I find it fascinating that people can view the same thing from completely different perspectives and say with absolute certainty that they see total opposites.

You can look at a picture and see the most magical inspiration before your eyes, and yet someone else might not give it a second glance.

The same applies to everything we do and experience in our lives. What might inspire one person, just doesn’t make sense to another.

And so what drives this difference in opinions and views?

I heard a great analogy that the brain like a computer, is a processor, however, unlike a computer, it can only focus on one thing at a time. If you try it, you really can only give one thing, your full attention. And whilst you can perform functions that you have rehearsed over and over again, walking, cooking, exercising, when turning your attention to something important, you will struggle if you add something else to the mix.

Tony Robbins talks of only being able to feel one emotion at the same time and I totally agree with this concept too.

Understanding this philosophy, or restriction that we all have, actually helped me enormously. Previously when I have tried to tackle everything that needs sorting in my life, I of course became overwhelmed and very little got done. In fact, sometimes the list is so large that it is easier not to tackle anything and find something easier to fill your time.

We have a rule at UKFast, that we never show all our plans to people, when we only had 4 people in the business (sorry Rich and Neil) Gail and I would write enormous lists of everything that we needed and wanted to achieve. And whilst we got incredibly excited by this, our 2 new team members actually became demotivated by the sheer volume of what lay ahead of them.

Can you imagine walking or running across America? Or climbing Everest? Or rowing across the Atlantic in a tiny boat which my good friend Dan Innes did? The thought is almost too daunting, but if you cut it up into smaller journeys, States, weeks, days, hours, then break each one of those into separate challenges, everything is a lot easier to tackle.

So what did we do at UKFast? Well we wrote some software and whilst Gail and I could offload thousands of jobs and ideas, we’d only let a maximum of the next 4 tasks be visible to anyone in the team. A remarkable thing happened, productivity speeded up, the same 2 people became more engaged, not only tackled more but achieved the work of 5 people. Both Richard and Neil still work for UKFast, they have joined the 10 year club and both got a cheque for £10,000 for putting up with me for a decade!

More seriously though, I couldn’t do what I do without support from individuals like these guys. Yet if we’d not learnt this really important lesson, the same two people might be very different.

So in a world of a thousand decisions and with enormous pressures at every turn how do some people manage to remain positive. How come some people just seem to be luckier than others.

In a meeting the other day a friend pointed out a quote from Steve Redgrave’s book, everything they did prior to winning the Gold medal was benchmarked against the question, “will it make the boat go faster?”

I could have done with this clarity as a very small business person running MDC as my first 10 years in business were incredibly stressful. They were great fun too, but it was like a game of snakes and ladders. I’d go from strength to strength then hit a major issue usually in the form of cash flow.

I hadn’t had a day off or a holiday in nearly 10 years and my uncle Anthony (who was doing my accounts) told me I was busy going nowhere. He was right of course and although the advice hurt, I took the holidays I needed and suddenly I had new goals to focus my attention on. My boat started to go a little faster, I was just going in circles!

Going back to the brain being a single processor philosophy, I learnt early on in life that you can convince yourself that even when it was bitterly cold, if you said out loud with conviction, “I love this weather” pretty soon you’d be noticing the colours in the mist or rain and the biting wind just didn’t feel so bad. I applied this philosophy to many things, but it took a while for me to translate this skill into business and personal life. However it can be done and actually is done by thousands of business people and atheletes across the globe. You are probably doing it already in areas of your life without realising it.

If you focus on all the problems you may encounter whilst trying to hit your sales target or grow your business, you can guarantee you are going to make it significantly harder on yourself than if you focus of the end result of picking up the trophy or celebrating the success that may lie ahead.

Now some people may argue that you need to be realistic and you have to plan to avoid pitfalls, personally I believe this is procrastination and if we all did this, we’d not evolve as humans, we’d simply sit at home stressing about the next episode of Coronation Street.

If you feel cold, focus on something else and the cold will go away. If you feel sad, find something you can be grateful for and do your best to focus on that instead. Whatever you focus on you will feel.

Do you focus on the economy and should you? Well yes if you are an economist or the Prime Minister otherwise you should have enough on your plate. I remember one of the nuns at Brigedene Convent saying, “Lord grant me strength to change the things I can and the courage to accept the things I cant and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Now whether you are a religious person or not, this is great common sense. We are too wrapped up in the news because it is so accessible, it in front of us in our homes, in our ears in the car, it is the topic of conversation on everyones lips. Its boring and really if we didnt know any better you might be better off. Focus on what you can change and hope for the best that everyone else is as focussed as you on their roles.

I am not advocating ignoring warning signs and throwing caution to the wind with everything you do, I just mean don’t let it consume you like so many people seem to allow.

If you get the balance right, it should in theory give you more time to focus on the important things. Improving your own lives. Quality time with your friends and family. Its funny how it always seems to boil down to this.

Its a beautiful place and at the start of the Millennium it was a landmark moment that I am able to look back at. We were not well-off, we had very little and if I am honest, I was barely keeping up with my mortgage repayments, but we had our health and dreams to make a better life.

UKFast was only months old and we sat down in front of the log fire the next day and wrote out everything we had achieved in those first few months of business. The list didn’t comprise of very much, maybe 7 or 8 things, but it allowed us a small victory and gave us a sense of pride and a warm reminder that we were going in the right direction.  As a business person you get regular setbacks, so its easy to forget that you are making progress. This discipline makes the positive steps you are making, however small, stand out, just like footprints in the snow.

Our first list was a little sparse to say the least. We didn’t have any staff, we’d moved to a tiny 2 person office in the city, we can’t have had more than 4 or 5 customers, but it gave us a platform to start building in the New Year.

Its a discipline that we continue to follow as a tradition and each year the list gets a little longer. We list people, awards, accreditations, office moves, holidays, great moments,  literally any achievement however big or small. We do a business version and a home one too. It is something we now look forward to and its a great time to look back on all the events of the previous year and reflect.

In a world that races at 1,038 miles per hour (at its circumference) it often feels like we are going at the same speed. Its all too easy to forget to pause and look back on the journey, weigh up what went well and what could have gone better.

However successful you are, there are always areas in your life where you can improve.

Honesty is an important part of finding true success. You need people around you who can spot when you are going of track, but you also need to be honest with yourself too. It requires discipline, because more often than not, its easier to ignore problems as often the truth hurts. If you are listing the good you have to list the bad too.

It might be weight related, it may be your work life balance is out, you may be neglecting someone, you maybe neglecting yourself? Whatever it is, there has to be something you can improve. Deep down you probably know what it is, its often difficult to face up to, because if you do, you have to do something about it.

But we need the bad things too as they are important drivers to help give us things to aim at to improve. Without those annoying negative things we’d have no reason for growth and fundamentally, this is what life is all about.

So dont beat yourself up for all the bad things you might be doing, just use  them are leverage to make some serious improvements.

Besides what choice do we have, if you leave a problem, does it go away? Seldom, in my experience do problems just disappear they normally get bigger!

For the record I have a list as long as my arm of all the things I might have done better if I’d taken more care or been more disciplined. What I have found though is by writing down my New Years refection it helps me solidify what is needed for the journey ahead.

So before you do your goal setting this year and write down the list of everything you want to do and become, it might be worth considering sitting down with your partner, be they business or pleasure, or both like in my case, and list all the things you have done together and achieved.

I promise you its worth that warm fuzzy feeling and it gives you the momentum to take on 2012 and all the challenges you set yourself and those unexpected ones!

Don’t expect a miracle, success is built up of  small steps and lots of them, but years later those small steps may culminate to giant leaps or the pitter patter of tiny feet.

I wish you all the best and I hope to see you on your journey soon.

Best wishes for 2012 and beyond.

Lawrence Jones

Bloxham was selling posters in Afflecks Palace, Ferguson had just arrived at United, Tony Wilson was giving the Factory a whole new meaning. Tim Bacon was a barman in JWJohnsons, Oglesby was at Cheadle Hulme where only weeks earlier I’d been playing against him on the great British rugby fields.

Bruno was holding centre stage at the French Restaurant, at the then Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Midland Hotel. I was the cheeky piano player busking my way through life.

