of course there are the street robbers who target the isolated and vulnerable, preying on their inability to defend themselves. It's no wonder that Raju and his pals all congregate outside Colaba's McDonalds, at least there its light, its central and provides the opportunity for some form of relative safety in numbers.

How he lives…..

Raju explained to me that he made a small amount of money by helping tourists, needless to say that as I got to know more about Raju and his crew I realised that not all of the help was legal, but it was never my place to judge, simply observe, question, learn and support where I was able to.

I got talking to him about the film slum dog millionaire and how I would like to go and see this region and he told me that he was able to take me and so we arranged to catch up in a few days-time, with him taking me on tour, not the expensive way but by travelling on the local buses and transportation network.

The Authentic Slumdog Millionaire Tour…….

So long story short Raju and I head of to see the slums, note that 60% of Mumbai residents still live in these communities. It was fascinating to head into this region and to see the facts from the fiction in the movie. There is no doubt that this lifestyle is not as we live in the western world with a combination of brick/cement based residencies along with the wooden/cardboard structures that are peoples' homes.

I got a real sense of community in this environment, a real hustle and bustle to the place and with 1 million residents it's not surprising. Many of the homes had water, electricity and sewage systems. Kids were doing what kids do best, playing around in the streets creating games to entertain themselves, whilst the guys sit around chatting and the women are typically looking after the small ones and looking after the home.

I really enjoyed wandering around the place, meeting people and it reinforced that a smile goes a long way, but more, this community has little in terms of material wealth but they seem to have a wonderful community spirit, fun and a sense of closeness to one another……..it constantly amazes me that you can have 5 stalls or shops in the same row all selling exactly the same products and all seeming to make a living from it.

The Idea……..

Having experienced Raju's tour I came up with an idea for an authentic tour flyer for him. So once we got back from the trip I headed off to a coffee shop and wrote out the content of the flyer and then I sent it on to my brand man and close personal friend, Jake Shepherd (Sheppo to me), Director of MSDC (http://www.msdc.co.uk/) I asked him to weave his creative magic and turn my one dimensional words and ideas into something that had impact and edge………4hrs later I had the flyer……1 day later Raju had 30 copies, 10 plastic versions and a copy to keep so that he could keep printing more off.

So in one day with a little creative magic and a deliberate act of kindness we have Raju all set up to start to bring in some regular income by offering the real authentic Slumdog tour to tourists who visit the streets of Colaba in Mumbai. My request is that if you know someone who is heading to Mumbai, head to Colaba McDonalds and seek out Raju, take his tour and as the flyer shows, help him to break out of the mind numbing poverty trap that he currently finds himself.

Thanks…

I want to say a personal thanks to Jake and the team at MSDC http://www.msdco.co.uk/ who 'gifted' their time and creative input, without their support the idea would not look good at all…..I may be able to visualise ideas, but I am no artist or graphic designer lol.

Lessons learnt…

Longer term Raju needs support to really get him away from the 'crew' or to re-educate the crew to find other ways to make money from tourists. Street life is tough and there is a constant air of violence around the people who live their lives that way. The night before Raju took me on a tour a street robber had bitten his hand in order to steal his money, I saw the evidence with his had swollen to double the normal size. The police did little and so Raju lost his money. I compensated him for this and paid him for taking me on the tour and gave him extra for food, clothes and to ensure that he is able to keep printing off the flyers.

Will it work out for Raju? That is down to him now, I will start a social media campaign, I will promote his life story on the ministry of entrepreneurship website and I hope that when I return to Mumbai in November 2011 I see that he has been able to build on this early support. My investment in Raju equated to some creative time, access to my network and about £30 or equivalent to 3000 rupee.

Bottom-line……

More stories of how all of us can take action to make a difference to people's lives……please share this story………BUT more, have a think about how you might like to make a deliberate choice to make a difference in someone else's life………Metta as the Buddhist say D

The Law of Unexpected Consequences

Ever considered what our individual and collective inaction means?

Life is a paradox - its complex and yet simple, humans search for meaning outside of themselves, when the truth lies within. Stop reading the religious text its utter bollox and quiet frankly ignorant, the ills that are put on women outrageous, the bigoted views on aids, contraceptive all rubbish......please look beyond the words of men from the past and look into yourselves.

