Robyn had considered Caves House for dinner, and earlier in the day that had sounded a reasonable possibility. Once we were back, neither of us could summon the appetite for another meal, and we ended up on the lounge. There were new things to eat and drink put away in the van, gifts to take home, and a whale somewhere among the photographs. For the moment, all of them could wait while we sat down together.
#jeffbanks
JUST WALKING – Chapter 6 – What You See Is Not What You Get
I have certainly walked like that. Familiarity gives the mind permission to get ahead, perhaps to the next hill or the things waiting at home, while the feet deal with the present stretch of road. We can cover a considerable distance without acquiring much more than confirmation that the route is still there.
JUST WALKING – Chapter 5 – The Town We Nearly Missed
The people who advised us against stopping could not have known which parts of the place would become ours. They had their experience, and Robyn and I were fortunate to have stayed long enough to acquire something different. We came away with more than an assessment of whether the town was worth the detour.
JUST WALKING – Chapter 4 – Northbourne Avenue – Just Before the Festivities
That was the small trick in the remembering. Nothing about my recollection of winning had to be wrong for its prominence to give a slightly uneven account of what mattered. The tray had stayed in view, and the story attached to it had therefore remained close at hand. Other things had to wait for a morning when I was doing very little in particular, walking along an avenue and allowing one thought to lead to another.
JUST WALKING – Chapter 3 – An Overnight Feed
I thought again about how little planning had brought us there. A Christmas trip to Condobolin had become a New Year’s night at the zoo because we had looked for something special to do on the way home, found it surprisingly affordable and decided to give it a go. The tents alone had exceeded our expectations before the giraffes began accepting carrots.
JUST WALKING – Chapter 2 – Why We Wander
What matters is that we have been there, among the buildings and people and businesses that make Melbourne what it is. We have seen parts of the city that have endured and others that are still emerging, and Robyn has had the opportunity to revisit a place she once knew in another stage of her life. We have also had the pleasure of doing it together, with enough time to notice the things that caught our attention along the way.
JUST WALKING – Chapter 1 – The Line on the Map
There was no urgent need for us to cover Singapore on foot before the conference. We could have filled the spare day more gently, seen selected places and arrived back with sufficient dignity to enter our room in the usual manner. Instead, something in the prospect of being there drew us out and kept us interested beyond the point where comfort would have suggested we had done quite enough.
JUST WALKING – Foreword
There are older stories within the country through which we have travelled, and people whose relationships with it extend far beyond our brief visits. Where those encounters prompted questions, I have allowed the questions room. I can share what I noticed, heard and thought without pretending that walking a marked track gave me possession of everything the place meant.
20 DAYS TOO LATE – Epilogue – No Surprises
The warning signs were there. The opportunity to act existed. The outcome was not always avoidable, but the surprise often was.
So if this book leaves you with anything, let it be this. Do not wait until the desk is covered in urgent papers, the bank is impatient, the tax bill is due, the staff issue has spread, the customer debt has gone bad or the business feels as though it has backed you into a corner.
20 DAYS TOO LATE – Chapter 12 – Twenty Days To Go
If there is a final practical message in this chapter, it is this: do not let tax planning become a once-a-year apology for not managing the business earlier. Use it as a review, a checkpoint and a prompt to ask better questions. Let it expose the patterns, not merely adjust the figures.
The owner who learns that lesson becomes harder to ambush. They still face risk, because business will always contain uncertainty. They still make mistakes, because all humans do. Yet they are less likely to be surprised by their own business, and that may be one of the most valuable forms of intelligence an owner can develop.If there is a final practical message in this chapter, it is this: do not let tax planning become a once-a-year apology for not managing the business earlier. Use it as a review, a checkpoint and a prompt to ask better questions. Let it expose the patterns, not merely adjust the figures.
The owner who learns that lesson becomes harder to ambush. They still face risk, because business will always contain uncertainty. They still make mistakes, because all humans do. Yet they are less likely to be surprised by their own business, and that may be one of the most valuable forms of intelligence an owner can develop.
20 DAYS TOO LATE – Chapter 11 – The Mid-Year Review
The mid-year review gives business owners a chance to listen before they bleed. It is not exciting, but it is kind. It tells the truth while there is still time to do something with it.
Of course, not every business owner takes that chance. Some will still arrive near the end of June asking what can be done, hoping there is a clever answer that will undo months of drift. Sometimes there will be options, and sometimes those options will be useful, but they will rarely be as powerful as the choices that existed earlier.
20 DAYS TOO LATE – Chapter 10 – Profit Is a Story
Before a business owner asks what can be done about tax, they should ask what the profit is telling them. Did the business improve because the model worked, or because the owner worked unreasonable hours? Did cash improve because profit was strong, or because bills were delayed? Did the business grow in a way that created resilience, or did it simply become larger and more fragile?