Then Thursday morning comes and one of our clients has a server failure – totally down and 35 staff can’t work. This is a seriously rare event for us which means when it happens we’re on it very fast. One of my engineers on site in 40 minutes working to get it fixed and followed by me doing my white van man bit with a spare server so we can get restoring onto the spare box at the same time as trying to fix the broken one.

Either way they’ll be back up and running in a few hours.

In fact they were all sorted before lunch – not bad but then again we knew it was dead before the client did so we were all prepared.

Anyway that one done and I’m off to see a potential new client in North London – I say potential cause I’m fussy about who I let in as a client.

The meeting finished and they said ‘do you want to see the server?’ Now where people house their server is a pretty good indication of how they run their business and a very good indication of the IT company they use. They’d explained how critical the server was, how they couldn’t work without their files, their databases and their email – pretty standard stuff.

So I accepted the invitation and I was led upstairs to the kitchen.

Yep the kitchen.

The server was under a ledge, sticking half way out across the kitchen right under the kettle.

Yep the kettle.

I kid you not.

Maybe we won’t be working with them – well not unless they do exactly what I say – and even then they’ll have to ask very nicely.

As for the total morons in the IT company they use – all I need is a wall and a shotgun and I can start cleaning up this tacky IT industry.

So if you’ve got a shotgun and a load of ammo get in touch.

My wife is Indian and we were going to visit where she was born and spent the first few years of her life before moving to the UK as well as some of the touristy bits as well.

My kids at that time were 8,10 and 11 and this was a good chance to show them a completely different side of life.

The village we went to was out of an old film.

It had a big lake where the women would do their washing while the water buffalos would wee and poo in the same big washing machine! We didn’t get our clothes washed in there.

Now being the only honky in a remote Indian village is different. The number of double takes I got and the look of disbelief as this white man walked round the corner was brilliant. The problem was I had no way of communicating with the entire village except for smiling at people.

They probably still talk about the simple white man who visited their village and walked round with a gormless grin on his face.

One thing stands out though and I still talk about it with my kids.

We got invited to one my wife relative houses for a meal – don’t ask me which relative I couldn’t tell you. There’s a separate name for each and every one. It was an aunty once removed or whatever.

Anyway this aunty lived in a hut not a house with a mud floor and walls. The husband had been out catching fish in the local river to feed us with and they’d laid on what looked like a banquet – they’d even got a bottle of coke for us so we didn’t have to drink the local water.

These people had so little but what they did have they gladly shared with us.

A very humbling experience and a real example of generosity.

Generosity isn’t about giving some of what you have loads of – it’s sharing the one thing that is in real short supply.

You know – cause and effect.

Like drinking too much and getting drunk.

Like spending too much time in the sun (if you’re a pale face like me) and ending up looking like a lobster.

And of course eating too much and being fat.

It’s a direct cause and effect relationship for all but the terminally stupid.

If you’re a member of the terminally stupid club it’s not cause of too much eating of course it’s because of a low metabolism or some other hereditary reason that the owner of the flab has now direct control over.

Yeah right.

Last night I was standing in a supermarket queue behind a mother and daughter both of whom had packed into the cream cakes way too much. They were discussing weight and how unlucky they’d been in life cause they’d been given the low metabolism gene rather than the high one and that’s why they put the weight on. “Thin people are so lucky”.

You may be wondering why I’m talking about this… well, because on the way out I passed dumb and dumber sat in their car. They were sat there stuffing their faces with yet more food…. they couldn’t even wait to get home before packing in more calories.

You can’t ignore cause and effect.

Well I guess you can ignore the cause but what you can’t escape the effect… that my friend is all yours.

And it’s as relevant in your personal life as it is in business.

And while we’re talking of cause and effect, if you let your consultants run off with your data the effect on your recruitment ain’t gonna be pretty.

So if they have their business email on their phones and tablets you need to protect yourself.

And you’ll be able to do that by ring fencing your data… a big tall fence with barbed wire on the top. Your recruitment consultants will only be able to get past the fence and get to the data with your permission.

When you withdraw your permission their access will go… and the data will dissappear of their phone or tablet.

Now that’s what I call being in control.

I’ve just had 3 days of my mastermind group meeting mixing with some seriously switched on people.

By switched on I don’t mean that they’re seriously intelligent even though most of them are. What I mean is they see no boundaries.

Think about that for a minute.

When was the last time you spent time with a group of people who didn’t have a concept of boundaries in what they wanted to achieve… who only think of the things they have to solve to get where they want to go.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that they think it’s just gonna happen. They accept the goals have challenges and think about how to overcome those challenges. But that’s all they were… challenges to overcome.

That is a seriously powerful group of people.

And you know what?

I still have to pinch myself sometimes to think I’m part of it.

That’s the power of like-minded people

Freaking awesome.

P.S. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why,” they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.”