Category Archives: Jobs and Business

The New Scheme – 3Desk

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I’ve been working on a new business for a while now – it’s just birthing as I write this (www.3desk.com). Here’s the first blog post, which explains why and hopefully ties back to simplicity:

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It’s rather strange that in the interconnected, multicultural, permeable world in which we live, most companies have permanent employees and most people a job with a single company.

Employees tend to work full-time – often in a single location, with a set team usually chosen by others and salary that mostly changes yearly and incrementally. The corporate ‘culture’ is often dictated, projects pre-determined, set holiday allowances given and rules and regulations created to enable the managers to manage.

Those lucky enough to be able to choose their employers tend to make their decisions on the basis of a combination of factors that make certain organisations more attractive than others.

Yet employees still work for ‘a’ company with all of its quirks and features. People can spend years in atmospheres which, left to their own devices, they would never have designed themselves. There is often a disconnection between someone’s desires and what they are forced to accept and yet many of us spend most of our waking hours within this system.

Savvy investors would never invest all their savings into one stock and yet the norm is to work for one company.

Try to get a mortgage as a successful freelancer with multiple sources of revenue and it’s highly likely that you’ll find the bank less willing to lend you money than if you’re employed by one company. Which, given you’ve got more sources of income, surely is less risky?

People are either in, or they’re out. Employed or unemployed.

At least that’s how it’s been and is… mostly.

Given the recession, technological advances and mobility, things are changing. A recent article stated that as many as 35% of the US workforce will be freelancing in the next 10 years.

I’ve just picked up a book by Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman, called ‘The Start Up of You‘. It’s a manifesto to self-reliance and becoming more entrepreneurial about work as more and more of us turn to ‘portfolio’ careers.

In the ‘further reading’ section of the book, ‘Free Agent Nation‘ is the first book mentioned – a book ahead of its time, which promotes being a ‘free agent’, another way of describing a freelancer, or contractor.

The employment landscape is shifting. With online freelance marketplaces, like Elance and Odesk, more and more people are able to work remotely, choosing their projects.

However, there are many more freelancers who work face-to-face across the globe, from contractors on building sites to those working for the UN in refugee camps, to designers of high-end technology.

At 3Desk, we believe that the future of work will be freer, more flexible. People will be ‘agents’ rather than employees. We’d love for people to be able to have more choice.

Imagine a liquid market for talent, in which someone knows their value. A market in which people choose who they work for, when they work and for how much.

Our dream is that in 20 years, the Harvard MBA graduation class will predominantly choose to freelance because of the advantages that this brings – like taking time off when they want to, work with people they liked, setting their terms or choosing a 3-day week to spend time with their kids because they can earn enough that way.

Sure, there are advantages to the safety net that a company provides and the hassle that is removed through collecting people to together for a singular goal. We’re not extolling the removal of organizations, but instead making them more porous.

Imagine employers being able to choose the talent they need as and when they need it. Instead of bringing in a big consulting firm to work on a project, what if they were able to select the best 12 people in the market, who’ve worked together before on other projects and have chosen one another. Imagine hiring them directly for their skills, without having to pay for the centre-of-town offices, marble receptions and other costs associated with creating a ‘consulting brand’, which really is a way of trying to collect the greatest talent ‘within’ a business, because that’s ‘how it’s done’.

Imagine if the unemployed could find pieces of work in their neighbourhoods, to help bring in small pieces of income and reduce the feeling that a full-time job is the only way.

Although a long way off, that’s why we started 3Desk - because we believe that both employers and employees want more security AND more flexibility – and it is only through creating a liquid marketplace, where people understand their true value, that they are able to work the way they want to.

It’s early days, but in time we’d love to try to help people feel that being an independent agent had all of the benefits of a full-time job, with less of the negatives – as well as reducing the loneliness, or problems that being an independent currently causes – from pensions and benefits, to ensuring people feel part of something bigger than themselves.

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Tech Startups and Simplicity

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Over the last few months, I’ve immersed myself in the world of the internet startup, funny little world that it is (to many within, it is there whole universe – please remind me of this as I delve deeper into the labyrinth).

