Simon Vumbaca's Articles

The Contemplationist

Simon Vumbaca’s highly regarded writings deliver actionable wisdom, drawing from his rich experiences with high-performing clients and his own personal journey.

Winning Must Be Part of Your Cohesive Vision

In this article, Simon Vumbaca, the Contemplationist, highlights how winning must be a natural extension of our cohesive vision of life. Success doesn’t happen by chance but is a result of aligning actions with a clear long-term purpose. By avoiding unnecessary compromises and staying focused on our goals, we embed winning into our very identity. Simon Vumbaca emphasizes that incremental victories, just as much as major achievements, contribute to this vision. Through dedication, discipline, and maintaining a purpose-driven outlook, winning becomes not just an outcome but a continual process that reflects the cohesive vision guiding our life.

Learning to win: every day is a lesson provided we want to excel

Whether we realize it or not, we are all learning every day. What sets successful people apart—those who continually surpass themselves—is their relentless desire to improve, even when they’re already winning. Imagine an athlete at the top of their game, constantly refining their technique, analysing every performance, and pushing harder every day. That’s the mindset: to embrace learning all day, every day, not just when things go wrong, but even when they go right. As we win, we learn and adapt—often unconsciously. But here’s the secret: if we learn consciously, we can supercharge our progress, gaining a deeper understanding of...

Back to Work: Time to Take Things to the Next Level

In Europe, August is a time for vacations. Many Latin countries close their doors to normal business and head to the beach. These are times spent with family and friends, recharging batteries. This good habit has, in one form or another, extended to most countries in the Western world. For many, though, me included, breaking up or disrupting my everyday life is a consuming exercise. It takes time to break out of my routine and just as long to reinstate it. In essence, all the effort I put into “feeling like I’m on holiday” and then “going back to work”...

If This Goes On, What Must Come Off?

Recently, I reread Sir David Attenborough’s A Life on Our Planet. I highly recommend it. The perspective offered in each chapter is both enlightening and chilling. The anthropological evolution of society is mirrored beautifully within its pages, and the interaction between humans and the world around us is thoroughly documented by a witness who has dedicated his life to observing and recording what he saw. It prompted me to reassess the things that are, or attempt to be, under a refreshed light. The interaction between everything that happens, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, is one of...

The Real Cost of Learning Your Lessons

“Errare humanum est.” To make mistakes is human. A very well-known statement that has been used in all sorts of instances to express that errors do happen. The reason errors occur can relate to many things, depending on each specific case. A world without errors would be a world ruled by a lack of initiative, as only when we venture into new things do we discover what not to do and, ultimately, what works! To learn from errors requires understanding their origin, and the tendency is to focus on whether the error is linked to our actions or not. In...

From Strategy to Tragedy (and How to Make It Back)

Good planning is essential to success. Like many others, I am a great believer that preparing for all eventualities, every angle, and possible outcome is the way to have a fighting chance for a great strategy to succeed. It doesn’t matter in what walk of life or business the strategy is for. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and all that jazz. In recent years, however, the higher the stakes and the better the strategies developed, it has become clear to me that the risk of volatility resides with the implementation of the strategy defined. That is the human...

So, What Is Really Going On Is…

We all want to do well. We also want others to do well. When both aspirations' paths go in the same direction, then it is brilliant, and all seems perfect. Sometimes, though, paths that seemed to go in the same direction cross each other in a non-positive manner. One may be tempted to accept some degree of compromise to progress, but very often, the party that accepts compromise is the one that loses most of the original path's intent. But we all want to do well, and we also want others to do well, so we look for cues to...

Vote for Me (Blah Blah Blah): A Song on the Electorate-Elected Dance

As you all know, it is not the role of the Contemplationist to comment on political ideology. It is really not something for us. As a Contemplationist, though, reflecting on the impact the last few weeks will have on the short-term future is something fascinating. The current 12 to 17-year-olds will inherit the world in the not-too-distant future, and it is fascinating to see how they are reacting to the short-term changes. In the midst of it all is the idea and process associated with any election, regardless of political opinions. The “format” presented by the would-be elected to the...

I Have No Idea Why I Did It, but It Was the Right Choice!

Are Your Choices Really Yours? The Subconscious Influences on Our Decisions Pricing a service or a good is an arduous job. You do not want to charge too much, but you also do not want to undervalue your offering. I read in a book on value services that the best way to achieve the best price for your services is to offer a fee based on perceived value delivered. Perceived value should be the basis of the fee to be charged. The anticipated objection to that approach is to ensure the perceived value is as high as possible. The author...

Adversity as Constructive Force

As mostly all of us do, I invested my time in a lot of things, possibilities, opportunities, options of deals with great outcome, companies, projects reviews, technicalities and so on. It all seemed a winning horse at the time and off course worth my time. A lot of the time invested did not turn into anything at all and very often the feeling was of being immensely let down by the matter, the people, the reality of things that should have been highlighted from the start and so on. Some started behaving and interacting with you in a certain manner,...

Money Is Not an Object… Anymore

In business and in life, we like to feel informed. I must confess that since 2008 the degree of business and financial information available and gathered has been growing exponentially. We now have on-the-spot updates and financial predictions that are delivered with such convincing aplomb that we believe they must be accurate and based on extensive analysis and complicated algorithms. The numbers displayed seem head-turning. Billions are referred to as pennies used to be referred to in the old days. As you know if you have read any of my earlier writings, I am not into politics, and I am...

Fluid Strategy

I am often asked: what is Strategy? I used to use long and detailed explanations that covered all sorts of possible objections the listener had never even thought of, taking the more ‘detailed’ route of strategy of my own in anticipating their reactions. However, in recent years, the more experiences I had the more I became aware of the beauty of simplicity and that answer became more clear: Strategy is identifying what needs doing now to affect/influence the future to produce an objective. Like a wave, it must be fluid, adaptable and go with the flow. We can aim for...

