Nigel Marsh: ' It's particularly important that you never put the quality of your life in the hands of a commercial corporation', TEDx Sydney, How to make work-life balance work

May 2010 , Sydney, Australia

What I thought I would do is I would start with a simple request. I'd like all of you to pause for a moment, you wretched weaklings, and take stock of your miserable existence. (Laughter)

Now that was the advice that St. Benedict gave his rather startled followers in the fifth century. It was the advice that I decided to follow myself when I turned 40. Up until that moment, I had been that classic corporate warrior -- I was eating too much, I was drinking too much, I was working too hard and I was neglecting the family. And I decided that I would try and turn my life around. In particular, I decided I would try to address the thorny issue of work-life balance. So I stepped back from the workforce, and I spent a year at home with my wife and four young children. But all I learned about work-life balance from that year was that I found it quite easy to balance work and life when I didn't have any work. (Laughter) Not a very useful skill, especially when the money runs out.

So I went back to work, and I've spent these seven years since struggling with, studying and writing about work-life balance. And I have four observations I'd like to share with you today. The first is: if society's to make any progress on this issue, we need an honest debate. But the trouble is so many people talk so much rubbish about work-life balance. All the discussions about flexi-time or dress-down Fridays or paternity leave only serve to mask the core issue, which is that certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family. Now the first step in solving any problem is acknowledging the reality of the situation you're in. And the reality of the society that we're in is there are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like. (Laughter) (Applause) It's my contention that going to work on Friday in jeans and [a] T-shirt isn't really getting to the nub of the issue.

(Laughter)

The second observation I'd like to make is we need to face the truth that governments and corporations aren't going to solve this issue for us. We should stop looking outside. It's up to us as individuals to take control and responsibility for the type of lives that we want to lead. If you don't design your life, someone else will design it for you, and you may just not like their idea of balance. It's particularly important -- this isn't on the World Wide Web, is it? I'm about to get fired -- it's particularly important that you never put the quality of your life in the hands of a commercial corporation. Now I'm not talking here just about the bad companies -- the "abattoirs of the human soul," as I call them. (Laughter) I'm talking about all companies. Because commercial companies are inherently designed to get as much out of you [as] they can get away with. It's in their nature; it's in their DNA; it's what they do -- even the good, well-intentioned companies. On the one hand, putting childcare facilities in the workplace is wonderful and enlightened. On the other hand, it's a nightmare -- it just means you spend more time at the bloody office. We have to be responsible for setting and enforcing the boundaries that we want in our life.

The third observation is we have to be careful with the time frame that we choose upon which to judge our balance. Before I went back to work after my year at home, I sat down and I wrote out a detailed, step-by-step description of the ideal balanced day that I aspired to. And it went like this: wake up well rested after a good night's sleep. Have sex. Walk the dog. Have breakfast with my wife and children. Have sex again. (Laughter) Drive the kids to school on the way to the office. Do three hours' work. Play a sport with a friend at lunchtime. Do another three hours' work. Meet some mates in the pub for an early evening drink. Drive home for dinner with my wife and kids. Meditate for half an hour. Have sex. Walk the dog. Have sex again. Go to bed. (Applause) How often do you think I have that day? (Laughter) We need to be realistic. You can't do it all in one day. We need to elongate the time frame upon which we judge the balance in our life, but we need to elongate it without falling into the trap of the "I'll have a life when I retire, when my kids have left home, when my wife has divorced me, my health is failing, I've got no mates or interests left." (Laughter) A day is too short; "after I retire" is too long. There's got to be a middle way.

A fourth observation: We need to approach balance in a balanced way. A friend came to see me last year -- and she doesn't mind me telling this story -- a friend came to see me last year and said, "Nigel, I've read your book. And I realize that my life is completely out of balance. It's totally dominated by work. I work 10 hours a day; I commute two hours a day. All of my relationships have failed. There's nothing in my life apart from my work. So I've decided to get a grip and sort it out. So I joined a gym." (Laughter) Now I don't mean to mock, but being a fit 10-hour-a-day office rat isn't more balanced; it's more fit. (Laughter) Lovely though physical exercise may be, there are other parts to life -- there's the intellectual side; there's the emotional side; there's the spiritual side. And to be balanced, I believe we have to attend to all of those areas -- not just do 50 stomach crunches.