Never has so much money and time been spent on so many lines of code that to most of us, make absolutely no sense at all.

Those that win, win big and fast – creating young billionaires/millionaires. But like every ‘hot’ market, the higher-profile-characters are a lucky few – many, many more toil unhealthy hours in the pursuit of e-recognition and riches.

There are obvious challenges to the simplicity-seeker here, for example:

- The reduction of in-person interaction, relying instead on the virtual

- An unhealthy desire for riches which, when obtained quickly, result in a lottery-win style appreciation and mass envy even though there is evidence of little contribution to overall happiness and some rather outrageous spending habits

- Building technology to solve problems that before we built all this technology weren’t problems – solutions layered on problems, layered on solutions

- Waste – mind-boggling amounts of people working on algorithms and sites that serve no purpose initially or eventually – the Mary Celestes of the web, of which there are many millions more than there are Facebooks. Although in fairness, the same can be said of many other areas of life

- The work ethic, which seems to promote the ‘every-waking-hour-in-front-of-a-screen-is-the-only-way’ approach

Yet there are also some fascinating lessons for simplicity:

Today, simplicity rules when it comes to web startups – in design, user-experience, products and even methodology.

The advice of the moment is to build only what you need to – be lean, create only a minimum-viable product (MVP) before you launch. My favourite simplicity quote, ‘perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but nothing left to take away’ (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) is never more relevant than in the tech scene at the moment, where people are being encouraged to kill features, rather than add them and to make startups as simple as possible in order to test assumptions.

Entrepreneurs are being advised to run their businesses like a meditative mind – removing all unnecessary noise and focusing instead on the present moment.

Consumers too, are demanding simplicity in terms of user experience (UX) and some of the greatest successes are those that have enabled us to simplify.

Google – their home-page design is one of the simplest of the web (and the most popular)

Dropbox – as simple a file-sharing service as possible

Apple – a UX which works, is intuitive and has a simple elegance

This article, which I mentioned long ago in a similar post, talks about simplicity as a source of competitive advantage:

Technology is good. But my sense is that many people are developing it for all the wrong reasons in ways that are unhealthy and make little sense.

Over the coming months, perhaps years – if things go according to plan – I will be further immersing myself in this somewhat bizarre, much-feted world and, I hope, retaining an iota of my simplicity ideology and a balanced life.

Technology enables me to work almost without interruption from my house (although I write this from London) – the question is whether or not I’ll get there as often, whether I can build something that makes the world a little simpler and whether or not I can achieve a balance in my own life as I go.

Beautiful Technology

Start Down

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The Dalai is a wise man. I shall be remembering these words as I continue to keep my head down, with my start up.

This will be a bit of an update post, rather than an amazing-tips-for-simplification-post. Please forgive the self-indulgence, but hopefully it explains my absence and current perspective.

What a few weeks… I’ve been in beavering mode, working hard to pull together the pieces of this new business.

There have been many moments of ‘flow’, enjoying the focus and singlemindedness that it brings. There have also been intense frustrations, my forehead metaphorically connecting at high speed with my desk. I’ve both lots to show, yet very little concrete for months of relentless graft. Generally, however, I’ve hugely enjoyed the creativity (people forget starting a business is a massively creative process), the intellectual stimulus and the feeling of building something bigger than oneself.

Ironically, or usefully, the main focus of my attention has been trying to find a technical co-founder, which means for all the claims of doing something ‘new’ I’m essentially doing exactly what I used to, but for me instead of a client.

That should stand me in pretty good stead, you might think. Yet it is still proving the hardest search I’ve conducted so far. I got to within a hairs breadth of taking on a dynamic duo, but for technological reasons we decided it wasnt quite a fit. So I continue, day and night, to scour for this elusive beast – the technological wizard with a business brain.

I’ve learned so much these last few months – about co-founders, internet businesses, strange computing languages, investors, negotiations. All of which, of course, I will be distilling into simple observations in short order.

