During Discover Africa writer Thaakiera Ackerdien’s recent trip to Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park, morning light broke over the river in liquid gold as riverine birds lifted off the banks in sudden, synchronised arcs. A solitary elephant stood knee-deep in the water nearby, browsing the low-hanging branches of a winterthorn — an ordinary scene in […]
Most standard operating procedure examples you find online are documents nobody would ever read twice. Twelve pages, a version history, an approvals table, and a level of detail that guarantees it goes out of date within a month of being written. The test of an SOP is not whether it is thorough. It is whether […]
Is Amex Platinum worth it? The card costs $895 a year and American Express advertises over $3,500 in benefits, which sounds like an obvious yes and is the least useful way to look at it. That $3,500 is not money. It is a list of discounts at specific merchants, in specific amounts, on specific schedules. […]
Is a business degree worth it? The honest answer is that the question is usually asked in the wrong units. People compare the tuition against an average salary, decide the gap looks favourable, and enrol. The average salary is the wrong number, because a large share of graduates never reach it. The figure that matters […]
Most people asking how to write better do not have a vocabulary problem. They write emails that get misread, proposals that get skimmed, and updates nobody acts on, and they assume the fix is more sophisticated language. It is almost always the opposite. Unclear writing is nearly always unclear thinking wearing a suit. The long […]
Almost every method for how to validate a business idea gets sabotaged by the same thing: people are nice. Ask forty friends whether your idea is good and you will get thirty-five encouraging answers, none of which mean anything, because agreeing with you is free. Validation is the search for evidence that people will part […]
Most people who want to know how to say no at work are not looking for the words. They know the words. What they want is a way to refuse that does not cost them their reputation, and they have concluded, usually correctly, that a plain no does. So they say yes, deliver late, and […]
Hiring your first employee is the point at which a self-employed person becomes an employer, and almost everyone gets the arithmetic wrong in the same direction. They budget the salary, confirm the revenue covers it, and make the offer. The salary is not the cost. It is somewhere between two thirds and three quarters of […]
Most advice on dealing with difficult clients is really advice on being more patient. Stay calm, listen actively, do not take it personally. All true, all useless at 11pm when the fourth revision request arrives with the word “obviously” in it. Patience is a resource you spend. Structure is a resource you build once. Almost […]
Updated 1 October 2026 with current prices. Is LinkedIn Premium worth it? For most professionals, no. It pays off for three people: someone job hunting on a deadline, someone prospecting from a named list, and someone hiring. Premium Career costs $39.99 a month, or $239.88 paid yearly. It makes work you are already doing slightly […]
The offer email arrives. The number is fine, maybe slightly less than you hoped, and the recruiter is waiting for an answer. Most people say yes. Knowing how to negotiate salary at this exact point is worth more than at any other moment in the […]
The busiest office workers are interrupted every two minutes during core hours. That figure comes from Microsoft’s own data on how people use its software, and anyone who runs a team will recognise it. Most productivity hacks are written for a calendar you control. The […]
The alarm goes off at six. You hit snooze twice, get up at half past, and spend the first hour of the day feeling like someone else is driving. Most advice on how to become a morning person starts with the alarm: set it earlier […]
A project lands that your team cannot carry. The product launch is in four months, the two engineers you need do not exist on your payroll, and a permanent hire will take most of that time just to find. Staff augmentation is the usual answer: […]
Most people meet Alex Hormozi through a video clip: a muscular man in a T-shirt explaining, with some impatience, why your business is not making money. The books are better than the clips. Alex Hormozi books are short, blunt manuals on three problems every business […]
Most of the decisions that shape a company are made on an ordinary afternoon, between two other meetings, by someone who is slightly tired. Decision making in business mostly happens in small moments: a yes sent from a phone, a hire approved because the role […]
It is a Sunday evening and you are dreading the morning again. Not the workload, which you can handle, but the sameness of it. You have been good at this job for fifteen years and you can picture the next fifteen with no surprises in […]
The email from HR arrives on a Friday afternoon. Your last day is in three weeks, and in the attachment there is a line about what happens to your 401k. Within a day, somebody in your network has suggested an advisor who can “help with […]
The biggest client calls at nine on a Monday to say they are leaving. By ten, two things need to happen. Someone has to work out what the lost revenue does to payroll, which projects pause and who tells the team what. And someone has […]
You open a document to write one paragraph. Four minutes later you are reading an email you did not need to read, with two new tabs open and the paragraph unwritten. If that sounds like most of your working day, you are in good company, […]
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