Lawrence Jones - Success Online

How to get the most out of life? Sir Richard Branson sums it up in a single word

March 2nd, 2010

I will always remember my first night on Necker Island home to Sir Richard Branson. We were just settling in and being made to feel very welcome. We have the entire island to the 4 of us and it is the most idyllic setting for a family holiday.

Stood in the Great House on the hill looking at a photo of Sam Branson and his friends, I turned around and Richard walked up to me arm outstretch and with a warm smile he bowed his head gently and welcomed me to his home. It is the greatest thing for me to meet such a distinguished businessman. I have many friends who have become incredibly successful. Most of them though are particularly hard with their staff and rule their businesses with an iron rod. Richard is someone who clearly breaks this mold and it is refreshing to see that he is a million miles away from the ludicrous business ethics they portray on The Apprentice.

It didn’t take him long to suss me out and pretty soon we were discussing sport. He is currently in training for the Virgin sponsored London Marathon. He had already heard I was a keen exerciser and immediately asked if I’d like to run with him. A couple of Richard’s guests arrived for drinks, they were staying on the nearby island. They owned and developed Vale and Beaver Creek in the US. (An amazing Ski Resort) During the conversation with Janet and Paul from Beaver Creek, one thing stuck out and it made an indelible mark in my brain that I think will be there forever.

Richard said, “well, if you say Yes! to everything, you are going to have a far more interesting life.”

In my 41 years on this planet nobody has ever give me such great advice or such a great directive. And it makes perfect sense. How many of us just potter through life and procrastinate. I have only been on the island less than a week, but I am 100% sure you will never see Sir Richard Branson procrastinating. He is a decisive character, who doesn’t stop for breath.

Before leaving for bed, I asked what time we should meet. He said “pop around to the house at 6.45am and just shout me if I am not up.”

I didn’t sleep a wink that night, excited at the prospect of continuing a great conversation with a fantastic philanthropist and entrepreneur.

We have since run for a number of hours together and I have had some solid business advice during my time following in his great footsteps. Advice that once you have heard it appears like complete common sense. However you could read a 100 books and find 50 different ways from a variety of experts which all contradict each other. So to hear it from someone you respect, immediately fills me with confidence. And actually now we have discussed it, I totally understand and I cannot wait to get back to UKFast and start implementing some of these great ideas.

Yesterday I ran with him a little later than before, and I reminded him of what he had said to me and what an impact it had.

I explained that you could have written an essay, yet in one short sentence he summed up just how simple you need to make it.

“If you say Yes! to everything, you are going to have a far more interesting life.”

What a great piece of advice and for anyone setting out as a young entrepreneur, in business, in school, wherever and whatever you are wanting to do, this is good advice. It is a simple strategy that I can promise you Branson lives by. He is a man with a large appetite for life and it grows bigger by the day, and I am sure his positive attitude towards just doing things straightaway, off the cuff without procrastinating has to have something to do with his enormous success.

I am very interested in how he portrays his feelings on this subject, as he decided to use the line as subject matter for a column he is doing for the New York Times. It is definately something to look out for.

Lawrence Jones UKFast

Dedicated Server Hosting, Manchester

Tags: advice, dedicated servers, entrepreneur, hosting, Lawrence Jones, motivation, Richard Branson, UKFast, young entrepreneurs
Posted in Business advice, Business motivation, Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Spirit, Lawrence Jones, People development, UKFast | 1 Comment »

My Journey To Necker

February 25th, 2010

It would be a great deal easier just to explain that I hopped on a plane and flew there, after all I am currently flying on the smallest plane I have ever been in that we have chartered to take us from Barbados to Beef Island.

But in real terms the journey started way before. And if Richard Branson has taught me anything, the brand experience is truly transferrable between Virgin businesses.

My first encounter of Virgin was Culture Cub. A great band in the 80’s. They wrote a song called Victims, which has truly the best piano introduction of any pop song.