I’ve also taken moments aside to live and enjoy – tobogganing, a blustery hike, ales with friends, an aborted attempt to build a snowman on account of snow that refused to roll itself into convenient ‘snowballing’ balls. Yeah, I know, ‘bad workmen…’

So, forgive me if I’m not as present as the Dalai would want. More shortly… for now, I present the rather pathetic snow nipple:

It was cold out there...

One of These Things First

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One of my favorite songs is by the great Nick Drake, called One of These Things First.

It’s a wonderful tune about ‘could haves’ – Nick’s fragile, angelic voice tells us that he could have been many things. The full lyrics are posted below. Hear the song on YouTube

Nick could well have been many of these things. Tall, bright, and good-looking, he got into Cambridge and had huge potential.

Sadly, he became more and more a recluse and finally died of an overdose – whether deliberate, nobody knows. He leaves a magical legacy,  in the form of the three albums released, and the sound of his voice lingers, like a wisp of smoke from a past fire – daily he is still able to add value to peoples’ lives through his melodies, extraordinary finger picking guitar, and haunting lyrics. However, be never saw his success, nor will be the things he could’ve.

As the New Year begins, we turn to resolutions. I have mixed views – part of me believes that resolutions lead to unhappiness and are rarely fulfilled. The other is that they help sharpen the mind and retune.

I’ve also noticed some regret creeping into my thoughts recently. I’m fortunate enough that I could do many things I’ve dreamed of. Yet much of my reminiscing is tinged with regret – that I didn’t continue with the piano, or that I never worked at languages – of the times when I’ve  let fear get in the way of approaching people I’ve fancied.

I could have done so many things better and I have wasted so many situations – when I failed to carpe diem as I wish I had. There have been times when I’ve taken the easy route and let laziness take hold.

Yet regret is a waste, unless we use it. We learn from our experiences and our regrets and try to make small increasing changes. That’s why we make resolutions – to accomplish little changes in our lives to try to regret less, and live more.

The smaller they are and the more we enjoy them, the more likely we will keep them.

For me one of my resolutions is to try not to regret, but to move forward. To try to achieve the readily achievable, and ignore the rest.

Happy 2012

One of These Things First Lyrics   

I could have been a sailor, could have been a cook
A real live lover, could have been a book.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be
Here and now
I would be, I should be
But how?
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

I could have been your pillar, could have been your door
I could have stayed beside you, could have stayed for more.
Could have been your statue, could have been your friend,
A whole long lifetime could have been the end.
I could be yours so true
I would be, I should be through and through
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

I could have been a whistle, could have been a flute
A real live giver, could have been a boot.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be even here
I would be, I should be so near
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

Starting to Finish

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One of the tricks of meditation is to gently bring one’s mind back from the various thoughts that seem to spring eternal, as if from some internal thought fountain, each time they wander. The goal (if tricks and goals can be applied to meditation) is attentiveness. To be fully conscious of the moment – without letting thoughts break that attention… such as what you’re going to eat later, or if that’s your car alarm going off, or whether you’ve managed not to think about anything for longer than ten seconds.

Meditation is about focusing and developing that initial desire – it is about calming the mind. It is about bringing yourself back to that simple starting point whenever you stray.

We should remember why we began…

I often look up an important article on the web then see an interesting link, which reminds me to share something on Twitter, then Facebook and before I know it, I’ve entered into a half-hour loop, which has taken me further and further from the initial intention. Many sites, advertisements, applications and so on are designed exactly with that in mind – to capture your attention. It is no wonder we find it so hard to focus and concentrate when billions of dollars are spent to try to seize morsels of our consciousness at every turn.

It’s not just the micro-pieces, but also the macro. Sometimes we forget why we started dating someone, or why we left a job to begin a new business. We can be so caught up in an argument with a partner, or the desire to reach the next level of our business targets, that we even forget the reason for our being there.

To a CEO trying to buy another billion-dollar business to be the CEO of an even bigger business to achieve even greater profits and even greater cost reduction – you have to ask, “Why?” Why did this character first get into business? Like our friends in the book Barbarians at the Gate, have these titans of business, or ‘big swinging dicks’ become so lost that they’ve forgotten that they started in business to earn a fair wage, or change the world for the better?

