Never work with children animals or politicians!

I have often heard that you should never work with children or animals. I am now adding in politicians to that list.

I was recently asked to get involved with a person who was running for election and whose campaign was in a pretty bad shape.

Within a few weeks, I had coached them into a positive frame of mind, consolidated the team, got additional resources for them and got the campaign on the straight and narrow.

I also used my design skills and experience to design a powerful word of mouth campaign and in the process, saved over €10,000 on the election expenses.

In all, I put about €40,000 worth of time into the project as I felt it needed a hand and it was a good cause.

However, when push came to shove and the politics crept in, I was shocked to discover bullying, lying and stealing going on.

When I confronted the person, to see how fast I was dropped was like a bullet from a gun I had loaded myself.

This person would not return my calls and when I asked around - the vitriole from this person's camp was outrageous.

It hurt at first, but once I realised that it was their problem and not mine, I was able to let it go and realise that my integrity was intact, more than I can say for this politician.

It just goes to show you, you cant tell a book by its cover and so I repeat for myself - that I will be very careful in the future about working with children, animals and politicians.

Paul

Larry C Farrell

Over forty years ago, my mothers brother (Larry Farrell) came over from his home in Coventry and took me to Powerscourt Waterfall. I have an old black and white photograph of Larry, my auntie Maeve and myself. I often look at it.

Until recently, I did not realise my attraction to Powerscourt waterfall - it has always held a magical attraction to me.

It was here that I spent many happy hours with Marie and when I am really down, I go there and feel the power of nature and the timelessness of its powerful running water.

So when I heard that the entrepeneurship author Larry C Farrell was coming to the Ryan Academy to give a seminar on entrepreneurship - I simply had to go!

What I experienced was a wonderful re-interpretation of the simplicity of business and of the basics which we learn and then speedily forget.

We all try to make business so complicated and shove so much MBA type nonsense down our own throats, that we forget that all we need is a product and a market.

His insight into this simple yet powerful philosophy proved to be an enlightening experience.

I asked him about his ancestors and would you believe it, we felt that we had some geneology in common - what a small world indeed !!

I got on really well with him and I hope that we will get a chance to work together soon

Your Business is NOT worth dying for

Many of you know that I am writing a book called "Your business is NOT worth dying for" - the subtitle is called "avoiding commercial suicide".

It will cover my own story in 12 chapters and will detail the journey that I went through which I have seen in so many eyes of my fellow entrepreneurs and business owners.

I hope to launch it at the world congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention in Killarney in August 2007.

Writing it is reflective and cathartic and I hope that when it is finished, that it will show reflection, understanding, compassion and above all, help people who are going through what I went through to stop and feel what their bodies are telling them - that they have to re-evaluate before they burnout.

I am six chapters in and it has helped me understand the choices that I made and the people who are in my life.

It has made me grateful for every single day and it has made me appreciate the people in my life who lift me up.

It has also made me realise that there are people close to me who tear me down and it is time for me to leave them out of my future plans.

Brendan Behan once said "we are here for a good time, not a long time" and it has taken me a long time to realise that.

So let the good times roll !!

Paul

Articles

I have been asked by a few people to publish some articles on issues which the foundation is passionate about. I though that was a good idea and so I invite some collaboration on the following article themes:

1. What price are you prepared to pay to be an entrepreneur?

2. Why and how do high achievers burnout?

3. What will YOU do when your wake up call comes?

4. Burnout and Emotional Intelligence

5. Burnout and Relationships

6. The Business Cost of Suicide

7. The Darkness of Leadership

8. Addicted to work

9. The Genius of Depression

10. Entrepreneurs - Mystics or Psychotics?

I welcome any contribution or position on any or all of the above topics

Paul

Social Entrepreneur

As a former president of the Irish chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (www.eonetwork.org), it was a nice surprise to hear I had been short listed in the Social Entrepreneurs Awards.

This group is a philanthropy organsiation which is trying to bring entrepreneurial flair to the social sector - knowing that new ideas and the people who can implement them are crucial to social change.

So it was with great pride that I even got shortlisted and I look forward to meeting the panel at the end of May 2007.

It is a testament to the work of the faculty and the patrons of the alchemism foundation that so soon after the start of our work, that we have been recognised as a potential force for social change.

Paul

Alchemism Institute for Social Psychology

It came to me in a deep sleep as it often does.

The purpose of the Alchemism Foundation is to develop and give away scholarships to community activists who are continuously bullied by professionals who believe they are better than they are.