.....and as we start to look within to consider our meaning and purpose, let us consider the decisions we make through abdication of responsibility, through inaction, ignorance, laziness and an attitude of 'oh yes that, but sorry I need to go and pick up the kids, scratch my backside, watch Eastenders etc' - our inaction says as much about us as our action......So consider through inaction we are currently paid up members of the following:

1. Poverty, it's ok for our neighbours and fellow human beings to live a life of destitution, squallier and hardship; I was lucky to not be born into this relative safety, phew aren't I lucky, so why should I care and anyway I have to pay my mortgage, car loan, retail therapy blah blah let me walk on by and pretend I didn't see it.......now where is my blindfold.....
2. Corrupt organisations that abuse society and then mock us, by failing to pay their fair share and by not taking responsibility for theirs and their peoples actions (you have to love the world of Enron - its still here)
3. Politicians with a short term perspective and who love nothing more than playing the system, well the rules stated this.....yes morally I know it was wrong, but hey its not my fault that the rules allowed me to abuse the British tax payer - oh pleaseeeeeeeeee
4. Narrow education, kids still leaving school with an inability to read, who then go into college and university to study 'stuff' that will not serve them or society in the longer term - please lets modernise the education culture. The next 10 yrs doesnt look great for the under 25s yes and lets find a way to support them.....................The Latin of education is to draw forth from within, so please let's start doing that rather than spoon feeding kids stuff that doesn't matter - in fact get rid of schools, they can learn more from watching social media and seeing the freedom and democratisation of the world......
5. Organised, corrupt, evil, religious and social demonetisation or at least abuse, rape, censorship and violence against woman, they are our mothers, sisters.......why......STOP IT?
6. The fallacy of hierarchy and the acceptance that others are superior or more worthy
7. Greed, love of money, retail therapy and the need for external validation - it's no longer about proping up your pathetic little ego by keeping up with the Jones's oh no have you seen what they have got over there.......as deep as a puddle - get over your consumer mindset, buy now pay later.......great!
8. Abuse and destruction ecological, deforestation, pollution, water contamination and natural resources being depleted by the end of the century
9. Animal kingdom being destroyed because of our foolish belief that we are superior to nature, rather than being a part of the system
10. Ultimately the devastation of our planet and home with the resultant extinction of ours and other species

We cant take on all of these things individually, but if we begin to wake up and smell the coffee, knowing that it comes from a sustainable and meaningful source, we may have a chance. As a species we need to get out off our chairs, stop eating food that is causing lethargy, diabetes and obesity, switch off the mundane world of soap opera, open our windows and eyes and start to look at the world more consciously.......if we could all find it within ourselves to take one thing that is important to us and make it better then at least we are beginning to make a positive contribution.......

So the next time you go to sit down and unwind from a job that you loath, to switch on a mundane soap opera that just repeats the same old crap every 4 weeks......why not stop to think about what is really important to you and then make a deliberate choice to go and do something about it.

Be deliberate, find something that matters to you and take some action.......have fun whilst doing it......rant over all the best D

A New Breed of Leaders and Entrepreneurs Needs to Emerge

Capitalism with a Purpose, Business with a Heart, Organisations as a Force for Good, Emotionally Aware Cultures that Celebrate Talent, Strength, Diversity, Awareness & Responsibility:

Purposeful Leadership/Entrepreneurship – A New Conscious Breed Needs to Emerge

Capitalism with its free and mixed market economy has been a predominant model of value exchange in the developed and increasingly developing world (notable exception China) at least for the past couple of hundred years and even longer if truth be told. Within the model the emphasis often focuses on what is known as the profit motive where organisations and individuals exchange goods and services in order to make money.

This model, like any has its pros and cons, its fans and its challengers. What’s clear is that the distribution of wealth often ends up with the limited few, who have the combination of will to own, power, networks, esprit d'entrepreneurialism and control the organisations and resources that ultimately create value and profit.

Like any political, economic and social system it’s an imperfect model and with our increasingly global economy I believe that we need a new form of capitalism, one that does not place all of the emphasis on profit at all cost; be that to employees, suppliers, society or the planet.

