Here, I explore history, mythology, and the deeper forces shaping our world — and how men and families can prepare for, and adapt to, these times of great change.
Deeper and quieter
About eighteen months ago I sent this list an email called The Noble's Path is Closing Its Doors. A few of you asked what happened next, and I owe you the answer.
It didn't end. It stopped being public. What we'd built needed depth more than it needed reach, so it went quieter: a small number of men, meeting in small groups, working through a long ladder of challenges one at a time, each one taken seriously enough to change how a man actually lives. Slower than anything I could sell, and better than anything I did. If you came to me for coaching in the early years, this is where that road led.
I'm not opening doors today. When they open, it will be to a few men at a time, and I'll ask more of them than a membership fee. What I want to know now is simpler. If that's a room you'd want to be told about, reply with one line and I'll put your name down. If it isn't, nothing changes, and the business letters will keep coming at their own pace.
Either way, thank you for reading this far. Nine months of silence is a long time to hold a seat for someone.
David
David Schofield · Purpose In Action
Purpose In Action Coaching & Consulting
Here, I explore history, mythology, and the deeper forces shaping our world — and how men and families can prepare for, and adapt to, these times of great change.
Teri's building an aquarium at the moment, which means our kitchen table is currently a research station. What's striking is the fear. The forums are full of people testing their water four times a day, dosing chemical after chemical, terrified of nitrites they can't pronounce. Their fish keep dying anyway. Usually from the treatments. The old hands do something different. They set up the conditions, the light, the plants, the filtration, the patience, and then they largely leave the tank...
Most owners can quote their revenue to the pound. Almost none of them can tell you this number: of every pound you bill, how much actually arrives? The published numbers say most businesses shouldn't be confident. Clio's benchmarks for law firms put the median at 88% of billable work even being invoiced, and 93% of invoices being collected. That compounds to roughly a fifth of the work being done and never fully paid for, at the median, while everyone works flat out. Law gets measured; most...
There's a test that tells you more about a business than its accounts do. Could the owner leave for a fortnight, phone off, and come back to find it standing? Not limping. Standing. Some of you have been reading long enough to remember when I failed it. 2013, South Manchester, a veg box business. My co-founder did the deliveries, a friend helped with the marketing, volunteers packed the boxes, and everything else lived in my head: the ordering, the office, the socials, alongside a paid job, a...