Welcome! At last, the new PeterShallard.com site is alive and kicking.

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for an email update, thank you for your continued interest. For people checking out this site for the first time, it’s great to have you here!

Building this site has been the most fun I’ve had in a while. Half the fun is stretching myself to do something new and different, and the other half is that in order to focus, I took a blogging sabbatical and moved to the snowy mountains of New Zealand.

I get to meet and hang out with a bunch of people who are teetering on the edge of the entrepreneurial dream.

They know that they want the freedom, wealth and happiness that small business success can bring. Some of them are keen to build an empire!

They also have read books that drill in the “be passionate about what you do” message.

Problem is, these people still end up utterly stuck and frustrated. Sound like someone you know (perhaps really well)?

This morning I sat down for the first of 17+ days of professional development.

Actually, I’ve committed the 28 days of February to this development – but for 17 days, I’ll be attending a super high-level (read: Jedi) NLP training.

The trainer (and good friend) Heidi Heron, astounded me with this simple congratulation:

“You’re giving yourself 17 days of deliberate, focused learning out of 365. That is rare.”

And it is. When did we, as adults, decide that our focus was “work” and no longer “education”. Regretfully, I’ve been putting off this training for years – simply because I refused to give myself 17 days.

What would you do, if you took a month off to learn?

PS Blog updates will continue as normal – if anything, they may get better

PPS Photo above was taken from my bedroom window, here on Australia’s beautiful Gold Coast.

Two game-changing launches have/are happening this week. They’ll both send major shockwaves through the world of business, entrepreneurs and more.

The first is Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin – Are you indispensable? which is all about shaking up the way you think about what you do all day… and how you do it.

The second is Apple Computer’s launch of their (revolutionary) Tablet device, to be formally announced in San Francisco at 10am tomorrow (local time).

You’ll be talking about these two products and the ideas they create for years to come, guaranteed. If you haven’t already, click the links (blue) above and be among the first to get the scoop.

I’d love to know how you think either of these will affect your future – in business or life in general. Leave a comment below.

- Peter

Seth Sternberg, CEO of start up dotcom company Meebo, yesterday published a “how to” guide on literally “start-ing up” business ideas. From idea to empire – he covers it all off with the wisdom of a true geek entrepreneur.

I took the following two points away – from this practical, how-to guide:

Yesterday’s article was a short and sweet burst of negativity into your otherwise comfortable day.

Why would I set such a horrible and negative exercise? The answer is simple: There’s a bunch of benefits to being “constructively negative” – including increased productivity, creativity and effectiveness.

Read on to find out why…

What makes a cult a cult?

My definition revolves around the scary “I sold my house and gave the cash to my leader” mentality of the truly trapped.

I guess a cult is defined by the behaviour of its members… or in cases where cash changes hands, I guess we could call them customers.