I went on to approach Virgin Records years later with a demo after recording a song called “Whenever the Leaves Fall” on a load of old recording equipment once owned by John Lennon. It was in a tiny recording studio, not much bigger than this cockpit.

I spent months trying to talk myself into an appointment at the old Virgin headquarters on Ladbrook Grove and Harrow road, London.

It was there I learnt the art of instant relationship building and the importance of getting to know the gate keeper. I’d ring back in different accents, and the receptionist would say, “is that you again Lawrence?”

I never gave in and one day after hearing the receptionist ask a colleague “is Danny in?” after I asked to speak with the head of A&R, after getting knocked back again, I rang back 10 minutes later and confidently said, “hi there, is Danny in yet?”

I was promptly put through. This technique and confidence has stood me in great stead for many years since. On this occasion I was quickly brought down to earth with a bump after a lady answered the phone.

I said, “hi is Danny there?” “Danny speaking” the lady replied. I was taken aback as I was expecting a man!

In true Virgin style she was lovely and said on the basis that I had got this far, she agreed to see me.
I remember the meeting well, and she liked the track. The disadvantage I had was that I did not have a readily formed band. She was in the process of signing The Railway Children, ironically my next door neighbours in Salford! What is the likelihood of that?

In my opinion they signed the wrong act, and the Railway Children never left the platform. They spent their advance on MGB roadsters and were dropped after never cutting it.

I went on to get an offer from a chap called Brian St.James Carr, a well known solicitor involved with The Sex Pistols, PIL (Public Image Limited) and Andrew Lloyd Webber. He heard my songs and got me involved with a chap called Lawrence Roman an incredibly gifted classical musician who did all of Lloyd Webbers musical arrangements.

He did the clever stuff in my opinion and made Webber look amazing, however I was young and I thought I’d get loads of opportunities like this and I turned it down.

I then made a decision to make it on my own in business first and pursue my music later. I knew I would either be incredibly poor or incredibly rich but it was highly unlikely to be the latter on the basis of how the industry works.

I had also developed some friends who worked in the arts, and I quickly learned that I was not someone who coveted the limelight. I’d have thrived off a publishing deal, but being a star was not a motivator for me.

To be successful in anything you have to devote yourself to it fully. 20 years later, I am still devoted to the cause and although hugely successful in certain elements of our business I am only on the first few rungs of a very long ladder.

And the music? Well one day! That is if I ever calm down my love for developing people. When I met Gail, I sold my recording studio and focussed on developing UKFast.

Not a bad gamble as it turns out. Especially when you consider the odds that were against us.

If you use the Jim Collins 3 circles principal to identify should we have set up UKFast as a hosting business, I’d have quickly identified that this was a daft venture to embark on. However it does demonstrate that passion and determination can on occasions replace common sense and logic.

can we be the best at it?
Well truly honestly at the time, no way. We were competing with multimillion pound corporations. That being said, we have won 6 years out of 10 the ISPA’s Best Hosting Provider accolade, so it is funny how things turn out
are we passionate about it?
Absolutely. After trying to host our own domain name thegallery.com we had appalling trouble with a business called Newnet. Peter Coates (who recently sold his business for £3m) and his son Gary had huge potential, however they were techy people and appallingly arrogant. My wife just reading this laughed and asked if that was tetchy or techy? They were so bad that when we moved, we simply left our equipment with them as we couldn’t face dealing with them further.
is it financially viable?
Well, if I’d known the difficulties ahead, I would not have ventured down this road. We were self-funded, which is a posh way of saying we had no money; so everything had to work immediately. We had to work so hard around the clock, if we made one error, we were dead in the water. That was the simple truth of the matter. Not something you want over your shoulder, yet that being said, you wont get a bigger driver! If I didn’t sell, we didn’t eat.

