Welcome to The Second Act

By Sandy Burgham As a feminist I have always subscribed to the assertion popularised by my heroine, Gloria Steinem, that “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”. That was until I was in Britomart the other day, and was unexpectedly propositioned by a handsome young man on a bicycle. Youth is relative of course, and he

By Sandy Burgham The Second Act columnist, Sandy Burgham takes a lightning — and enlightening — trip to Silicon Valley   As I mature, I am increasingly glad I live in New Zealand. This has nothing to do with wanting to slow down and retire, in fact quite the opposite. We all know the risks of living here – slow

By Sandy Burgham By the time this is published I will have been on a tour of digital organisations in San Francisco. As someone who specialises in mid-life reinvention, it is particularly appropriate to consider the adapt-or-die context we live and work in. And what I will be quietly looking out for in the appropriately named Silicon Valley, is telltale

By Sandy Burgham Take the cellphone challenge – if you drive off leaving your smartphone on the kitchen bench, how far away from home can you be before you turn back? I live in St Heliers and have decided that my turn back zone extends as far as Fergs Kayaks in Okahu Bay, about seven kilometres down the road. I’m

By Sandra Burgham When I agreed to contribute to this publication, I said to the editor, “Ok, as long as you’re not expecting articles about how your life will improve if you clear clutter.” How we laughed — until this morning when I realised that actually that is exactly what I want to write about. Who wrote that you spend

By Sandy Burgham Pondering the faces of modern fatherhood   My daughter recently posted on Facebook a meme showing a toad-like creature with a grumpy face, and a headline that read: “How you feel when your mum comes home and all the fun and relaxation comes to an end”. One of the unexpected outcomes of maturing while previously-adorable children like my

By Sandy Burgham As a keen observer of consumer culture, I am interested in the current business discourse regarding the importance of creativity and innovation. The inherent irony in this is that the word “business” has etymological links to “busyness”, which is exactly the opposite condition one really needs for both creativity and its implementation phase of innovation.   Research

I was recently recommended this TedTalk and have been passing it on every since. Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges our  fundamental misconception about the power of time. He argues that we are walking around with an illusion that our personal history has just come to an end, that we have just recently become the people that we were always meant to be and will

Hot on the heels of the recent #banbossy campaign fronted by Beyonce we have #shinestrong, an effort to reach out to women by Pantene, who must have realized that dull hair is not actually what holds women back.  Click here to look at the video about how often women apologize in everyday situations.  The video is part of the company’s

By Sandy Burgham Sandy Burgham, The Hobson’s “The Second Act” columnist, shares her notes about a different kind of life event. After being accused of only thinking about myself and my “stupid 50th birthday party” by my equally self- involved 17-year-old daughter, we drew the short straw and agreed to host a pre-ball, the social hot potato amongst parents of