Date: Wednesday, 01 February 2012

I don't know about you, but my year started fairly ordinary. I had the worse New Years' Eve I can remember for some years, and then the next few days followed suit. It just kept on going on. I was in unfamiliar terriority so I couldn't really vent my frustration or the fact that I had a strong distaste for the continual negative elements that kept creeping into what had been a 'perfect' life.  In fact, I cannot say whether or not I have had a worse start to a year before and given that I tend to put so much hope in starting a new year - it was a tad disappointing. Actually, it felt quite soul destroying and as a fairly positive person, that's saying something.

We all have expectations and big occasions like New Years' Eve don't help. Isn't that the date for the most suicides and I am sure it is the same date that sends people to Xanax or whatever their choice of anti-depression drugs might be? To me, it is suppose to be about a fresh start to the year and full of positivity. Unfortunately it wasn't the case and as much as I willed for good fortune and happiness to surround me, it did not occur quite like I would have wanted it to. I had such high expectations that fell apart fairly fast and furious over the new year but to sit here and continually complain would not be conducive to anyone or anything. After all, there are people starving in the world and I am worried about my expectations not being met on an occasion which is just a great excuse to drink too much champagne and surround yourself with people that you may not ever see again or may only see again next year.

Instead of having a 'fresh start to 2012', I was bombarded with a failing in circumstances and my expectations of what life should be and how others should behave fell down quick smart.

When you are a small business, it is hard to find money just to pay the bills most of the time, let alone invest in team bonding or outsourced employee development.

I know that in the first couple of years of business, other than some hands on training from moi, my team received little if any outside training to develop their skills and capabilities as marketing consultants.

They were expected (sadly, this was the case) to research and find their own path to developing their careers as marketing consultants and were expected to use market research and the Internet as resources to learn about small businesses and the challenges they go through on a day to day basis.

DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS Only 7 Saturdays to achieve a recognised Management Diploma Approved for Australian Government Funding A variety of classroom and one-on-one sessions to support practical & interactive learning FREE iPad2 – yours to keep at the end of the course Australian owned; Sydney based