Ask Yourself These Three Powerful Questions – And Do Nothing

I was recently looking for some information to help a client that had grown so fast since first trading to see where things were being delayed in the implementation of his strategy. To any neutral observer it was clear: daily tasks micro-management was taking over the execution of the agreed strategy. The client was frustrated for not being able to implement the strategy they knew would make them do the jump of quality they had been after for some time and we had agreed as the right one for them. Seeing as I was looking at time management books that...

Rational or Instinctive Decisions: Which Works Better?

The time to make a decision is the most nerve-wracking moment for any decision maker. The list of the “what ifs” is never-ending. Assuming the information we have is accurate, have we really covered all the angles that matter? The list goes on. The reality is that one is rarely in possession of 100% of the required information and, like many things in life, decisions are also based on gut feeling, past experiences, expectations, understanding of facts, people and so much more. Data analysis, for as accurate as it may be, reflects the past. It can help the decision making...

Return on Time Invested

According to western traditions, we are at the start of a new year. This is a time when all resolutions are forged in purposes and actions. Most for a short while. We focus on what is ahead. Have we learned from the recent past though? For me 2023 has been a fantastic year by many accounts. Wanting to be honest with myself, though, there is something I should have done better. I invested a lot of my time in projects that excited me without real concern of return om the time invested. I guess through the prism of the happy...

The importance of accurate designation: Process vs Purpose

Recently I have been blessed by the opportunity to be a speaker at several tech conferences and even to be interviewed by tech futurist experts. They all had incredibly solid vision, almost to a certainty rarely seen before, of the evolution of technologies and how, with the push of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) all has become easier and better. So much so that in one instance it was said by the experts that the human element was actually the weakest link in the progress of technology. I am not an expert in technology. I never professed to be one in fact....

It Is Better To Ask For Forgiveness Than Permission – why the thirsty should let the mudded water settle before drinking it.

There was a not-so-distant time where information was the difference between success and mega success. These days we are flooded with information. We have specialist access to even more specialised information that is so specific that it makes readers feels experts. This avalanche of information also happens at the speed of light – or the speed of your internet connection. This makes the volume of what needs to be broadcasted even more frenetic. Masses of content is created to cover information, to the point of absurdity at times. . In fact, we have so much information available that the line...

When Self Doubt Knock – Don’t Open the Door”

Today I was in Town and managed to catch up with a friend. This was an impromptu meeting. By many accounts my friend is a very successful businessman in his own right with a massive set of skills and an even longer list of achievements. He brilliantly sold his business not long ago and after a super summer of holidays doing all he wanted to do for the last many years, when he joined me there was something different about him. It took me a while to react, and I understood what was missing: his smile was gone! How is...

If you stay the same, how can you expect things to change?

One of the beauties of growing old is that things are put into perspective. There is a tendency to look back at what was done, particularly when selective memory is applied and we tend to remember the good stuff and forget the bad, unless it was really painful. Talking to my friend of many years, Olympic champion Kriss Akabusi, reminded me of an important fact: every day you are building your future through all your actions. As small as these actions may be, they will shape your future. Looking back can be helpful, but being stuck in the past is...

Shall we burry our head in the Sand and pretend all is well

Waking up every morning to news readers telling us how the basic services the state is supposed to deliver are not working and are losing money. Then you hear about how corporations are driving production prices down via their competitive processes, leaving the producers exposes and with losses, particularly if anything is amended in the initial terms. In the Food distribution, Superstores say they are doing it to protect consumers even if the discounts are never passed on until perishable goods are expiring and need to get rid of. These are goods that should have not been produced in the...

The Right Person at the Right Time – in the Right Place. Perfect Storm or absolute luck? And why does it even matter?

People often refers to the right person at the right time to do the right thing. This indicates the distant wish that things can be perfect for someone and their organisation. It is inevitably followed by: how lucky was that? Far from it, luck should not be part of it. The combinations are simple: what about the wrong person at the right time and right place? What about the right person but at the right time and the right place; what about the wrong person at the wrong time but the right place. You get the idea. What defines the...

The Unlimited Power of Silence and Why It Matters

Have you ever been in a meeting where the person you are talking to remains silent and you inexplicably feel logorrhoeic? Have you ever been in a meeting where someone was talking so much that you stopped listening? Let’s be honest – this has happened to most of us. Silence can be unsettling at best. In fact, increasingly we seem to avoid silence as it something may happen. We avoid silence so much that we even use headphones to meditate: go figure! The sense of uneasy caused by silence is often understood as a threat to: Asserting our authority and...

Risks: How Far Should You Go?

Making decisions is the easiest thing. Making the right decision however less so! Decisions need to evaluate the risk they entail. Risk is an unpredictable that has a tendency to occur at the worst moment. Why is that ? How far shall one push it before the risk inevitably turns into a reality? When something happened that was not foreseen, things can go into disarray. A market crash, a regulation changing or a competitor with the new disruptive product, all can happen in a heartbeat. The truth though is that the post-mortem of a situation often illustrates that all the...

Simon Vumbaca's Articles

The Contemplationist

The Contemplationist Insights Podcast

Podcast 07 – From Strategy to Tragedy (and How to Make It Back)

Podcast 06 – The Real Cost of Learning Your Lessons

Podcast 05 – If This Goes On, What Must Come Off?

Podcast 04 – Back to Work – Time to Take Things to the Next Level

Podcast 03 – It Will Happen to You! How Paddy Lowe deals with the Unexpected and Disappointment

Podcast 02 – Return on Time Invested

Podcast 01 – The Maze of Decision making: instinctive or rational? What works best?

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