Planes have been in the news recently with the exhibition at Tate Britain (which is even more impressive in reality).

In this photo (with a great headline from The Sun), we see one member of a team of two with total focus, flying low through a valley. Meanwhile, the other is (for that moment) able to relax.

Managing the pace of work is a key element of what it means to be part of a team that is on the front foot.

See this on getting the balance right here.

On the train.

I see an old contact.

Maybe he could become a new client.

I think of approaching him.

Then he puts his feet on the seats, and starts moving in ways that disturb those around him.

And begins eating an unbelievably smelly item of food. 

I decide to leave it.

We all choose who we work with?  Do we choose well?  Are these valid reasons?

Are you good at spotting trends?

Being perceptive in seeing new things take shape - shifts in behaviour, changes in consumption, altering of attitudes – is a useful skill. And might make you more interesting at dinner parties. So it’s worth practicing.

Here’s a trend to get started on. Have you noticed that, for about a year, men in high-end fashion shoots have frequently had a hair parting and semi-slicked down hair?  More widely, however, male fashion still includes the long-standing slightly scruffed up look and, recently, use of a beard. 

Watch to see when (and if) the parting goes mainstream outside of the fashion shoot. You’ll see (in London) a few more younger men with the parted look.  Try counting… 

And see this for a bit on the theory of fashion.

On the train.

A loud voice.

“You haven’t got enough on him.

He is crap.

Double his targets.

Make him get another job.

Gradually get him out.

You have been too nice for too long.

I will phone her to try and sort this out.

I won’t charge you.

I want something else.

I want your HR work.

I WANT YOUR HR WORK”

Laughter of disbelief throughout carriage.

In 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote his best-known work, Il Principe (The Prince), as advice to any in the ruling classes who wanted to gain or maintain power and also attain glory.

He describes what he has seen in his political life as the necessary things a prince must do – in essence combining the guile of the fox with the force of the lion.

Subsequently, the use of his name has had very negative connotations. Most people would not relish being called “Machiavellian”. But his thinking has been very influential in shaping our history – and in many good ways. It helped stimulate liberal political philosophy to advocate positive change for the citizen, promoted the supremacy of civil rather than religious or monarchical power and stressed the ideals of honesty, hard work and people’s responsibility to their communities. Like Kafka and Freud, the adjective derived from his name paints just a narrow idea of what he had to say. So his reputation is rather ill-deserved.

While The Prince is not meant to be a moral guide for the day-to-day living of the average Joe Bloggs, it nonetheless has ideas in it which we can all learn from. So, for example, he tells us that Fortune is the force that can always crush you. “Extremima malignita” or pure misfortune can be just around the corner. The results of the current economic conditions might feel like that to some. What seemed certain is no longer so.

How can you defend yourself against what might happen? Machiavelli says that you should try to “master Fortune”. To paraphrase, as they might say in the US, you should try to “get lucky”. How do you do that? You have to take action: “It is better to have acted and regretted than not to have acted and regretted”. In doing so, “Fortes fortuna adiuvat” – fortune favours the brave (here he borrows from Levy the Roman historian).

Maybe now is the time to act. What steps can you take?