Anchors In The Stars

Anchors In The Stars Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi.
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Empowering entrepreneurs and whanau with integrity and purpose. 🌿 We provide trusted insights and tools for sustainable business growth, guided by Te Ao Māori values.

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is change your course without changing your destination.We all start with a plan...
30/09/2026

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is change your course without changing your destination.

We all start with a plan, a goal, and a clear idea of where we're heading.

But the water doesn't always behave the way we expect.

New information appears. Opportunities open up. Questions lead to new possibilities.

The challenge isn't chasing every new idea.

The challenge is recognising which signals matter.

Over the past year, Kite 2020 has started me asking bigger questions.

Could it serve more people than originally intended?

Is the first idea the destination, or simply the starting point?

The stars give us a reference point.

The water tells us what's happening right now.

We need both if we want to navigate well.

Sometimes you don't need to abandon your destination.

You just need to adjust your paddle.

Navigating Goals vs. ValuesFor a long time, I thought the important question was:**What are your goals?**But the older I...
23/09/2026

Navigating Goals vs. Values

For a long time, I thought the important question was:

**What are your goals?**

But the older I get, the more I think there's another question that matters just as much:

**What are you steering by?**

Goals change.

Businesses change. Careers change. Plans get thrown around. Sometimes you reach a destination and discover it isn't what you thought it would be.

But the things underneath those goals can stay.

Pono.
Whanaungatanga.
Manaakitanga.
Kaitiakitanga.
Learning.
Family.
Trying to leave something useful behind.

That idea has been on my mind through a lot of what I've been doing this past year — from business planning and study to learning te reo Māori and building this blog.

I've also been thinking about a business partnership I walked away from years ago.

The destination was still there. The opportunity was still there. The money was still there.

But what we were steering by was no longer the same.

Walking away cost me financially. I knew exactly what I was giving up.

I still walked.

More recently, I've found myself making room for things that weren't on the plan — a noho marae, a lunch at Huria Marae, conversations and connections I couldn't have put on a weekly ex*****on checklist.

The plan still matters.

Getting things done still matters.

But sometimes something comes along that isn't in the plan, and it's worth making room for.

**Goals are places you visit; values are how you navigate getting there.**

Maybe before we choose the next destination, we should spend a little more time looking up at the stars.

Full post here: https://anchorsinthestars.wordpress.com/2026/09/23/navigating-goals-vs-values-a-guide/

Beyond the Translation: There is a difference between knowing what a word or phrase means and understanding what it mean...
14/09/2026

Beyond the Translation:
There is a difference between knowing what a word or phrase means and understanding what it means.
I’m learning that once again through Te Reo Māori.
Recently, I came across the phrase Ka Aroha Koe.
I looked at the individual words:
Ka — future
Aroha — love
Koe — you
So naturally, I thought:
“I’ll love you later.” 😂
Except that wasn't what it meant at all.
It meant “you poor thing.”
Then there was aroha mai.
If I translated the words individually, I could easily wonder why someone was asking me to love them.
But together, aroha mai can mean “I'm sorry,” “excuse me” or “forgive me.”
The words hadn't changed.
My understanding had.
That got me thinking.
How often do we do the same thing in life?
We learn the words.
We learn the formula.
We learn the process.
We put Māori words into our business plans, websites and presentations.
But have we actually understood the thinking behind them?
Take whanaungatanga.
We can translate it as relationships, kinship or connection.
But if we continue measuring everything through individual performance, competition and profit, have we really changed the way we operate?
Or have we simply changed the label?
That distinction matters to me.
Because Te Ao Māori isn't simply a collection of Māori words.
It is a way of seeing and being.
And perhaps this lesson isn't really about language at all.
It is about learning to stop.
To listen.
To look again.
To understand before we respond.
At sixty, I'm still learning.
Still getting things wrong.
Still being corrected.
And I realise that being corrected isn't a weakness.
Sometimes the most valuable thing a teacher can say is:
“No. Look again.”
Maybe that's what still becoming really means.
You never quite arrive.
You just keep learning how to see.

The full article is here: https://anchorsinthestars.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/from-words-to-meaning-learning-te-reo-maori/

From Seed to Shade: The Patience of TāneWe live in a world that wants everything now.Results now.Recognition now.Success...
08/08/2026

From Seed to Shade: The Patience of Tāne

We live in a world that wants everything now.

Results now.
Recognition now.
Success now.

But some of the most important things in life don’t work on that timeline.

My tūpuna crossed Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa without ever seeing where they were going.

No maps.

No certainty.

They trusted the stars, the swell, the birds… and they kept paddling.

I think about that often because I was never naturally good at waiting.

But looking back, nearly everything meaningful in my life came from planting something before I could see the result.

Training for a marathon at thirteen.

Years of apprenticeship before becoming qualified.

Building businesses from a desk and a phone before anyone could see what they might become.

People see the shade.

They rarely see the seeds.

The quiet work.
The mistakes.
The years where nothing seems to be happening.

That reminds me of planting trees with my mum when I was about twelve.

It was just a Saturday.

A spade.

