Never give in. Never give in. Never… Never… Never!

Never give in. Never give in. Never... Never... Never!

You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Winston Churchill

It’s A Wonderful ‘Social’ Life

The kindness of strangers

For most of us, Christmas is a time for giving. But for a small minority whose selfish actions make us all a little smaller, it is a time to take. And not simply take from those who perhaps enjoy too much, but from those who have very little to begin with. It is these individuals who broke into a charities headquarters during the night and stole Christmas from the struggling families of Merton.

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Once you learn this, you’ll never be the same again.

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Steve Jobs

Life’s too short for cheap guitars… Week Four #lovemyhat

The hat visits the mystical Avebury Stone Circle
The hat visits the mystical Avebury Stone Circle

So the time has come where I reach the end of my millinery social experiment. I have shared my experiences of wearing a hat for over four weeks and hope that you have enjoyed at least some part of it. My hat has become part of who I am and will remain firmly upon my head, but I might spare you all the constant updates.

I feel that I have learnt so much during this period, way beyond the simple day-to-day trials of the hat wearer. Things about myself and those around me. It has changed me. Maybe not fundamentally, but in lots of little ways.

Would I recommend you wear a hat? Absolutely!

Yes they’re a pain in the arse when it’s windy, they make your head sweat and it’s yet another thing to carry around. But, for the moment at least, when you wear one you feel special, you’re part of a select crowd of individuals and you’re VERY easy to spot in a crowd.

My only piece of advice would be this though. Jerry Jeff Walker speaks the absolute truth when he says “Life’s too short for cheap guitars”. If you decide to join the millinery revolution and get a hat, do yourself a favour and get a good one. I know of just the place.

You can follow my day to day adventures with ‘Indi’ at twitter.com/stuartwitts or via the hashtag #lovemyhat, and if you feel inspired to purchase your very own quality headpiece, visit bates-hats.com and don’t forget to tell them Indiana sent you 😉

Only in the leap from the Lion’s head will he prove his worth… #lovemyhat

I have always been a fan of hats. Proper hats mind you, not these overly branded trucker caps that people plonk on their heads these days, but the more refined and stylish type of headgear that gentlemen used to wear. Yet despite being a fan, I have never really spent much time wearing them.

A succession of cheap, poorly-made fedoras have made their way onto my noggin, but for various reasons, have never stood the test of time. And so, as I approach my fortieth year on this planet, I have decided that it is time to do this properly… and by properly, I mean it is time to wear the only hat that any man would ever want to wear, the hat that stands as a symbol for all movie millinery… the Raider’s Hat.

The Hat

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Top 10 tips on how to succeed in social media

  1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
  2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
  3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
  4. Become genuinely interested in other people.
  5. Smile.
  6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
  7. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
  8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
  9. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
  10. Don’t spend your time reading Top 10 tips on how to succeed in social media.

Thank you Dale Carnegie, you are as relevant now as you were over 75 years ago.

The ROI of Thieving Scum!

A couple of weeks ago, a full Marie Curie Cancer Care collection box was taken from The Village Café in Stanstead Abbotts High Street, leaving owner Jill Lovegrove distraught.

Thankfully these sort of events that erode your faith in humanity are not commonplace, despite what the media might tell you, and are simply a sad reminder that not everyone has a working moral compass.

This could well have been all that was ever heard about this particular incident, a few short paragraphs in a local newspaper. But one local resident decided that something needed to be done, and so began #stolencharitybox.

Steve Berry (@unloveablesteve) turned to the people that he knew just wouldn’t stand for this sort of thing and encouraged them to chuck in whatever they could afford to replace the £200 that had been stolen.

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We are Google. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

So Larry has decided that the future of Google is most definitely in social, however I fear once again that the technically obsessed corporation that is Google have completely missed the point by promoting an engineer to SVP of Social.

This relentless desire to attack ‘problems’ and solve them with absolute logistical precision may have been ideal in the search game, but this is social media where SERENDIPITY RULES! Google are not alone though, as many others seek to eliminate the so called ‘noise’ of social.

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The NEXT social network…

I hear this question asked ALL the time… What is the NEXT social network?

Despite the goliath that is Facebook and the young upstart Twitter, there are those who think that Foursquare is leading us down the path of a new type of geo-social network. Other, considerably more niche social networks are popping up all the time, offering us the chance to organise ourselves into community groups around activities such as taking photographs or listening to music.

I have no idea what the NEXT social network will be, but I do know what I hope the one after that will be… Everybody out in the REAL world talking to each other without fear or prejudice.