THE RULES..........

Once a week for a year – 52 rules to work on when in business (even if you don’t like rules!)

So what am I on about – here’s the thinking, they're a mix of:

Monday morning rules – these are the ones you should think about acting on at the beginning of your working week. Although I’ve dubbed them ‘Monday Morning’ rules, they are just there for when you sit down to face your work after some time away. 

Friday afternoon rules – no surprise here, these are for when you’re looking back at the week, looking forward to a couple of days away from the coalface and are designed to be more reflective in nature.  Again, I’ve called them ‘Friday afternoon’ rules, but it’s merely a tag for the end of your working week, whenever that may be.

This system also works for those, like Tim Ferris, who have the pleasure of working a mere four hour work week (honestly, if you haven’t already, read the book), but more importantly, it should hopefully bring a bit of perspective to those who find themselves working 24/7, or what seems like 24/7, even if they put themselves in that position and think that it’s alright – it almost always isn’t for lots of reasons.

A word on what’s a ‘rule’ too – it’s just a name I’ve used to capture what are in effect rules followed religiously by some (and by definition ignored by others), fables (rules that are actually nonsense but are consistently quoted by experts), idioms (rules that say one thing but mean another) and mere comments or sayings (many that are said off the cuff but actually have deeper meaning)

Also, please remember not to take it all too seriously. I’m sure that there will be some of my ‘rules’ you disagree with, but hopefully along with some that make sense but had never occurred to you before. It’s fine, not all are for everyone, or every situation. I also don’t profess to have all the answers – nobody does and if they say they do, they are clearly delusional. All I want to do is provoke a little ‘out of the box’ thinking – all of us at some time or another need a bit of structure and focus to move forward and hopefully some of the rules may help with that. Likewise, for those mad/crazy/borderline psychopathic but otherwise inspirational business builders, these rules should hopefully help you understand why the rest of the world appears to think differently to you and as a result maybe help you interact with others more fruitfully.  

I’ve also tried to attribute the rules to their originator where possible – if I’ve got it wrong or missed you out, please accept my apologies. Very few of them are original thinking either – you might say, “yup, I’ve seen that before” and you probably have but as with all these things, if you get a couple of inspired thoughts or even a little nudge from the list, I’ll be delighted. If you’ve any comments, let me know, if you’ve any anecdotes that come to mind as a result of reading this, please also share them as you’ll see, most of the ‘rules’ are best explained when there’s  a wee story to go with them.