However, while they are often unpaid, these community activists are the real heroes in the development of any country and the Celtic Tiger has more or less abandoned them - instead running after the shiny people, creating wealth only for themselves.

This subliminal bullying really came home to me as I was claiming my disability benefit during my clinical depression.

Many professionals treated me like I was stupid and the amount of forms that I had to complete now fill up a full lever arch file.

Over the next two years, the foundation will start to build out the structures and the quality asurance to devise and deliver a unique degree course which will focus on psychology, coaching, burnout prevention & recovery, cognitive behavioural therapy and other solutions based approaches.

Every module that we create will add value to our social psychology degree and I look forward to seeing the first students claim their awards in years to come

Paul

Previous Blogs

23 March 2007
Are there friends in business?
I was in the Burlington today having a cup of coffee, and two former colleagues walked in. I was deep in typing mode on the laptop and they did not see me. They sat at the next table and started their meeting. When I was running my technology company I got these two guys involved in a multimillion euro opportunity with a global player.

While I was in hospital, I asked another colleague to watch the project to make sure all was well. My friend was told that the project was dead. This news which came to me in hospital was another nail in the coffin but I got over that.But when I heard these two guys talking about their project - THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT MY PROJECT !!!!

I could only laugh that they had to wait until I was in hospital to steal it from me.I walked over to say hello to them and I had to pinch myself from laughing in their faces. As soon as they saw me they nearly sh1t themselves - they turned over their notes and were stunned into silence.I had a chat with them about life and happiness and when I left the Burlington Hotel - I laughed myself all the way to my next meeting. I am so happy to have such an attitude now - and while I have paid a high price - in retrospect, it is a price that I am willing to pay and luckily - I had enough to pay for it.

Friends in business my ass :)Paul
Posted by alchemism foundation at 21:53 0 comments
20 March 2007

Intellectual Property and Burnout

I also met Liam Birkett this morning. Liam is a world renowned speaker on intellectual property, sales development, trademarks and marketing.Together, over coffee, we started developing a two day seminar on turning ideas into cash using trademarks, patents and intellectual property. It was an exciting coffee date :)

Liam has been doing this for over 40 years and he is the most knowledgeable guy there is in this space in the Northern Hemisphere. He has been called on by the EU and the Chinese Government no less to help them with turning ideas into revenue.It is an exciting time for the alchemism foundation and with the people who have been presented to us by the universe, I just feel the power and beauty of what the world has to offer is ours for the receiving.

Sometimes I think entrepreneurs burn out because they cant get their ideas on to paper, cant get them patented or trademarked and cant get their energy converted into dollars and euros. I know that this programme that we are developing will help. I also hope Liam will write a book that will be published by the alchemism foundation media department and I hope to meet our new editor in chief this week - this is an exciting time for us all in the foundationLouis Armstrong was right - Such a wonderful world.....Paul

Posted by alchemism foundation at 01:29 0 comments
Cleopatra Women

I had a call today with Connie Schottky, CEO of SFINX in Holland today - a wonderful company concerning itself with the empowerment of women who have lost their femininity in the testosterone injected business world and together we came up with a fabulous concept for the alchemism foundation and SFINX to work on together.

We called it CLEOPATRA WOMEN and we are looking for senior business leaders and business owners who are women and who would be interested in doing some research with us to see what the connection is between burnout and femininity.The energy on the call was amazing and I just know in my heart and soul that it will be a wonderful collaboration.We are seeking powerful women to talk to us about the issues, problems, highs and lows of being a woman in business or being a female business owner in today's fast paced business world.

We are trying to see if you have had to bury your femininity and have had to become more male in your approach to business.Connie and I both postulate that if this is the case, this is a loss for the business world, the business success, the male members of the team and for the woman herself.We are determined to find out what is going on in this space and to provide some programs to help women access their feminine selves and to bring this to the boardroom - where we both just know that it will help rather than hinder the bottom line.

The alchemism foundation is also interested in the possibility that this supression may be a contributing factor in female burnout.Email me on paul.mooney@alchemismfoundation.org if you wish to help us do the initial research

Paul
Posted by alchemism foundation at 01:21 0 comments
15 March 2007

Work Research Centre

Richard Wynne from the work research centre is an amazing guy - he has been researching stress in the workplace for over 20 years and one of his latest publications is a three year - 2000 person study in six european countries. The project is called the stress impact survey and it is the best piece of research work done on stress in the workplace EVER !!

