Careful what you wish for

When you check in at a Double Tree hotel, you get a cookie fresh out of the warming tray.

This makes an impression, even if you don’t eat cookies.

It’s those little details like the hand-written card, or the gift that you bring when you show up for dinner. It got me thinking: what is Skyrove’s check-in cookie? What should it be, rather?

Or is that a B2C thing that doesn’t really apply? B2Cs are weird things to me: for every Amazon there is a Webvan. And then there is Polaroid. When you live in Boston you see the ghosts of Polaroid in a few places, and you have all of Waltham which used to make watches, and all the old mill buildings that are now office parks like the one my old company was in. That building had a ghost for a while.

London has ghosts, too, I suppose. Paris must have ghosts but those would be French. The only thing that’s constant is change, and time. Time moves on, at the pace that it moves, and there is no getting time back. This time is rare, time is precious, but how we choose to spend it is ours, and also, how we choose to relate to what goes on around us is also ours.

In the few days back in London after Paris I was rather heads down in the to-do list, combined with a little bit of politics and game theory. Strategy; and tactics because as we all know, strategy is not a strategy if it doesn’t include an application plan.

The same could be said for my sport, not that I’ve been feeling like much of a sportsman lately. But that’s fine; my body hasn’t actually had a full on rest of this long since I started CrossFit, and I’m sure it’s overdue. The first few days of WBA I had niggles coming out of the woodwork and I thought to myself that I should just stop resting because when I trained the pain was less, and maybe it would heal just as fast if I was training carefully.

My physio advised me to give it up cold turkey. Turns out it was pretty easy to do.

Yes, I’m going back, and going back with a vengeance, and doing something I’ve meant to do for a long time. How I go about it remains to be done, but I’m an ENTJ and when I decide to do something, I do it. The days of long Paris nights and drinking on school nights are over with the month of June. At the end of the day, I actually don’t enjoy living like a normal person. It’s far too easy to go back to being a couch potato.

Plus I have goats to tackle. Big time.

I had some interesting times in London my last few days; everything from a visit to a street flower market to the London version of the Loading Bay (complete with &Union beer!) to running into someone I know while walking the streets of Holborn to a great catchup lunch with a friend from Heart who now works for the GSMA to what was very much a meeting of the minds at Heathrow airport followed by receiving an email the serendipity of which shocked me. I didn’t check out the body armour for sale at Harrod’s, though, never quite made it that far.

Be careful what you wish for. I had dinner with a friend named John, who I didn’t know that well prior to the dinner but about six courses of Thai and two bottles of wine later, we’re a bit closer now. One of the things that came up over and over again was this notion of careful what you wish for.

Like the genies who granted what you asked, and the ask was never one of moderation, be careful what you wish for. I wished for a learning experience. I’m getting it. I’ve wished for some other things. I may get them.

Well, it beats the alternative. But like the once-in-a-century rain in Spain that John was telling me about, best to be ready to take it as it comes. Have a plan, always have a plan.

If you don’t like something, change it. I read an article today that said that 70% of U.S. workers are either bored, demotivated, or checked out to the point of going around their companies spreading ill will. Been there, done that. Never again.

An interesting article also that I read about some unknown, introverted researcher who made a breakthrough in number theory. What struck me about this? It wasn’t his persistence although that’s impressive. Plenty of people persist and succeed, but good on him. It was how the insight came to him – at a friend’s place before going to a concert. Right brain, baby, right brain.

I’m wary of the human brain’s tendency to assign meaning where none exists and to find patterns where there is just randomness. Coincidences are just that, not the universe trying to tell you something. Or, maybe they’re the universe trying to tell you something.

I was in Notre Dame cathedral having a conversation about religion (more specifically, lack of adherence to any of man’s dogmas). As one does. But in that conversation I was relaying how a metaphysics course at Harvard had done more to give me faith in the wonder of the universe and wonder if there is perhaps some higher power. Before that I would have called myself an atheist. After that, no longer. What I know is that I don’t know, and by definition you cannot know when it comes to faith.

In happier news, this week saw the birth of a new political party in South Africa. The launch speech can be found here and as I read this, lying in my bed in Bloomsbury, I literally got goosebumps. It’s beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

Promise hope (but not too much). Promise change (but not too much). And what if they do succeed? What if they fail? But you know what, damn it, they are trying, and trying hard to do something good is worth a whole hell of a lot.

