Is that so? I seem to remember hanging around a lot of city parks drinking out of small bottles with a Beefeater on the label with you.

In my experience I have found that:

1. When one starts to talk about disatisfaction, updating resumes, or checking to see if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, one has already made up his/er mind to make a move.

2. My personal philosophy is: if a job stops being fun, it’s time to move on. Life is too short to not love and have fun at/with what you are doing.

3. There are so many people out there who think they are so important to the company that everything will fall apart when they take a holiday, go to lunch, are ill, or move to another department. Reality check here: fill a bucket with water, put your hand in, now pull it out slowly ( or fast). Do you see a hole? Filled in pretty quick didn’t it?

4. Teamwork is good, but one person still has to make the final decison, and take responsibility for it. That’s called a leader.

5. Then there are those who claim to have 25 years experience. Really? Or is it the same experience repeated over and over for 25 years? That is stagnation. But to be fair here, there are many people who have no ambition and are quite happy just plodding along unti they are redundant or retire. There is a place for everyone.

6. Then there are the people who criticise and complain and are sure they can do a better job than the one doing it. In my experience I found that quite often these were women opinionating about other women( sorry ladies, but most will agree). When and if handed the job, they couldn’t do it - at all. Handing them the job usually resulted in an alliance or alienation. Either way, the point was made, and no more was said on the subject.

7. This one I think is a no-brainer but has to be said. As a manager or leader (they are not always the same), always surround yourself with the best people you can. They’ll make you look good and they will be empowered; everyone wins. Only the insecure surround themselves with mediocrity so that they will look good and important, all the while bemoaning the fact that one can’t get good help. No one wins here. There is too much of the latter and not enough of the former.

8. Everything in life is an experience to be used, saved for future use, or discarded. Nothing is wasted, only the time spent procrastinating. Angela Snowdon

I’ll stop here as this is Andrew’s blog. Thanks Andrew for the space.

And if this side of the pond wasn’t enough, the Brits in their usual Monty Python-style had footage of penquins flying from their Antarctic home to the Amazon rainforest to find winter warmth. You didn’t know penquins could fly, did you? : )

What next? Pigs that fly?