I had never been so poor, but I had certainty that something good was just over the horizon.

I learnt pretty early on that it was never going to be that simple. I took a hundred wrong roads and although I had the belief that “one day” I’d be successful, I had not found my direction.

That direction came after a trip to New York when I realised that the next era had to involve the internet. I was now 30. I had tried and failed in so many areas, and I knew my venture had to be the right one. Without time on my side there was no margin for error.

There is a saying that behind every successful man is a good woman.

That could not be truer than in my case. My chance meeting with my now wife Gail Jones was undoubtedly a great Manchester partnership. 200 yards away from where Rolls met Royce in Albert Square, we instantly hit it off.

Many people ask me, “how do you work with your wife?” I have never had an issue with it. We both focus on different areas of the business and whilst it is sometimes hard to switch off when you live with your business partner, I have had the benefit of a soundboard for every major decision that has ever been part of the shaping of UKFast.

Has the last 10 years been an easy ride? There is no such thing! Every week there is something new. That’s the nature of business and life in general. It’s full of ups and downs. 3 days ago I had the first of 2 operations on my thumb after trapping it in a door and slicing clean through the bone. I was told that they were going to amputate it the next morning.

Not the holiday on Necker I was hoping for. But after another operation and a great deal of determination, I am told now that it will survive! And whilst the holiday has been somewhat interrupted with emergency hospital trips, the kids are oblivious to any disruptions thanks to Danielle, PA come Mary Poppins.

So I’m sat here on Turtle Beach where my daughters found 2 baby turtles yesterday fighting for survival, less than 10 minutes from hatching. Today Charlie, one of the Necker team has just helped dig out another 72 other turtles that would not have made it. And what about my thumb? Well I am managing to type, and inspired by just hearing the news that I have been very kindly awarded the EN Entrepreneur of the Year title for 2011, I am reminded that around every corner is another exciting challenge and the only pain you feel gives you a bench mark to truly appreciate the great moments in our lives.

I know my children will never forget today and the freeing of what seems like hundreds of turtles as they swim for safety around the girls ankles. I will never forget this day for very different reasons.

I haven’t won many things in my life and its typical that I am not there to celebrate with my colleagues and friends without whom I’d be average at best. However to be awarded this is just one of those moments in my life where I stopped, took a sharp intake of breath, filled my lungs and had to brace myself.

I am honoured to accept such a title. Do I deserve it? Not in a month of Sundays.  What does it mean to me now? If I thought there was any let up on the road ahead, I was mistaken. I now have an added responsibility to live up to all those kind people who have belief in me. Thank you I am truly honoured.

It seems doubly special that I find out on Necker Island, home of a great inspiration, friend and in my opinion Britain’s greatest living Entrepreneur.

If you don’t mind I have some turtles to attend to.

Lawrence Jones holding baby turtle on Necker Island

What is it about this man? He keeps on popping up on British TV, yet he lacks the finesse of Branson and the passion of Robbins. He most certainly lacks the humility that you’ll find in abundance in the other two great men.

He comes across as a self opinionated man who likes putting people down to make himself feel better. And by surrounding himself with sycophantic people who do not openly challenge him, it is no surprise that he slipped up this week, after telling engineer Glenn Ward as he fired him on BBC’s reality TV show The Apprentice: ‘I have never yet come across an engineer who can turn his hands to business.’

Is he right? Are engineers poor business people?

Actually to put this into perspective and illustrate just how ridiculously dumb a statement this is, you have to look at other generalisations, like racism, agism etc. White people can’t dance, black people can’t swim. They are just preposterous and there is no place for generalisations in today’s society. It’s so important that people stand out from the crowd. Isn’t that what entrepreneurialism is all about?

There will always be some people that fall into sweeping generalisations like this, however no generalisation can cover all people.

Sugar just created his own new ism, engineeringism. You can’t take a group of people and publicly denounce them on National television.

Correct me if I am wrong, but engineering is a trade. It is something learnt. So why would people who chose to learn engineering as a skill be any worse or any better than people who study music, martial arts, French or whatever takes their fancy. Actually, history tells us that the people who learn the skills have a competitive advantage when setting up businesses where these skills are required.

The moment I heard this bigoted comment, I immediately thought of James Dyson an engineer who cleaned up after revolutionising the vacuum industry. Dyson’s fortune, estimated by the Sunday Times Richlist at £1.45bn, is almost double Lord Sugar’s £770m. It’s safe to say that Dyson changed the world and is in another league.

Lord Sugar defended his remarks: “I was drawing on my experience, having dealt with thousands of engineers over the years. That said, I accept the odd example that has been outlined, although James Dyson has told me many times he is an inventor not an engineer.”

Dyson’s own description of himself as an “inventor” just demonstrates his humility, the trait so lacking in Sugar.

When you start to unravel the list of great entrepreneurs over time, engineers do play a huge part.

What car would Sugar be chauffeured in if Rolls hadn’t met Royce in the Midland Hotel, Manchester back on 4th May 1904. Royce was an amazing engineer and entrepreneur. Ironically, one of the first proper apprentices too, not the wooly TV type.

Royce started his trade in 1878 when he started an apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway company at its works in Peterborough. When he ran out of money after 3 years he joined a tool-making company in Leeds, before joining the Electric Light and Power Company. He had a stint making dynamos and electric cranes and one of his first factories opened in Trafford Park, Manchester, a stones throw from where we built UKFast’s first Data Centre.

After seeing the equipment being delivered and installed to our new DC, I have the utmost respect for engineers. From the generators to the cabling, it’s remarkable the technology that we take for granted because it’s out of sight.

It seems that the greatest revelations of all time are born out of engineering discoveries and brilliance. The Internet being probably the biggest of them all and if not, it is certainly the incubator for the engineers of tomorrow. Giving life to other great engineers like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook who is giving the Google boys a run for their money.

What gets my goat is that Sugar continues to set such a bad example to fellow entrepreneurs of how to behave in business and worse still, he gives the public a very one dimensional view of what business is really like.

The great business people that I have met are like the great people from all walks of life. They are warm, kind and giving. We can all go through life taking, however to truly get anything of note out of life, you have to put in without expecting anything in return.

Only when you arrive at this outcome will you be truly fulfilled.

There are probably a few incredibly rich people reading this thinking “*ollocks,” yet the very same people who think that they are the pinnacle of their existence are the people who need to go back to the basics more than most.

I am not trying to be judgemental. It works for me. The day after my avalanche accident, I stopped worrying about what other people think and I just got on with doing what felt right. Then one day I just woke up years later and everything was rosy. I am not saying everything is perfect in my life. I am a million miles from where I’d like to evolve as a person. I have so much to do to improve if I am going to hit some of my goals, but I know what needs to be done and I choose very different people to Alan Sugar to aspire to. I once asked Branson if there is anyone in business who has inspired him, we were running at the time. He said firmly, “No.” he paused and said, “I do admire Nelson Mandela.” After another pause, “And Desmond Tutu.”

This supports my point that to be great, follow great people. It doesn’t matter that they are in a different walk of life. Great people will have similarities in their behaviour that help make them successful. Likewise, idiots have a habit of copying daft things!

On the subject of being an engineer. I surround myself by them because I admire the skills that I would so much love to posses. Being an entrepreneur allows me to tap into the engineering world and marvel at the things that are made possible nowadays.

Given the choice to aspire to be like Dyson, Royce, Sugar? I gave up Sugar a long time ago.

So next time you watch The Apprentice, see if you noticed he has a boardroom chair that is bigger and taller than everyone else’s. Lord Alan Sugar should stop taking himself too seriously and someone should tell him, people watch the show because of the uncertainty of who is going to be axed and not for him. Sorry Alan

Its good to see other business people and prominent ones speaking out about Sugar’s stupidity. Will King, founder of the King of Shaves grooming business and himself a mechanical engineering graduate, said he was ‘saddened’ by Lord Sugar’s very public statement, dismissing the abrasive business leader as ‘out of touch’.