Wealth will still be distributed to the owners, entrepreneurs, shareholders, governments, employees and leaders of an organisation and I can’t foresee this changing in the near future.

However, I do believe that we need a new form of capitalist model that has a deeper sense of meaning, purpose and commitment to a sustainable earth and a world where we are consciously seeking to defeat poverty that impacts upon societies the world over.

Capitalism that has a heart and social spirit needs a new form of leadership philosophy and leaders. I call this new and emerging form of leadership and the individuals who role model conscious global capitalism/citizenship - purposeful leadership and entrepreneurship.

These purposeful entrepreneurs and leaders continue to seek contribute to society through their profits and employment, they innovate to create new forms of value in the marketplace, whilst building sustainable and profitable organisations.

Increasingly what I believe will be different and an emerging trend is that these same leaders, entrepreneurs and their organisations do so with a broader perspective on what it means to add value and profit.

I believe that we are growing a new breed of emotionally aware leaders who understand the privileged position they hold, they are looking to find increasingly novel ways to make a positive social, economic, environmental and emotional commitment and difference in the world.

The world and society is crying out for a more conscious, emotionally aware and increasingly purposeful set of leaders, entrepreneurs and organisations to step forward on the global platform to role model how we can make a profit with a purpose and heart.

Society in the 21st century still has major issues: poverty is still prevalent in all developed and developing economies, the planets finite resources and fossil fuels will be reduced to nothing by the close of this century, access to arable land and adequate water is increasingly an issue for some communities, the polar cap continues to deplete and obesity, diabetes and other self-induced human epidemics are on the rise. These data points are especially true in some of the fastest growing economies (India, China) and not to mention the increased notice of stress related work issues.

Businesses, leaders and entrepreneurs with a purpose understands that they need to positively seek to influence and impact on these negative cycles. They need to provide consumers with access to more sustainable solutions, they need to attract talent who want to work with conscious purposeful organisations.

But deeper than these surface level observations about behaviours is that these leaders and entrepreneurs (both emerging and established typically highly successful and economically liberated) need to go on a deeply personal journey to raise their awareness, unearth their meaning and purpose and decide to take responsibility to make a meaningful contribution. Ultimately this becomes about personal and organisational legacy and brand story.

Ultimately for these avant-garde, leading edge pioneers and purposeful leaders the decisions they make now, the behaviour they role model and the new form of leadership they employ will influence a new form of conscious, purposeful, social, political, environmental and emotional fair capitalism.

An emerging book idea

I’m researching and writing a book on this subject and so if you know anyone who is challenging conventional organisational and business wisdom. Doing something unique, different, inspiring and that is making a fundamental difference to the world and its people whether on a small of major scale I would love to hear from them.

I intend to begin sharing stories of individuals, communities and organisations that I believe are aligned with this emerging philosophy, so as to support, collaborate and showcase their talents, aiding them in gaining further recognition, support and to build a collaborative network of socially conscious and purposeful leaders and entrepreneurs.

Any thoughts, ideas and connections welcome. I’m learning as I go along……best

D

The images here are from my trip to Tanzania with the great football giveaway in Nov 2010, 9 of us delivered 2500 to 100 schools and my trip to India in Feb 2011

Making a Difference is about Love

Making a Difference isn’t about Money, it’s about Love


Making A Difference (M.A.D) is a choice, it’s about personal awareness and having a sense of responsibility to our fellow human beings and the earth we call home.

Life is extremely short, in the fullness of time our lives are little more than a particle or speck of dust. When we begin to see life in this way we have a choice to make about where we focus our time, commitment, resources and energy.

We may choose to focus on our own self-indulgence, the needs of our immediate family, local community, society more broadly or taking a more holistic and global approach to our view of our role in the world.


In many ways I believe that the challenge for us as humans is to become increasingly aware and see ourselves as global citizens of our precious world.

We have, in my humble opinion a responsibility to our world (earth) and to consider how we can proactively and positively nurture it, rather than seeing it simply as a vehicle that can endlessly provide resources for our consumptive behaviours, eventually it will struggle to feed a population rapidly moving to 10Billion (2050).

