Garry Kasparov was an outstanding world chess champion.  He is generally referred to as Russian but he was born in Baku in Azerbaijan.  This is important as he is now recognised as a political activist living in New York and readily expressing himself very negatively about Vladimir Putin.

In his book “Winter Is Coming” (for which the theme is why Putin and the enemies of the free world must be stopped), he writes comprehensively about the Gorbachev period including the following quote ‘It would have been foolish for Gorbachev to take military action in Hungary or Czechoslovakia when he had to worry about stability in the USSR.  When your own house is on fire you don’t send the firefighters to your neighbour’s house’.

In more mundane terms this speaks to me of the need to make sure that one’s own personal and business and financial arrangements are in good shape before experimenting with new ventures.  I have rather a lot of experience of ignoring some of this common sense advice.  Consequently I strongly recommend everyone to pay close attention to their priorities.  Please do not leave undone that which requires your urgent attention.