For a large part of the population, this word represents a feared and/or hated territory, to be avoided at all costs. But the truth is the cost of avoiding ‘sales’ can be excessively high.

I won’t pretend to any special insights into how the great writers of the world shape their craft. But one thing that I do know, is that when it comes to writing something well, there’s nothing wrong with a good, long mull.

Compaq introduced a ‘portable’ IBM compatible PC in January of 1983 – the first commercially available ‘laptop’: it weighed 28 lbs, had no battery, cost $3,590 and ensured that Compaq set revenue records for an American business in its first three years of operation. Things have changed. And things keep changing: but what does that mean for way we do business?

The proliferation of products in the business motivation genre is amazing and ranges from simple tips and advice to sensationalistic promises of overnight riches. Clearly this industry is thriving, but why? What is it that people are searching for? Success?

Follow up is huge. Don’t fail to contact someone because you don’t yet have the answer to their question. Yes, we have no bananas is always better than whistling and looking the other way.

Your nearly deaf grandparent needs you to translate everything to a higher volume. Your technology phobic aunt needs you to translate everything related to computers into gardening terms. Your toddler needs you to translate everything into the language of snakes and amphibians. You need your lawyer to translate everything out of legalese and back into English. You get the picture.

Just because we can beam information to one another at near light-speed in increasing volumes and formats, doesn’t mean that we are inherently any better at communication. You only have to look at the strange evolution of e-mail emoticons to see just how difficult it can be to avoid embarrassing misunderstandings.

For that matter, what is content?  It’s a word that we hear a lot these days but it’s almost too broad to define.  From text to music to

A regular contributor to Iberian blogsite Catavino, Ivan’s informative piece on the bobal grape variety turned some heads. 
The Bimbo grape?
As often happens, it was a fellow guiri who recently introduced me to a new discovery from …

Recently, Kids in Barcelona asked Ivan to share his thoughts on parenting in BCN. 
Take two and a half years in Madrid as a young man, three years wanting to escape from small-town Canada and add an …