In the tech start-up world, valuations have created billion-dollar companies within a few years – yet how often do the creators of remarkable programming languages, or social media platforms stop to wonder about the why? Why did we start inventing things? The fastest growing company in the world EVER was Groupon, a company that helps sell things you never knew you needed more quickly. Is that important? Surely, a company discovering a cure for tuberculosis, or a social enterprise should have been a quicker hit? Sadly not.

When you get on a plane and you wander through business class into the rabble at the back, past the overweight people trying not to feel self-conscious in business class, you have to wonder if they are there because it’s important that they’re there, or because they’ve become gently accustomed to the luxury, like the proverbial boiling frog.

As my new venture takes shape, please come and twock me round the head if I start talking about wanting to be the ‘biggest’ if I cannot substantiate the statement with a rationale that make sense from a world-improving, spiritually-conscious point of view. I want to make a difference to people’s lives, my own included. Yet I hope I never lose sight of why I begin / began, because:

  • I love building things (but I’d make a crap architect)
  • It’s wonderful to conceive of something that can change the way things work and actually create it and see it grow to be bigger than any human part
  • A ‘good’ business has more potential to make an impact than a ‘good’ charity (in my view)
  • It pays the bills and it’s fun. Bonza. My first business, was begun because we’d been enjoying doing it free and wanted to do it for longer
  • I like to break bad rules / traditions
  • It’s good to hire people better than yourself
  • You can be free to set your own direction
  • It’s hugely challenging

So take some time to focus, harness that attention. Set your direction then continue to realign it so you’re not distracted by the news, your peers or marketeers. Rather than hit targets, realise your intention. Unless of course you started to beat others and get rich, in which case start again.

One of the most amazing things ever finished on the misty morning I saw it... The beginnings of a black marble Taj sit the other side of the river which was never finished. Still - good job!

Simple Venturing

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What heats up must cool down… From the baking heat and relaxation back to London.

Trying, oh so hard, to retain the best bits of London in Kenya and the best bits of Kenya in London.

Spying on myself in each place – using the juxtapositions to explore the essence of Simpletom, to determine what is me and what is my surroundings.

In the last couple of months, there’s been the beginnings of a turn in my professional life.

I was reminded, with the help of a successful entrepreneur who took an interest in my work, that for all the dedication, there is an opportunity cost of working that’s not only about what you could be doing if you weren’t working – but also what other work you could be doing.

What if you’re doing just fine, but that your skills would be much better suited to a different pursuit?

Much of life is about trying to discover what you’re best at. But even then, you might be a good entrepreneur with a shitty idea. You can do all the things an entrepreneur would normally do and still finish frustrated, dissatisfied and perhaps bankrupt.

Yet if we always look onward and what ‘might be’, we may never give our current pursuits the momentum and graft they need. What’s right for you might not feel easy. At what point do you twist, or stick?

Where does simplicity fit into all of this? If we maximize our potential, are we enabling simplicity? If we think simply, might we not invent, or push ourselves to maximize the social good of which we’re capable? Might we regret what we didn’t do, might we resent simplicity for holding us back?

Jeff Bezos of Amazon stated that he started the company because of a ‘regret minimization framework’ – namely that if he didn’t do it, he might always regret it.

Regardless of whether the world is better with or without Amazon – if he’d opted for simplicity would that have meant not bothering?

When I got back from my adventures in Kenya 6 months ago, I was committed to building a new business. So off I trotted and worked hard and devised innovative methods and made hundreds of calls and worked myself to the bone. Yet nothing much happened. I’ve managed to bring aboard a few clients and see some inklings of movement. Admittedly, at six months in, it’s still early in the process. If I continued, perhaps things would start to gain traction and fly. However, it’s been a whole load of effort with little reward.

Do I continue? Or is it better to use the relative flexibility that a small business enables and u-turn before it’s too far gone, with a slight knock to ones pride?

I think the latter.