Now that can be daunting. Because people say, "Bloody hell mate, I haven't got time to get fit. You want me to go to church and call my mother." And I understand. I truly understand how that can be daunting. But an incident that happened a couple of years ago gave me a new perspective. My wife, who is somewhere in the audience today, called me up at the office and said, "Nigel, you need to pick our youngest son" -- Harry -- "up from school." Because she had to be somewhere else with the other three children for that evening. So I left work an hour early that afternoon and picked Harry up at the school gates. We walked down to the local park, messed around on the swings, played some silly games. I then walked him up the hill to the local cafe, and we shared a pizza for two, then walked down the hill to our home, and I gave him his bath and put him in his Batman pajamas. I then read him a chapter of Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach." I then put him to bed, tucked him in, gave him a kiss on his forehead and said, "Goodnight, mate," and walked out of his bedroom. As I was walking out of his bedroom, he said, "Dad?" I went, "Yes, mate?" He went, "Dad, this has been the best day of my life, ever." I hadn't done anything, hadn't taken him to Disney World or bought him a Playstation.

Now my point is the small things matter. Being more balanced doesn't mean dramatic upheaval in your life. With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your life. Moreover, I think, it can transform society. Because if enough people do it, we can change society's definition of success away from the moronically simplistic notion that the person with the most money when he dies wins, to a more thoughtful and balanced definition of what a life well lived looks like. And that, I think, is an idea worth spreading.

Nigel Marsh wrote 'the bestselling ‘Fat, Forty and Fired’. He’s also the host of the ‘5 of My Life’ podcast for Podcast 1 Network. Tony Wilson from a Speakola is a guest on the podcast in early 2021.

Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_...

Kimberly Jones: 'they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge', The Reasons for Riots - 2020

“So…I’ve been seeing a lot of things talking of the people making commentary. Interestingly enough the ones I’ve noticed that have been making the commentary are wealthy Black people making the commentary about we should not be rioting we should not be looting we should not be tearing up our communities and then there’s been the argument of the other side of “we should be hitting them in the pocket”, “we should be focusing on the black out days where we don’t spend money.”

But you know, I feel like we should do both and I feel like I support both and I’ll tell you why I support both: I support both because when you have a civil unrest like this there are three type of people in the streets. There are the protestors, there are the rioters, and there are the looters.

The protesters are there because they actually care about what is happening in the community they want to raise their voices and there are there strictly to protest.

You have the rioters who are angry who are anarchists who really just want to fuck shit up and that’s what they’re gonna do regardless. And the you have the looters.

The looters are there almost exclusively there just to do just that. To Loot.

Now. People are like, “what did you gain? What did you get from looting?” I think that as long as we are focusing on the “what” we’re not focusing on the “why” and that’s my issue with that. As long as we’re focusing on *what* they’re doing, we’re not focusing on *why* they’re doing it. And some people are like, “Those aren’t people who are legitimately angry about what’s happening, those are people who just wanna get stuff.” Okay. Well then let’s go with that. Let’s say that’s what it is. Let’s ask ourselves, why in this country in 2020 the financial gap between poor Blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel like their only hope, and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it…that they are so hopeless that getting that necklace, getting that TV, getting that change, getting that bed, getting that phone, whatever it is that they’re gonna get is that in that moment when the riots happen and that presents an opportunity of looting that that’s they’re only opportunity for them to get it, we need to be questioning that why. Why are people that poor, why are people that broke, why are people that food insecure, that clothing insecure that they feel that their only shot…that they are shooting their shot by walking through a broken glass window to get what they need?