Interesting times in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, Madiba as he is known, lies on what is probably his deathbed. All good things must end. I was hoping against hope that he would make it until I returned because if I thought it was bad to miss the hail in Cape Town I can only imagine the FOMO I would have by missing being in the country I now call home when its shining star, it’s beacon of hope and forgiveness, passes on to better things.

L’herbe est plus verte … be careful what you wish for.

Sure: be careful what you wish for. Sounds straightforward enough. Except that it’s impossible.

It also sounds trite as hell.

And also, sometimes the best things that happen to you are when you don’t get what you want.

• “Be ready, I’m sober.” – Cedric (oh dear…)
• “The most valuable thing is time because it’s rare and flows without stopping.” – Cedric
• “They’re leading surgeons. They’re not bothered by crumbs on the counter.” – John
• “The stories people have inside them!” – John
• “I felt so uncomfortable that I just said well, I’ll plant my jasmine and leave.” – John
• “And people will pay for it.” – Chris
• “But the thing is? It doesn’t matter. I’m an entrepreneur. You can’t tell me what to do.” – an entrepreneur
• “I hear you ended up in France.” – Steve (different Steve)
• “Like the way you’re thinking.” – Rudolph (I suggested that we rig our multi-plugs to give electric shocks if anyone touched them. I was not serious.)
• “Trust me, it’s a good place to be – right on the crest of opportunity.” – Steve
• “Child’s play, right?” “Could not agree more with you.” – Ellie & Steve
• “It was close to lawyers.” – Neil
• “Layer 7? You may as well have been talking about a layer cake!” – Ellie
• “I know that everyone’s losing money.” – Pete
• “I think you’ll find you’re in a really good position.” – Pete
• “… and then there’s [------].” “Bwahahaha!” – Ellie & Pete (a rose by any other name)

Paris in photos

... because they would NOT fit into one post and I could NOT choose.

Yep, it made an impact! I can't wait to go back to France!!

Paris

Unlike London, Paris is not a place I had spent a lot of time. It’s also not a place I felt particularly comfortable, because it’s one of the many places in the world where I do not speak the local language and if there is one thing that makes me inherently uncomfortable it’s extreme conscious incompetence.

Of course you find a way; my understanding of spoken French is decent, and by the end of the weekend I was translating between the French menu for the Russians at the next table who could not read the French but could speak decent English. I suppose on day one I did make it past a security guard in a building that I suspect did not get many international visitors.

But aside from this, and to that there is a solution: learn French! the French leg of my trip was splendid. I had been to the city once before, briefly, and remembered it being charming in the extreme, with all of the brasseries and bistros with their red chairs facing the street, and a frantic yet relaxed pace.

My last day in the city I wandered about by myself, looking in the shop windows at the ornate dishes and soaps and flower shops and patisseries. How could you not just fall in love with a place like this, where there is hundreds of years of history, consistency of architecture from back in the day when things were built to last, ancient grandiose cathedrals nearly every street, and hidden passageways leading to small courtyards and secret gardens with pink roses and red geraniums?

And did I mention the food? I can happily report that I paid completely no attention to my normal diet. I am not in Paris every day. But I can also feel the impact on my energy & health, and so quickly.

OK sure, it’s a city. The traffic is terrible there is no parking and it’s a little bit dirty. But it’s Paris. I mean, in what other country do they have classical music playing in the car parks, and perfume? No, I’m not kidding, there was perfume. And classical music. In the car park. You can’t make that up. It made quite an impression on me, obviously! 

So there’s a group of friends from the WBA who planned to go to Paris and Champagne the week after the conference. As I technically had a week of leave, I decided to tag along. It was a good call, as before this trip I would have called these guys acquaintances. Now they are friends, albeit friends who live in far-flung corners of the world. One works for what I suppose you can best call a software house in London, one runs a Wi-Fi operator in New Zealand, and then there was our Parisian host, Cedric, who works for Orange which is a mobile carrier.

And as hosts go, you couldn’t ask for more. I love playing host of Cape Town when people visit, and it was pretty clear that Cedric enjoys doing the same thing for Paris.