I hadn’t known Gail long, but long enough for her to want to help me identify the problem. Doctors were unable to help, they checked for diabetes and thyroid, but there was nothing clinically wrong. Yet I was struggling to function. I was getting unnecessarily stressed and the not knowing what was wrong was compounding the problem. UKFast was in its infancy and I remember sitting down with a friend also running a small business, who described similar problems. Yet he was slim and seemed in great health now. He told me that he’d reached 18 stone and he’d been told he couldn’t digest certain foods. He simply avoided them and the rest is history.  He gave me the telephone number of a chap called Peter and I agreed to meet him at the Midland Hotel for an allergy test.
There are 3 reasons that significantly contributed to me being successful, outside of all the luck I’ve had.

1.       Gail – Great decision maker and the calmness that I can only pretend to possess
2.       My avalanche accident which taught me the importance of time and gave me the “Do It Now” concept.
3.       The allergy test and clear head I have had since that day
I came down stairs from seeing Peter. He’d said I was lactose intolerance. I had no idea what this meant or the impending implications of eliminating milk from my diet. I thought, this is easy, its only milk. As I walked past my favourite restaurant The French, located in the hotel, I realised that milk was in ALL of my favourite foods. Pastry, cream, cheese, the list is endless. But being an obsessive person, from that day on, I never (knowingly) ate milk again. I say knowingly because if I ever have it now by accident, I am seriously ill.

The first few days were hell. I had intense headaches and I felt terrible. Then one day I woke up and the headache was gone. It was like a cloud had lifted, I could see clearer, I could think with more agility. I was able to multi function where previously I’d struggle to make decisions.

As a child I struggled to concentrate and keep my attention on anything for even the shortest period. I had a short fuse which assisted me on the rugby pitch but not in everyday life. I had difficulties reading and I wrote certain letters in words the wrong way around. These days they call this dyslexia, I was just pronounced “less bright” than my counterparts back then. With milk out of my system, everything improved. I could read with confidence, without having words appear out of nowhere and my dyslexia, had miraculously disappeared.

Since that day, I often joked I’d sooner drink petrol than a pint of milk. Interestingly enough, you should be careful what you wish for, after siphoning petrol from one of my quad bikes in Wales, I accidentally swallowed rather a lot of petrol. I was expecting some horrendous after effects, yet compared to milk I can now promise you, Petrol is far easier to digest in my opinion and my statement still stands.

More seriously, knowing the difference this made to me, I went on a journey of discovery and also a journey to help others who may be suffering from similar symptoms and not knowing that their lives could be so much easier. To date I have paid for over 200 people to be allergy tested. In fact, most people at UKFast have had the test. The results were so dramatic, that I stopped doing it for a while as a number of people had similar massive improvements, so much so they changed their personalities over night becoming more dynamic leaving for pastures new, a few even setting up their own businesses. I have since then learned that someone’s health and destiny is more important than my own needs as a businessman.

The change in my personality was so dramatic I needed to understand scientifically why this substance that so many people speak so highly about was literally poisoning me. Its such an intrinsic part of the Western culture, how can people be unaware of its dangers? How can we still be giving it to our children?

I learnt a great deal over the next few years. I found out that in the US they are 20 years ahead of us. They have linked milk to behavioural disorders. In the UK we drug children who have serious aggression problems and ADHD. In the US they test the children for lactose intolerance.

I remember hearing my father-in-law and ex-teacher talking with my Uncle Peter a child psychiatrist and they were discussing “problem children,” and the drugs and treatment they give them. I listened as John said, every day after lunch in the playground a particular child would go crazy. Sure enough they drugged him, neither of these 2 highly intelligent men whom I admire massively picked up on the “after lunch.” What were they feeding this kid? Our culture doesn’t look at whats causing things, we simply drug people. Its easier. This is an industry in itself.

In the US as part of their education programme, they reference aggression as being linked to lactose intolerance in kids films such as Hulk Hogan.

The production and distribution of Milk is big business. There is an entire industry promoting it and until recently there was the Milk Marketing Board set up in 1933 and finally dissolved in 2002. This once powerful organisation brought us “Milk is good for you because it is full of Calcium.”  Wrong. You cannot digest anything like the same amount of calcium from milk as you can from vegetables such as spinach, kale and broccoli. Calcium from dairy products is excreted and not ingested as it has a greater bioavailability than calcium from certain green vegetables.

Milk settles your stomach. Wrong, Cow’s milk has a pH ranging from 6.4 to 6.8, making it acidic. Listening to Tony Robbins I learned that the acid alkaline balance of the human body is very delicate. We constantly put too much acid in our system and it results long term can be fatal.

I have left some information that I have obtained at the bottom of this blog. If you genuinely care about yourself, have a read and really consider whether it is worth that “moment on the lips.” These days there are a huge amount of foods that are made without milk additives, including ice-cream and even cream which can be made from soya.

The links between milk and cancer, particularly prostate cancer have been proven by 11 different Universities, yet they are not promoted.

Personally I couldn’t operate at the same level and pace of life if I still drank milk or ate it in my food. If I have it by accident, I go dyslexic within minutes I get a blinding headache and come out in spots, along with some other horrendous side affects.

After doing a social experiment at UKFast back in 2002 where we tested 17 people in one day. 14 were lactose intolerant, which is pretty close to the US research which states 75% of all Americans cannot digest milk.

If you suffer from IBS, aggression or are overly irritable, if you have skin disorders, hyperactivity or severe lethargy, I will bet money you are one of the 75% and I can say with confidence because I have helped so many people, when you remove it, get ready for a great new world, it will be like lifting a cloud. Watch you energy levels soar, you will be like a teenager again.

Try it! What have you got to lose!

Best of luck

Lawrence

PS. The allergy test is worth doing, because it highlights a variety of substances you may struggle with. Although 75% of people suffered from milk intolerance, 100% of people registered at least 1 intolerance to one substance or another. What’s your poison?

—–> END

The enzyme needed to digest lactose, lactase, reaches its highest levels in the small intestines after birth and then begins a slow decline unless milk is consumed regularly.^[5]

Lactose, the disaccharide sugar component of all milk must be cleaved in the small intestine by the enzyme lactase in order for its constituents, galactose and glucose, to be absorbed. The production of this enzyme declines significantly after weaning in all mammals. Consequently, many humans become unable to digest lactose properly as they mature. There is a great deal of variance, with some individuals reacting badly to even small amounts of lactose, some able to consume moderate quantities, and some able to consume large quantities of milk and other dairy products without problems. The gene in humans that controls lactase production, and hence lactose tolerance/intolerance is labeled C/T-13910. When an individual consumes milk without producing sufficient lactase, they may suffer diarrhea, intestinal gas, cramps and bloating, as the undigested lactose travels through the gastrointestinal tract and serves as nourishment for intestinal microflora who excrete gas, a process known as anaerobic respiration.

It is estimated that up to 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant, including 75% of Native Americans and African Americans, and 90% of Asian Americans.

Lactose intolerance is a natural process and there is no reliable way to prevent or reverse it.

Some studies suggest that milk consumption may increase the risk of suffering from certain health problems. Cow milk allergy (CMA) is an immunologically mediated adverse reaction to one or more cow’s milk proteins. Rarely is it severe enough to cause death.

Milk contains casein, a substance that breaks down in the human stomach to produce casomorphin, an opioid peptide. In the early 1990s it was hypothesized that casomorphin can cause or aggravate autism spectrum disorders, and casein-free diets are widely promoted.

A study demonstrated that men who drink a large amount of milk and consume dairy products were at a slightly increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease; the effect for women was smaller.The reason behind this is not fully understood. Several sources suggest a correlation between high calcium intake (2000 mg per day) and prostate cancer.

A review published by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research states that at least eleven human population studies have linked excessive dairy product consumption and prostate cancer.

Medical studies also have shown a possible link between milk consumption and the exacerbation of diseases such as Crohn’s disease, Hirschsprung’s disease–mimicking symptoms in babies with existing cow’s milk allergies, and the aggravation of Behçet’s disease.

Imogen Thomas on top of Ryan Giggs

The irony is, even though no one is allowed to publish information about the football player, the whole world seems pretty confident of who it is thanks to the Internet. Tonight a Scottish newspaper effectively ended the anonymous court order by publishing a picture  of one of United’s superstars, flagrantly writing “Censored” over his eyes. The Scottish Herald’s editor reported that the “English legal system doesn’t prevent them from publishing the information.”

