Freedom after the sharks

Most people agree that there are not enough women in corporate boardrooms, but there is little consensus on the best way to increase numbers and improve director diversity. Some countries use voluntary targets, while others employ tougher (often controversial) legislative measures such as binding quotas to tackle the problem.

The final report from Lord Mervyn Davies, who has championed gender equality in the boardroom, will show that FTSE 100 companies have met the target of having 25% women on their boards – double the number in 2011 when the target was set. Then, just 135 of 1,076 (12.5%) FTSE 100 directorships were held by women.

Davies, a former trade minister and chairman of Standard Chartered bank, will set a new target of 33% female board members by 2020 and widen the scope to all FTSE 350 firms. But he says the introduction of legally enforced quotas is unwarranted as the progress so far proves that the voluntary approach is working.

In Europe, binding gender quotas are increasingly prevalent. In March 2015, Germany became the latest European country to make quotas mandatory. Starting in 2016, major German companies will need to fill 30 percent of non-executive board seats with women. Germany follows in the footsteps of other European countries such as Norway, Italy, France, and Spain in instituting such a policy.

As corporate governance rises up the agenda, gender inequality in global boardrooms and a lack of diversity in senior decision-making is getting more scrutiny from the public and stakeholders.

Facts show that the glittering prizes are falling to women. General Motors, IBM, PepsiCo, Lockheed Martin and DuPont are among a couple of dozen giant American companies with female bosses. Oxford University is about to follow the footsteps of Harvard and appoint its first female leader; and next year the United States may elect its first woman president. Women still have an enormous way to go: the New York Times points out that more big American firms are run by men called John than by women. But the trend is clear: women now make up more than 50% of university graduates and of new hires by big employers.

Will this growing cadre of female bosses manage any differently from men? Forty years ago feminists would have found the very question demeaning. Pioneers such as Margaret Thatcher argued that women could and would do the same job as men, if given a chance. But today some management scholars argue that women excel in the leadership qualities most valued in modern firms.

McKinsey produced a 2007 and 2008 study, the consulting firm found that five “leadership behaviours” are seen in women more frequently than in men: people-development; setting expectations and rewards; providing role models; giving inspiration; and participative decision-making. It argued that such behaviours are particularly valuable in today’s less-hierarchical companies. By contrast, the two that men were found to adopt more often than women sound rather old-fashioned: control and corrective action; and individualistic decision-making.

Those who say women are better suited to taking charge of today’s companies also lean on two other arguments. The first is that women are better at “androgynous” management—that is, combining supposedly “male” and “female” characteristics into a powerful mixture.

This is particularly valuable in businesses undergoing great upheaval, which need a combination of command-and-control and caring-and-sharing. The second is that women differ from men not so much in their leadership styles as in the values that they bring to the job. They are much more influenced by compassion and fairness than men.

Campaigners are quick to point out that only 8pc of FTSE 100 directors are women. This statistic is the crux of their argument for quotas to lift the number of female board members. But their campaign misses a particularly pertinent point: 92pc of directors are men. In 2015, despite all the lobbying and proposed quotas, it is men rather than women who will decide the future of equality in the boardroom.

So, if men still have the balance of power, why will women win the argument?

Future leaders will realise that a perfect process doesn’t guarantee success. The best companies employ the best people, then give them the freedom to follow their initiative. Once it becomes clear that the only way to create a great company is to employ great people, the smart top men will realise that lots of “the best men for the job” are women.

The idea of hiring only the very best (people who rate nine or 10 out of 10) doesn’t just apply to the boardroom – having great people throughout the organisation, from shop floor to the top tier is a magic formula for success. Putting high-achieving women into the heart of middle management is much more powerful than board quotas. Promoting proven talent will ensure that women occupy more places round their board table.

Another big factor is flexible working. Within the next century I am sure we will be bemused by the concept of a five-day week. With broadband, email, Skype, tablets and another half-century of technological change, most office workers will seldom need to go near the office. They will be able to do their job where, how and whenever they want. A world full of flexible workers will be a big boost for women who want to fit work around their family. After a time, men will also see how they can fit work into their life instead of having to fit their life around work.

The prospect of a flexible working world makes it so much easier to employ the best people and, as a consequence, the best people will realise that work-life balance isn’t just management speak, it can become a reality.

So what is the answer, should we have a more balanced male/female gender board? Will it make any difference whether the board is balanced? Can a mixed board be the driver of better performance and a higher return to shareholders? I feel candidature should be measured on the best person with the credentials and qualifications for the role.

