USEFUL THINKING
Every idea below came from something that actually happened, not a theory.
Latest
You Build a Business One Problem at a Time
A £500 driver deposit started as a fix for one problem and quietly evolved into a system strong enough that competitors had felt its effect and buyers wanted to take pieces of it into their own business. On how selling forced Tom to see the whole shape of something he'd only ever lived inside one problem at a time.
Read the story →Being Certain Isn't the Same as Being Right
A staff member was ignoring the phone. Tom was completely certain of it, certain enough to say so out loud. He was wrong.
Read the story →The Customer Who Messaged at 4am
A customer Tom barely knew messaged him at 4am over Christmas with a complaint. His wife had one question the next morning that changed how he ran the business.
Read the story →You Don't Get to Decide When You've Made Things Right
One late airport transfer cost Tom a £120,000 account at 26, despite doing everything he thought would fix it. What happened next was not what he expected.
Read the story →The Tightrope Between Staff Loyalty and Damage Control
A fifteen-year employee was 98% brilliant, and impossible the rest of the time. Tom spent years finding excuses for the other 2%.
Read the story →A Profitable Job Is Not Necessarily Good Business
Tom thought he had landed a licence to print money. Getting paid for it was another matter entirely.
Read the story →Every Rule Changes Behaviour
Four attempts to fix a taxi rota, and four new problems created in the process. On why there's no perfect rule, only a balance worth re-watching.
Read the story →The Turning That Never Came
Tom knew exactly what needed to happen with someone who had crossed a line, and put it off anyway. On the difference between a decision that is genuinely hard and one you just do not like the answer to.
Read the story →Serendipity Is Not a System
Tom's business partner died suddenly at 37, and years later Tom disappeared too, for eight weeks after a serious car accident. On discovering twice how much of a business survives only because of what is trapped inside one person's head.
Read the story →Some People Are Worth the Risk
After Tom's accident, his manager took on more of the business than she ever had, and turned out to be better at managing people than he was. On when the answer to dependency risk is not less reliance, but more reward.
Read the story →The Connection Isn't the Sale
Tom has been promised plenty of enormous accounts through connections over the years, most people meaning it sincerely even when nothing came of it. On knowing the difference between someone knowing you and someone actually being able to influence anything on your behalf.
Read the story →The Monument to Wasted Money
Tom sold a year of advertising screens in taxis before he had properly tested whether the business could actually deliver it. On proving demand is not the same as proving you can deliver it.
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