And here lies the problem. The internet is a vast territory. It spans continents, it knows no boundaries, no borders it has no dedicated policing system. We flick from site to site in seconds, yet the sites might be hosted on the other side of the globe.

Whoever the footballer is, he may have bitten off more than he can chew. To put a global gagging order on every site on the internet would require deeper pockets than even those of a premiership footballer.

You have to wonder what went on during the alleged affair as there is a great deal of work being invested in keeping the news quiet, or is the player trying simply to protect his wife and family from embarrassment as no wife deserves adverse publicity.  The irony in all this though, is that he has done much more harm and created much more noise, by trying to bury something that quite frankly isn’t half as interesting as watching a grown man play “whack a mole” with the British Press. Just as he thinks he is getting on top, “International Whack A Mole” begins.

Before you start taking on the likes of Twitter, you need to take advice on the depth of your competitors pockets and the appetite for publicity these huge US Corporations hunger for. Whether the Premiership footballer wins or loses, Twitter wins the publicity game and really thats all its about.

With search volumes at an all time high for Ryan Giggs it does look like people are rightly or wrongly assuming it is him. There have been other instances of people being incorrectly named by the “offending Twitter site” too, so its important not to jump to conclusions.

Personally I couldn’t care less which footballer it is. What is fascinating, is peoples behaviour. In the same way Google has become the most successful and talked about business through the mystique of its “secret algorithm” it is clear that people want what they can’t have, even when its drilled down to news or information. Its the not knowing that is causing the snowballing effect here, and it is a lesson that all us marketeers should try and learn from.

Whoever is fuelling the rumours, gives Giggs the last laugh, as he is currently 2000% more popular than David Beckham and 300% more popular than Manchester United. His publicist could not have dreamt for such an outcome. If this was planned it was a stroke of genius. If it was not, then it still is genius and certainly a good time to get a book out. Being a fellow Welshman, I’d buy it.

And what about Imogen Thomas? The picture above clearly demonstrates she has come out on top. Her figures dwarf even those of Ryan Giggs for current search terms according to the latest internet traffic figures. She is being represented by Max Clifford and I think is getting the sympathy vote. She has dated Russell Brand and a string of celebrities and never felt the need to publicise the intimate details, so why the sudden panic and the need to put out a gagging order? It seems less about the event and more about strategic publicity.

But the last word is definitely left to the internet user on the chat rooms and the social networking sites. What is extraordinary and even more evident in cases like this, is that the Internet is here to stay. It has a mind of its own. Its unstoppable in many ways. It has defeated the music industry. It has destroyed the high street as we once knew it, it punished the broadsheets for underestimating it and even TV now settles in second.

The internet is a place where news will eventually get out. We have seen news from countries where camera crews have been banned, yet through a simple mobile device, the world can listen and learn. Long may it reign in my opinion. Super Injunctions currently cover the newspaper industry and as yet they do not extend to the wider audience. As a result it is very difficult to suppress information on something as vast as the network that makes up the internet. Yes you can shut down a site, however, you can’t shut down every site. I found hundreds of reports of the footballer in question supposedly naming the United legend, but who really knows and does anyone really really care? All this publicity doesn’t make anyone guilty, however unless someone stands tall and publicly states “it wasn’t me” there is a danger you come across as guilty by association.

Does information out in the public domain really do harm if a person does come clean? Andrew Marr is a good example of someone who put out a Super Injunction and then removed it a few years later. Marr decided that it was hypocritical and prevented him as a journalist from being objective. I think he got a fair amount of stick from his colleagues too. I don’t think people will be judgemental over the footballers behaviour if it turns out to be him. People make mistakes. She is an attractive woman. At the moment I dont even think that’s what people are interested in. I believe that currently the “not knowing” is making the story far more intriguing and as a result it is on the tip of everyones tongues. As soon as it is confirmed, it will be tomorrow’s fish and chips wrapper or pushed down and buried on the search engines.

Looking at Andrew Marr, it hasn’t done him any long term damage, his interview of President Obama this week reinforces this. Whatever the outcome, Giggs will always be remembered as one of Manchester’s finest assets, whether you are a Red or a Blue.

My “planning” is almost non-existant. All my work done is long before any planning would normally take place, at the “dreaming” stage. It’s a side that is drilled out of us at an early age, usually in school and by our elders. Yet the dreaming stage is the most fun and its where the magic happens.

I have my own theories on planning, however they are all inspired by others and date back a considerable number of years. Tony Robbins was the chap who originally opened my eyes to something I had been doing very successfully at various times of my life. I just hadn’t realised what I was doing. I certainly had no idea there was an actual science behind it. I tried some of Robbin’s techniques and actually in my first Goal Setting session, listening to Tony in my headphones, I wrote down a wild and seemingly unattainable goal. “Meet Tony Robbins” as one of my objectives.

It took me a few years to realise that I need to write more specific goals, as sure enough, at an event in London, I met Tony Robbins. The problem is I literally shook his hand along with many others and that was that.

I then went back to the drawing board. The next goal involving Tony Robbins was far more specific and it involved spending quality time with him where I’d get an opportunity to share ideas and develop a friendship.

In less than 12 months from writing this goal,  the impossible happened. Gail and I were sitting in  Tony’s living room at his home in Fiji with his lovely wife Sage, spending real quality time with them. It was an amazing opportunity to credit Tony for influencing us and encouraging us to engage our ambition. It felt good to be able to tick this one off the list and thank him first hand for his guidance.

Tony Robbins is an extraordinary man and if you want to learn Goal Setting properly, my advice is go and get Tony’s CDs and start today. He changed my life enough to make me look deeper at myself. There is no way we’d be in this fortunate position, unless we’d made some very definite changes for the better, and he certainly kickstarted us into looking at ourselves and being more self critical.

Once I’d started on this journey of discovery, there was a great deal I had to find out for myself. There had to be more. I went on a journey trying to understand the science behind it. I found a chap called Earl Nightingale who was clearly a driver and inspiration for Tony Robbins.

It’s no wonder Robbins found Nightingale fascinating. Nightingale was an extraordinary man.

At 17 he joined the United States Marines. He was on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor he was one of 12 surviving Marines on board that day. 2402 people were killed in the attack, 1177 onboard the USS Arizona. This clearly impacted on Nightingale. His perception and the way he valued both life and people after this terrible ordeal must have changed that day.

After the war Nightingale worked for a radio station, he eventually developed into motivational speaker. In 1956 he produced the first spoken-word record to sell over a million copies, The Strangest Secret. Nightingale’s radio program, Our Changing World, became the most highly syndicated radio program ever, and was heard across the Globe.

In spite of this, I still think Tony is the one to listen to on Goal Setting. He has worked with the last 4 presidents of the US and his list of clients is impressive. When you realise who he has helped reach the heights of their professions, it makes a compelling case to sit down and take him seriously.

What Earl teaches, is that everything you want is all around you. He talks saying “you are standing in a field of diamonds, but only a few people can see them and know how to reach out and pick them up.” He simplifies the success that some people achieve and links it to certain things they do in their behaviour.

Tony encourages you to think and dream as a child. Dream of everything that you might want in life. Not necessarily materialistic things, but family things, health, literally everything, but he encourages you to drop your adult way of thinking and THINK BIGGER!

The process is similar with both from there. They both get you to write down your goals, but Tony explains the science behind it and backs it up with irrefutable evidence from research first carried out in the 70′s. Once you have written down your goals, date them with when you expect to achieve them. 3 months, 9 months, 2 years, 10 years etc.

Earl insists you read this every night and pin it next to your bed. I don’t prescribe to this way of thinking. Gail and I “Goal Set” once a year. We take a few days to go through our lists and achievements and start to consider what we want from the coming months and years ahead. We do ours in January and we literally have books full of things we are aiming at.

We then revisit this 2 or 3 more times in a year to tick off items we might have already accomplished and to add anything we have dreamt up more recently to the lists.