A few young trees.

Dirt under the nails.

The fruit trees are still there today.

Many of the others we planted for shade grew so big they eventually had to be removed.

Mum is gone now.

But the trees remain.

Every year they still produce fruit.

Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua.
People pass away, but the land remains.

She planted something she would never fully enjoy.

That idea has stayed with me.

Maybe that is what legacy really is.

Not building something only for ourselves.

But planting things that others will benefit from long after we are gone.

The older I get, the more I think success isn’t measured by the fruit we eat.

It’s measured by the shade we leave behind.

Some seeds are not meant to feed you.

Some are meant to become shade.

The full post is here: https://anchorsinthestars.wordpress.com/2026/08/08/from-seed-to-shade/

There was a time when I thought strength was measured by the weight on the bar.Then my little brother and I spent a day ...
24/07/2026

There was a time when I thought strength was measured by the weight on the bar.

Then my little brother and I spent a day pouring a concrete slab.

After a handful of wheelbarrow loads, I realised something that 35 years in the gym hadn't taught me: there's a world of difference between training a body and simply using one.

Our tūpuna didn't exercise because it was Tuesday. They walked, carried, gathered, built, climbed, and worked because life demanded it. Strength wasn't the goal—it was the byproduct.

Modern gyms still have their place. I still lift weights. But every now and then I think it's worth asking whether the way we move still resembles the way human beings were designed to move.

Sometimes the best workout isn't another set.

Sometimes it's helping someone build something that matters.

Full post here: https://tekupuotepono-niohu.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/moving-like-an-ancestor/


For years, I built Excel calculators for my financial planning business because custom software was simply too expensive...
17/07/2026

For years, I built Excel calculators for my financial planning business because custom software was simply too expensive.

Every time interest rates changed, I had to update the spreadsheet and send another version to everyone.

That was just the way it was.

Fast forward to today...

Using Replit, I recreated two of those calculators as web apps in minutes. They're always up to date, accessible from any browser, and I don't have to worry about who has the latest version of Excel.

I also built myself a Te Reo Māori learning app to help me practise new kupu every day.

The technology impressed me.

But what stayed with me was something else.

It removed one more barrier between an idea and reality.

It didn't replace hard work.

It simply gave me another way to practise Rangatiratanga—taking responsibility for building the things I wished I'd had years ago.

That's what this week's post is really about.

Replit with Rangatiratanga – From Idea to Live App: Why I'm Using Replit.

See the full post here: https://tekupuotepono-niohu.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/

My latest tik tok....
13/07/2026

My latest tik tok....

We often think our biggest problem is time.I'm starting to think it's attention.Every day there are notifications, email...
11/07/2026

We often think our biggest problem is time.

I'm starting to think it's attention.

Every day there are notifications, emails, headlines, videos and endless scrolling, all competing for a piece of us. By the end of the day we've been everywhere... yet somehow nowhere.

Reading Deep Work by Cal Newport made me realise something.

Deep work isn't just about getting more done.

From a Te Ao Māori perspective, it's about what happens to our wairua when our attention is constantly divided.

We don't just bring our minds to our work.

We bring our tinana, hinengaro, wairua, whānau, and mauri.

When those parts move together, there's clarity.

When they're pulled in different directions, something inside us slowly becomes scattered.

Maybe the deepest work we'll ever do isn't building a business, writing a book, or mastering a skill.

Maybe it's learning how to be fully present.

I've written about that idea in my latest post, Deep Work with Wairua: When Attention Becomes a Spiritual Practice.

I'd love to know...

What steals your attention the most?


There's a version of affiliate marketing most of us have seen too much of — the breathless review, the influencer holdin...
19/06/2026

There's a version of affiliate marketing most of us have seen too much of — the breathless review, the influencer holding up a product they "discovered" three weeks ago, the email sequence built to feel personal.

It's not dishonest exactly. But something about it sits uneasy.

This week on Te Kupu o Te Pono, I look at what that unease actually is — and what it means to recommend things with pono. Including a few honest reflections from my own financial planning practice, where trust has always been the whole business.

Read the full piece 👇 https://tekupuotepono-niohu.wordpress.com/2026/06/19/affiliate-marketing-with-pono/

Many of us are taught to think about wealth in terms of ownership.More money.More assets.More security.But in Te Ao Māor...
12/06/2026

Many of us are taught to think about wealth in terms of ownership.

More money.
More assets.
More security.

But in Te Ao Māori, there is another way of looking at prosperity.

Kaitiakitanga reminds us that what we have is not simply ours to possess. It is ours to care for, nurture, and pass on in better condition than we found it.

When wealth is viewed through stewardship rather than ownership, the question changes.

Not:

"How much can I get?"

But:

"What am I entrusted with, and how well am I caring for it?"

This week's Te Kupu o Te Pono explores the connection between Think and Grow Rich and kaitiakitanga.

Perhaps true richness is not measured by what we possess, but by what we preserve, nurture, and leave behind.

Full Post Here: https://tekupuotepono-niohu.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/think-and-grow-rich-with-kaitiakitanga/

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