Times are very different now. I have 2 wonderful kids and a wife, who is still my business partner, with the added responsibility of a working mum. We have been very lucky. We still have no debt (which is a posh way of saying, now we have money in the business) and we have had numerous offers from competitors to buy UKFast including one for in excess of £50m.

But it is not the money that motivates us, it is the journey that we are on, and I simply love every day and I live for the challenge.
So why Necker? Well, when I was turned down by Danny Van Endon at Virgin, I set a goal. Right, I thought, I will get there myself. One day I will do business with Branson and Virgin in some capacity. I will become successful on my own.

A few years later, I hired a Grand Piano to the Virgin company for a new artist at a place called the Boardwalk in Manchester. I remember the Fax Header, with all of Richard Branson’s businesses and locations. It was incredibly inspiring. It had Necker as one of the destination boxes to tick. It was then that I decided, “I’d like to go there and one day meet the man behind the company.”

Last year whilst staying at The Lodge another property owned by Virgin, I said to Gail, we need to find out who hosts this business and get them as a client. It transpired they are already a customer, and have been a happy one for a number of years. We also host UKTV which is owned by NTL part of the Virgin Group.

And 15 years on from that Fax and that initial goal, here I find myself, mid air on the way to paradise.

view from the main house, Necker Island.

Lawrence Jones

Tags: entrepreneur, goal setting, Lawrence Jones, motivation, Richard Branson, UKFast, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Galactic
Posted in Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Spirit, Lawrence Jones, People development, UKFast | 6 Comments »

A really BA Experience Destroys Brand Value

February 22nd, 2010

Jim Collins recently sent me his latest book, How The Mighty Fall, which I have not managed to prise off my wife yet. If he’d written a British version of this book, it would have to feature BA. British Airways. How on earth has the greatest British brand fallen out of the skies to such depths of despair?

I asked a couple of members of the BA staff, does BA stand for Bloody Awful, after the worst experience I have ever encountered of substandard behaviour by representatives of BA.

I was checking in proudly to my first class seats at the BA counter in Manchester, when I met the second rudest woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet. We had telephoned the night before just to ask advice on the recently introduced ESTA. (An official government document required if you are flying to or through America.) The advice we were given by BA was “don’t worry about it, arrive at check-in in the morning and we will deal with it then as technically you don’t need one as you are not staying in the US.”

We trusted the advice and when checking in, told the lady at the First Class counter why we had not filled out the ESTA as per our instructions from the BA staff the previous night. At this point she categorically refused to check us onto the flight and promptly blanked us. I asked for help, and pleaded with her for someone more senior who could assist.

Enter (stage right) the rudest woman I have ever met. She arrived with a plastic smile that she maintained for the best part of 45 seconds before laying into my wife who was beautiful in her calmness. The BA official told us we should have filled out the ESTA online and that we should have and I quote, “put that you are staying in Miami in the destination box.” I explained that our final destination was the British Virgin Islands, I didn’t dare tell her it was Necker. “we advise people who are traveling through the US to the Caribbean to put down they are staying in the Continental in Miami.”

I explained that this would be incorrect and that this was a US official immigration department document!

Without another word the 2 rude BA staff disappeared.

We were kept waiting 40 minutes. Powerless and no other members of BA staff were prepared to help. When we asked for help, they said, “we are not getting involved.”

It really was like a farce. And if she hadn’t made my 6 year old burst into tears I’d have have been laughing in disbelief. We had turned up to enjoy the first class experience.

Enter Simon, a scruffily dressed man in jeans and a creased polo shirt. ”Because of the delay at check in and that my staff members had not known how to deal with the ESTA, we are able to board this flight to Heathrow, but unfortunately it was now too late to attach the luggage to the connecting flight.”

He advised us that he had personally seen to it that the plane to Miami would wait for us. He apologised for the behavior of the 2 staff and he assured me we would be met by ground staff and hurried through at the other end.

