Peter Gaechter is a Lake Geneva area resident who occasionally contributes GenevaLunch guest blog posts on a variety of topics.
by Peter Gaechter
My wife and I looked at each other and half-shrugged. “A little disappointing”, she said. I agreed. The Rodin érotique exhibition at the Fondation Gianadda in Martigny, Valais, which closed 14 June, left a little to be desired, we thought. I have often had this feeling at Gianadda, too often for it to be a fluke.
Suzy
My new red Hunter wellies finally got to see some real festival weather. After losing my flats into the mud last year, I decided to acquire some real glastonbury style footwear, but had no chance to sport them due to the heat until yesterday. We arrived under threatening clouds at around 7pm, and sure enough the heavens opened around 8.30. We danced to a Brazilian drumming band in the Dome called Olodum, which was quite a spectacle of crazy hairstyles, hip shaking, giant drums, and classics such as “No Woman No Cry” sung in Portuguese. The Dome was packed, an unusual sight as the Village du Monde bands usually have trouble filling the tent, however I think its fair to say that we haven’t come across one single bad band in the Dome this year.
Suzy
Friday night at the Paleo always has certain characteristics, such as first timers relaxing after a long week of work, the lack of sleep taking its toll on the campers, the wildness and the heat all combine, and we realise that we are over halfway through the week. What I’m trying to say is that on Friday nights, we party, hard.
Suzy
Last night was of the unforgettable standard. Not a particular fan of Mika, and having never heard of Justice, I was planning on taking the night easy (ie, Spending it in the FC Gingins bar where the rest of the international community seems to cluster). However, much to my surprise, last night was a proper music festival in the true sense.
Suzy:
“We are the first band opening the Paleo. Obviously, this is all wrong, it’s like having dessert before dinner, the orgasm before sex, but anyway, we say good morning to you paleo, ARE YOU READY?!”
If you are like most
people, you dread the thought of ever having to step foot into the office of a
psychotherapist to sort out problems of the mentally and emotionally perplexing
kind. So now you don’t have to. The psychotherapist comes to you on GenevaLunch,
in the privacy of your own home or office!
Have you ever wondered
what a session with a therapist is like? Have you ever wondered whether it
could truly be helpful; asking someone to help you solve what seems to be an
unsolvable problem that has always existed and always will exist? How could
anyone help you change what seems to be a permanent character trait that has
been passed down for generations in your family? How would you go about finding
a psychotherapist that’s right for you? How much should you pay for a session
with a shrink? Does your Swiss insurance cover these services? What modality of
therapy would be right for you; cognitive behavioral, person-centered,
solution-focused, psychoanalysis, Jungian, transpersonal, etc…? What are the
latest approaches to healing disturbing memories?
These are some of the questions which will
be the subject of Shrink Rap in the coming weeks. Join us in the discussion!
Ed. note: this is the first contribution from GenevaLunch’s new blogger, David Schiesher, one of a small number of professionals, journalists and experts who make up the GL blogging group. Visit his web site to learn more about him and his work.
(This article is reprinted with permission from the GWIT web site.)
Be open to opportunities, ask for what you want, build up your contacts and find a mentor – that
Nyon, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – On Monday morning at 11:30 a resident of the Barilette area of Nyon was preparing lunch when she saw a man breaking a windowframe of her neighbour’s house. "I could tell that he wasn’t a repair man so I immedately called 117." When the retired owners returned shortly afterwards, their neighbour told them what was happening. The man climbed out a bedroom window and ran off through gardens in the neighbourhood. Police gave chase and two hours later a 27-year-old who fit the description was arrested in Arnex-sur- Nyon.
This week I filled in an online survey about what drives people to become entrepreneurs. One of the little boxes demanded to know what quality I considered most important to succeed in business.
I wasn’t sure that I was qualified to give an opinion but – what was there to lose (except precious working time).
I started jotting down characteristics. I came up with, among others, ambition, control freakery, independence, non-conformism, passion, knowledge, foresight, the ability to see the wider picture, perseverance, networking skills and even plain being lucky.
None of these seemed to me to be the magic ingredient. I though other people might have better ideas so I turned to Google.
Googling ‘entrepreneurs’ quotes’ was predictably successful. (I imagine that at some time in the future we will be able to Google ‘blog’ plus the subject and the wondrous machine will write a complete article for us in 0.21 of a second).
The critical ingredient: get off your butt
Nolan Bushnell, the founder of video games maker Atari, believes that the true entrepreneur is ‘a doer not a dreamer’. "The critical ingredient is getting off your butt," he says.
Oprah Winfrey, possibly the most powerful woman in showbusiness, says "focus not on success, but on significance".
Estee Lauder, the grande dame of the cosmetics world, believes in sheer hard work: "I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it."
Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, took innovation as his buzzword long before corporations began including it in their mission statements. He advised "find out what the world wants, then invent it".
Anita Roddick, founder of the beauty and cosmetics global empire The Body Shop, says successful entrepreneurship originates in having to survive, which stimulates creative thinking.
I guess that there are many answers, but some common themes: actions speak louder than words; stick at it when times get tough; learn from your experiences; try to be different; and learn to love hard work.
Strategies and shopping lists
When you’re running your own small business, planning your strategy at the same time as writing the shopping list for dinner, it’s difficult to know whether you’re on track.
Do you have too many things going on to really focus on the ones that matter? Are you too easily put off when things don’t pay back quickly? Is your business sufficiently different – does it really have a market?
The life of an entrepreneur is, it seems, more filled with questions than answers.
So what did I eventually put in the box? <i>Bravery,</i> inspired by a quotation from American TV’s Lucy, Lucille Ball, possibly the most famous and (in my mind) the funniest television comedienne of all time. When asked about her success she said: