Executive coach Lynn Harris got tired of reading about the dearth of women in senior leadership positions.

Why, she asked herself, were women not making it to the upper echelons in the corporate world? And perhaps more important, WHAT could be done about it?

Tongue in cheek, Harris says there’s a lot of contradictory advice floating around about what women need to do to get to the top:

One year ago today, I wrote my first-ever blog entry (Like A Virgin?), in which I joined "the millions online who share their joys, sorrows, thoughts, ideas, opinions and more, in a worldwide orgy of information."

At the time, I thought it marked the end of a journey, and so I wrote:

Most of the time I’ve traveled alone. I got lost, stumbled, tripped, fell, took wrong turns, and had to

Most of us will never be famous.

But that doesn’t mean that each of us doesn’t touch other people’s lives in deep and meaningful ways every day, often without ever knowing it.

I personally have had people come to me years after an event to tell me how profoundly something that I did or said impacted their lives. Often the something was so insignificant to me that I don’t remember it at

It’s hard to know where to begin. Or whom I should thank first.

With Terry Netto of People Potential? For inviting me to the February Initiatives of Change conference held in Kuala Lumpur? If it hadn’t been for that invitation, I wouldn’t have come to Malaysia this year in the first place.

Terry connected me to Susanna who in turn introduced to me to an impressive list of amazing

Last night I posted my version of Susan Boyle’s story on the Ode magazine website member exchange (I love Ode, the magazine and website “for intelligent optimists”).

The posting evoked a comment from JeanneMale who said:

So many of us felt the warm glow evoked by Susan Boyle's performance but I'm wondering if I'm the only person that also had a nagging sense that our reaction is

I'm not a religious person. Spiritual, yes. Religious, definitely not.

But whenever I feel sad, lonely, lost and/or unloved (as I did today :(, I take a few minutes to watch The Interview with God, the link for which was originally sent to me several years ago by my friend Harris.

The imagery is stunning.

The music is the same as the soundtrack at the start of Forrest Gump, one

This interview with meiko Kiku ne when I was in Japan in November was one of the most interesting experiences I've ever had.

I didn't analyse it at the time, I wanted to let myself be in the moment. But afterward, while producing the edited version you are about to watch, I reflected on the fact that we are all the same in so many ways.

Kiku ne's story is like that of millions of young

Another miserable morning and I'm waiting for my phone to ring, a text to arrive, an e-mail to be delivered. I'm waiting for you.

My mind wanders to thoughts of you and the beautiful feeling in my stomach and more whenever I looked at you or heard your voice, last experienced too long ago. I'm waiting for you.

I hear the laughter and fun of time spent together echo between the walls of my

He’s not a woman, but he has been an amazing inspiration to me.

His mythical fable, The Alchemist, which has been translated into more than 60 languages and sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, is one of my favourite books.

In fact, since I first read it five years ago, it’s been a spiritaul guide of sorts to me. I treasure my personally autographed, dog-eared copy, which never fails me in

A year ago this week, I wrote Brent Kinney's obituary.

It seems like yesterday that he and Elaine and I sat outside on the back patio at their home having dinner and talking about important issues. Despite being ill, tired and in pain, he was interested, engaged and full of opinions about the future of Dubai and the world.

I wish he was here now to share his views – I’m sure he’d have