Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from FP Advance
I hope by the time you read this you’ve finished up for 2015 and are taking some well earned time off. I really like winding down at this time of year myself and as the New Year approaches, reflecting on what we’ve achieved and what we’d still like to do in the coming 12 months.
So, in this newsletter I want to thank you personally for being part of the FP Advance community and to thank you personally for being part of the FP Advance community. I really appreciate the feedback and the comments we’ve received. We work hard to try and deliver something of value in our e-newsletter, and the comments we get from readers help us to judge if we are on the mark or not. They also give us ideas, so if you have some topics you’d like me to write about in 2016, or just some general feedback, please let me know.
Our next intake for Uncover Your Business Potential, our 3-year course, will occur around March/April and kick off in June. If you’re looking for something to take you through the A-Z of running a great Financial Planning business then take a look here.
Some great Christmas reading
If you’re looking for something to spend your Amazon vouchers on over Christmas here are a few book recommendations to give you inspiration over the Christmas break:
The first two are my favourite autobiographies of all time:
Open by Andre Agassi
He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court – but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game.
Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself, an inner conflict that would define him. In his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by conflict.
“No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything.” Andre Agassi
Personal History by Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham’s father was a multi-millionaire who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post newspaper. Her husband Phil Graham was a brilliant and charismatic man whose plunge into manic depression and eventual suicide is recounted movingly and charitably in this book. Above all, Katharine Graham tells her own story – the contradictions of her privileged yet lonely childhood; the tragic drama of her marriage – and the challenges of her new life as the head of a great newspaper company. This is more than the mere life story of a successful woman. It deals with power and politics at the centre, and the relationship between the White House and the press, notably over the Watergate Crisis.
The next one is a really good business read: 
Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters
The brilliant follow up to Traction (which I’ve recommended many times over the last year), Rocket Fuel gets into the detail around the relationship between the Visionary and the Integrator. If you’re trying to build a larger business (and I mean more than £600k p.a. of turnover) then this is a must-read.
If you’ve already got a manager in place and you want to get the relationship working better, then there are some practical rules and tools you can use right here. If you’re contemplating hiring a professional manager (and you should be once you are between £600k and £800k of annual turnover) then this is the book to show you how to do it right.
The last book is for anyone who is interested in great writing for TV or film (which I am). But it’s also a really interesting piece of modern history.
Difficult Men: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad by Brett Martin
If you love your TV and box sets then this history of the change that occurred in television, originally brought about by HBO and The Sopranos, is a great read. I read it over the summer and couldn’t put it down.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a wave of TV shows, dramatically stretched television’s inventiveness, emotional resonance and ambition. Martin takes us behind the scenes of our favourite shows, delivering never-before-heard story after story and revealing how TV has emerged from the shadow of film to become a truly significant and influential part of our culture.
Have a fantastic Christmas period and I look forward to catching up with you in 2016.
Regards,
Brett
0 comments to " End of Year Inspiration "