Table of Contents

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

About the Author

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.

Reviews

“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)