NeilMattingley.com

I listened to a speech last night. It was for a competition conducted by Toastmasters, the international organisation set-up to promote public speaking in the community . It was a good speech. The speaker was clearly passionate about the topic (he’d just written a thesis about it)… He was extremely knowledgeable about the topic… And [...]

A couple of days in hospital makes you very aware of who is looking after you. As I lay on my hospital bed during a brief stint last week, I was reminded of an excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s 2005 work, Blink, in which he poses the question: “Why are some Doctors more likely to get sued than are others?” Gladwell, [...]

Twenty-three year-old Andrew “Morello”, the “boy from Moonee Ponds”, is the first winner of the Australian version of The Apprentice. He will join Mark Bouris, the man behind Wizard Home Loans, in heading up a brand new national venture. Though Morello had lots of virtues, I think the main reason he took out the title [...]

The local coffee shop near where I work is doing very well. It’s called the Dancing Goat and it’s run by a pair of Gen Y’s – Rob and Annie – friends who decided to go into business together. As I stood in line, waiting for my “skinny flat white” today, I couldn’t help but [...]

I learnt a powerful lesson today. I was due to give a presentation to a small group I’m a part of. It’s specifically set up to work on presentation skills. The task for today was to stretch yourself by presenting in a way that you feel uncomfortable. I decided that I could learn most by [...]

We had an interesting discussion in our office meeting the other day. It was about the standards of service we expected of ourselves when dealing with customers. We had the usual stuff. How many times should a phone be allowed to ring? Stuff about taking on board the client problem. The importance of using names. [...]

The other day, I was driving with my two kids, aged 4 and 6, when we stopped at the traffic lights. Because they know I’ve been involved in the real estate industry, they often take an interest in “For Sale” signs. 4-year-old: “Daddy, are they selling their house?” Daddy: “Yes.” 4-year-old: “Why don’t they have [...]

Once upon a time I bought a book at Borders Bookshop. The girl behind the counter asked me if I would like to be on their e-mail “Shortlist”…an initiative where Borders email me information about their upcoming specials and latest releases. I received an email from Borders today. The header was for “20% off 1 [...]

I went “Wow” today – several times. The people in the office did too. We were having our first look at Google Street View. If Google’s intention was to do something remarkable – they achieved it. I think the main reason that we were all “blown away” by what we were seeing was our appreciation [...]

Remember the 1998 film with Gwyneth Paltrow where they examine the whole idea of how single events can determine what happens thereafter? In Gwyneth’s case, they compare two different storylines; one where she catches her train to work on time, and one where the sliding doors close and the train pulls away. As a consequence, [...]