It is as simple as that. And that is the end of the planning. What about the execution of all the “dreams” and Goals?

Nothing, we simply sit back, and get on with our lives. Everything just has a habit of falling in to place.

You are now thinking, well that’s easy. There must be more to it than that? Well not really. There are techniques and subtleties, but we have actually developed our own style.

What you will learn on this new journey, is just how powerful your brain is and just how you are hampering your own success by allowing your subconscious to dominate your creative thinking.

I could write for hours on this subject, and one day I’d love to. In the meantime, go write a list, put it in a drawer and take it out in a years time and then let me know how you get on. But if you really want to get serious, let me know and I will delve much deeper into this subject in a future blog.

Good luck and dream BIG!

Lawrence Jones
UKFast

It was earlier this year when I could have gone one of 2 directions. Do I carry on the potentially expensive quest of developing our business in a carbon neutral fashion? Is there a guarantee at the end of it, I will find a viable alternative?

I was ready to throw in the towel, when I was challenged by one of the worlds greatest entrepreneurs. He didn’t directly challenge me, yet his words spoke volumes. I cannot give up. Here is a man who is pioneering space travel, undoubtedly one of the hardest of any of man’s achievements. But I think this is what great leaders and adventurers do. If you set out on a journey and you know the outcome, it sort of spoils the occasion. It’s the not knowing, the uncertainty that makes life interesting.

I have realised that I love the uncertainty. This is why I love sport. I love competing, because win or lose, its not really the point, but to fight for something, this is everything. And the longer the fight, the harder the challenge, the more enjoyable the journey.

So when I was reminded that “the world is changing and every business will have to adapt to meet the new climate changing demands.” The thought of our business, our sector, one of the fastest, if not the fastest growing sectors in the world operating without an abundance of power, is a scary prospect. The internet cannot run without electricity and its requirements are huge.

And this is where some of the guilt or rather realisation came from, when a power expert reminded me, “your data centres probably use more power than all the hospitals in Manchester combined.” This comment hit home.

And being around achievers like Branson makes you think, I just have to try harder. I have to raise my goals to new heights if I am to compete and achieve at my highest potential.

And so the journey began. Thousands of miles away in world apart from Necker, at the foot of Snowdon I made my first step on this new journey of uncertainty.

In the pouring rain I whistled the dogs and set off to climb Snowdon. I have lost count the number of times I have climbed to the top of Snowdon, yet I never tire of the experience.

I love time alone to think and there is no better place than our valley, if not for the solitary nature but for the fact my mobile is inoperable in the area. It was whilst walking I started tackling my goals. What was I trying to achieve?

The facts. We are building a datacentre. We use too much power. The power is incredibly expensive and the power companies are not the easiest to deal with. We are growing at an extraordinary rate. The internet is NOT going to get smaller and therefore the impact on the environment from not just UKFast but all hosting providers is substantial.

“Its easy,” I thought, “I need to set up an electricity company, that somehow generates power from the elements.”

I will spare you every thought, but on the way down from the summit of Snowdon, I took a different route. I dont know why, I just did. For some reason I just went off the track in a direction I’d never been before towards our lake Llyn Llewlyn. I wondered, with all that water that we own, is there not a way who we can harness the power from the weir at the end? I looked at the waves from the howling gale and contemplated wind turbines at the end of the valley.

I followed a river that I’d stumbled upon and carried on towards the farm above the railtracks.

I believe if you focus on something hard enough you get the desired result.

I took a shortcut through our next door but one neighbours farm. And this is where the journey really began.

I’d never considered hydro-electric power generation as a possibility, because I knew nothing of the subject. What’s the likelihood of finding a local farmer, a next door neighbour, in the process of building a hydro-electric power station with water that flows off Snowdon into our lake?

I dug a little deeper and realised this is a massive opportunity to fulfill my goals. The further I investigated, the more committed I became. I remember the board of directors at UKFast when I first came up with a diagram on becoming greener. Paul asked me if one of my girls had drawn it. He was correct of course, it was an idea, not a plan at this stage.

When I came back to Manchester and explained I wanted to invest millions into a scheme to power all our datacentres using gravity and water, they stared at me, waiting for a punch-line. But underneath, they were hooked. How can you not be?

The schemes create power. Green power. They are profitable and although capital intensive the ROI is relatively quick over a 4 to 5 year period.

I put a team together of the absolute best professionals in the industry and we set about securing some if the top sites in North Wales. We now have 11 sites where every one of them is more than 1 year into a 2 to 3 year completion period.

And until we have enough power to generate our entire datacentre and network we simply registered and purchased a huge number of carbon credits for the interim, until all the schemes are ready. With all 11 schemes we anticipate being able to generate enough power to manage 5 or 6 datacentres.

In the meantime, its funny how things start to snowball, my passion for this subject is self evident and since I have been allowed to talk about it openly, (as prior to this week I have had to keep this a secret for 7 months!) some huge opportunities have arisen and a serious number of entrepreneurs are taking an interest, in a BIG way.

I had originally intended on getting all the big hosting companies together and forming an alliance where we are able to make a massive difference and set a new standard. Branson kindly put me in touch with the Carbon War Room and I believe that the opportunity to help the environment is greater than conflicts that competition creates.

Meanwhile back on Necker, I reflect on the immense progression we have made already this year. UKFast Energy is now incorporated. We are in the process of obtaining a license to sell electricity and we are already able to help businesses become carbon neutral and sell carbon credits. UKFast is the first hosting company in the world to be PAS certified, which is an awesome accreditation and one we are very proud of. Its all incredibly exciting and its just the beginning.

And if you are wondering whats next, I’ll let you into a secret. It’s Wind Power.

I am off kite surfing!

IMG_0599

I know confidently, I would not be the man I am today if I’d not been buried in an avalanche. I’d have carried on, talking about how great one day I’d be, and although working incredibly long hours I’d have never been truly successful. I think I was directionless. What my accident gave me was an understanding of time and a focus.

Time is equal to all men. Its not something that should be squandered. Yet I, like most, back in those days didn’t maximise every minute of every day.

In the early days as a young man I focussed on everything except the disciplines you need to carry yourself forward in the professional world? The result, I was a great person to hang out with, but everything else took a back seat.

Nowadays, it is a completely different attitude that drives me.

I focus on the fun elements in life. I realised, life is too short. Yea yea, I know its a cliche however it is bang on and its not until you have something taken away from you you value it.

In my journey to this stage of my life, I have been fortunate to spend time with some extraordinary people. Today is no exception although if I am honest, I don’t get to meet people of this calibre every day. I talk of Tony Robbins. The ultimate in life coaching, a man with a deeper understanding of human needs and what drives human behaviour than any other man I’ve met on the planet.

Years ago, I set some goals, “one day I will have Tony Robbins as my personal coach.” A BIG goal, considering he charges more than a million and he has a waiting list. However, I still see the value, along with the top business professionals and politicians in the World today. In life you get what you focus on. What Tony does, is help you maintain that focus and aim for the stars.

It’s not right of me to start listing all the infamous people Tony has coached or still coaches. All I can say is the list is a veritable who’s who of the most famous and successful people on the planet.

This week on his island in Namale, I had the good fortune of being coached by him and spending invaluable time with his and key members of his team. It is safe to say, I have never seen such focus and dedication (outside of UKFast of course) and it is a pleasure to work with someone who pushes the standards to such high levels.

I am here planning the next exciting stages of UKFast. Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to take advice from some extraordinary entrepreneurs. As a result I have helped catapult UKFast on to a very exciting stage in its development. We have grown year on year, not just in profits and turnover but in our resolve to make a difference.

By rubbing shoulders with people playing at a higher level than you, you most certainly develop at a faster rate.

We employ superstars. Are you in a position where you feel you have something extra special to offer?

You maybe like me 20 something years ago. No qualifications and no idea of which direction to go. On the other hand you may have every idea of your goals and direction. Either way, graduate or completely unqualified, seasoned professional, whatever your status, if you are a great person looking to do great things, I am waiting to hear from you.

If you are interested in meeting me and finding out what life and work balance is truly about, get in contact.

I can’t guarantee great weather. I can guarantee great food and great company, UKFast.