In the short term, yes we will be able to take what we want and yet to do so is at the cost of future generations. On many levels we have a responsibility to future generations, our children’s children! That responsibility surely must be to nurture, farm consciously and protect the earth, ensuring that we hand it over to future generations in as good a shape as we found it, if not better!

Human beings as a species never cease to amaze me, the creativity, adaptability and ability to be resourceful and to innovate from the sources that mother earth provides is simply amazing. So rather than waiting for fossil fuels to become extinct, water to run out, desserts to take over arable land and people becoming increasingly impoverished, let’s start championing individual and organisations that are who are finding ways to minimise our consumptive tendencies.


Let’s champion those communities who are finding new, innovative and sustainable ways to build new products and services.

These groups of individuals, consumers and organisations are starting to be more purposeful in their approach and in so doing are becoming part of the solution and less of the problem.

In the western and developed economies of the world, we and our children are often blessed with good education, resources, networks, technology and access to choice. With this choice as a consumer will increasingly be a responsibility to ensure that what we purchase products from sustainably minded organisations.

But more than this, I fundamentally believe that we have a responsibility to show love, kindness and support both to our fellow human beings, who are often struggling in less developed economies and also the planet earth we call home.

Bottom-line
We need to personally, collectively and organisationally pledge to hand over the baton of the earth to future generations in a better, stronger and more sustainable way than we are today!

Measuring Value in the Coaching Relationship

Article Strategic HR Review: Metrics.
20 February 2011

Aticle and Magazine available here:

Measuring Value in the Coaching Relationship
The world of coaching continues to gain apace, with growing momentum and credibility in the eyes of corporate purchasers of talent, L&D and Leadership solutions. We have seen in the past 10 years the steady increase of coaching as a critical people, talent and leadership intervention.

But the corporate landscape isn’t the entire picture: increasingly the tentacles of coaching are moving beyond just the corporate landscape and out into society and the world at large. As we do so this challenges the overemphasis on financial metrics as the most important form of success measure.

In society, do we place the same level of significance and financial value on the coaching when we are working with under-privileged young people who are looking to find their first job, a more meaningful existence or simply some sense of personal confidence in their future? Of course the answer is no, why would we be interested in measuring such an arbitrary set of measures when a real life is at stake? So this begs the question, do we need to rethink what it truly means not just to value an employee and their personal values, but also the values of the organisation.

Responsibility and Values in Organisations
There is no doubt that the recent financial, political, ongoing ecological disaster(s) and human crises are merely a sign of more to come. We need to be able to start looking at our world from a fresh perspective, and one that doesn’t place all value on short-term shareholder and financial metrics (although these are important as a form of value exchange).

Due in part to a combination of our human psychology, a need for external validation and our past industrial age, many of our organisations are still left with a predominance of financial measures that are growth-focused, logical and masculine in their emphasis.

In my opinion there is a shift that needs to happen and fast. We need organisations that measure their global and social impact in a more balanced and rounded way, and this will mean increasingly more human/humane feelings, values and feminine measures must emerge to balance out the masculine energy.

Force for Good in Our World

Organisations will increasingly need to become a force for good in our world. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will stop being a nice brand exercise and instead will become part of an organisation’s DNA reinforced by its culture, leadership/management behaviours, the measures it uses to see the value that it brings and ultimately in the behaviour of its people, and us more broadly as consumers of its products and services.

This isn’t a utopian vision, and we still need to maintain a focus on the numbers in order to ensure that we create value and a sustainable organisation that is able to support its multiple stakeholders’ needs. I fundamentally believe that we need to move beyond a short term emphasis on hiking up shareholder value at the long term cost of people, resources and ultimately our home (earth).

It’s a practical and pragmatic response, as currently we are consuming more resources than this earth is able to withstand, our human population continues to expand at unprecedented rates, CSR is no longer sufficient, and we need to reach out to ensure as individuals we are taking Individual Personal Responsibility (InPR) to make a sustainable, lasting and positive impact in our world.

A good place to begin may be something like strategy for sustainability a great initiative that has been started by Adam Werbach of Saatchi.

So how does Coaching play its role?
For me coaching is a profession that is focused on supporting individuals, communities, organisational and political leaders in going deeper to unearth their meaning and purpose, to explore who they really are and what it means for them to be on this earth. This level of deep personal enquiry is much needed in our world, especially in a corporate setting.