The first night we got a driving tour of the major landmarks then went for dinner at a restaurant that a friend of his used to run, followed by a visit to the base of the Eiffel Tower, then a midnight drink. As one does. 

Now I should report at this point that our friend managed to parallel park his vehicle in a spot that was probably something like 10cm clearance on either side by the time he was done. I can honestly say I have NEVER seen someone fit a car into a tighter spot in my life. That is some serious parking skills.

The next day was a full-day tour starting at Notre Dame, then a walk about the old part of the city which was made all the more exciting by getting rain dumped on us. Eventually we ran back to the car. I was impressed by Cedric’s ability to move – he ran faster than I did (not that I was really trying, but point made!). It was quite funny though.

Drenched, we went to an area that was very non-touristic for a beautiful lunch before moving back to a tourist area of Sacre Coeur de Paris de Paris, where we avoided the pickpockets and saw a guy performing amazing feats of gymnastics while enjoying a panorama of the city. Onwards to Versailles to pick up the final member of our crew and check the palace & gardens, and where I ran into someone from my Cape Town gym. Small world.

That evening was one of the highlights of the trip. We went to a restaurant called Chez Marcel where the chef was a friend of Cedric, and the food did not disappoint. Possibly the best thing I had to eat all trip was the starter: salade de champignons de Paris de Paris et jambon de Paris de Paris. There is a small vineyard still in Paris, so why not mushrooms & ham? Then there was my introduction to chartreuse (not just a colour!) and drinks at the top of Paris. And all this with great company. Who could complain?? It was just a little bit magical.

The next day, we broke every speed law on the way from Paris to Champagne due to a hangover-induced late start (not mine). The bigger champagne houses there have fixed times for tours and you are supposed to book two weeks in advance, and when the tour of the caves leaves, it leaves. There is this little video that plays just before the tour departs. We got into the movie room at Mumm just as the video was finishing. Perfect timing.

Mumm was interesting considering that I had been to their California branch with Cathleen a few months back. Completely different feel. Fascinating though, I didn’t really know how champagne was made or anything about the caves and now I do. It was certainly like a French version of Napa Valley. And then we went to the French version of a small wine farm in Stellenbosch, which was basically beneath someone’s house. Complete with two dogs and a cherry tree. And a drive through the countryside beforehand. Well, and a lunch where my teasing from the day before about my secret career was replaced with some not-entirely deserved and not-entirely-underserved teasing about cradle-snatching.

These champagne caves were amazing. Yes I know I use this word a lot, but really … this was like family history and world history all combined into one. The roadside poppies were just as beautiful as I had imagined, and the French towns as cute and quaint as could be. These caves were from the houses of a married couple (the husband had died some years before), and the caves from one house were extended to meet the caves under the house across the road. Imagine; you’re standing on a road in a small town and right underneath you are champagne caves generations old. We even got to turn some of the champagne ourselves, which is not an experience you can really get any more as so many of the houses move more and more towards mechanisation.

Adding to that, soldiers from World War II had hidden in caves like these, and even these caves: we saw some inscriptions from those WWII soldiers. Certainly had a different impression on my psyche than seeing the caves in Vietnam. I think there is something very francophone in American culture, or at least in my household growing up; going to rural France felt a bit like going home. Not in the same way Africa did, but similar. This is a history I can identify with, in a way that I just don’t when I go to places in, say, Asia.

And to eat cherries from a cherry tree? I had never done this before. Always birds would get to the cherries first.

In another first, I managed to live for four days without a SIM card, as it was not an easy process to get a pre-paid SIM and Cedric hooked me up with a 7-day Wi-Fi pass. Why he couldn’t get me a SIM card is a bit of a funny story. But c’est la vie! So it was like my own version of the Liron Segev Wi-Fi challenge … survive in a foreign country with no phone and no mobile internet. It was interesting, and taught me a thing or two from a user perspective. Turns out Cedric’s panel comment that there is a risk to brand dilution of not so good Wi-Fi was spot on. Although Orange is such a strong brand that even as an American I have a strong affinity for the brand to the point where inconsistently working Wi-Fi was not about to change my mind.

So there I go, I am the exception to my own public statement that even if something is free, people are demanding and get mad if it doesn’t work. All depends on your mindset I suppose. Connectivity is like a drug.