It was clear this man just wanted rid of the situation. He was working on the principal, Out of Sight Out of mind. (perhaps a new management course BA are running)

My 6 year old asked me , “Daddy, why was that lady so rude?” and I was unable to defend her.

This farce had actually delayed the plane leaving Manchester and stressed 100 or so other people also connecting to Miami and other destinations.

On arrival at Heathrow, there were no ground staff waiting to assist us between the planes. Luckily everyone else just managed to get their flight to Miami, but no surprise, we missed ours waiting for our luggage.

I saw the striking BA logo with the words CUSTOMER SERVICE in massive letters. Fantastic I thought. I’ll pop over and get some help. The 2 ladies (who reminded me of Les Dawson’s characters) with folded arms grunted back at me when I politely said, “I don’t suppose you can help and tell me where to go, we have missed our flight.”

“We’re baggage.” I continued and the other one piped up, “have you a problem with your baggage?” “No” I replied, “well we can’t help you then. Like my friend told you we are baggage” They carried on talking and I couldn’t help pointing out the irony in how they described themselves.

Walking away I pondered, does BA stand for Bloody Awful. It should do!

Eventually after a series of equally idiotic encounters with various Bloody Awful staff I found someone who was lovely. She was kind and called Jeanette. However the damage was done. The brand was dead in my eyes.

She did start quite hard like the first Bloody Awful staff in Manchester, telling us that as we had missed the flight and it was more than likely non refundable. First class tickets can be as much as £9000 each I didn’t dare ask Gail how much she had paid. I must have turned white with the sick feeling. 4 tickets wasted. 3 demoralised girls, 2 hours extra waiting and 1 missed flight! Jeanette quickly realised what had happened.

She explained the check in staff in Manchester were all agency staff. She fixed the ESTA issue in a few minutes putting “IN TRANSIT” in the destination box.

She went on to explain they had not had a pay rise in 2 years and that they had no idea if their jobs would even be here tomorrow. “The spirit is dead, and I am so sorry you have had all this trouble.”

Every cloud has a silver lining. And thank God, Jeanette booked us on to a Virgin Atlantic seat. One of our daughters, the 3 year old had some sort of anaphylactic reaction on the plane and needed emergency care. 2 doctors on board helped out giving her adrenalin injections, oxygen and salbutamol. Nikki, the Upper Class Senior Cabin Crew team leader was amazing, along with her team particularly Ross and Sacha.

We sat on the floor of the cabin outside the cockpit. The captain regularly came out to check on our 3 year olds well-being and after nearly the entire flight she recovered miraculously as kids do!

So how does something so great, become so Bloody Awful? Fancy not rewarding your staff and undermining them so they don’t know if their jobs are safe. I can’t imagine the people at the top have had similar pay problems?

British Airways is overweight in some areas and anorexic in others.

In our business if you have a potential weakness in an area you invest in it, and you allocate the best, strongest most aligned individuals. You certainly don’t cut back. The problem with BA is they have multiple areas of weakness, so as fast as you build relations with the likes of Jeanette you have sledge hammer Customer Services or disconnected agency staff with their own challenges. Invariably you destroy the brand value.

I think one of the issues BA also has is whilst they are busy infighting, arguing over pay and bureaucracy, the Virgin Atlantic team is taking conflict very seriously indeed. Going about their business with the Sun Tzu approach.

“He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.”

Well, in my mind BA does stand for Bloody Awful and although I have enough free airmiles to fly around the world 7 times, I’d sooner pay to fly a proper airline. Britain’s best airline Virgin. And I wouldn’t swap our seat on the floor next to the loo for a BA Experience.

Lawrence Jones
UKFast

Tags: BA, Branson, British Airways, business, communication, customer service, holiday, hosting, Lawrence Jones, Manchester, Richard Branson, Virgin, Virgin Atlantic
Posted in Business motivation, Lawrence Jones, Manchester, People development, UKFast, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Tiger Woods Friend or Foe?

