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Here’s where I’m currently at; it’s my belief that there are four key building blocks that form our perception of life:LanguageEmotionSensesMemoryI also reckon that if you view an organisation (or company) in the same way, it allows you to figure out how to influence its thinking and behaviour.This is a tentative conclusion that I’ve reached after discussion and thought over the past few weeks. I’ve been thinking about what elements form the “essence” of our experience and understanding. It started when I realised that we as humans differ immensely from our animal friends in our use of language. Our brains articulate ideas and facts through language and our intentional communication, whether through speech, expression, or text, is rooted in a linguistic thought process. Language is intensely powerful in its ability to convey meaning but if used inconsistently can hide meaning. More about that later.Then, realising that non-intentional communication (reactive expression for example) is more likely a result of emotion than language, I started to understand that there are some fundamental building blocks that allow the grey matter in our skulls to interact with its environment. There’s language, there’s emotion. Building blocks.Another core building block (or a set of building blocks of course) are our five senses; sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. These are inputs that guide us on our way.For us to learn and to put into context our situation, we have memory. Memory, whether physical or mental, allows us to recognise patterns, store knowledge, build skills and interpret emotions.These then are four core building blocks of being human: language, emotion, senses and memory.Mastering these building blocks can lead to integrity, success and contentment.Subscribe in a reader

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I saw in Wired magazine this month a short article about a company that had received VC funding via Seedcamp. One of the founding shareholders in Seedcamp is Robin Klein.

What I found very useful was a short list of checkpoints given by Robin on what he seeks in a start-up.

I've listed it here because I think it makes so much sense...

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A new social network just hit London: Foursquare.com.Already big in the US, I am willing to stick my neck out and predict that this will develop faster in London than swine-flu.If you're just getting your head around Twitter, you'll need to step one step further to "get" Foursquare. Once you do, I think you'll realise this has huge potential, as a network phenomenon and as a marketing tool.The basics.OK - so you log into Foursquare.com and create an account. What next? You invite others to join and be your "friends" (just like Facebook). You then download the Foursquare app to your smart phone. Ready.Now, you are on the move, you go out in the evening, and when you arrive at a place (bar, restaurant, concert venue, event, coffee shop, whatever), you "check in". On your phone you simply load the app, it uses the phone's location to identify known venues in the area and you select the one you're at. Simple as that. Then - you can see which of your other friends are also there. Maybe there's friends that are out on the town that you didn't know were out on the town. You decide to hook up on the fly.Here's the bit you need to pay attention to if you are a restaurant. First of all, make sure you are listed. The initial list of London restaurants is seeded by WCities, and there's loads missing. Once logged in you can add your place in the "add things" link in the menu. If you're listed, people will be able to "check-in" to your venue easily. Secondly, there's a competitive element to FourSquare. The person who checks in the most to a venue becomes that venue's "mayor". This person is your most loyal Foursquare customer. They will be visiting you a lot. This means that you can create a loyalty scheme on this platform. "If you are our mayor, simply present your phone and you will get a free drink". As people to compete to become your mayor, you get mentioned in a whole Facebook / Twitter universe and your brand awareness soars. It's all online and it's all free.Sounds far fetched? Maybe this year it won't be, but I can see this becoming big for a certain demographic. Huge. The future is just around the corner.Here's a useful blog post on how to get the most out of Foursquare.com as a user.Subscribe in a reader

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Dragon says "I'm in"...Great piece on CNBC yesterday. Live interview with Niklas Eklund CEO, talking about boosting restaurants' profitability.James Caan, of Dragon's Den Fame, gave his approval.5 minute clip...Subscribe in a reader

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Today the news hot off the press is that Livebookings* has raised $16m / £9.5m in VC funding thanks to an investment into the company by Wellington Partners.You can read the full story here.(* Livebookings is Europe’s largest online marketing and reservations service for the restaurant industry. We help restaurants fill their tables by delivering customers through a free online booking service and network of high-profile partner websites. I say "we" because they’re my employer, too.) For me personally I can reflect on a summer that was dominated by the fund-raising round and the due diligence process that followed. I feel very lucky to have been involved. I met many VCs myself and the process helped us really refine our business plan, check, double-check and re-check the assumptions and think carefully about our long term strategy. We’ve also received some great input on how to improve our business operations. Raising capital in the summer months is always more tricky as so many people are away, and doing so in a recession at break-neck speed is an extra challenge. However, it does have the added benefit that we now have a solid foundation of a three year plan in place and so preparing a detailed operational budget for 2010 will be easier.Subscribe in a reader