I have always loved Europe, but it’s one thing to visit, another to live. As one of my emails said at the end of what amounts to a mini-holiday for the crew of us who spent some time in Paris over a few days: ‘now back to reality.’

Back to reality indeed. I really could have used a longer break than three days, but I really don’t have time. I feel like what I need isn’t a rest, but just finishing some things (incompletions are mentally taxing; it’s been proven). But there will always be more things.

The trick is to feel ahead of the curve not behind it. I’ll get there. And in the meantime, July is shaping up to be very interesting.

One of the things that struck me was in the middle of this amazing meal, in an amazing city, in comes this old man, selling I think roses. We dismissed him quite quickly, as one does, but after the moment was gone I watched him approach the other tables in the restaurant and I wondered to myself what this man must be facing in life, to be, at that age, about peddling roses in Paris restaurants. And here we are, I am sure I'm the poorest of the four on my third world wages but still, with plenty of money in the grand scheme of things. Money is a barrier if you let it be. That's what I've realised lately. But .... at the end of the day you must also pay your bills. Reality indeed.

I think one of the other offhand comments made these last few days made me realise that I really don’t smile enough, and I don’t smile enough because my mind is preoccupied. Certainly less naïve now that I’m trying to build a whole damn bakery. I was telling Steve as we entered Notre Dame cathedral that as we are all so concerned with trying to maximise our slice of the pie when we should be setting up a bakery. Then what do we see a few minutes later?

Save water, drink champagne. And cake may not be paleo, but on this trip I ate cake. And plotted how to have my cake and eat it too. Easier said than done.

L'herbe est toujour plus verte dans le champs du voisin. Ain’t that the truth??

• “I’m American.” “Well, nobody’s perfect.” – Ellie & Sebastien (LOVE!)
• “You can do a lot of damage in an hour.” “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We know!” – Ellie & Francois
• “They’re the best.” – Francois
• “Yesterday at ten o’clock in the morning it was as dark as night.” – Yves  
• “That’s a space invader.” – Steve
• “They’ve got rocks in their heads. What are they going to do with those when they’ve got 200 clients connecting?” – Steve
• “It's easier to get in than to get out.” – Cedric (ain't that the truth!)
• “I wonder what happened to the Ruckus dogs.” “They were stolen.” – Steve & Cedric
• “Watch out for the train.” “!! I thought he was kidding. But there’s a train!” – Cedric & Steve
• “You’d break them in half!” “Of course. I do. That’s why they’re scared!” – Steve & Ellie
• “There’s an app for that. Of course there is.” “Oh no. It’s worse than that.” – Ellie & Mark
• “It’s not drinking. It’s religion.” – I actually can’t remember who said this … memory poor when involved in religious activities
• “Chartreuse? I thought that was just a colour.” – Ellie
• “Four green??” [pause] “OK. I do what I want.” “Oh guys. We are dead.” – Pierre & Cedric
• “Paris nights are short.” – Cedric
• “Guys, you’ll have your croissant after champagne.” – Cedric
• “Guys, we made it!” – Cedric (the legend!)
• “Oh, that’s not good. You can’t sell it like that.” “It’s ok, they’re going to show us how to remove it.” “Oh, really?” “OK. Now I show you how to remove the sediment.” – Steve, Ellie & our tour guide
• “Pivoines.” “What does that mean, pink?” “No. Peonies.” – Cedric, Steve, & Mark
• “There aren’t any eggs.” – Ellie (there was actually an egg on my plate at the time)
• “We heard they had to put the room back together.” – Mark (I bet he also knows what happened to the Ruckus dogs!)
• “Guys, stop buying champagne. The car is full!” – Cedric
• “I’m not saying it’d good. I’m saying it could work.” – overheard on the train

Brighton

Last weekend I took the train to Brighton. I had never been there before. I’d been out of London before, once to a country estate off-site in the Jeeves days and once up to Edinburgh. But not for years, and I’d never been to Brighton.

What I knew about Brighton from The Economist is that it was a bit like some of the New England carnival seaside towns, Hampton Beach and the like. In other words, a place whose best years were behind it. Sure, it has some of that slightly run-down feeling but actually much of Europe has that. It’s old. It’s what gives it its charm.

