'If you can measure it you can't manage it' a classic business maxim that I have a love-hate relationship with.

I believe there are four types of relationships that everyone needs in their lives,

number one,

Too often these are confused. Usually managing is mistaken for leading and we end up with leaderless organisation or vice versa. Yes, these two functions overlap, and yes they can be the same person, but they require very different things.

A century ago, just before the Great War, at a time when scientific a technological advancement was at an all time high, Winston Churchill was quoted saying,

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s latest book, This is Marketing, it’s good, you should get it.

One of the main questions he asks in the book is,

The second double edged aspect of the warrior, is control, and specifically control of the self.

The image here is of a Khoisan hunter crouching for hours,

I’ve been musing lately about the speeches and the actual physical movement of the civil rights protestors under the leadership of Martin Luther King jr.

Samurai, like all great warriors, live with a constant awareness of death. That today might very well be their last day, their last battle. So, it is best to give it all you’ve got.

Samurai choose to wear only lightweight armor, offensive armor. Defensive armor is heavy and difficult to move in, but light offensive armor gives one the advantage of speed and agility.

These two are completely different attitudes in life,

The samurai is always taught, “Test your armor, but only test the front.”

We all face battles, attacks, from the inside and the outside. Yet, very few admit it and most prefer to either ignore the attacks or just take them lying down.

The Samurai, the elite japanese swordsmen, had a very specific code that they lived by called the Bushidō . There was a saying about what was important when training to be a Samurai; Zen 7 and Ken 3. Zen is spirit and Ken is sword.

Yesterday I talked with a group of leader for the morning at a retreat centre just outside Hermanus. The topic was innovation, creativity, and what there is to do once you have reached the last third of your career and your life.

After the three hour session, I told them how I would design an organisation if I could do it from scratch and asked them in return what they would do.