I have many discussions with my business partner in the US over entrepreneurs and cross border challenges, the entrepreneur and his/ her role to the business community and have seen lots of definitions for what makes an entrepreneur over the years but I read an article recently that is quite compelling over exactly what is an entrepreneur. It comes from Chris Oakley OBE, chairman of web design company Chapter Eight. He is also a former journalist who in 1991 led what was then the world’s largest media management buy-out, the £120m acquisition of regional newspapers based in and around Birmingham and Coventry.

So what is an entrepreneur?

“An entrepreneur sees an opportunity which others do not fully recognise, to meet an unsatisfied demand or to radically improve the performance of an existing business. They have unquenchable self-belief that this opportunity can be made real through hard work, commitment and the adaptability to learn the lessons of the market along the way.”

“They are not diverted or discouraged by scepticism from ‘experts’ or from those from whom they seek backing and support, but willing to weigh all advice and select that which will be helpful. They are prepared not just to work seriously hard but to back their judgment with personal investment at a level which will cause problems if they are wrong about the opportunity. They understand that achievements are the result of team work and knows how to choose the necessary blend of talents and inspire them with their vision.”

Interesting enough a study from The Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology compared the health of a “nationally representative sample of employees and entrepreneurs” and examined a wide range of health factors for both groups. This included the rates of physical disease and mental illness, blood pressure, the number of sick days taken, the number of visits to the physician, and overall well–being and life satisfaction.

After the numbers were crunched, entrepreneurs were the clear winner in essentially every category. It was discovered that entrepreneurs showed significantly lower incidence of physical and mental illnesses, lower blood pressure, lower rates of hypertension, made fewer visits to the hospital, and enjoyed higher overall well–being and life satisfaction.

What I believe makes most entrepreneurs healthy is not the fact that they run a business, but that they approach life in a particular way. In other words, it’s their healthy mind-set that often leads to a healthy life. For example…

• Entrepreneurs give themselves permission to change the world and to pursue their dreams.
• Entrepreneurs believe in themselves and in the control they have over their own lives.
• Entrepreneurs trust that, even when things are uncertain, they’ll figure it out.
• Entrepreneurs wake up with a purpose that drives them. They have a vision of what they are working towards that pulls them out of bed each day.

The feelings of empowerment and self–confidence that come from entrepreneurship find their way into virtually every area of your life.

I do not think entrepreneurship is for everyone, but I also do not think it needs to be.

Being an entrepreneur requires much more than just big ideas. A true entrepreneur is a rare breed; it is someone who possesses a unique combination of traits, skills and characteristics that enable them to beat the odds and go after their dreams full throttle.

What are those attributes? What does an entrepreneur need to succeed?

Goal-orientated

Entrepreneurs are all about setting goals and putting their all into achieving them; they are determined to make their business succeed and will remove any encumbrances that may stand in their way. They also tend to be strategic in their game plans and always have a clear idea in mind of exactly what they want to achieve and how they plan to achieve it.

Committed to their business

Entrepreneurs are not easily defeated; they view failure as an opportunity for future success, and if they do not succeed the first time, they will stay committed to their business and will continue to try and try again until it does succeed. A true entrepreneur doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

Hands-on

Entrepreneurs are inherently proactive, and know that if something really needs to get done, they should do it themselves. They are certainly ‘doers’, not thinkers, and tend to have very exacting standards. They view their business as an extension of themselves and like to be integral in its day-to-day operations—even when they don’t have to be.

Thrive on uncertainty

Not only do they thrive on it—they also remain calm throughout it. Sometimes things go wrong in business, but when you’re at the helm of a company and making all the decisions, it’s essential to keep your cool in any given situation. True entrepreneurs know this and secretly flourish and grow in the wake of any challenges.

Continuously look for opportunities to improve

Entrepreneurs realize that every event or situation is a business opportunity, and they are constantly generating new and innovative ideas. They have the ability to look at everything around them and focus it toward their goals in an effort to improve their business.

Willing to take risks

A true entrepreneur does not ask questions about whether or not they will succeed—they truly believe they will. They exude this confidence in all aspects of life, and as a bi-product, they are never afraid to take risks due to their unbinding faith that ultimately they will triumph.

Willing to listen and learn

The most important part of learning is listening—and a good entrepreneur will do this in abundance.

Great people skills

Entrepreneurs have strong communication skills, and it is this strength that enables them to effectively sell their product or service to clients and customers. They’re also natural leaders with the ability to motivate, inspire and influence those around them.

Inherently creative

This is one trait that, due to their very nature, entrepreneurial business people have by the bucket load. They are able to not only come up with ingenious ideas, but also turn those ideas into profits.

Passionate and always full of positivity

Passion is perhaps the most important trait of the successful entrepreneur. They genuinely love their job and are willing to put in those extra hours to make their business grow; they get a genuine sense of pleasure from their work that goes way beyond just cash.

