http://terrificmentors.com John Bittleston – Career, Business and Personal Mentor. Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:24:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In a climate of anxiety about the future, when whole countries are going bankrupt, it is prudent to reduce non-essential spending to a minimum. In naval terms, ‘batten down the hatches’. But random cuts based on what is easiest to eliminate are not a good idea. While a target reduction ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/12/05/preparing-for-the-downturn/ American citizens are justly angry at their taxes being used to bail out the reckless and fraudulent money-go-round of the financial system. The badly squeezed middle-class all over the world are already carrying the bulk of the costs since they pay most taxes, support young and old and work nineteen ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/11/05/crisis-or-opportunity/ Not as important as your health or your soul, looking after your money is still high on the list of things you want to get right. That is why bankers, finance and fund managers are paid more than most people - more, certainly, than doctors and priests. Most doctors and priests ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/10/06/whos-looking-after-your-money/ Don’t you dread it when the voice at the other end of the phone says “Hello, So-and-so, How are you today?” The egregious sales pitch that follows is enough to bring up your breakfast. Peter Ustinov had a point. When a Manhattan hotel receptionist said “Have a good day” he ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/09/29/one-greeting-doesnt-fit-all/ Half the people alive today have never experienced serious inflation. They will shortly. At the end of it, many will have starved to death. Those remaining will live in a very different world from that of the past fifty years. Cheap food, easy personal mobility, considerable leisure time, increasingly high ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/09/22/inflation-the-economys-vulture/ Over the past century the mass media have played a vital role in the dissemination of information about everything from disease to designer handbags. The relatively high standards of living now enjoyed by many in the world would not have arrived – or would have arrived more slowly – if ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/09/15/the-new-media-opportunities/ A business is not a mission. So why do so many businesses have “mission statements”? Because they think that to print pious sentiments proves that they are Socially Responsible Corporations and this will convince people that they only practice decent business behaviour. Mission statements are as effective as a fig leaf in ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/09/08/corporate-social-responsibility-theirs-or-mine/ I have a Mentee who, like many before him, has come to me because he is uncertain how to progress his career. He knows that my way of dealing with this, and other subjects, is to ask questions and help him come to his own conclusions. Of course, I will ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/08/08/don%e2%80%99t-outsource-decisions/ Think that the financial crises encompassing the globe have little to do with you and me? Wrong - we are the people who are paying for them all. How do we pay? In significantly increased prices of goods. Soaring prices are pervading every aspect of our lives. They give rise to ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/07/08/what-shall-we-do-with-our-money/ A man doesn’t dig his garden just because he has a new shovel. Cultivation is for survival or entertainment, not simply to make use of the new toy on the block. And yet how many of us have fallen for the IT hardware and then searched, often unsuccessfully, for its ... http://terrificmentors.com/2008/06/08/change-the-procedures-to-make-use-of-the-it/