Costa fortune!

Had my pocket picked and my wallet emptied in Costa Coffee's New Row cafe nr Covent Garden yesterday. To be fair, they had got a sign saying 'pickpockets operate here' but could they do more to prevent their customers getting robbed?

CCTV would help, as would approaching people who come in and sit down without buying a drink. After all, if you need to steal the money for your cappuccino then why are you there?

The staff reaction to my sudden poverty was rather worrying. It's clearly something that happens there every day. I began to wonder if they greet the regular pickpockets with a cheery wave; simply another London worker going about his daily routine.

I wonder if they'd show more interest if I'd been assaulted or mugged instead?I got the feeling that if I'd been stabbed, the staff would just drag me outside so I didn't make a mess on their floor.

Means tested consultancy quotes

I saw a brilliant example of consultant greed the other day. It was a piece of PR work for a charity. The organisation's Chairman, a wealthy entrepreneur had agreed to foot the bill.

The proposal outlined a fairly unimaginative list of tasks, including copying names of accountants out from the Yellow Pages. (Something most of us gave up doing ten years ago!)

The consultant, who shall remain nameless, priced this project at more than £20,000. I'd say it was worth £3,000 and only then if I didn't know that there was no point in chasing editors of weekly papers when all get their news feeds from their group HQ.

There's nothing wrong with discounting your day rate for a voluntary organisation. I do it on my website where I publish my day rates for all to see. But to inflate your day rate because the guy paying is wealthy? That's robbery!

Get bolder as you get older!

Prof Heinz Wolff is quoted in The Times recently as saying that: 'Timidity is very ageing. Fight it to stay younger. After all, with each year that passes you have less to lose.'

These wise words have really got me thinking. Am I getting more timid as I age? I like to think I'm getting bolder, but sometimes I do wonder. I certainly worry far less about what others will think and more than ever before, do as I please for most of the time.

But what about risk? When did I last really push myself far beyond what is comfortable? Of course I push myself to the limit in the gym, dizziness, nausea and floods of sweat are vital in my view if you're to keep your body young. But what about risking reputation, money, personal safety, sanity even? Hmmmmmmm let me think . . . . . . what shall I do first?

Me do multi-level marketing? Never!

You know how it goes. Someone you know and respect calls you to arrange a conversation with a third party. In this case, via conference call. You hear the personal story - I had it, lost it and found it again thanks to xyz.

You're shown company xyz and then, surprise surprise, told how you can profit from helping those you know to benefit from what xyz does. Then comes the soft close - I'm committed and will help you if you decide to come on board.

I have to admit that this one does have a good range of products and will I think take the world by storm. But then so does a flu epidemic; the challenge is to leave people feeling better than you found them.

The clincher for me was the company vision of making one million people millionaires. At whose expense I asked myself?

I'll help anyone with a good idea spread the word. I'll recommend any product or service that impresses me. But I draw the line at trading my independence to join any organisation - however appealing the offer.

Time to grow home

It might seem strange, but to me, the best time to start a business in in the depths of recession. You create an enterprise that is lean, fit, hungry and responsive to market demand. Then, when the economy brightens up, you're in the right place at a very good time.

Of course I already have a business although in reality it's very modest in size. But that's about to change. As my reputation as a writer and speaker grows, more people are asking me to help them give their organisation a boost. Time is my only limiting factor and so the answer is of course to build a team and give them the methodology, skills and support to deliver what people are demanding.

To create some space between me and the business, it has a new website www.turnpikefarm.co.uk
which goes live in a day or two. Turnpike Farm is the place I live and work. It's also the place where we cultivate success and grow enterprises. It should be fun!

I love buses but I don't have all day . . .

I'm attending a meeting in Swaffham later this week. It's a Mental Health Trust Governors' gathering, with people coming from all over Norfolk and North Suffolk.

With the papers for the session were travel details for those wishing (or having) to use public transport. The furthest away you could be from Swaffham is Lowestoft - a journey of 57 miles. By car, it's about 75 minutes. By bus it's 3hrs 24minutes. You catch a bus in Lowestoft at 10am, change at Yarmouth and again at Norwich. That's an average speed of just over 16 miles an hour. It'd be faster to come on your bike!

How can people be expected to leave their cars at home and take the bus when it takes so bloody long to get anywhere?

Let's all glow in the dark

Two seemingly contradictory press articles this week paint a bleak picture for the future of our urban landscape.

One suggests that because the Courts are likely to consider injured cyclists in-part culpable if they don't wear a helmet. The commentator asks if the next step is for pedestrians to also be required to wear helmets or be considered contributors to their own fate when mown down by passing traffic. We already see more and more people wearing hi-vis jackets when out walking - helmets are the next logical step in the footpath to political correct behaviour for us all.

The second article described how Boris wants to strip some London streets of signs, white lines and speed bumps - seamlessly blending foot with wheeled traffic, so that people have to think. This is already established practice in parts of the Netherlands, where removing street signs and other clutter encourages drivers and pedestrians to seek eye contact - thus collaborating to create a safe environment.

Put the two together and you can quickly see a situation where the roads are free of confusing signs, but filled with people walking in hard hats and hi-vis waistcoats.

Now that's really confusing!