February 20th, 2010

Tiger Woods is certainly getting a great deal of publicity at the moment.

However, what is really going on behind the scenes. He has clearly behaved stupidly, but is it our business what he does in his private life? Are all the people judging him in the media squeaky clean? I doubt it. But nevertheless, whenever the TV is switched on there he is, in the public eye.

His recent apology in my opinion is farcical. He should not apologise to the world, his issue is a lot closer to home. In my opinion he is apologising purely to save the Tiger Woods brand. The potential lost revenue bad publicity brings. Everyone remembers the Ratner story how one of Britains biggest brands fell out of favour overnight, quite literally.

The reason why he shouldn’t be apologising for being a sex addict or whatever ludicrous title they are brandishing on him, is because the same ingredient that got him into this mess is the identical ingredient that made Tiger Woods the most amazing golfer that has walked this earth so far.

This is his obsessive gene. He should not be going to therapy to quosh this gene, you will kill the golden goose. Yes he needs to stop behaving like a twit and pull his finger out and whatever else (pun intended) and obsess on his golf.

The cycle of success goes like this.

1. Work hard, focus.

2. Start to get results.

3. Become successful

4. Celebrate, take time out and start to relax

5. Ease off on the disciplines that made you suucessful

6. Focus on other things

7. Start to fail

8. Completely hit rock bottom

9. Decide to make a change and improve.

Back to number 1 again.

Ironically if Tiger Wood’s family are behind the “public apology” his mother who laden with diamonds (no doubt gifts from her sons wealth) and others, although meaning to help, will start to sabotage their very existence.

And the one person who can help? The one person who understood success and the disciplines needed to obtain greatness. Tiger Wood’s father, who is no longer alive.

It is little wonder then when such a great mentor and leader dies, that the son starts to fail without the guidance and discipline close at hand.

That being said, obsessive characters can choose to focus on a great many things. The fact that he chose sex and other people away from his wife tells me that he lacks variety. The variety that he got from golf in the early days may have worn off. “Will I win this tournament?” eventually became, “of course.” Which in turn leads to stages 3 and 4 which invariably mean poeple take their eye off the ball.

So what is the best for Tiger Woods now? I can guarantee going to some posh clinic for sex therapy is NOT the answer. This just means he focusses more on what became the problem. He needs to do the opposite. Tiger Woods has the ability to fix this problem (if it actually is a problem) in a matter of seconds. A simple decision to say “no” from a man with the level of determination he posses is enough.

But you might be saying “he shows incredible weakness by his actions”, possibly, but again, he is just a man looking for variety. And due to the abundance of variety he has had in the past, this guy needs to get a whole heck of a lot of it. The variety of will I get caught or wont I replaced the will I win or wont I.

This is a competitive man. Yes he has acted unkindly to his wife, but we dont know the full story, there may be more to the saga in his home life. If his family and true friends have his and their best interest at heart, they need to put a set of golf clubs in his hands and march him up and down the course until he has it out of his system.

Personally I wish him all the best. He shows he is human and I think he has been found out for a crime that many people do day in day out, but just hide it very well.

Posted in Lawrence Jones, People development, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Make the most of every hour

February 20th, 2010

There is something very special about time-out. We see things through a different set of spectacles. By stepping away and leaving a busy schedule or what even may not appear to you at first glance to be a hectic life, we are able to relax.

It is not something I can do easily, switching off, in fact my idea of switching off and winding down are very different to most.

So what do I mean by making the most of very hour? (that god sends), thats the old adage that I remember from the “olds” in our family. Without the technology advancements I still find I am being taught lessons I was previously told in a former life as a child.