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You learn something new every day, so goes the saying.We all have different things that make us "tick". For me, one of the strongest motivators is learning something new, either through experience or through reading.Here's a little snippet I picked up yesterday. I was reading Peter Hargreave's book "In For A Penny", the story of how he and his business partner built up their business from scratch starting with just a telephone and a desk in a spare bedroom. Now the business (Hargeaves Lansdown) is one of the biggest financial services firms in the UK and is a listed public company.Aside from picking up on their business principles (best service, best prices, best information), their company culture (put the customer first, the company second, yourself third), and their innovative real time trading platform for private investors, one little snippet of trivia grabbed my attention.When you come to cash in your pension on retirement, one option is to buy an annuity with your pension fund (I knew that already by the way). This annuity is a fixed regular payment that you receive for the rest of your life. The life companies that sell these policies assess your risk profile. High risk, you can buy less income with your money, low risk, you can buy more. The interesting thing is that the more money you have in your pension, the more risky you are to a life company. Why? Well it seems statistically that people with more money live longer. Maybe this is because they can afford a better lifestyle and health care, I'm not sure. As they live longer, then the life company has to pay out the fixed sum for longer, so therefore large pension fund owners will find it more difficult to get a better deal.I thought about this for a moment on the train. First of all, I was disappointed that if I did make the effort to save harder, I would get a worse deal. However the upside is much more interesting; work hard to accumulate a bigger pot and you might live longer. I'd never thought of life expectancy as a reason to work hard, but there it is. But how to be successful? One of the other books I read recently was Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers". Here he looks at the truly successful people in their fields and looked at what patterns stood out.It seems that you need "enough" education (not necessarily the best), "enough" talent (pure talent will not cut it on it's own), fortunate circumstances (luck), and the most important two ingredients of all: focus and effort.This was encouraging. I'm a great believer in making your own luck. Work hard, see obstacles as opportunities and take control of your own destiny. Sure, life throws you a deck of cards, but even with an average hand you can play a good game.Learning is great, and knowledge is best enjoyed if shared. Therefore at work recently I took the initiative to start a library. The two books I mentioned above plus another twenty or thirty from my personal bookshelves start the library stock. I've asked colleagues to also bring in their books to loan to the collection. I've bought library cards to put in the front of each book and developed a system for withdrawals and returns. I hope it takes off. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas and seeing the team grow through learning. Learn something new every day. My new mantra.Subscribe in a reader

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This has absolutely nothing to do with ecommerce or management or anything like that.This is the reason we all have for working in the first place - to get out and ride! As someone very wise once said, work to live, don't live to work!My brother and wife recently got back from an amazing 11,000km bike ride across Asia. This short YouTube video gives you a great taste for the amazing adventure they must have had.You can read about the full adventure at http://asiabybike.blogspot.com.Subscribe in a reader

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In February I asked myself the question "To Tweet Or Not To Tweet?"For 3 months I embraced Twitter and evangelised it's benefits. I tweeted several times a day every day until one day I stopped. Completely. I even went to the trouble of removing every tweet from my timeline.Why?It's taken several weeks to figure out but there are several reasons;1) The catalyst was a blog post that I read called "Why Twitter Is Evil". Ironically I found this post via Twitter. It was this post that got me thinking.2) I had always seen my Twitter account as an experiment. I wanted to understand how individuals and companies were using it socially and  commercially.  In my line of work I need to know. I now felt sufficiently knowledgable on how all worked and I'm impressed at the power of the network to pull reach and build reputations.  My learning curve had slowed.3) Maybe I have Adam Smith's genes because I take a view that many things in life are some kind of economic transaction. Inputs and outputs. You put effort in (or money, a proxy for effort) and you get a reward (or not). Twitter was consuming a lot of time and energy versus the return (knowledge, contacts) that I was getting.4) Information overload. I'm a busy guy with a large family and plenty of things to cram into every day. There's only so much information I can take. It's invariably limited in depth. I,be realized I'd rather spend 30 minutes reading one quality article in a magazine or a newspaper than dip into 20 trivial tweets hoping to find a nugget.But really, it's mainly a survival tactic. I either do something well or not at all.So long Twitter.Subscribe in a reader

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14 etiquette tips for TwitterIt's 2 months to the day since I started using Twitter.  During that time I've gone from a complete novice to gaining some experience and starting to learn from that experience.  Like any new communications channel that humanity discovers, it takes some time for us to develop social etiquette (in this case "Twitterquette").  We start to develop a sense of right and wrong and our own little set of do's and don'ts.  Examples;

• Don't talk loudly for long periods of time on your mobile phone on public transport.
• Don't speak on the telephone at the dinner table if you have guests.
• Don't sent large volumes of email to people you don't know to sell Viagra.
• Do reply to people if they take the time to write you a letter / email / leave a voicemail.
• Do credit the source of your story when writing a new article.

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