Synopsis

One + One = Three

I spend my working life helping other people work smarter.

Every day my team and I enter organisations, identify problems and find solutions. We redesign not just how an organisation looks but how it articulates, how it flows.

For the past 25 years, I have always been designing. I’ve built a thriving practice, amassed an enviable number of accolades and earned the respect of my peers not to mention numerous repeat clients. By all measures, I am a success.

But for years my private life was a mess. I was helping people work smarter. But I did not know how to live smarter. I was designing and redesigning everything but me.

It wasn’t a moment of revelation so much as evolution. I can’t say when it happened but it seems I hired me to help myself live better by living smarter. I began applying my principles of design to my own life. And I found my flow: I am more reflective, more alive to my senses, more in touch with the people in my life and more aware of my value. In short, I am happier.

This book is the next step in my evolution. If my design process can bring value to me as a person, perhaps it can bring value to others. Or, more radically, bring others to recognise their own value.

This book will not solve your problems. You have to do that yourself. And it will take lots of hard work. But I believe this book will inspire you to work better at living better.

I am designer. I am a doer. My ultimate measure of success is achieving what I like to call doability. It’s not a real word. But its meaning is manifest. This book is more than words, more than images. It’s about inspiring ideas to life. It’s about proving the impossible possible.