The Hudson Bay Start - Week 47
Reading Time 2 minutes & 10 seconds FOR A PODCAST OF THIS THOUGHT CLICK HERE Or Ipod Users Click Here
One
fair June morning in 1668, more than half a century after the mutinous
crew of the Discovery had pushed Hendrik Hudson into an open boat in
what became Hudson Bay and set him adrift to die, the 50-ton ketch Nonsuch with a
company of 42 hoisted anchor in Gravesend, England and sailed away for
Hudson Bay to open up the fur trade. In the process the Hudson Bay
Company was set up which is thought to the oldest company in North
America
Hugely successful almost from the start, the hardbitten skin hunters who worked for the company fought famine and cold, "the feare in the buttocks, . . . the belly empty, the weariness in the bones. . . ."
It was a risky job as hunters would have to survive on their own in the bleak frost bitten artic wilderness, so having the right supplies was literally a matter of life and death.
Hence the hunters invented a technique called the ‘Hudson Bay Start’.
Hunters would pack up as if they were going to leave for the season but only canoe a short distance before camping overnight. Next morning they would canoe back and collect any missing supplies or correct an wrong supplies, before heading out for real.
Clearly this approach didn’t come for free - the hunting season was quite short - so while it reduced risk it also reduced the time they had to hunt enough animals so that they could survive financial for the rest of the year (sound familiar?)
But the fact that among these hunters it was so common practice I think demonstrates that the hunters thought it was worth while investment
Its an interesting technique that some project managers already apply to their projects and I wondered if I used the Hudson Bay Start on a few more of my projects, activities, journeys etc how differently would things turn out?
What about you?
So till next week get the start right to everything you do.
David Gardner
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THE MUST HAVE
"THE ACHIEVERS EDGE"
By Peter Thompson
More Great CD Programs
The Automatic Millionaire -David Bach Discover you Strengths - M Buckingham Richard Branson's Auto biography Brilliant Memory - Dominic O'Brien Think & Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill Freakonomics - Stephen Levitt Getting Things Done - David Allen The Machine That Changed the World Watching the English - Kate Fox
Archives
The Road is better than the Inn
Can't See the Wood for the Trees
Bluebird - A pint of Ale & water speed record
Visualising an Argument with Alien Bowling
Old Friends lead to New Thoughts
Space Shuttle designed on a horses backside
The Mexican Boatman & "Harvard MBA".
3 Blind Men & An Elephant
Someone Everyone Anyone
No-one
12 Questions to
High Performance
The Bee Can't Fly but No-one told the
bee
The Maverick Mindset of
Baseball
Three Men and a Boat
Stop
Two Cannibals & a Beautiful Girl
The Meaning of Life
What was your name again?
Two Frogs
Is Common Sense Possible
An Architects Vision
Does Edison Turn Your Light On
Other books and CDs I've mentioned can be found here
There are loads of great audio programs at Nightingale Conant's ,web site here,
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