Oh Canada.
It never ceases to amaze me how Canada, and Canadians, have permitted the corporations and politicians to weight the laws in favour of corporate greed over human requirements. 25 years ago Philip Howard published his great book “The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America“. Reading it at the time I took…
Customer Service…the hint is in the name
For most of the year I live in Japan. Japan has some of the best customer service I’ve experienced in my time and travels on this great Earth of ours. But, I also spend a lot of time in my native Canada. Canada has this reputation of being peopled by “nice” people, and they treat…
My Thoughts on the Brexit
[youtube id=A3ZGy5xg1V4] this is the text of the video I made about this My name is Phil Smy. I am a Canadian who lives in Japan. But because my parents are British I have a UK passport. Because of my UK passport I have lived in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Switzerland. I spent a…
My Olympic Sport
With surprising frequency, the International Olympic Committee adds new sports to the Olympics. For instance in 1936, at the Berlin Games, Basketball was added. In 1964 – at the Tokyo Olympics – Volleyball joined the list. More recently, tennis and mountain biking were added. And finally, at this summer’s Olympics it will be golf. So,…
May Vlog Challenge
Of all the forces in nature – gravity, magnetic attraction, nuclear fusion – surely one of the strongest is peer pressure. It’s responsible for untold amounts of change – for better and worse. When we talk about peer pressure it is almost always in a negative context: Little Johnny tried LSD because his friends were…
Book Review: Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Recently I reviewed the book ‘Zero to One’ by PayPal founder Peter Thiel. You can watch it below. [youtube id=”a0gByt3Q-lY”] Here’s my notes for the making of the review. this week it’s the great book about creationism. not the book of genesis. It’s Peter Thiel’s zero to one. This video was delayed because I actually…
Why I am leaving London Real Academy
As some of you might know, I have long been a supporter and believer in something called the London Real Academy. LRA is the membership side of the LondonReal.tv website/youtube channel founded by Brian Rose where he interviews successful and interesting people. LRA was founded as a place for like minded individuals to focus on…
Morning Routines
Rule #1 – Start the day right My life has drastically changed in the last few years, but, one of the most positive influences has been my change to a morning routine. In this post I’d thought I’d write about what I do, why I do it, and how it has affected me. [youtube id=rFxXoHkIwMk]…
hey (accountability) buddy, can you spare a dime
High on my list of words that are trendy right now that I detest is the word ‘tribe’. Call me a snob (snob!), but I don’t like the primal, wild, chasing bison with spears, image that it brings to mind. It takes me back to my elementary school years when we still called Native Americans…
The Lean Startup – Book Review
Recently I went back and re-read ‘The Lean Startup’ by Eric Ries. It’s a hugely influential book that rightly had a big impact on technology startups. (I can be, but rarely is, applied outside of tech startups). I made a video review, but below that are my notes. [youtube id=5EkNmcnRjkY] Ries wrote ‘The Lean Startup’…