This story has already made headlines on various news channels and newspapers globally: a Swedish family was put on an “organic only” diet for 2 weeks with amazing results. You can watch the amazing film here, where you can also read more about the research and science behind the study. The most telling result was the dramatic change in the levels of pesticides in urine samples taken from members of the family pre and post “going organic”: traces of pesticides and insecticides were present in all urine samples taken prior to the experiment starting – urine samples taken during the “organic only” diet showed a dramatic drop in pesticide concentration in urine sample, “especially” in children. Of course eating 100% organic is not practical for most families today, but you should at least try to limit the consumption of fruits and vegetables known to have the highest chemical concentrations.

I’m not Paleo, nor do I want to be Paleo. But I do believe that the Paleo approach to eating (when done well) is far superior to any other “diet” which exists out there. In fact, I do often recommend a “Paleo approach” to eating for anyone not well-versed in nutrition, simply because it provides simple easy-to-follow guidelines with countless recipes and cookbooks… However, there are also many misconceptions about Paleo, such as “Paleo eating is trying to eat like Paleolithic humans”, or “there are no carbs in Paleo”, or that “Paleo is expensive”, etc. In this article, Chris Kresser clarifies what Paleo is and what it isn’t and provides easy guidelines to follow. If you’re interested in knowing more about why/how to go Paleo, hit reply or comment below.

One of the biggest complains I hear from entrepreneurs is: “I can’t get clients to pay on time”. This is not just a nuisance, it can really kill your entire business. I often find that entrepreneurs are amazingly creative and hard-working, but many either lack the financial planning skills or courage to be firm on payments. This is not a problem limited to small businesses though, I advise multi-billion dollar corporates, and when they struggle to collect payments from clients for whatever reason, they get in trouble. As an entrepreneur, you need to learn financial planning skills from day one, but most importantly, learn how to make your clients pay on time! Here’s a simple article with some easy suggestions. Be diligent and disciplined about this, your business cannot survive without it.

I wholeheartedly believe that the skills I learned as an endurance athlete are of tremendous value to my productivity at work. As an endurance athlete, you learn to monitor how anything you do can affect your performance. This includes nutrition, hydration, sleep, breathing pattern, stress management, hard work, and so on. If you’re smart about your training, you’re leaving no stone unturned to maximize your performance. How many of you are implementing those same principles to maximize your performance at work? It starts from the simplest things: being well hydrated improves your 40km TT performance; being well hydrated also helps deliver glucose and ketones to your brain for better performance at work. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here are 5 habits from athletes which can easily transfer to the workplace. Don’t take my word for it: I just finished reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biography (Total Recall), and you can clearly see how habits developed in the gym turned him into a high performance beast in many aspects of his life.

I love boardroom psychology. When I’m coaching up and coming junior investment bankers, I never shy away from telling them that their success in dealmaking is 50% brains and 50% manipulation. Wait! Don’t unsubscribe yet! I’m not referring to manipulation in bad faith, I’m referring to the art of reading the psychology of people around the table, understanding how they think and what they’re after, and trying to create a situation where you can “get a deal done” and all parties walk away happy. This also requires you to “control” the environment in the room. This applies to any situation that involves multiple parties and where you’re seeking to get a result: whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to get money from investors or a bank, or a salesperson trying to create demand for your product… It’s important to “control” the room. This article from the Harvard Business Review articulates the 4 main methods of influence: Positional Power, Emotion/Passion, Expertise, and Mastery of Human Interaction. As they mention in the article, the last one is rare, but if you train yourself in mastering this skill, the room “is yours”.

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