Brighton is super cute, with little walkways, lots of shops, the insane Brighton Pier that The Economist makes fun of (and for good reason…), and many of the row houses of varying shapes, sizes, and construction that England is known for. It also had quite the number of installations of white lilacs.

One thing I do miss about North America is the flowers, most particularly lilacs and also peonies. There is something just intensely romantic about a peony. More so than a rose. Not sure if it’s the size or the almost overwhelming smell they can have, but a bouquet of peonies is like not much else.

Not sure how I got on that topic. I must have been distracted. There were a lot of peonies in Paris, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I was visiting my friend Katherine who lives in Brighton. I met her briefly in South Africa and we have struck up a long distance friendship, seeing each other in such random places as Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and, now, Brighton. She is getting a tertiary degree in something kind of related to my old social enterprise field, which led to some interesting discussions with her and some of the people in her programme, about the differences between the world of theory and the world of practice.

Heck if businesses can’t even get positioning right, imagine how researchers must feel trying to influence the black box that is policymakers or the management of NGOs who are driven by what donors want that doesn’t necessarily make sense.

Beware of the tail wagging the dog.

I’m also uniquely positioned to get this part as I’m sitting with a company in a commodity space and trying to figure out how to create a sustainable competitive advantage. It’s devilishly complex when you get right down to it, because there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of buyer ignorance, a lot of commodification, long sales cycles, and high customer acquisition costs. But hey, you hit on a mix that works, and you’ve created real value.

What I’m going through now seems like something straight out of my Babson case study library. A burning platform on the one side, and turning the whole go-to-market approach on its side while trying to keep the old one going too, because you have to pay the bills at the end of the month. Lots of things means never more important is focus.

Every cloud has a silver lining. You know what they say, perception is reality? Whose perception and how do you guide that? I’m just struggling with my own impatience, but as I was telling Chris at dinner the other day, it’s ultimately all my responsibility. Whatever we accomplish is because we chose to prioritise it and whatever we don’t is because we didn’t, whether consciously or subconsciously. The nice thing about sounding like a broken record is that you do get stuck in peoples’ heads.

I was telling Katharine about my shoulder injury. Finally, and I mean finally, I can actually say with credibility behind me that if something hurts, fix the damn problem and don’t try to train through it. My shoulder is feeling much better after another rest week, and I was careful not to do anything to it this weekend. Just main strength & ignorance moves: strict press, weighted pullup (PBs on both, despite my weight gain from a week of debauchery in London), and, on Saturday, I did Fran with the men’s weight. It was easier that way because the weight is too heavy for it to hurt too much, and I was wicked dehydrated (my calves started cramping when I was doing pullups … never a good sign).

But it led to words being spoken that you will rarely hear in a CrossFit gym: ‘You know that weight’s too heavy, right?’ And after the next day’s workout a few people came up to introduce themselves saying words to the effect of: ‘You’re really GOOD!’ I forget sometimes. I’ve been doing this a long time. But yeah, I guess not everyone walks in off the street and does men’s Fran one day and 3 rounds of 10 strict handstand pushups the next. It’s normal for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s normal.

So time to appreciate how far I’ve come, as I sit about getting fat (normal behaviour will resume when I get home).

The same, by the way, goes for my company, where every little thing, good and bad, is amplified. If the art is in the programming in CrossFit then the art of work, actually almost any job, is in the focus.

Knowledge is power, and context is knowledge. I’m working in Africa, but it’s fascinating to talk to the European ISPs & mobile carriers about their problems. In some ways they are very similar, in some ways very different. I love product management. I even more love the Cranky Product Manager, who is now writing a book and had an awesome quote about it: ‘Bottom line is the book is late because I obnoxiously thought it would be easy.’

Reminds me a bit of me. Well, it beats the hell out of being someone who is so conservative that they sandbag everything and their bosses think they look really really awesome but everyone with any sense knows the truth. Not that I’ve ever seen THAT before.

Speaking of easy, we decided to go take a ‘swim’ after Saturday’s workout. This in the Atlantic Ocean. It had some significant swells that day, so hectic that I could barely get in over my head before the waves knocked me on my ass (literally). Didn’t help that the aforementioned cramping calves meant that I couldn’t really stand. Dehydration is hectic! But I did learn one thing – the ocean is warmer in this part of England than it is in Cape Town. True story.