And then people wanna talk about “well there’s plenty of people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps…and got it on their own…why can’t they do that?”

Let me explain something to you about economics in America and I am so glad that as a child I got an opportunity to spend time at PUSH where they taught me this. We must not forget that economics was the reason that Black people were brought to this country. We came to do the agricultural work in the south and the textile work in the North. Do you understand that? That’s what we came to do. We came to do the agricultural work in the South and the textile work in the North.

Now if I right now decided that I want to play monopoly with you and for 400 rounds of playing monopoly I didn’t allow you to have any money, I didn’t allow you to have anything on the board, I didn’t allow for you to have anything. And then we play another 50 rounds of monopoly and everything you gained and that you earned while playing those rounds was taken from you. That was Tulsa. That was Rosewood. Those are places where we built Black economic wealth, where we were self-sufficient where we owned our stores, where we owned our property, and they burned them to the ground.

So that’s 450 years. So for 400 rounds of monopoly you don’t get to play at all. Not only do you not get to play you have to play on the behalf of the person that you’re playing against! You have to play and make money and earn wealth for them and then you have to turn it over to them. So then for 50 years you finally get a little bit and you’re allowed play and everytime they don’t like the way that you’re playing or that you’re catching up or that you’re doing something to be self-sufficient, they burn your game, they burn your cards, they burn your monopoly money. And then finally at the release—and at the onset of that—they allow you to play and they say “okay now you catch up.” Now at this point, the only way you’re going to catch up in the game is if the person shares the wealth, correct? But what if every time you seek to share the wealth then there’s psychological warfare against you to say “oh, you’re an equal opportunity hire.” So if I play 400 rounds of monopoly with you and I had to play and give you every dime that I made and then for 50 years every time that I played, you didn’t like what I did, you got to burn it like they did in Tulsa, and like they did in Rosewood…how can you win? How can you win?! You can’t win. The game is fixed. So. When they say, “why do you burn down the community?”, “Why do you burn down your own neighborhood?”…It’s not ours! We don’t own anything! We don’t own ANYthing.

There is…Trevor Noah said it so beautifully last night. There’s a social contract that we all have. That if you steal or if I steal then the person who is the authority comes in and they fix the situation. But the person who fixes the situation is killing us! So the social contract is broken! And if the social contract is broken, why the fuck do I give a shit about burning the fucking football Hall of fame…about burning a fucking Target? You BROKE the contract when you killed us in the streets and didn’t give a fuck. You broke the contract when for 400 years we played your game and built your wealth. You broke the contract when we built our wealth again on our own by our bootstraps in Tulsa and you dropped bombs on us…when we built it in Rosewood and you came in and you slaughtered us. You broke the contract. So fuck your Target. Fuck your Hall of Fame.

As far as I’m concerned, they could burn this bitch to the ground. And it still wouldn’t be enough. And they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.”

Kimberly Latrice Jones is a YA author who wrote ‘I’m Not Dying with You Tonight’.

I'm not dying cover.jpg
Source: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBGUPgBApio/?...

Muhammad Ali: 'How come is everything white?', Parkinson interview - 1971

Aired 17 October 1971, London, United Kingdom

I asked my momma, I said, ‘Momma, how come everything is white?’ I said, Why is Jesus white with blonde hair and blue eyes? Why is the Lord’s Supper all white men?

Angels are white, Pope, Mary and even the angels.,

I said, ‘Mother, When we die, do we go to heaven?’
She said, ‘Naturally we go to heaven’

I said, ‘What happeend to all the black angels when they took the pictures?’

..

And the angel food cake was the white cake, and the devil food cake was the chocolate cake.

I always wondered .. and the president lived in the White House,

And Mary had a little lamb, his feet as white as snow, and Snow White, and everything was white.

Santa Claus was white.
And everything bad was black.

The little ugly duckling was a black duck. And the black cat was the bad luck. And if I threaten you I’m going to blackmail you.

I said, ‘Mama, why don’t they call it whitemail, they lie too!’

I was always curious, and this is when I knew something was wrong.

Source: https://twitter.com/LordAshcroft/status/12...

Trevor Noah: 'Imagine if you grew up in a community where every day someone had their knee on your neck'',The Daily Show monologue, Minneapolis Protests - 2020

29 May 2020, New York City, USA

Hey, what's going on? Everybody? You know, what's really interesting about what's happening in America right now is that a lot of people don't seem to realize how dominos connect, how one piece knocks another piece that knocks another piece and in the end creates a giant wave each story seems completely unrelated and yet at the same time, I feel like everything that happens in the world connects to something else in some way shape or form and I think this Use this new cycle that we witnessed in. The last week was a perfect example of that. Amy Cooper George Floyd and you know the people of Minneapolis Amy Cooper was for many people, I think, the catalyst and by the way, I should mention that all of this is like against the backdrop of coronavirus, you know people stuck in their houses for one of the longest periods we can remember. People losing more jobs than anyone can ever remember. People struggling to make do more than they can ever remember and I think all of that compounded by the fact that there seems to be no genuine plan from leadership like no one knows what's going to happen.

No, no one knows how long they are supposed to be good, how long they supposed to stay inside, how long they’re supposed to flatten the curve. No one knows any of these things. And so what happens is you have a group of people who are stuck inside? All of us as a society - we're stuck inside and we then start to consume. We see what's happening in the world and I think Amy Cooper was one of the first moments, one of the first dominoes that that we saw get knocked down post Corona for many people and that was a world where you quickly realize that while everyone is facing the battle against coronavirus, black people in America are still facing the battle against racism and coronavirus. And the reason I say, it's a domino is because think about how many black Americans just have read and seen the news of how black people are disproportionately affected by coronavirus and not because of something inherently inside black people, but rather because of the lives black people have lived. In America for so long, you know coronavirus exposed all of it.

And now here you had this woman.

Who we've all seen the video now.

Blatant lie, blatantly knew how to use the power of her whiteness to threaten the life of another man and his Blackness what we saw with her was a really really powerful explicit example of an understanding of racism in a structural way, when she looked when she looked at at at at that man when she looked at Cooper and she said to him I'm going to call 911 and I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life. She knew how powerful that was.

And that in itself is telling you know. It tells you how she perceives the police, it tells you how she perceives her perception or her relationship with the police as a white woman. It shows you how she perceives a black man's relationship with the police and the police’s relationship with him. it was it was really … it was it was it was … powerful.

Because so many people act like they don't know what what black Americans were talking about when they said any had Amy Cooper had a distinct understanding she was like, oh, I know I know that you're afraid of interacting with the police because there is a presumption of your guilt because of your Blackness.

I know that as a white woman, I can weaponize this tool against you and I know that by the time we've sifted through who was right or wrong, there's a good chance that you will have lost in some way shape or form.

So for me that was that was the first domino and so now you living in a world where so many people are watching this video. So many people are being triggered because in many ways it was like a it was like a gotcha, you know, it was like a it was like it was like the curtain had been pulled back. Aha.

So you do this because it's always been spoken about but this was like it was powerful to see it being used. And I think a lot of people were triggered by that, a lot of people, a lot of people were like ‘damn we knew it was real but this is like real real’, you know.

I think a lot of people so angry that some of the outrage that came to her was because of her dog and I mean I get it, you know, but it was it was a lot of people felt like a lot of people felt like it would have been great if the dog shelters had the same I guess power or or if police departments were run by the people who run dog shelters because they seem to act like this. They didn't waste time.

They were like, nope. We'd like our dog back lady.

Which I'm going to be honest, I think was that was a that was a … I mean that was a hell of a punishment. Her job is one thing - taking a white lady's dog. That was a nice dog. And so that was the first domino, you know, It was the first domino where I felt like you could feel something stirring.