Very few people in my opinion are fortunate enough to be born with all of these characteristics, but the good news is that they can all be learned. You should read a copy of my book before you start, ‘Freedom after the Sharks’, despite a difficult family life and professional setbacks, I developed the determination, drive and skills to create a successful business and happy life. Freedom after the Sharks shows how, even in a declining economy, a business can survive and even succeed.

If you want to be an entrepreneur someday, here is an equation you should print out and attach to computer screen, smartphone, office wall:

Entrepreneur + Capital = Products + Customers = Business.

Evan Spiegel is the CEO of Snapchat. That is his job. It is a real company with a real product, real employees, and real investors. And I bet what he really identifies with is the cool ephemeral messaging app the company he co-founded came up with. Which is how they managed to attract hundreds of millions of extremely engaged users and raise more than half a billion dollars in venture funding.

John Mackey is co-CEO of Whole Foods. Healthy food has always been his passion but the way he built his company – to serve all its major stakeholders – is unique. He wrote a book about it called Conscious Capitalism. I seriously doubt if Mackey thinks of himself as a great entrepreneur but as the co-founder of a great company that showed the world a new and better way to do business.

The concluding statement I would like to leave you with is:  “employees are far removed from entrepreneurship in fact a paradigm shift away, most employees would never dream of taking a risk on their own abilities, a risk in their personal security or taking people on a journey that stretched far beyond their imagination, entrepreneurship is not for everyone but can be very rewarding for the few”. A quote from my book by Maya Angelou “ I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life”

I have been discussing the subject deeply with a very good friend of mine, ‘do people actually know what they want, the subject is actually deeper, do we know our life purpose?

“Know thyself” has been a dictate since the time of the ancient Greeks, but Thoreau’s statement speaks to the difficulty of such a task. As it turns out, there are some things about ourselves that are very hard to perceive accurately. In some instances, others know us better than we know ourselves

Everybody wants what feels good. Everyone wants to live a carefree, happy and easy life, to fall in love and have amazing sex and relationships, to look perfect and make money and be popular and well-respected and admired and a total baller to the point that people part like the Red Sea when you walk into the room.

If I ask you, “What do you want out of life?” and you say something like, “I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like,” it’s so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even mean anything.

Everybody wants to have an amazing job and financial independence but not everyone wants to suffer through 60-hour work weeks, long commutes, obnoxious paperwork, to navigate arbitrary corporate hierarchies and the blasé confines of an infinite cubicle hell. People want to be rich without the risk, without the sacrifice, without the delayed gratification necessary to accumulate wealth.

Everybody wants to have great sex and an awesome relationship  but not everyone is willing to go through the tough conversations, the awkward silences, the hurt feelings and the emotional psychodrama to get there. And so they settle. They settle and wonder “What if?” for years and years and until the question morphs from “What if?” into “Was that it?” And when the lawyers go home and the alimony check is in the mail they say, “What was that for?” if not for their lowered standards and expectations 20 years prior, then what for?

Because happiness requires struggle. The positive is the side effect of handling the negative. You can only avoid negative experiences for so long before they come roaring back to life.

People want to start their own business or become financially independent. But you don’t end up a successful entrepreneur unless you find a way to appreciate the risk, the uncertainty, the repeated failures, and working insane hours on something you have no idea whether will be successful or not.

People want a partner, a spouse. But you don’t end up attracting someone amazing without appreciating the emotional turbulence that comes with weathering rejections, building the sexual tension that never gets released, and staring blankly at a phone that never rings. It’s part of the game of love. You can’t win if you don’t play.

What determines your success isn’t “What do you want to enjoy?” The question is, “What pain do you want to sustain?” The quality of your life is not determined by the quality of your positive experiences but the quality of your negative experiences. And to get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.

There is a great quote by Marla Gibbs “I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we’re all teachers – if we’re willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door

I think most people retain at least a glimmer of awareness of their life’s purpose within their inner being. It often feels like a leaning, an inclination, that continues to pull at you. Sometimes is right in front of your eyes but you don’t allow yourself to see it, like when you’re hunting for your missing keys and then discover that they’ve been right in front of you the whole time. For example, an investment advisor found himself doing more and more work with charity organisations. He finally realised that what he felt most in sync with was hands-on work helping people. That was the part he enjoyed about his work, not the money managing per se. Helping people was his true calling, and it was staring him in the face the whole time.

