All those CAPTCHA lovers out there, shed a tear. Yet more loss of security!!

Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail’s CAPTCHAs are broken down by spammers.

Not that we didn’t know that, but still - the figures aren’t good.

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

-Dostoevsky

Giving more than 100% of yourself, is mathematically impossible – and much more beyond what is humanly possible.

I personally never give 100%, but what does that mean.
It means that there are many areas of life that need my attention and my skill and efforts are paid towards balancing them out as best I can.

You don’t succeed by putting everything you have in to one sole objective – you succeed by putting in the most you should into each of your endeavours – no more, no less. Your primary skill is, knowing what to invest; when and where to invest it.

You can’t give 110% of your time to something, unless your days are 10% longer than everyone else’s – do you really think there are 26.4 hours in a day?

Every so often you read a cool story on a blog – here’s one.

It’s basically about a company called Zappos – and American internet shoe retailer. So engrossed are they, with the idea of blowing the customer away, that they go nuts for daft ideas. They’re not just about meeting expectations, but delivering well beyond them – they pay new employees to leave.

Go read it now!

A while ago, I wrote a post that distinguishes between evolution and revolution. I wrote this, because I’m constantly thinking about doing radical things, and know deep down it’s the only way to both enjoy life, and be successful it in.

The world isn’t without risk, be that in our personal lives or in business. So, why do we hide from them so often?

Then I wondered, is it because of visibility?

We all know, if we take a second to stop and think, that live is full of risk – just walking across the road, something we do every day (if you’re not glued to your car) is risky. But we go ahead and cross – why? We do it because, like the chicken, we need to get to the other side. We take these risks so often, that we come blind to their very existence.

Are you so blind to the risks you take each day, that when it comes to taking new risks – you get scared?

Take a risk, or money down the drain?

Some people associate risk with disaster, taking a risk equates to throwing money down the drain in some instances; but why?

All well run businesses work well, because they plan well. They think about what they are doing and invest in well thought out ideas. They play the game, they make the game – they disturb the norm. The experts do it differently, and they do it daily.

So, how do the not so well run business do it? Well, lack of planning for a start – bad execution, poor research, blind assumptions, or by ignoring the people who know – i.e. the customer or the shop floor sales assistant.

Are you so bad at planning, so miserable at executing your ideas that you get stuck?

Are you such a poor thinker, that you can’t ask the right people the right questions?

Are you such a dreadful listener that those around you can’t support you no matter how hard they try?

If so, what exactly is it you’re doing running a business? If you have these problems, and you’re not bringing in people to solve them – are you really going to be around for long?

You wouldn’t make big business decisions on the flip of a coin, but nor would the big innovators that you see today.

When you innovate, or create a revolution, or throw out the rule book, or write your own – you take risks. But what you don’t do is take stupid risks. You have faith in what you’re about to do, but that faith is not blind.

There’s only one way to take away the fear of change, and that’s to enjoy the rush.

Do something special, do something different. If not for your business success, if not to secure a new contract, if not to capture a large market share – do it because it’s fun.

If you need help, go to a theme park. Get on a rollercoaster that feels dangerous, but has been well designed.

That what you need to do – make it feel dangerous, but design it well.