And all of this again is in the back door of a backdrop. It's coronavirus has happened. The numbers have come out, you know, the story of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. That story is coming all of these things are happening.

And then the video of George Floyd comes out and I don't know what made that video more painful for people to watch; the fact that that man was having his life taken in front of our eyes, the fact that we're watching someone being murdered by someone whose job is to protect and serve, or the fact that he seems so calm doing it, you know.

Oftentimes we’re always told that police feared for their life. It was like a threatened and you know, you always feel like an asshole wouldn't when you like you didn't fear for your life. How … why did you feel about … how did you feel but now more and more we're starting to see that is like not doesn't seem like there's a fear. It just seems like it's you can do it. So you did it.

There was a black man on the ground in handcuffs and you you could take his life. So you did. Almost knowing that they would be no ramifications. And then again everyone on the internet has to watch this. Everyone sees it … it floods our timelines as people.

And and I think one ray of sunshine for me in that moment was seeing how many people instantly condemned what they saw, you know, and maybe it's because I'm an optimistic person but I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. Especially not in America. I haven't seen a police video come out and and just see across the board … I mean even Fox News commentators and and police chiefs from around the country immediately condemning what they saw, no questions, not what was he doing? Not just going. No this what happened here was wrong. It was wrong, this person got murdered on camera.

And then the police were fired great, but I think what people take for granted is Is how much for so many people that feels like nothing, you know, how many of us as human beings can take the life of another human being and then have firing be the worst thing that happens to us. And yes, we don't know where the case will go. Don't get me wrong, but it just it feels like there is no moment of justice. There is no, you know, if you're watching a movie you'd at least want the cops … you'd want to see the perpetrators in handcuffs. You want to see the perpetrators facing some sort of justice.

Yes, they might come out on bail et cetera. But I think there's a lot of catharsis that comes with seeing that justice being doled out when the riots happened. That for me was an interesting culmination of everything. I saw so many people online saying these riots are disgusting. This is not how a society should be run.

You do not loot and you do not burn and you do not … this is not how our society is built and that actually triggered something in me when I was like man, okay Society but what is society? And fundamentally when you boil it down, society is a contract is a contract that we signed as human beings amongst each other.

We sign a contract with each other as people with it’s spoken on spoken and we say amongst this group of us. We agree in common rules, common ideals and common practices that are going to define us as a group. That's what I think is society and it's a contract. And as with most contracts the contract is only as strong as the people who are abiding by it.

But if you think of being a black person in America who is living in Minneapolis or Minnesota or any place where you're not having a good time …

Ask yourself this question when you watch those people what vested interest do they have in maintaining the contract?

Why like why don't we all loot? Why why don't why doesn't everybody take widened because we've agreed on things. There are so many people who are starving out there. There's so many people who don't have this, so many people there are people who are destitute. They're people who when the virus hits and they don't have a second paycheck, are already broke, which is insane, but that's that's the reality but still think about how many people who don't have. The Have Nots say, ‘you know what I'm still going to play by the rules, even though I have nothing because I still wish for the society to work and exist.’

And then some members of that society namely black American people watch time and time again how the contract that they have signed with society is not being honoured by the society that has forced them to sign it with them when you watch Armaud Arbery being shot and you hear that those men have been released and were it not for the video on the outrage. those people would be living their lives. What part of the contract is that in society when when you see George Floyd on the ground and you see a man losing his life?

In a way that no person should ever have to lose their life at the hands of someone who's supposed to enforce the law. What part of the contract is that? And a lot of people say well what good does this do? Yeah, but what good doesn't it do - that's the question people don't ask the other way around. What good does it do to loot Target? How does it help you to loot Target? Yeah, but how does it help you to not loot Target - answer that question because the only reason you didn't lootTarget before was because you were upholding society’s contract There is no contract if law and people in power don't uphold their end of it and that's the thing. I think people don't understand sometimes is that Is that we need people at the top to be the most accountable because they are the ones who are basically setting the tone and the tenor for everything that we do in society. It's the same way we tell parents to set an example for their kids. The same way we tell captains or coaches to set an example for their players. The same way you tell teachers to set an example for their students. The reason we do that is because we understand and society that if you lead by example, there is a good chance that people follow that example that you have set.