What is astounding is that the best in Europe at getting sick people back to work are the Dutch with a good 63% return to work rate.Ireland, sadly, lags way behind with less than half that number.As Richard says "In Ireland, we starve our people back to work" - not good not good.Another damning statistic from Richard - for people who are 12 months on disability, they have a less than a 1% chance of getting back into the workplace.

This is not a Dickens Novel my friends - this is Ireland in the noughties - pretty sad - all that money and shared among so few people. The Alchemism Foundation will start to develop ABILITY management programs which will work to increase this rate of helping people back to work
Posted by alchemism foundation at 22:43 0 comments
11 March 2007

EQ, Coaching and Burnout

Its taken me a long time to figure this one out, and it has been bullied out of me by so many individuals and institutions over so many years - but it is ALL about people. The RIGHT people that is. I have come across two amazing individuals over the last few weeks who, with the vision of the alchemism foundation will truly change the way we treat people who are in need of healing.

Maureen Hewitt is a coach trainer, an NLP master, trained in EQi and is the best trainer I have ever come across. Her energy, enthusiasm and genuine goodness is infectious and her dreams and ambitions are fantastic

John Broderick is a psychologist who is developing some of the most exciting enhancements to Bar On(tm) emotional intelligence on the planet and he brings with him a wealth of goodness and experience to make things on this earth better than they currently are.When you add people like this to the mix of the faculty of the alchemism foundation and add that to its vital and supportive patrons, the mix is sure to be positive, explosive, dedicated, and filled with the right values, the right meaning and always the right intention - to help people who are less fortunate than ourselves.

I have such a feeling about this collaboration that I felt it necessary to blog it so that I can look back in a few years and remember that the tipping point for the alchemism foundation was down to these two people and myself combining our hearts and minds to make this a better world.The book by Jim Collins "good to great" speaks about the lessons that great companies in the USA have learned that they used to make them truly great and the first one is to know what your passion is - in this context, Maureen, John and I share the same passion. And Collins goes on to say "get the right people on the bus - get the wrong people off the bus and then decide where the bus is going".

That is precisely what we now intend to do - and this bus journey will be so enjoyable that it seems hardly fair to have so much peace, joy and energy in the collaboration.But in my heart of hearts I know that the universe was made for us to be happy and it is our birth right to sense this peace. Sadly, we are all responsible for our own sadness, but that means we are responsible for our own happiness too and in this light - I am the happiest man on earth.

Paul MOONEYFounderThe Alchemism Foundation
Posted by alchemism foundation at 17:58 0 comments

03 March 2007

Depression and Food - and a vox pop of burnout prevention in Irish companies

I went to a very professional seminar today from the ICIM about depression and food. There is a clear link between processed food and how our brains process this food into poorer and poorer nutrients which help to create mental disorders. We are what we eat - that means we think what we eat as well !!I then went to the FAS jobs fair and did a short survey of all the companies there.

I asked them all did their company provide stress management, burnout prevention or suicide prevention measures in their place of work. 7% of those asked said they were "thinking about a policy in the area of suicide prfevention"One company reported TWO attempted suicides in their employee base since ChristmasAll the others said that there was nothing in place50% of the large companies said they had an EAP (employee assistance programme)

That means 50% DID NOT !!One company who said they had nothing and that was the way they wanted it ! - This company employes over 13,000 people in Ireland. WOW !!
Posted by alchemism foundation at 21:21 0 comments
02 March 2007

The politics of suicidology

I was at a "rally" on suicide on Wednesday at a very historical venue - the round room in the mansion house in Dublin where the Irish Constitution was born. Although the Lord Mayor said the men who drafted such an august document would be proud to see us there - by the time the rally finished - I was not so sure.The rally finished off with six politicians speaking about how the Irish government has responded to the epidemic of suicide in this country.

The audience must not have been not impressed either as many people left early. During the debate, even the politicans left early and it was a sorry sight to see TD's with no power, debating a topic they had no influence in to an audience who were tired of hearing the same old rhetoric.While the organisers advocated an alliance with an energising rally, the real party politics system took over and although politics is greek for people, there was not much empathy for the plight of the third sector to continue vital services which the government can not provide.

I know the debate is going on about hospital consultants at the moment where the government wish to appoint 1500 more consultants. I heard that the consultants dont agree with the number. When I checked the basic salary of a hospital consultant - I found it to be €154,000 per annum.Here is an idea: Appoint 1400 consultants and give 100 voluntary organisations the €154,000 per annum that would be saved.This is only a personal opinion - and I would love to start a thread. All comments welcome

Paul
Posted by alchemism foundation at 21:09 0 comments
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