What are you waiting for? Destiny beckons……

Loz

Please contact Jayne Pitman and find out how to apply now on 0844 576 3999

UKFast
City Tower
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester
M1 4BT

So what is wrong?

I am someone who enjoys a challenge and I spend time observing behaviour. So England’s performance and particularly the reaction of Wayne Rooney interested me immediately. I remember meeting Coleen Rooney and her dad and brother whilst on holiday in the Caribbean at Sandy Lane. I didn’t spend much time with them, but enough to understand their values and the sort of people they are. Clearly hardworking, proud working-class Brits (if there is such a thing anymore.) It would be safe to say therefore that Wayne Rooney is no different, and from watching him play on occasions for Manchester United his hardworking roots show through.

So why are so many people blaming Rooney and the team for the poor performance. It seems fair, after all they are the ones who are on the pitch. We in our millions however vocal cannot influence the game from our armchairs.

For Rooney to be that vocal about his performance and react so negatively to the fans, it shows he clearly has nowhere else to turn. Somewhere, someone is calling the shots and I assume that is the manager and he has not got the buy in from his players.

The negative attitude from the team demonstrates they do not agree with something pretty important with the current England set up. Be it the formation, selection, the banning of the wives. Somewhere behind the scenes there is a clear undercurrent undermining the manager.

So how do you combat this situation and get the team back gelling?

It is a very difficult one to fix, especially during a competition. Clive Woodward a man who knows what it is like to create a team that lifted the Rugby World Cup referred to certain individuals as “energy zappers.” He identified these energy zapping people and removed them from the team and eventually the squad. He got a great deal of resistance too from the rugby community who couldn’t understand why he kept out great players.

In my opinion the England manager is making some pretty basic mistakes of leadership and management. He has set his stall out, banning the wives, picking the team and creating the formation and it looks very much like he has not got the buy-in from his team members.

It is one thing to ban the wives, which incidentally is a good idea. However if you do not  sit husbands and wives around a table and explain what and why you are doing something, all you are going to do is create an army of influential people ganging up and undermining from the sidelines, and as they are not allowed on the sidelines they are probably on the phone ranting after and before every training session and game.

What Capello should have done was sit the wives and girlfriends down with the players, explain the importance of this once in a lifetime opportunity and got their agreement that 100% focus and commitment is required. He should have treated it as a military campaign almost as if they were off to war. He should have encouraged zero communication from friends and family throughout the tournament. Imagine the power of the players and the feeling of camaraderie amongst the team if he’d done this. All the players feeling and sharing the emotions together, not being able to rely on anyone else but themselves. Instead, he has created a nightmare for the players who are trying to keep their wives happy from 60 miles away. Not the sort of focus you want your players consummed with.

In this sort of environment he has a group of WAGS furious with the whole set up and hell bent on undermining it at every level.

On the pitch this was evident that the players made a public show that they do not agree with the current set up.

Whatever he does at this point is going to be scrutinised by the players. So the fact that he has now made a few odd selections and left out good friends and players who they can rely on, means that they start to question the whole set up. Throw in a formation that they dislike and hey presto, you have Friday night’s performance down to a tee.

So how do you fix it?

That is a really good question. Firstly the manager needs to listen. He has a difficult task ahead. He will have a lot of ideas thrown at him. Some good, some bad. He cannot agree with them all, yet change is necessary. If he wants to save face then he is finished and the boys will be on the next flight home. If he is big enough and he can sit down and have a sensible discussion and allow the team to contribute, he has a chance.

Whatever he decides, he needs to get the buy in of every player. Each player needs to understand their roles with in the team selection.

But to get them to “get onside” at this stage is particularly difficult as many managers have failed in the past. The main problem here is that the professional football player is overpaid and underworked. He has an entourage of yes men following him and his friends and family and they are treated not like celebrities, but more like Gods.

How do you manage someone with a massive ego, it’s not easy. So how do you manage a squad full of massive egos. Why anyone would want to be a football manager I don’t know!

His only hope is to remind them that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is England! The problem is he is NOT English and if he tries to wave flag it may be more like a red rag to a british bulldog.

Deep down, all the players want to do is make their friends and families and the millions of well wishers proud. They have one chance. I have just seen Gerrard on the TV talking about a team talk they are all about to go to and his statement to the camera reinforces what I say here. He mentioned that Anelka was sent home for speaking his mind, then paused before adding, well there may be a few of us on the way home then.

I have come across situations like this from time to time in business. It is easy to make a change in the hope that this will solve a bigger problem you may have, only to find out it compounds the issue. Sometimes I feel that I may listen too much. but at least if I have made a mistake, I know somewhere someone will speak up and set me straight.

It’s a balancing act, keeping your team happy and getting the results. The 2 are closely linked. Damage one and you damage the other. Get the spirit right and you can achieve anything. It is a quest that I strive for and continue to analyse. It is the ultimate puzzle. If you leave it, it stagnates and if you tinker too much you distract it. It requires care and attention and also great people on board. And it is the great people that invariably end up running the team. A good manager should not have to do anything, just observe. Sadly I am not there yet, but I am getting closer.

The event I was kindly invited along to started with a training session racing around the Velodrome. I was fortunate to get some one to one training with one of the Olympic team. I was keen to pay attention as I quickly learned that a break in concentration could prove disastrous. The bikes have no breaks and if you stopped peddling for any reason you were in danger of being catapulted across the track; which was incredibly steep on the corners.

Being in a room with the North West’s finest entrepreneurs is an interesting place. There is a huge amount of testosterone pumping around everyones veins and the bravado was evident amongst the friendly competitors. But once on the track, it was head down and down to business. It was clear why these business people at the top of their game. They all take competing very seriously in whatever they do.

It is also immediately evident that there is little or no difference between the winning attitude of the highly motivated business people and the Olympians and although we all got beaten, roll back the clock a few years and give us some proper training and I reckon there’d have been a few contenders in the room. My attitude was such that I thought OK, I am going to give these guys a run for their money. I was absolutely convinced that I could win. Of course I got battered, but at least my attitude shone through and it made me compete to my highest possible standard.

After a lovely dinner where we ate the food the cyclists eat on a daily basis, we were treated to what in my opinion was the best part of the night. Rebecca Romero and Sarah Storey sat down and were interviewed. They talked of the Olympic challenges and the drive that got them to the highest point in their sport. Rebecca is an interesting phenomena as she has achieved one of the rarities of Gold medals in different disciplines. She started in rowing and then transferred to cycling. With in 6 months she was hitting the speeds expected from the Olympic cyclists.

Sarah a para olympian has won medals in every games since 1992. She talked openly about her challenges. Having only one hand there were people throughout her life that treated her differently. What was lovely top see is just how that motivated her and drove her even harder. She explained how she was inspired at the age of 6 years old watching the Olympics on a tiny TV and saying, that that is what she wanted to do.

Goal setting! You can’t beat it, or her in this case.

During the questions and answers it was interesting to hear their reactions and opinions.

When asked;

Silver medal, winner or loser? Both firmly stated without even a second to think… ‘Loser!”

What do you think of skiing and snowboarding that are adapting some of  their races and styles to introduce bigger sponsorship?

Again both passionately said, “what is more exciting than 2 people competing head to head? The sport does not need to reinvent itself and we do not want any more money. We simply just want to compete.”

It was blindingly obvious that the attitude that these 2 Olympians have is identical to that of the entrepreneurs in the audience. The belief that you require to get to the top of your game is identical whatever you want to achieve. Although the goals maybe very different, the hard work that is involved in reaching the top of any industry requires stamina and determination. When the vast majority give up, there a few people who kick into another level. These are the natural born winners, although actually I don’t think they are born, more socially conditioned. Something in each of these successful business people and athletes lives inspired them to want to go to these extraordinary lengths.

So what are you going to be if you never grow up? That’s the million dollar question…. quite literally! Choose, take aim and go get it. And don’t stop no matter who tells you you cant do it. Normally if someone tells you something cant be done, it is usually from talking from experience, their own experience. Do not let other people’s limiting beliefs limit your own.

And most of all, no silver medals. Aim high and win.