And so if the example law enforcement to setting is that they do not adhere to the laws, then why should the citizens of that society adhere to the laws when in fact the law enforcers themselves don't? There's a there's a really fantastic chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's book David and Goliath where he talks about the principles. what is it, he talks about the principles … the principles of legitimacy.

And he says in order for us to argue that any society, I mean any legal body or any power is legitimate, we have to agree on core principles and those three principles if I remember correctly is: number one, we have to agree on what the principles are. Number two, we have to believe that the people who are enforcing the principles are going to enforce them fairly; and number three we have to agree that everyone in that society is going be treated fairly according to those principles. It is safe to say in this one week alone and maybe even from the beginning of coronavirus really blowing out in America, black Americans have seen their principles completely delegitimized.

Because if you're a black person in America right now and you're watching this, if you're a black American person specifically and you're watching this what principles are you seeing? I think sometimes the thing we need to remember and it's something I haven't remembered my whole life. I liked it. See you you start to learn these things. You know, when you when you travel the world when you read, when you learn about society, I think is that like when you are a have and when you are a have not you see the world in very different ways and a lot of the time people say to the have-nots. This is not the right way to handle things.

When Colin Kaepernick kneels they say this is not the right way to protest.

When Martin Luther King had children as part of his protests in Birmingham, Alabama people said to have children at your protest is not the right way to do things … when he marched in Selma people said this is not the right way to do things.

When people marched through the streets in South Africa during apartheid, they said this is not the right way to do things. When people burn things they say it's not …. It's never the right way because there's never, there is never a right way to protest and I've said this before there is no right way to protest because that's what protest is.

It cannot be right because you are protesting against a thing that is stopping you.

And so I think what a lot of people don't realize is the same way you might have experienced even more anger and more just visceral disdain watching those people loot that Target.
Think to yourselves Or maybe it would help you, if you think about that that that unease that you felt watching that Target being looted … try to imagine how it must feel for black Americans when they watch themselves being looted every single day because that's fundamentally what's happening in America.

Police in America are looting black bodies and I know someone might think that's an extreme phrase but it's not because here's the thing. I think a lot of people don't realize George Floyd died … that is part of the reason the story became so big… is because he died …. but how many George Floyd's are there that don't die.

How many men are having knees put on their necks? How many Sandra Blands are out there being tossed around? We don't we don't it doesn't make the news because it's not grim enough. It doesn't even get us enough anymore. It's only the deaths the gruesome deaths that stick out but imagine to yourself if you grew up in a community where every day someone had their knee on your neck, where every day somebody was out there were pressing you every single day. You tell me what that does to you as a society as a community as a group of people and when you know that this is happening because of the color of your skin … not because the people are saying it's happening because of the color of skin, but rather because it is only happening to you and you are the only people who have that skin color. And I know this people who say yeah, but like well, how come black people don't care when black people kill? That man is one of the dumbest arguments ever. Of course they care. If you've ever been to a hood anywhere not just in America, but anywhere in the world, you know how much black people care about that. If you know anything about under policing and over-policing though, you would understand how that comes to be.

The police show black people how valuable their lives are considered by the society. And so then those people who live in those communities know how to or not deal with those lives because best believe if you kill a white person, especially in America, there is a whole lot more justice that is coming your way then if you killed some black body in a black neighborhood somewhere.

And so to anyone who watched that video, don't ask yourself if it's right or wrong to loot. Or don't ask yourself, well, what does looting help? And no, no … ask yourself that ask yourself that question. Ask yourself why it got you that much more watching watching these people loot because they were destroying the contract that you thought they had signed with your society.

And now think to yourself, imagine if you were with them watching that contract being ripped up every single day ask yourself how you'd feel.

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/tr...