Back to London and a couple of meetings. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, like sharing thoughts and even some secrets I suppose, with likeminded people and similar experiences. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Request-response. I, like most people, like when people think the way I do. Also when you can discuss that fine line between crazy, bold, and foolish.

It’s a small world yes, but there are also some very long distances involved. That’s what makes all gatherings, be they Wi-Fi industry conventions or CrossFit competitions.

There is always a sense of sadness and letdown that I get when conventions or competitions end and everyone goes home. It’s like that magical moment with my St Paul’s graduating class or my Babson graduating class where we are all together, having shared so much, and you know that never again will that exact set of people be together in one place.

But I miss my team. And I miss my home. Which, as much as I love it, London is not. At least not now.

• “You like it THAT MUCH?” – Katharine
• “You know that weight’s too heavy, right?” – Andy
• “You had me at spirulina.” – Ellie
• “So we’ll go out for tea, and I can teach you how the internet works.” – Ellie
• “Don’t be afraid to practice. It doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re learning.” – overheard at CrossFit
• “It’s not that England is inherently awful.” – Katharine
• “I’ve only had one egg today. It’s upsetting.” – Ellie
• “That’s crazy.” “That doesn’t mean it won’t work.” “I didn’t say that.” – David & Ellie
• “I don’t do anything halfway.” “And you’re calling *me* crazy?” “Maybe I’m just bold.” – David & Ellie (or something else!)

London

It had been a long time since I’d spent more than a few hours in London. When I was at Ask Jeeves I used to come over here a lot, and I even thought about moving here but I never did.

It used to feel very exotic. Now it feels much less so, because there is a lot of British influence in South Africa. Actually it feels mostly like a colder, busier, version of home, with slightly different brands and accents. And a lot more warning signs (Beware the pickpockets! Don’t climb on the fence! Please leave quietly!).

What else used to feel different was the Wi-Fi conference I attended. The first time I went to one, in San Francisco, I didn’t know much of anything. I knew no one, I didn’t know what Wi-Fi offload was, and I really thought Ruckus was the enemy. True story. Now, I wasn’t able to be at the venue for two minutes without seeing a friend, I not only know what offload is but I know how to debate with mobile carriers what their core competency is in the Wi-Fi space, and Ruckus is one of my two favourite hardware vendors.

They’re still rookies for letting their dogs get stolen. No, I didn’t steal them. But really.

Well, the conference started off with a bang when I went to the pre-day Roamfest mostly just to scout out some stuff for a partner, and of course wound up running into my old drinking buddies (aka friends), one of whom managed to get me a ticket to this river cruise/London Eye tour hosted by The Cloud. That was fun.

Not so much the staying out until 3am drinking bit when I had a 7am call with Cisco, was speaking on a panel at the conference later in the day, and my hotel’s Wi-Fi didn’t work. So I stumbled into the local Starbucks to use the free Wi-Fi, and I was so tired the boy who’d made my day the day before by speaking to me in Afrikaans tried to make my day by giving me an extra shot that was really strong …. But there comes a time when caffeine cannot help you.  

This time around I didn’t learn too much from the conference. I did, however, make some very good connections and not just at the bar. It’s a question of positioning and of core competence. I am starting to understand the ecosystem very well, where the value sits in the value chain (as they say in MBA speak), and where I think Skyrove should go.

By the time my last meeting on Friday was complete I was drained. Physically (getting as little sleep in two nights combined as I normally get in one, plus more drinking than I had done all year long), emotionally, and even mentally. Friday brought three meetings, two with very large companies and one with a telecoms industry analyst.

One thing that is interesting. When you look at a problem differently or refuse to accept constraints put on you, things happen.

But also, saying something doesn’t make it so.

I was lucky enough to have dinner this week with one of my wonderful friends from the Ask Jeeves days, who has now made it to the senior levels of a big, and, from what it sounds, well-run multi-national. One of the things we discussed is that awful feeling you can have in the pit of your stomach when you go home every day and feel terrible about the decisions being made at work, and you can’t do anything about it because either it’s not politically accepted to do so, or you’ve voiced your opinion and been overruled.