I’ve decided that I need to shift the business for several reasons. The first – that I’m not sure I’m enjoying it. Second, the market is dead and looks like it will be for some time still. Third, the ‘old’ model of recruitment is also dying, or at least isn’t prone to flashes of creativity. You put in X you get our Y. Simple, perhaps, but in the world of the Internet and technology, there are other businesses where you can put in X and get 100Y. Not that the X=Y work isn’t important and perhaps truer and purer. I’m thinking of a carpenter or gardener here, for example. Nevertheless, if you’re not enjoying it and it’s not producing results (other than the wonderful lessons we learn) then the X just doesn’t add up. In addition, only a few businesses finish the way they started – rather than being stubbornn, or seeing the initial slow start as a failure, should I optimistically see it as a learning experience, or a fertile bed for new developments.

My only concern is that it’s happened a lot.

I have a new idea I’ve been working on. An exciting one. One that requires a change of direction. Perhaps not a complete U-turn, but one that does require a healthy sidestep.

Moreover, I’ve remembered what it is to be an enthusiastic entrepreneur, full of ideas and passion, instead of someone flogging a semi-alive donkey.

Prior to working on this idea, it’s been hard and I’ve been excusing that resistance, believing that it’s essential in the pursuit of doing something well.

That’s still true, but if all of it’s difficult, you have to wonder if you’re doing something wrong.

With this new idea, things have fallen into place. Investors are interested. People want to join  in and potential clients want to hear more. Suddenly it feels less like a fight.

Starting a business is difficult, but if it’s too difficult – maybe something’s wrong. Like a good relationship – there will always be difficult parts, some extremely difficult. However, there are relationships you want to stick with. They’re the ones where your commitment pushes you through the most difficult times and give you the energy to carry on. On the other hand, some relationships just won’t work, and you don’t have the energy to continue. At the beginning both look attractive, but I guess it’s only through exploration that you truly discover where you’re heading.

We’ll see… but for the moment, I’m enjoying this traction and movement and loving the fact that progress is easy, rather than a struggle.

More shortly!

Simplicity Vs Corporate

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I don’t necessarily let my clients know about this blog.

That leads me to wonder whether there is a fundamental disconnect – a tipple of schizophrenia in my life that I need to address.

If you need to ‘fake it to make it’, does that make you essentially a fraud?

Clearly, this website is in the public domain, as is my company. The more curious clients won’t struggle to find me here. I hope they like what they see. However, my sense is that many people I work with might not understand my simplicity quest.

The fact is that at this early stage of the business, I’d rather not scare anyone away by ‘coming on too strong’. If I’m professional and provide an excellent service, does it help my clients if they know that I am vagabonding and trying to maintain a work-life balance? If you’re talking to CEOs and heads of department, is it OK for them to know that you might be in your boxer shorts at the other end of the phone, living in a foreign city?

Simplicity might suggest to some that I’m not serious about what I do, or that because of my life choices and desire for fewer technological interruptions, that I’ll be less contactable.

Those who’ve followed this journey will know that simplicity should improve one’s professional life. That simplicity is about working better, more authentically and more intelligently.

I’d like to fuse these two streams and be able to demonstrate that taking time off work, being clear-headed, disconnecting and general simplifying all contribute to improving one’s working life and benefits those clients I work with.

Perhaps as things mature and I feel confident about a regular client base, I can be bolder. There’s something to be said for holding things back rather than upsetting people with your views, but there’s also something to be said for going balls out and expressing yourself overtly. Maybe clients would be more attracted to that honesty than the corporate veil that descends into boardrooms and cubicles worldwide that strips us of our personality. Perhaps I would win many more clients by being Simpletom than by being corporatetom.

As I look out at people here in Berlin (this post was written while I was there), I’m continually impressed by the fundamental honesty in their expression, their views and their unwillingness to toe-the-line.

For now, I’ll enjoy my clandestine Simpletoming and work on ways to begin the fuse the two…

My office window when I worked in Madagascar

Simply Loosing It

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Simpletom…?!?

Are you still there?

Is that you?

