So Why Did You Write the Book, Fergus? vii
OK, So What’s the Plan? ix
Stuff I Wish I’d Known About. . .
Aiming High – The only limits are the ones you set yourself 1
Appreciating Life – It’s about how you see things 9
Being More Productive – Why the answer is not 16-hour days 15
Bosses – What they’re like and what they like 25
Commitment and Perseverance – One gets you started, the other keeps you going 33
Common Sense – It’s not all that common but it’s a skill you can learn 41
Communication – You gotta keep ’em in the loop 49
Creativity – It’s not just for artists 57
Decision Making – Figure out the real issue and stop faffi ng 63
Email – Step away from the computer! 69
Failure – It’s good to fail 75
Having a Purpose – Find something you like to do and you’ll never work a day in your life 83
Keeping Your Business Going – Don’t run out of money 91
Making the Sale – People don’t like to be sold to – but they love to buy 97
Managing People – How our natural tendency to manage is often the opposite of what we ought to do 103
Meetings – Just because everyone else goes doesn’t mean you have to 109
Moving Up – Show you can do what you’re aiming for 115
Negotiation – There must be something in the deal for everyone 123
Networking – Why you should never throw away a business card 129
Organizations – Why they’re not actually run by senior management 135
Presentations – You don’t need to be led by PowerPoint 143
Projects and Getting Stuff Done – Why you’re probably being mistaken for Santa Claus 149
Reports and Reporting – Why this is your chance to save some rainforest 155
Starting Your Own Thing – Just get out there and see if people will buy it 159
Epilogue 167
References 169
Acknowledgements 173
About the Author 175
The Sunday Business Post has described Fergus
O'Connell as having 'more strings to his bow than a
Stradivarius'.
Fergus has a First in Mathematical Physics from University College
Cork and is one of the world's leading authorities on project
management. His company — ETP (www.etpint.com) - and his project
management method — Structured Project Management / The Ten Steps —
have influenced a generation of project managers. In 2003 this
method was used to plan and execute the Special Olympics World
Games, the world's biggest sporting event that year. Fergus's
experience covers projects around the world; he has taught project
management in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. He
holds two patents.
Fergus is the author of thirteen business books. The first of
these, How to Run Successful Projects — the Silver Bullet, has
become both a bestseller and a classic and has been constantly in
print for over twenty years. His book on common sense entitled
Simply Brilliant — also a bestseller and now in its fourth edition
— was runner-up in the W H Smith Book Awards 2002. His books have
been translated into twenty languages. His most recent title is The
Power Of Doing Less, published by Capstone in 2012. It has sold 6k
copies to date.
“This is a quick and easy read…do not be fooled by the
conversational style and speech bubbles, there is a lot of sane
advice in this short volume” (Career Matters, April 2015)
"This book is a concise, uplifting and quick read." (Nursing Times,
November 2015)
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