Category: Blog
-
We don’t have winters here in Guadeloupe. It’s a small Caribbean island of almost 400,000 people, affectionately called “Gwada” by the locals. We have two distinct seasons: the dry Carême and the wet Hivernage. But no matter the month, we have sun all year round and beaches on every side. One of my favourite places…
-
You have been tweaking the same thing for longer than you care to admit. You keep second-guessing it, adjusting, pulling back, adjusting again. You can’t leave it alone. Is this you? What if the problem isn’t with your creation? What if the real problem is that there is nobody around who understands enough to tell…
-
Long story short: I want all the pets. In fact, in my imagination, I pretty much already have them. In my short stories, I vicariously own a whole barn, complete with goats, horses, donkeys, chickens, a cat, a dog, and it seems to welcome a new animal every so often. I love animals. In real…
-
I can’t remember exactly when I was first asked what I wanted to do with my life. I don’t mean the whimsical question we ask toddlers for fun. I mean the time when that question carried real, heavy consequences. Sixteen? Seventeen? Do you remember when that question was put to you? Perhaps, like me, you…
-
Most of us have been in that room. Or on that call. The interviewer asks one of their stock questions: “tell me about a time you faced a significant challenge.” I’m willing to bet that your answer is right there, already thought out, rehearsed, ready to go. Now try to remember the last time you…
-
“He’s a dreamer! “This is how my primary school teacher described me when I was 9 years old. I didn’t know at the time, but the dreaming came from boredom. For a long time, many of us have internalised labels that are meant to manage us. We learn to tamp it down, to focus, to…
-
There’s a thread running through the majority of these memories, bear with me, you’ll see. First memory I’ll mention: my bike from my father. It had state-of-the-art spokes, the brand was Skyway, and it is, remarkably, the only gift from him I can remember. Someone in the neighbourhood was so jealous of that bike it…
-
The case for building your personal brand before you need it. A book published before Google changed everything There’s a book that’s marked me above many. Brand You by Tom Peters, published in 1999. In it, Peters made a prediction that sounded almost radical at the time: that the era of the lifelong company employee…
-
There’s a particular pleasure in the early stage of an idea. The designing. The mapping. The hours you spend arranging things in your head until they feel ready to exist in the world. I know that pleasure well. A little too well, as it turns out. Because here’s what I eventually had to admit to…
-
Let me ask you something: when was the last time you questioned why you work the way you do? Not whether to work. We all know we have to eat. But the form your work takes. The career path you chose, or perhaps the one that chose you. Have you ever stopped to wonder whether…