It is easy for me, I had a life threatening moment. A realisation that I was not immortal and that OK, I escaped death this time, but at some point we’d meet again face to face. When you have a moment like that, you realise that everything around you is precious. Every moment.
I remember being pulled from the hole which the boys dug me out from, with the worst headache in the world. My new life was literally moments old. I had been reborn in a funny sort of way, this was undoubtedly a second chance. And the thing I remember most, is the feeling of Rob’s lips on mine. They were so soft it was incredible. I better explain…Rob was one of our friends on the trip, a thoracic heart surgeon, handy to have around when you need resuscitating.

I asked myself a question as my life ebbed away that day. What have I achieved? I had left nothing. In fact I wasn’t a great man, if I am honest I was a selfish man. Not deliberately selfish but nevertheless I was certainly not a happy man.

By having this moment of truth, when I came around, boy was I on a mission to rectify things.

I remember removing 2 drips and my ECG and checking myself out of the hospital. I had a life to lead.

And do I live every moment now? Absolutely and I love getting a different perspective on life. And this is where time out is so important. This morning I came down stairs to watch the sun come up. I am on holiday, the girls are all sleeping. But I am awake, so I cannot lie down. My brain wants to go and do things.

So as the sun comes up in the beautiful Caribbean, I look at my watch and see that it is 10.02 am in the UK and I am reminded of all my friends and family over there. This is a great time to reflect. By 10.am on a Saturday morning in the UK, I’d have already done 60 minutes squash, had a massage and finished the first in a string of meetings. But being grateful is an important ingredient if you want to find true success. True happiness. It is something I try and do regularly, but nothing beats being away from everything and everyone to truly appreciate them.

At first the world here looks very sleepy. But the birds are singing. It is still dark. The Concierges are having a cup of tea and a well earned chat after a long night. And down below the restaurant is awaking. The banta is loud from the kitchen and the world is alive. You see peoples true personality first thing in the morning. The staff here at the hotel are fantastic. They are so well mannered, polite and they conduct themselves in the most professional manner. Not at the moment they’re not! They are laughing loudly, flirting with each other, throwing stuff, they are playful. They are much more fun! You develop much stronger relations with people when you around them when they are being their most natural.

So when was the last time you took time out? Proper time out?

Are you too busy? This is a common reason people give for not having the time to themselves. People generally and sadly don’t see the value of time to yourself. Time to reflect.

This is not selfish, wanting time out. This is an absolute necessity if you want to find true success. And true success does not mean the amount of money you earn. You can be rich and unfulfilled. You can have nothing and be the happiest man alive.

That being said, every successful entrepreneur I know, values time to themselves and sets aside time away from their normal schedule.

And this is why holidays are so important. They need to be regular. I don’t care what sort of dynamo you are if you are not slowing down and taking stock and also rewarding yourself for the hard work you put in on a regular basis, you will eventually collapse. You will not sustain the ultimate success you are chasing, worse still you may end up meeting your maker a little earlier than expected!

This is a happy subject, first thing on a Saturday morning. But actually it is. Life is for living. You need to cram as much into every day as you can. Have you ever wondered why some people, the really successful ones ever manage to arrive at this destination. Put simply is that some of these people will achieve more in a month that normal folk do in a lifetime.

Imagine if you lived until you were 1000 years old. Imagine just how rich you would be. What would the equity in your house be worth then! You might not be particularly looking your best! But think of all the things you’d have accumulated and the wealth of knowledge you’d have too.

But its a good way to look at it. Successful people and entrepreneurs maximize their time, they don’t sit still for very often and they put their brain to work from the moment it wakes up. That being said, I am going to finish this coffee, steal 2 minutes staring out to sea walk along the beach, then I am off to wake up the girls and squeeze every drop of juice out of this magical day!

Go have a great one.

Loz (UKFast)

Posted in Business motivation, Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Spirit, Lawrence Jones, People development, UKFast | No Comments »

How to get the most out of life? Sir Richard Branson sums it up in a single word

My Journey To Necker

A really BA Experience Destroys Brand Value

Tiger Woods Friend or Foe?

Make the most of every hour

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