Those who experience a clear inclination but don’t pursue or fulfil it remain incomplete and dissatisfied. But it’s important not to confuse seeking happiness with finding your purpose. Happiness is what you experience in the daily flow of life the highs and lows that are the situation. They will fluctuate. But purpose is deeper. It’s more of an underlying sense of peace and fulfilment overall, a sense of integration and continuous unfoldment of your being. It transcends everyday ups and downs, the disappointments or successes, even. When you’re living in accordance with your life’s purpose, you view all of the above as part of what you encounter along the road. They don’t distract you from that larger vision, your ideal, which is like a magnet steadily pulling you towards it

In the end, figuring out what you want and your life purpose isn’t an easy process and no miraculous  solution exists for doing it. The fact is, you need to think about it, and to do so you might need to push yourself through some mental challenges until you figure out exactly what is you’ve been looking for, and just maybe your life purpose will find you.

Finally, be careful what your dream for, it may just arrive into your life!

Like many things in this world, relationships form complex systems that are difficult to understand and almost impossible to predict.

However, there are general guidelines to complex systems that we can apply to relationships to make them easier for our simple minds to grasp.

The stock market is one of the more popular complex systems today, which we can use for this purpose.

Monitoring  behaviours, movements and roles that occur in the stock market, we may be able to better understand why we are attracted to certain types of people, why certain people are attracted to us, how we can improve our strategies and who we are, hypothetically, best suited for in varying life circumstances.

We might even forecast with a certain degree of certainty the messy trajectory of our all-too-human hearts.

In each relationship, one person is predominantly the Investor while the other is predominantly the Stock. While both are investing in each other in some way, to a certain degree, the Investor has more to lose than the Stock.

Likewise, while both are proving their value to each other in some way, the Stock has more to prove than the Investor.

In general you are the Investor if you are more attracted to people based on their ability keep up with you and/or make you look better. You are the Stock if you are more attracted to people who have the ability to support you, better you or otherwise believe in you.

It is neither better nor worse to be the Investor or the Stock because both roles come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. You play these roles based on the cards life has dealt you and what you have done with them so far.

Stocks and Investors can morph into different types and even switch or play dual roles simultaneously throughout their lifetimes.

The success of each relationship primarily hinges on market circumstances when an Investor decides to invest in a certain type of Stock.

Disturbing environments breed disturbing relationships, smart environments breed smart relationships, unnatural environments breed unnatural relationships, rich environments breed rich relationships, lazy environments breed lazy relationships.

“Investors” put their money into stocks, real estate, etc., under the assumption that over time, the underlying investment will increase in value, and the investment will be profitable.

Typically, investors do not have a plan for what to do if the investment decreases in value. They hold onto the investment in hopes it will bounce back and again become a winner.

Investors anticipate declining markets with fear and anxiety, but usually do not plan ahead of time how they will respond to them. When faced with a declining (bear) market, they hold their positions and continue to lose.

We all know investors. In many cases it was us before we realized how dangerous buy-and-hold investing can be to our savings.

Investors do have some knowledge of trading. But that knowledge is tainted by how it is all too often described in the financial press. “Trading” is risky, dangerous, foolish, bad, involves a great deal of work, etc. On the other hand “investing” is good, reliable and safe.

“2000-2002 Nasdaq Bear market – It will take a 250% gain to make up the losses in Nasdaq investments”

Investors had a taste of what “buy-and-hold” can do to their capital in the recent 2000-2002 bear market. But many do not realize just how far in the hole that bear market put them. The S&P 500 declined 50% and the Nasdaq declined 80%. How easy is it for the markets to regain those losses?

It will take a 100% gain to make up the losses for those invested in in the S&P. It will take a 250% gain to make up the losses in Nasdaq investments. When a powerful advance is measured in 20% to 30% moves, you can easily see how long it will take to regain those huge losses.

In the last several years of market gains, we have come nowhere near accomplishing this in the typical index fund. It is likely to take investors many more years to get back just to where they were in 2000.

Relationships are powerful. Our one-to-one connections with each other are the foundation for change. And building relationships with people from different cultures, often many different cultures, is key in building diverse communities that are powerful enough to achieve significant goals.

It is our connection to each other that gives meaning to our lives. Our caring for each other is often what motivates us to make change. And establishing connections with people from diverse backgrounds can be key in making significant changes in our communities.

As individuals, and in groups, we can change our communities. We can set up neighborhoods and institutions in which people commit themselves to working to form strong relationships and alliances with people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. We can establish networks and coalitions in which people are knowledgeable about each other’s struggles, and are willing to lend a hand.

Technology and The Internet of Things (IoT) is an amazing innovation. But even as it’s shrunk the world and brought us closer together, it’s threatened to push us further apart. Like any useful technology innovation, to make technology serve us well requires the exercise of good judgment.