As a coaching community we have access to the gifts of closely listening, holding the space for deep enquiry, supporting an individual or group to consider their meaning, purpose, values and the value that they bring to their customers/clients, shareholders, stakeholders, community and society as a whole. It’s time that, as a community, we challenge ourselves to be bolder and to see our influence, impact and reach beyond simply short-term financial goals and instead begin to broaden our measures out.

How to measure value and success of coaching?
Measure how engaged the individual person is before the start of the coaching, during and at the end of the coaching. Employee Value Proposition solutions are coming to support organisation and individuals to understand their likelihood of leaving and how engaged they are.

Measure how often a person uses their talents, gifts and strengths on a daily basis to complete their role. All of Gallup and Marcus Buckingham’s work highlights that people who do this are more productive. Coaching can enable people to do this.

Measure how engaged an individual is as a leader or manager, and go deeper to explore how engaged team members are. All of the research highlights that typically, people tend to leave bad managers rather than bad brands.

Conduct live 360s with the leader/manager’s boss, peers and direct reports to build up a picture of what is working, what is not, what could be better and what people say about them when they aren’t in the room.

Use Emotional Intelligence (EQi, ECi) related tools to measure a manager’s and leader’s emotional literacy at the start of the coaching, at the end and then go back in another 6 months or a year’s time to see what impact it’s continuing to have to ensure stability.

Check the individual’s physical health, stress levels, weight and dietary control to ensure that they aren’t part of the increasingly stressed and under-performing management and leadership population, where poor diet leads to poor decisions. We need to get better at regulating our food and exercise intake. The statistics speak for themselves. You only have to watch Jamie Oliver on TED Talks to hear how we are moving into an epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease due to poor diet and exercise, and working excessively long hours. This is unsustainable and must be addressed.

Measure how clear the person is before they start the coaching on their personal legacy, meaning, purpose, life vision and values. In my experience there is no greater transformative experience than for a person to really connect with their deepest needs, wants and values.

If organisations want a deep shift in performance it’s not through working with a human being on a superficial behaviourist level by using external levers. It is by tapping into who they truly are and drawing from within and helping people to get clear on their intrinsic values, drivers and motivation.

About the Author

Darren Robson is on the Global Board of the Association for Coaching, and is Director of Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships. He is also the Global Social Innovation lead, championing coaching-led socially responsible initiatives that are making a positive, lasting impact in the world. He is the former Director of Innovation for Penna’s Board and Executive Coaching practice.
For further information visit www.associationforcoaching.com and www.darrenrobson.com.

Darren Robson
Director of Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships
Global Social Innovation Lead
Association for Coaching
tel: +44 (0) 7769 299223

http://www.associationforcoaching.com/

http://www.darrenrobson.com/

About the Association for Coaching

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Modelling Successful People - in the Corporate World

CEO and High Performance Insight (Seriously, do you want to be the TOP DOG!?!)

Over the past couple of years and more recently in the past year, I've had the opportunity to interview and work with some real corporate high flyers. Here I share the first level of insight from my experience of working with them and listening to their stories and how they see themselves in the world.

Success is a habit forming behaviour, seeking to be the best that you can be (personal mastery and excellence) is what often drives these type A characters. Commercial and professional success isn't everything to everyone and so take what you like from this initial insight that I share here.

Most of all, love what you do, be passionate about it, find what makes your life flow and what gives you energy, life's too darn short to play around doing stuff that doesn't bring you happiness, stretch, confidence and a strong sense of purpose.

Lifelessordinary for me is about you/us/people living towards their purpose, passions and values, no one else can make it happen for you, people may help, but ultimately the responsibility sits on your shoulders, so enjoy the game of life.

Purpose – what are you looking to achieve in your professional and personal life, create a vision board that sets out what you are looking to do, build this either in your mind or physically so that you can create habit forming behaviours that keep you in your flow and help you to be successful on your personal terms.

Write out the things that you love to do (strengths, talents) and focus on aligning your behaviour to these. The things that you don’t love to do but have to, then build habit forming behaviours and actions that enable you to get these out of the way. Alternatively, where possible find people who have strengths and passions that you do not have and ask for their support, advice or help in getting them out of the way. It never ceases to amaze me that others love to do the things that I will find everything in my power to avoid.