I have a theory and I am in good company with some other wiser folk than me with this one too. The theory is this. In order to reach a great height in whatever you do, you have to set it in your sights as a target. You have to know where you are going. That sounds like common sense but so many people fail to grasp this one before they set out on their journey. You have to define the success you want or else you do not know when you have arrived at your destination. When I set a goal, I literally map out every single aspect of what I am wanting to achieve.

OK, so you have set your sights on something exciting, something that is now going to drive you forward. Well, welcome to the easy part, it might not feel like the easy part, but believe me it is. At this point in your journey you are under very little pressure, with maybe a few of the driving factors that got you off the couch in the first instance, a wife, the bailiffs, the annoying relative you wanted to prove wrong, a family you want to support. But essentially you are embarking on the exciting journey and everything is new and you are busy. And busy is key. Whilst you are occupied with very little time to sit back and over analyse you are far more likely to be successful.

I’d sooner work 7 days a week 18 hours a day and make lots of mistakes than take my time over something and dissect every decision. It’s the mistakes that make you a better person and businessman; if you learn from them.

So here you are flat out, obsessed with everything you are doing and so focused on the goal that you almost forget it. I think this is a healthy discipline. I am not someone who believes you have to have a photo of your goal and look at it every day. I revisit my goals just for an update 2 or 3 times a year. I am always amazed at how many I can tick off!

Then suddenly, at one of these points when you check up on your progress, you realise you have hit your goal that you had set years earlier. You are happy, still busy, still excited, but you have achieved something.

Firstly you deserve a pat on the back. The hardest part of this is that there are very few people who will understand what you have had to go through to reach the heights you are at and the sacrifices you have made. I am lucky, Gail my wife is my business partner and a best friend all rolled into one. When we set goals we also set rewards for whenever they are met. This way we are reminded forever by linking great memories to all the hard work and achievements. No one wants to remember the hardship and certainly you will be viewed as a real bore if you keep telling everyone how hard you work or all the problems you continually face.

It is at this stage where most people go wrong. How many times do you hear of someone who has made it, then lost it? Yet come back and done it again! It’s quite a common story. Once you have hit your goal and had your celebration you need to refocus. You have to sit down and set new targets that are equally as challenging as the very first one. Why? Because if you don’t, you will simply take your eye off the ball and start to relax, then fester.

In a lot of peoples cases, that celebration I mentioned, does not stop and it continues for years until people realise this is simply not a fulfilling lifestyle. So many successful people I know end up drinking, gambling or womanising or in some cases all three. They are simply looking for the buzz they used to get in work. My advice is get back to it, and pronto!

I am often told how successful I am and people very kindly congratulate me and say “well done, you really look like a person who deserves it.” I am always flattered and if I am honest slightly uncomfortable with a sense of embarrassment. The thing is, for me I am not the finished article. My success is relative. I have set my goals on much larger sights and this is not to be clever or outdo someone, it is simply because if I don’t, I am in danger of not taking my own advice and living by the values that I know are incredibly important. I have to keep developing. this way, however painful, is the only way I know. I am therefore a man on a continual journey where retirement equals death.

It is far easier for some people to have a lie in on a Sunday morning, but for me, if I am awake, I have to start the day and really give it my best shot. This morning I had a run around our lake in Wales, Llyn Cwellyn. It is beautiful and it is just a long enough distance to stretch me. In fact this morning it felt tough and I pushed myself slightly harder, knowing that it is good for me in the “long run” – pun intended. I’d also started the day with a drink of apple juice that seemed well past it’s sell by date! Leaving a warm bed and a snug cottage for the cold wind and hardship is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for me it is an essential part of my goals which I set years ago as a kid. Never to lose my youthful spirit and this requires me to keep youthful energy which means I have to remain a fit as a teenager. Now there’s a goal you can never settle back and congratulate yourself with, it is litterally and ongoing tread mill. but the rewards associated with being fit and healthy massively outweigh the negatives. In my book, I’d sooner be running in the rain with the wind in my hair, thinking about all the great things I have in my life. My wife, Gail, my children, my friends and family. It is a great time to say thank you. I am not sure who to, but yet I find myself always saying thank you. I take nothing for granted and I am busy reinventing myself.

I always admire Madonna. She is from my era, and yet she unlike most popstars, has been successful in every area of the pop industry. She continues to do it where others fail. It is safe to say, she keeps herself incredibly fit, which helps her to maintain a youthful spirit and I’d also bet money on the fact she sets incredibly challenging goals to reach. Who wants to maintain the Status Quo, God forbid you might end up like them!

So when you are setting your goals, and when you are on your journey, just remember to combine a bit of exercise and treat your body to some of the fresh air and fast pumping blood that it thrives on. In turn, your body will reward you with the stamina required for being super successful. And when you hit that goal, because I know you will, have the next set ready.

The body acts as a thermostat. It kicks itself into action when things get bad. Hence the saying “When the going gets tough.” But just like a thermostat. It also switches itself off from time to time to rest, and if you allow it, it is very difficult to get the momentum up and running again. Welcome to the race that never stops! If you want to discuss any of your ideas or challenges, drop me a mine. I am happy to help where I can.

Good luck on your journey.

Lawrence

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.

1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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

I have been lucky enough to have met some incredibly successful individuals over the years, particularly in sport, business and music. These are 3 very different areas and you would think they all require very different needs to make the individuals rise to the top of their game.

In reality though, the answer is “not at all.” The people at the top of their game whatever their profession, share common values. This is evident in all successful people. You will hear experts on this matter talk about “passion, determination, motivation, self-belief.” Yes these are all common in high achievers, so they are the obvious ones to get picked up. They all might also eat 3 meals a day and this does not guarantee success. It is also easy to assume that the confidence a successful person has, once they have achieved greatness, was the same at the beginning of the journey, and this is not always the case either. So what is the secret common ingredient?

It is simple when you think about it. What is the most precious commodity known to mankind? The one thing in life that cant be cheated. Time. Successful people all understand the importance of time. By understanding the clock is ticking, just like in a race or a sporting event, every minute is a minute wasted when you are not working towards a greater goal.

Ironically, it is the one ingredient we also have in abundance, so much so, in my opinion this is why we take it for granted.

The only reason I started to become successful was after a near death experience. Once I experienced the possibility that death was just around the corner, I realised that life was to be lived. I made the slightest change in attitude towards time, and this made a massive difference to everything I touched from then on in.

The answer to every question is “do it now.” If someone had asked me before my accident “do you want to go to the gym?” or “do you fancy organising the house?” The answer would have probably been “maybe later” or “tomorrow.” Ask me the same thing now, and if I now say “tomorrow” it will be because I have genuinely crammed so much stuff into today or rather my wife has! My wife grasped this concept at the same time. When Gail arrived in France and found me in a hospital attached to 2 drips covered in wire and hooked to all sorts of contraptions, it was just as real for her on the other side of the fence.

So when you are doing your New Year’s resolutions. Scrap them all and just do one. Make a conscious decision to treat time as leverage to do more. Imagine what would happen if you crammed in a weeks worth of achievements in to a weekend. Pretty soon you will be doing a months worth in a week, and when you get super efficient, there are people who achieve more in a year than most people do in a lifetime. Think about it,  in today’s society, doesn’t that automatically make these people more successful.

So today, and what better day to make a change, New Year’s day; take 3 things that you have been putting off and just go and do them, now, with out hesitation. See how much better you will feel, then tomorrow, just do the same, and so on.

All these small achievements will amount to massive change a year from now. Try it. It is easier than you think. After all what have you got to loose? Only time will tell!

Time is the most underrated commodity in business and life in general. Have no regrets and live life to the full.

Happy New Year and have a great 2010.

Lawrence Jones

I always say, “well I’ll be leaving work at about 7pm this evening.” I hear this question 3 times a week.

I think it is important to know where you are going. Businesses need direction. I am a great believer in goals and raised a laugh at the How-Do convention recently when I admitted my wife and I have a “50 year plan.”

But why not? I work on the principal that you need to know where you are going. What is wrong with mapping out your life to when you are in your 90′s. You are far more likely to get to a desired location or destination if you have thought about it prior to setting out. One thing is for sure, I know we will be together as we are both integral to it.