Oh dear.

This last couple of weeks, it’s just been Tom. Perhaps Stressedtom, Anxioustom or even Corporatetom…but frankly there needs to be some serious ember blowing on the coals of calm to be allowed to write here as Simpletom.

In addition, it’s entirely of my own doing. No external influence has induced this mania. There’s been no health scares, external issues, arguments, loves lost, keys dropped down drains, financial disasters or mishaps. Just a healthy dollop of self-induced pressure, layered-on expectation with a dash of flagellation.

As the cool of autumn creeps into the streets, is there a sense of another year passing that is igniting a sense of inadequate productivity?

Why do we tangle ourselves in these self-made balls of stress?

I’ve written here many times that more seems to get done when you let go of things than when you try to grab at things.

I’m no stranger to the world of hard work, but I lament the modern ideology that we must work faster and harder, despite our technological advances. Are many of our environmental disasters caused not because of basic need, but the hyped sense that we’re only human if we’re continually achieving?

This week I’ve achieved much, and yet nothing. I’ve made connections, sent mails and seen some chinks of light, yet I have nothing physical to show for my many hours spent tap-tapping away at this computer and yak-yacking away on the phone. The whole week I’ve been trying to do things more quickly, while lamenting my tiredness and inability to keep up a continual breakneck pace.

I’ve remembered to ‘manage my energy, not my time’, yet it still remains a concept rather than a reality.

It’s made all the more difficult by the knowledge that I ‘should’ be simplifying and that this momentum runs counter to my instincts, conflicting with the knowledge that building a business is difficult and needs utter focus. Sadly, my new entity isn’t a kinky platform that once built will scale exponentially – instead, it’s very much a ‘you get out what you put in’ type of business. That means every hour spent languishing and laughing could, through the lens of ‘success’, be viewed as a lost hour.

These last weeks I’ve not maintained the balance. When working, I’ve felt stressed at the weight of work to do. When not working I’ve felt guilty about the work I’m not doing. I’m neither here nor there.

Stress isn’t good for me. I feel breathless. No matter how long I sleep, I still feel exhausted. I just cannot enjoy myself.

Time for some self-medication (of the simple kind):

Please Stressedtom; remember that that one’s work is never…can never be done, because there is always more. You need to expect less, enjoy more.

You need to remember never, ever to compare yourself with others. They are exactly that – others – who have an entirely different physical, emotional and circumstantial makeup, which means that many of the things you covet in others are realistic, or would damage your own existence.

You need to remember that you’re all right sometimes. Flagellation isn’t constructive for growth.

You need to remember that Rome, or even Milton Keynes for that matter, wasn’t built in a day.

You need to remember what makes you happy.

‘Tis BE – not TO BE – that is the answer.

A reminder of less stressful times - an 'average' evening spent on the beach in Goa

Simply Berlin and Vagabonding

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About five days ago I moved to Berlin, continuing my theme of vagabonding rather than settling. In the last three years, I’ve lived in San Francisco, Kenya and now Berlin is my home. The first two were both unforgettable and life changing, so I hope this meandering remains as positive as it has been.

At this stage in life, probably just short of the looming familiar responsibilities that tend to arise in one’s 30s, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity for this exploration.

At times I’ve envied others whose businesses and relationships have gone from strength-to-strength. At others, I’ve figuratively pounded my itchy feet in the dust of freedom and lived in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if things had gone ‘to plan’.

One thing is for sure, I’ll never regret these last few years, even if I’m far from where my younger self imagined I might be and I suffer a fair few lonely evenings.

Although my new business is based in the UK, the nature of the work (almost solely phone-based) and my desire not to get sucked into London life, means that Berlin offered a inexpensive, accessible alternative.

Yet the changes haven’t been without strain. Starting a new business on your own is difficult. Really difficult.

It requires the dedication to get out of bed each morning and to self-motivate, even when there’s little other than your wavering self-belief to keep you at your desk. In an industry like mine, where you rely on just a handful of contracts each year, it also means you can spend many months working hard before your first cheque arrives in the mail.