Performance –what areas of your professional life do you need to have a clear focus, identify the critical drivers of your success and keep these measures in mind both in the short, medium and long-term, play the performance system game if you are in an organisation and if not make up your own rules and live by them!

Bottom line success doesn't come to you, you have to go to it! Find role models who can become mentors, get yourself a top executive or entrepreneurial coach who can partner in your present and future success. Find people, networks and resources where you can contribute to them and they can do the same for you. Nike, just do it, get out of your self-imposed comfort zone and limiting beliefs.

Image – (Brand), ask people what your personal and digital image says about you. Ensure that you are consistently voicing the same messages. Look right for the role that you are playing. People make judgements very quickly on your look and then with time your behaviours, ensure that you are associating with the right people to move your life and theirs forwards, look for mutually beneficial relationships and if not understand that sometimes in life people simply want a transaction rather than a relationship.

Network – focus on the 5% of the people who make your life feel happy and then successful. Find the communities of interest that you want to be part of and add to the conversation, most people are observers so choose to be a leader in your space. If you are in an organisation identify the clients, direct reports, peers and leaders that you need to influence. Outside of the company ensure that you are part of the professional or industry groups that are really making a difference and moving the agenda forwards.

Exposure – put your brand out there, being good at marketing yourself and finding others who will do the same is vitally important, word of mouth is still the best form of introduction. Ensure that you have a clear brand message and focus on building your personal voice, ask your coach to ask people what they say about you when they are not in the room.

Sustainability – ensure that you build balance in to your life, ensure that you are looking after your physical health and well-being, you don’t want to fall ill to realise how precious your body is, one of my recent CEOs suddendly found himself having a triple heart bypass! (PQ)

Emotional, make sure that you spend time being around people who give you psychological air and who feed your creative energy. People that you can trust, who have integrity and whose values you align with, understand their agendas, needs, beliefs and vision that drives them and support and be supported (EQ).

Mental, ensure that you are suitably challenged, those who succeed appear to have an inner driver to be always raising the bar that little bit higher, they consciously choose to soar, rather than swim or sink (ocean metaphor forgive me) (IQ).

Purpose and Meaning find it in your life, understand the things that you love to do and make sure you spend time doing them or being with them, go to places that inspire you, find people who do the same and have fun....love your family, they will stick with you long after others have left!(SQ)

The truth is that sometimes you have to work with, influence and be around people that dont energies you, consider ways to change that. If you don't fit the culture or model the behaviours the organisation is looking for and rewarding (cultural norms), make a conscious choice to adapt or move on!! Life's too short and I hear too many people bitching about work, grow up, be an adult and take responsibility for your life in all areas.

All the best D

India and Mumbai Calling

"In a better society, with more understanding people, nobody will change you. Everybody will help you to be yourself — and to be oneself is the richest thing in the world. To be oneself gives you all that you need to feel fulfilled, all that can make your life meaningful, significant. Just being yourself and growing according to your nature will bring the fulfillment of your destiny." Osho [quote inspired by Ushma thnx]

I’m reading up on Mumbai, well it’s about time that I did some investigative research and understand the region and place that I am visiting. I’m reading up on its heritage, culture, landmarks, history, architecture and infrastructure or at least that’s what the book is laying out for me.

What’s interesting to note is that I am looking for a different experience that goes beyond the external sights, I’m heading there in part for the inner journey so often romanticised about and with less personal focus on the history and architecture.Mumbai and India currently represent a personal opportunity to explore the human, humane, cultural, poverty, diversity and emotional architecture that lies beneath the surface. Often for holiday makers this lies unseen, unnoticed and hidden.

I have a sense that India is to become a place for me, somewhere that I’m able to be me, express my creative thoughts and journey, learn, explore, make a difference and grow. I have a childlike innocence, intrigue and interest in the place, a sense of potential naivety…….. I don’t think so, more a case of playing in the natural child space, that place for all of us that enables us to play with ideas, create, if you like the zone within us that allows for purposeful play.