The thing about being in charge is that you don’t ever have that problem. You have other ones: the fear of ‘is this the right path?’ The frustration of ‘why can’t I be six places at once?’ or ‘why hasn’t this happened yet?’ or trying to stay the stable rock because that’s your job when everyone else is busy worrying about the part that they are concerned with, and it’s your job to give context to everyone.

He also said something very important, which is that you must not forget the impact that you have on the people around you. Little things you say matter, and at the end of the day if you’re a leader you must push people to be better and to deliver, but as someone said so well on Twitter this week: ‘Never push someone past the point where they don’t give a f*ck.’

Or past the point where they just get annoyed. Speaking of annoyance, the side benefit of not training this week is that my rotator cuffs are doing much better. Still a niggle, and still annoying.

A few things I’ve been repeating to my team over and over again:

• There is an opportunity cost to everything; focus on what is important.
• We don’t make decisions on gut feel; but you don’t always need data (some things are obvious).
• The only thing worse than no data is bad data. A number that’s not good is OK; juicing the stats is not.
• You will make mistakes; that’s fine. Covering it up is not.
• When the company makes a mistake, we apologise and take responsibility, and try not to do it again. Don’t forget the last part.

 So did I learn much at the conference? Not really. Some of the implications in terms of messaging I will wait for our PR engine to bring to life, but it was really in the meetings in and around the conference that the interesting stuff happened. Of course, the first rule of non-disclosure is …. I know nothing.

There’s this quote attributed to Greg Glassman: “The magic is in the movement, the art is in the programming, the science is in the explanation, and the fun is in the community.”

Well, when it comes to Wi-Fi, the magic is in finding what the venue actually values, the art is in the go-to-market approach, the science is in the solution mix, and the fun …. well, the fun comes from figuring it all out.

The whole conference there was only one speaker who really focused on the first point with any degree of specificity. No one really talked about the second, other than the hardware vendors talking about their kick-ass solution sets, and much as I love my vendors, it’s mostly all a commodity space. The right mix can be compelling, but the needs and capabilities are constantly shifting.

The same can be said of most things in life: sport, business, hell, even relationships. When things aren’t going well, you can normally tell. Don’t be afraid to admit it, but figure out why, and change. People aren’t buying what you’re selling? Find out what they want. Don’t just try and sell them something else and hope they buy it. Constantly injured or never getting stronger or seeing results but not losing the weight? Don’t be afraid to look in those dark places.

But that bit above about not pushing other people past the point where they don’t give a damn? Don’t push yourself there, either. I’ve been down that road before, and it’s also not a good place to be.

Enjoy the journey. Like it or not, you’re on it, may as well smile!

• “I forgot I was working!” – Zama
• “I know there’s a bar here. It says: ‘bar.’” – Chris
• “Don’t underestimate the power of those little statements.” – Chris
• “You’re never going to get through your to-do list.” – Chris
• “Ellie, we did have summer last week.” – Carole
• “Welcome to the best city in the world.” – David
• “The cost of the capex is almost free.” – overheard at WBA
• “Google likes moonshots.” – Paul
• “You know tonight’s gonna be worse.” “How can it be worse??” – Mark & Ellie
• “If you can’t get 600kb or 1Mbps, back onto cellular you go.” – CEO of BandwidthX (LOL)
• “I don’t think I should drink any more gin tonight.” “What are you going to drink, then?” “I don’t know. More gin?” – Steve & Ellie
• “Well, when you have a CEO who doesn’t know what auth is.” – Steve
• “I’m not speaking French. I just said ‘hibou.’” – Ellie
• “That’s a Ruckus dog!” “No it’s not … oh. You’re right. It is a Ruckus dog!” – Cedric & Ellie
• “Perfect timing.” – Cedric
• “You know exactly what to say. You’re just too polite to say it.” “True.” – David & Ellie
• “Is that a metaphor for something?” – David (he actually left me speechless. I was impressed)
• “And then he wasn’t at the bar!” – Steve
• “You know what? Just grab it.” – Spencer  
• “It’s my favourite attribute.” “It’s a weapon.” – JT & Steve (naivete)
• “ … my advice on who you can trust. Assuming you can trust *me*!” “The way that you say that makes me think that I can.” – Ellie & Paul  
• “You’ve come into the industry at an interesting time.” – Russell