It is an unsettling time – leaving you unsure whether it will be next week or five months down the line that you start to see tangible results. It involves trusting yourself, your offering and the process enough to keep you motivated. Sometimes, the insecurity can get a hold of you, but you have to persevere and push through the self-doubt.

My decision to move to Berlin is questionable. It could further exacerbate the feeling of alienation. In London I have friends, family and a home. Surely when you’re working alone and hard, it’s good to be around those who can support you?

This line of thought holds some truth. Yet there’s also something to be said for spicing up one’s environment and enjoying new perspectives to keep things fresh.

Certainly it’s possible that I won’t be able to enjoy the city as I might if I were here to study, or simply to learn German. That’s a sacrifice I’ll have to make.

Yet the benefit is that at the end of each day I can reward myself with something new and different. Being in a new place, there is a lack of community, but there is also a chance to learn on every street corner and meet new people.

I have no idea how long I’ll stay. At the moment, I’m committed to spending a couple of months and seeing how this vagabonding goes, and to try to make it work for the short-term. Who knows, the short might extend into the long.

All you can affect is the present.

***

POSTSCRIPT - I realise I’ve recently meandered into navel-gazing rather than simplicity tips for you, dear reader – so I will make an effort to try to add the existential with the practical. More to follow and I promise to be less of a curmudgeon about London and life in the UK (as one reader noticed – negativity isn’t the way). I guess after Africa you sometimes see things with fresh and alarming perspective.

Thanks for all your kind thoughts, support and wishes. It’s a surprise to me how many people actually read these ramblings.

Not So Simple

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Many simplicity bloggers around write so consistently and with such positivity that one wonders whether they are mere mortals.

Usually the better ones amongst them write about some struggles along the way, but nearly all seem to have burst through their difficulties when they write. Many a post’s fundamental sentiment is; ‘I used to…’ or ‘it is difficult when you start then it becomes easier’… or ‘then it all became clear…’ or ‘and when I gave up drinking and meat and breathing that’s when I finally started levitating’.

Damn them for their precocious simplicity ability and know how. What about the rest of us who merely see glimpses of the truth through the barrage of our day to day?

I started writing this blog because simplicity wouldn’t go away and I wanted to explore it more deeply and dutifully. By writing and thinking and writing and thinking (plus some more writing and thinking) in the public domain, I knew I would leave myself open to more criticism, fear and failure. Knowing myself as I do, I knew that at times my discipline would run up against it. Fortunately the blog has mostly coincided with being in Kenya, allowing me significant space to begin this journey. After all, I had more time on my hands than I knew what to do with so the writing and the thinking and the being was easy.

However, in the last month or so as I’ve dived back into the ‘real world’ of London and Europe and began to power up again, I have been reminded how difficult simplicity is to maintain.

Not so difficult that I am in any doubt that it is of vital import. I remain convinced that simplicity is one of the sterling and most powerful tools at our disposal.

But thoughts of success, money, achievement and status have levered their way back into my consciousness. The noise of consumerism shrieks so loudly that it is almost impossible to ignore. The judgement of others much more potent than when you’re hiding, far far away. After a month in London I found myself pacing around and chomping, or is that champing at the bit with the same fervour as everyone else – if not more so to make up for lost time.

Then, thankfully, I had to return to Kenya, where I now sit, and find myself seeing things in perspective once more. I want to try to take some time to digest this roller-coaster in the meagre two weeks I am back – watch this space.

Simplicity, however much time and attention you have given it remains a significant challenge. It is only by continually reminding yourself what is important that you can make any progress. Sometimes, even with these reminders, you slide backwards and things become more difficult.

What these bloggers do is allow gentle reminders. I wonder if they even follow their own advice? Their popularity is perhaps because they turn the reader’s mind back to action – or should that be inaction.

Please don’t leave simplicity to an e-mail read quickly once a week. Help me out by reminding yourself as often as you can to at least think about what you’re doing as you rush around – and whether it is really the path to contentment.

When you see me rushing past doing three things at once, please feel free to remind me also – I need all the help I can get.