Just for a moment imagine you’re an engineer – a specialist in your field of rocket science. One day, NASA calls you up and wants you to come in and consult on a rocket project that is nearing its launch day. Excited at such a career-breaking opportunity you’re thrilled to accept their invitation and go and visit them at Mission Control.

Maybe you know you’re spending too much each month. Maybe you’re on a financial treadmill and don’t know how to get off? Perhaps you’ve tried to cut back on the number of lattes you buy, or the little things you spend on in order to make some savings... making yourself just a bit more miserable and no less broke in the process…

A few days ago it was announced that more than 28,000 apprenticeships have been created in London as part of the Mayor’s initiative to get young people into productive employment. Not only was it 8, 000 apprenticeships above its 20, 000 target, but it reached that 3 months ahead of schedule.

Business Strategy is all about the top down approach. Everything that goes before affects the next stage. It’s a sort of affective-hierarchy, like water flowing downhill. In physics we know that water only ever flows downhill. This is because there is a potential gradient. The water will flow from an area of high potential to one of lower potential…

Now here’s a question: do you ever feel that you’re pushing water uphill?

Perhaps you’ve already heard about the Entrepreneurs Loan for school leavers – the new government initiative to give under-25s a helping hand into the world of commerce whilst kick-starting the economy from the grass-roots up. Well intentioned, complete with some form of mentoring, could this be a helpful attempt to usher in the heroes of the new economy, the savvy next generation workforce that earns off their own initiative or is it setting school-leavers up with unrealistic expectations?