Archive

I started a blog to highlight the things I was working on at the time, as part of the Trade Me Product and Development teams. Later it evolved to cover many other topics: Business, Technology, Startups, New Zealand, Sport, Health & Fitness and others.

There were over 600 posts during that time. Many of these have since been updated and republished as essays.

These are some of the remaining memorable posts, in chronological order:

• Trade Me Manifesto, from 16th September to 7th October 2007
  “What is it about Trade Me that makes it so successful? Is there a secret formula? And, if so, can we bottle it?”

• Dark Days, 13th October 2007
  On Rugby World Cup ‘07: “I can’t help but think the complete lack of composure and loss of structure the All Blacks suffered in the final 20 minutes wasn’t in some way all of our fault.”

• Lossless, 1st February 2008
  “Technology moves on quickly, but we users are not always so quick to adjust to those things that are the constraints.”

• Holy Cow!, 12th November 2008
  Lessons from Nepal: “Your life flashes before your eyes so frequently – as your driver lurches out into the opposite lane, one hand on the steering wheel and one hand permanently on the horn, at a speed that is much faster than the designer of the tiny little car you’re sitting in would have dreamed possible, only to discover that heading in the other direction is a public bus packed so full that people have overflowed onto the roof, while all sorts of livestock block the side of the road – it starts to become mundane.”

• Start != Finish, 12th January 2009
  “When the clock ticked over from 5 hours 59 minutes I went directly from ‘achieved’ to ‘failed’, which was pretty harsh.”

• Because, 29th January 2009
  “Looking at a high profile success and thinking that you just need to do the same to be successful can be quite misleading.”

• In the beginning…, 22nd March 2009
  Reminiscing about Trade Me, on the 10 year anniversary: “I’ve never worked so hard or had so much fun. We got to experience a business growing at an astonishing rate, although what we didn’t realise at the time was that this was just the beginning. It was a privilege to be part of it.”

• Thank you, Sir, 12th April 2009 This post is to recognise some of the teachers whose paths I have been fortunate to cross

• Muzungu, 23rd March 2010
  Lessons from three weeks in Africa: “Arriving there I didn’t really know what to expect, and I was right!”

• LOAD * ,8,1, 18th July 2010 “All we need to do is ensure that people generally, and kids especially, remain curious.”

• Losers, 10th April 2011
  “Joe Bloggs was left pondering what might have been this morning, after missing out on last night’s Lotto Powerball jackpot.”

• Being Founder Centric, from 4th December 2011 to 23rd December 2011
  “This is not school! You don’t qualify your startup by winning a competition or getting a sucker to invest or being accepted into an incubator program. You qualify by building something customers want and win by selling it repeatedly to them at a price that is greater than your costs.”

• What are ya?, 28th May 2014
  “Who are you waiting on to tell you that you qualify?”

• The Quiet Ones, 27th November 2014
  “Here’s to the quiet ones. The co-founders, the assistants, the collaborators. The round pegs in the round holes. The ones who see things as they are.”

• Dear John, 2nd September 2015
  “I believe the symbols we use to represent ourselves on the international stage are important and worthy of discussion. At least give us the option to choose.”

• I ❤️ the Silver Fern, 13th September 2015
  “Here is something that might surprise you … just like you and lots of others, I love the Silver Fern.”

• Red Peak: Distinctly From New Zealand, 18th November 2015
  “What story will you tell?”