India may well represent my cathedral thinking space – regardless of the outcomes, I know that this journey is set to align with my personal version of a lifelessordinary a journey of a 1000 miles. These next 20 days represent an opportunity for me to venture on my own personal quest, to understand my truth and truly find my authentic voice, whilst living towards my purpose and vision.

Looking forward to the exploration, to see, feel, touch and be touched by the contrast of this beautiful country, see and meet people who survive, thrive and grow in this challenging environment….It is a rapidly developing country that in many ways is on an explosive growth trajectory with all of the growing pains you would expect.

The bottom line is that I am seeking to get under the skin of Mumbai and equally allow its voice, rhythm and experience to permeate, seep into and through me, I want to know, feel and experience it – journeying through the full range of emotions of love for a place and its people to loathing aspects that relate to poverty, deprivation and social injustice.

We should never cease to forget that our liberty, access to education/money/options and personal freedom are fundamental human rights shared by all and yet I have a sense that I will prize them with a deeper sense and see them as even more precious after my Indian adventure.
Some compelling stats, well if you are like me, you may find them interesting:

• Whilst the Indian economy continues to boom, so to do the predications of increasing numbers of children from low income families dropping out of school to support the families meagre income
• India has the largest number of diabetes sufferers with predications estimating that the figure will be over 100 Million in the next few years
• 1996 was when Delhi became Mumbai officially
• Slum dog millionaire was filmed in Dharavi slum, it is estimated that 60% of Mumbai’s population live in shantytowns and slums
• Dharavi covers 1.75 km and is home to over 1 million people. Its not all bleak news with many people showing entrepreneurial flair and it’s estimated that the annual turnover
• Many of the families living here have done so for generations
• Mumbai has over 5000 Dabba-Wallahs (tiffins) delivering lunch and food all over the city, it estimated that 200,000 are delivered on a daily basis through an intricate colour scheme, many of the people who do this are illiterate – estimates are that a mistake is made once with every 6 million deliveries
  
  Anyway, food for thought peeps Best wishes D

Passion Killers........Please close the door as you leave!!

I went along to the Chartered Management Institutes book prize event last night, a nice event and some really noted authors and industry figures were present, etc....

What was most interesting about the event was a conversation I had post the event with a very senior leader in the publishing world (who will remain nameless). Here is someone who in his younger years followed his heart, his passions and his purpose and then some 30yrs on I stumble upon him over a glass of red wine. His message to me, enthusiasm is enough, most people in work aren't passionate, there just there to make a living and then go and do something more interesting.

I felt truly inspired by this conversation!! as I am sure we all would be, curb your enthusiasm came to mind as the conversation went along. Here was someone who has reached the top of his tree and is now stuck, bored, uninspired and a little downbeat on the world of work...hmmmm interesting.

Yet the very same person 10yrs ago would have been running on oxygen that was without doubt fuelled by his passion, purpose and love for the industry at that time....my thoughts.....time to change and do something more refreshing kind Sir and lets keep it upbeat in the world of Media.

Yes the stats for under 25 are shocking at present time, Yes it’s frightening how easily this government is choosing to make university an increasingly class and privilege based social engineering process and YET…every generation has its challenges, lets seek to objectively see the positives and opportunities here.

SO…………………………….

Can I buy into the story that people with ordinary lives, careers and a solid life shouldn't look to have passion in their working life.....I simply can't!!!

We have to find a way to love what we do, find the passion, purpose and our true meaning of what it means to be in service of something bigger than ourselves. Life without a sense of service doesn’t feel like a life that I want to lead, its not aligned to my version of a lifelessordinary.

THEN Today…………………
Life’s messages come in funny packages. Today with this conversation still running through my mind I exited from London's Liverpool Street station to be presented with these 2 ladies dressed in giant yellow condoms oops, I mean sleeping bags…..no boiler covers – advertising the services of the AA.

What made me smile? that here in the centre of London were 2 ladies running around in the middle of the drizzling, dreary London weather with a pretty horrendous job of attempting to gain a seconds acknowledgement from Londons commuters, no mean feat – these 2 girls put a smile on my face and demonstrated that no matter what we do, we have choice, passion is a feeling and yet more than that it’s a bloody mind-set and one that I think in the UK and the world over we will need to draw on for a very long time to come.

