Leadership & Philosophy

My leadership comes from dedication, hard work, with a deep focus on the understanding of causality and what is necessary and unnecessary. My style comes from many sources but is well summed up from the basic tenants of the martial Art; Taekwondo, of which I achieved some skill in my youth (black belt):

1 Courtesy

Respecting others equally - The golden rule: treat others as you would like to be treated. In addition to foster others to treat others equally (a most difficult of tasks)

2 Integrity

Being true to yourself, honesty and to be just, even when pushed not to be. Know thyself!

3 Perseverance

Never giving up, patience, long term goals and delayed gratification.

4 Self-control

Taking control over your actions, not being goaded or misguided, being calm in the face of adversity to win over oneself rather than an opponent.

5 Indomitable spirit

Not to give in to fear, take courage against oppression, staying true to your core beliefs.

My leadership is very much from the front, solving problems and inspiring others to accomplish more than they feel capable of, giving hope and confidence on detailed long-term strategic planning and meeting critical factors in building capacity. Objective led with a tight focus on solving key issues in achieving a long-term goal.

My philosophical stance is from an eclectic group of history’s most radical thinkers. The first part of any personal philosophy is in understanding the definition of the word… To love truth or wisdom, a practice of seeking logical and metaphysical corroboration as we seek the meaning of existence. The constitution of any group often involves hiding from the truth and in that understanding, the team is often the enemy of truth, whether in politics or senior management, it is truth that can set us free to achieve our true objectives. Introducing truth that is verifiable and actionable is at the heart of my business philosophy and one that is the most difficult to achieve in others as it can be deeply uncofortable to journey down the path to greater truth.

Major influences:

• Henry George: Political Economist - his work contains within it the only path that will liberate people and the natural world to flourish together.

• Henry David Theroux: The philosopher best describing our relationship with ourselves, others & nature

• Kurt Vonnegut: A leading humanist & writer

• Tolstoy: His works contain perhaps the greatest wisdom for organising any society

• E. F. Schumacher: The first mainstream writer to link nature conservation with economic practice (well Plato had a good effort too!)

• Robert M. Pirsig for an understanding of what we cannot know and how to learn from that

My teachers

Although I have had a full education, obtaining a Bachelors and four Masters level degrees, formal pedagogy has inspired me little, I have found my formal education incredibly limiting and consider myself an autodidact:

Autodidact: a heresy that inspires dread and anger in much of the middle-ranking academic community that I deal with.

The two most important mentors are my charitable business partner Ken West who I founded Wildwood Trust with and my economic mentor Fred Harrison www.sharetherents.org who has helped me understand so much economic history and theory and the political battles that have surrounded it.