Recently I was asked how a “Handful of Tips” was set up. It started many years ago and it has been an evolutionary process.

         In 1965 I was transferred to Wellington to train and service the Department of Agriculture Farm Advisory Officers.

         I wrote some ‘how to do it booklets’. I called them “Advisory Aids”.

         When I was in the USA in 1968 I was surprised to find the US Department of Agriculture was collecting them. This encouraged me to write more titles.

         Next, the New Zealand Government Printer published a set in a book called “Ways with Words”.

         This was the start of my publishing career.

         I never had ambitions to be an author.

         I now have written 26 books.  There have been about 100 editions published by 31 publishers, in 18 counties, and in 11 languages.

         When working at the University of the South Pacific I was asked to teach the final year degree students management skills.

         I was asked to recommend a textbook on this topic.

         I could not, so I put my notes together and published them as “Survival Skills for New Managers”.

         This book was published in eight countries and the Singapore Institute of Management asked if I would make it into a workshop for Asian managers.

         I did this and ran 32 workshops in Singapore, also in Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

         I learned much from the participants and this led to other titles.

         After I gave up writing and publishing books. Two young granddaughters, Sarah Lilly and Alice showed me how to blog – that’s what granddaughters do.

         I was going to  write articles but they said, “People don’t  have time to read that stuff.”

          They recommended,  ‘A Handful of Tips”

         And to make no more than five brief recommendations on selected topics.

         They even designed a logo for me.

         I have now posted hundreds (876) of ‘helpful’ blogs – that’s the history of these blogs.

Geoffrey Moss (mossassociates .co.nz)

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”