With passion comes fun, ideas, creativity, novelty, collaboration, insights, ideas, energy, laughter and ultimately innovation and we all know that we need more of all of this in life today!

The Internal Voice

A Beautiful Mind


Our mind is a wonderful and strange vessel all in one. One moment the internal dialogue stands to support you, telling you to push forwards, make it happen, independence and freedom align with your deepest needs, wants, values and purpose.

AND then like this morning I wake up with gnawing anxiety of someone who doesn't have a structure and routine imposed (self or by others). I awake in a slight daze wondering SO what am I really DOING here. And yet, Thursday I have a meeting with a potential publisher to discuss the book, I'm about to book the flights to India. I've been blessed with a number of people kindly sharing their contacts in India and saying get in touch with them.....

This voice is exactly and simply just that a voice, you have to push beyond the shadowy figure and tones of this voice, acknowledge its positive intentions and YET seek to go with your FLOW anyway....trusting both your INTUITION and also that the universe, your friends, family and professional network will be a supportive and encouraging network.

Lesson here I think when the shadowy voice of the saboteur/gremlin emerges, by all means listen to it, but don't obey it's message, see it as a trick of the mind to keep you small and boxed into a self imposed/limited prison.......

India: A Journey Less Ordinary

So I'm planning out my journey to India and it looks like I will be visiting southern India on this trip. I will be visiting Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai during the course of this trip. I'm going to be interviewing individual social entrepreneurs and organisations that are out there supporting these inspiring individuals.

I love the purpose of the organisation Kiva and their story is inspiring Jessica Jackley shares how the organisation began, just do it comes to mind......she went to Africa and spent time with real people, learning how they were being entrepreneurial, she learnt about their needs and then she simply went back to the US and with her business partner she began raising money to serve their needs.

I'm looking to hear from anyone who knows a great organisation in India and beyond who have a social purpose that is making a real difference to peoples lives.......contact me via Darren@darrenrobson.com.

Have fun!

Love your path. Without this, nothing makes any sense

picture reference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcobellucci/3534516458/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Welcome to 2011,

An interesting article from Paulo Coelho's blog http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/01/01/manual-for-conserving-paths/ and I like the final rule about loving your path.

Having decided to leave the relative safety of a good organisation, in 2011 I've put myself out into the wider world. I've been here before back in 2003 - 2005 I ran my own small niche consultancy and in the end it didn't work for me........SO what I ask myself will have to be different this time. How will I ensure that I feed the family, keep myself sane, stay on the creative edge, connect with the right people and not find myself wasting my time on interesting conversations.....although of interest. How will I deal with my own failings, the fear of being rejected and the loneliness that is often associated with the start up phase of creating a new idea, organisation or seeking to find a new way of living your professional and personal life.

I think the fears, concerns and issues that I talk of above are a common part of going on the entrepreneurial journey, your authentic journey, where one follows their version of a truth, often called authenticity and what Tim 'Mac' Macartney http://www.embercombe.co.uk/calls the invisible path. This is about finding yourself, if like me you know on some deeply personal level that you need to start sharing your voice and ideas and that you have to get out there to really experience the world, then I hope this blog may become a resource.

Over the course of the next year I'm intent on sharing my warts and all story, the success, my failings and 'failures' or lessons. February see's me heading to India to interview, meet, observe and experience real social entrepreneurship in action. It's a risk that I personally have to take, without such a journey I'm always going to be left questioning and wondering what the hell has this journey been about, knowing intuitively that you aren't getting the most out of life or even giving enough back to life in the end it has to become the motive force, it has to challenge us to be our bigger self, to be more than we were yesterday and to find your new way.

We've heard that its about being the change that you want to see in the world...I think its time we evolved this insight to say that you have to lead the change, being and being alone is impotent it lacks the necessary action, drive and determination that it takes to make real change happen!

My original organisation was named 'lifelessordinary' and 2011 feels like it's about really understanding what that means for me and my life.......it's no longer simply about money alone, this year has to be about finding deep meaning and purpose in my life, conceiving a vision, having the balls to move towards that vision and then using your energy and discipline to focus to make something change and real in our world.....

The invisible path is not easy and then again the road less travelled would never be if it was always going to be easy......!