What Keeps You Awake At Night?

One of the themes of last week's World Entrepreneur Society 2009 Summit was “What keeps you awake at night?”

A lot of varied and interesting discussions have sprung up around this theme and, inevitably, the answers are very personal to individuals and specific to their businesses. It is interesting, however, to notice both the common threads in people's answers and acknowledge how few of us are getting any rest being kept awake, as it seems we all are, by one thing or another.

Just to join the bandwagon:
In no particular order, here's my Top 10 :

1) Wondering if there is really a specific place in the economy for 'Social Enterprise' or whether all Enterprise must become inherently more social?

2) Fear of missed opportunities (for me, much more frightening than 'fear of failure')

3) The dissonance between what I think is the bravest, boldest and best course of action vs. that which I feel I have the confidence and skills to pursue

4) Reading my RSS feeds

5) A constant string of 'To Do Tomorrows' popping into my head

6) Wondering what action I'll take if the recession makes raising this additional funding impossible / Wondering if I would recognise when it was time to give up and move on

7) A near obsessive checking of Social Networking sites

8) A veracious appetite for personal study. Distance courses, factual books, language studies, how-to websites, things which I can't make space during the day for but really want to spend time on

9) Deadlines / late nights / early flights which mean I just miss getting to bed altogether

10) Though truly disturbing how little it now affects me, occasionally I'm kept awake by the obscene amount of caffeine I like to consume during the day

Although if i'm honest, 9 times out of 10, it's No.3.

Thought for the day...

"Forty billion working hours are lost each year in Africa due to the need to travel long distances to collect safe drinking water"

(Cosgrove and Rijsberman 1998)

Red Button Design Pitch Published in Educational Textbook.

As you likely know, Red Button Design have twice appeared on BBC2's hit Business Show "The Dragons' Den" showcasing ROSS and seeking the necessary backing with which to launch the product.

What you may not know is that, as a direct result of the highly successful pitch James and I gave on the original episode of the show, I have had the opportunity to collaborate on a number of textbooks and for-schools initiatives to teach entrepreneurship, confident public speaking and language skills. Not least of which is the BBC's own Dragons' Den educational tie-in which has been live for 6 months now. More recently, however, one of our other projects, a Heinemann English Textbook, has made it to the publishers!

Chapter six of "Building Skills in English" covers topics including the expression of ideas, emotive language and vocabulary choice, non-verbal communication, and presentation tips; all using our original pitch, as televised, for the ROSS. (pg 135 - 153)

As such, I'd like my former teachers to take heart! As much of a handful as I may have been in the classroom, something obviously stuck and I am very proud to now be presented as a 'good example' rather than fulfilling the equally valid, yet less prestigious, role of 'terrible warning'.

Text Building Skills in English: Student Book Bk. for 11 - 14 year olds is now available to purchase from Amazon, WHSmith, Waterstones (and others) in the UK.

Amanda is a finalist in 'SHE' Magazine's "Inspiring Women Awards"

Amanda has been named as one of 3 finalists in The 'Pioneer' category of SHE Magazine's "Inspiring Women Awards".

According to the magazine: 'The Pioneer' is
"a woman who has had a groundbreaking impact on medical science or social development."

The winners of each category will be invited to a celebratory lunch in May, hosted by SHE's Editor Sian Rees and attended by special guests and celebrities. A full list of winners, photos from the event and a photoshoot with the shortlisted women will be published in the June issue of SHE magazine; visit the website in May to see video coverage of the awards ceremony and a special peek ‘behind the scenes' on the day.

We think the winners are due to be announced in the next week, so to ensure that you know as soon as we know add this blog to your RSS reader!

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