What happens when you go shopping without a clear understanding of what you want to come home with. My wife’s wardrobe was littered with rubbish when I first met her. Shopping was haphazard and directionless and she probably felt this was part of the fun. Ask her now how much more fun shopping is, especially when she brings me along.

So when do you sell your business? You have to have made something worth selling first of all. This needs a plan in its own right. When we set up UKFast we were tiny. The smallest company in the fastest growing business environment and for years no one knew we existed.

But we had a plan, and we were sticking to it. And when the internet bubble burst and businesses were dropping out of the sky affected by the calamity we just carried on regardless. And still no one really knew who we were.

And over the years we have readdressed the plan, yet we still continue to stick to it. Even during the recession we felt it was more important to keep firmly on track than to falter.

And as the business got bigger so do our goals. Our latest 5 year plan includes a target and MAP to hit £100m turnover. Now as this plan unfolds people are begging to take note of us.

The problem with our initial plans were they were too small, and therefore so was the outcome. You get what you focus on so in my opinion you are better aiming higher. If you miss you still are probably better off than you would have been if you’d been conservative.

But on the journey of growing your business, when do you sell? UKFast is already worth far more than we anticipated in the first plan we wrote. So surely I’d be happy to sell?

For me it is not about the money.  It is about the game. I love work. I love people and I love competition. If I didn’t work at UKFast what would I do? I’d be bored sitting on a beach for more than 22 minutes. I don’t drink and I am consumed by learning.

For me, you sell when you stop learning or when you cannot learn at the speed you need to, to continue driving your business in a controlled fashion.  I am fortunate to work alongside my wife. When we have problems we are able to tackle them together.

We are on a weekend business trip and I am writing this, she is tackling a “too heavy for me” book on Balanced scorecard management, whilst we fly from Rome to Amsterdam for our next meeting.

If you have a business partner that is this close you are able to take on much more than if you do it alone.

What is most fun about UKFast is that we are having to learn at such a pace it is incredibly exciting. We take it so seriously that each year we review our goals together in the Maldives and have the final week of a 3 week break where we then strategise and plan for the future.

We have literally hit every goal we have set, and the crazy ones which take time all have a MAP (massive action plan) and we monitor their progress.

So when do you sell you business? In my opinion only when you are bored. But if you are bored, simply pick up a book and find another challenge. There is always something out there waiting to tax our hungry minds. After all isn’t that why we are in business in the first place?

The other actor was far less famous. Successful in his own right however on a much less grander scale. He was in a failure of a programme called Eldorado. A late night version of Crossroads. He was called Jude and he was a lovely guy, and he was dating my flat mate Caroline.

The argument was over “what constitutes a proper actor?” Ashley had touched on the subject of “how much you earn?” and tied that into your credibility as an actor, Also “how well known you were?” also cropped up too. Two things that immediately elevated him above Jude, as Ashley was being paid £7000 per week (a footballers salary in those days) to play the prince in Aladdin in Oxford.

Jude was quick to point out this recent role hardly made him Dustin Hofman. And so the argument continued. Although Ashley probably won the argument through pigheaded stubbornness and the fact that it is very difficult to discredit someone who is very successful and to Ash’s credit, he was, Jude definitely had the last laugh.

I also wonder what impact that discussion played on Jude’s future success as he was incredibly upset, passionate, determined to prove himself right that night. Yet sadly I never saw Jude again after he and Caroline stopped seeing each other later that year and Ash moved back to Adelaide and I am ashamed to say we never kept in contact.

A few years ago on a long-haul flight, I asked Gail what she was watching. I switched on my TV and joined her. I commented “that looks really like an old pal I used to know from yeas ago, Jude.”

She responded quickly saying “it’s Jude Law, He is one of the most famous up and coming actors in Hollywood.” I thought it cant be yet the more I watched I realised it was him. I remembered the argument in my flat all those years ago. I remembered what Jude had said.

“Mark my words, I may not be as successful as you yet, however I guarantee you, I will be the most famous British actor ever to break the US. I will live in Hollywood and if money gauges your success, then I promise you I will definitely be the biggest success.”

This was an emotional rant and left Ashley’s girlfriend who was sat on my piano singing and I cheering “go Jude!” as most people never confronted Ashley who was renowned for his headstrong tenacity.

I don’t know whether Jude Law wrote down his goals, I don’t know how much he actually planned his journey, however that night he was coherent and his determination did not sound spontaneous, quite the contrary, it sounded well thought out and everyone in that room that night believed him, so much so that when he went to bed we carried on the discussion about his passion and determination.

Earl Nightingale said “the most powerful thing in the world is a single thought.” It all starts with a thought and then develops. Although it has taken me more than 10 years to see the link between that passion and determination that night and the actual success in the flesh I cannot think for a moment that it is coincidence.  Jude Law is one in a million, the difference is that I have heard thousands of times people stating that they are going to do “such and such” but they lack the conviction, and without that belief a very different journey awaits.

The other girl in the room that night, Julia Worsley went on to be a very successful singer and one of Cameron Macintosh’s favourites making a real mark in the West End. She sang in Evita and became a friend of Madonna after getting the role as Madonna’s sister in the film Evita. Julia was a huge fan of Madonna and always said that she felt an affinity with her. It was later confirmed when Madonna faxed my house with a note for Jules arranging to hook up when she was coming to the UK.

Ashley failed to live up to his accelerated early start and shrank into insignificance in acting terms lost in Australia.

Musically I have not hit any of my goals I set in my early life, yet they are not forgotten and at some point I will rebuild my recording studio and reassemble some of my old friends for the next chapter. Meanwhile I have one focus and that is UKFast. It is as exciting as composing and conducting an orchestral overture and all consuming.

Is there more to goal setting than meets the eye?

What if goal setting was a scientific art form? What if you could literally pinpoint your every move in the future and design the outcome of every turn years before you arrive there, long after the memory of even setting the goal.

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it. Yet my wife and I have built a business on this very principal.

I am in Amsterdam at present and yesterday went to Anne Franks house to visit a very important place preserved in our history. The one thing I came away with is the memory of something written on the wall.

“I have a goal, to be free from this place and to dance again and to breathe the air.”

This may appear to be an innocuous quote in amongst much more profound remarks, however it is the word goal that strikes me as interesting.

In a world long ago that I care not to even remember let alone imagine being a part of where countless millions did not survive, there is one child who defied the laws of everything that was controlling the world at that time in war torn Europe.

She had a goal and she wrote it down and she not only survived years of German occupation against all the odds she then went on to influence millions of people with her writing, long after she died. You might argue that her goal never worked, as she died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, less than 2 months before the end of the war. However she died of typhus and not at the hands of the Germans. She also lived an amazing life and for the short time on this planet her goal kept her determined and focussed on surviving, which she did for a great deal longer than most in her situation. Her father who is the most remarkable man who lived till the ripe old age of 91, it was he who was responsible for inspiring his daughter and family. He was the only one of the 8 to survive the holocaust.

My job here is not to convince you of goal setting though, I already believe in it and we have thousands of examples of it working literally to the letter.

A great example of this manifested itself this morning when Gail and I went through our goals we set on the 7^th January earlier this year. (2009) Gail brought my attention to a goal which was written simply:

“Weekend Amsterdam + Rome”
As we were sat in Amsterdam in the lobby of The Grand Hotel reading this we were able to tick this one off, however when we wrote this goal what we had really meant to write was a weekend away in either Rome or Amsterdam.

What is the likelihood of hitting an obscure goal like this, 2 cities in different countries thousands of miles apart, different climates. Not the sort of trip you’d plan deliberately.

Even though we had written this goal down 9 months earlier and had also forgotten it, a very strange thing had happened.

On the Saturday morning we were flying to Rome. I was not over-enamoured by the idea of a weekend queuing and site seeing, however I arrived in Rome with an open mind. We arrived at the hotel by the Spanish Steps, however there was some sort of rally on and the place was crowded to say the least. That night Gail and I decided to take the plane to a much more chilled destination Amsterdam after a lovely dinner marred only by the chanting of a distant crowd in the square adjacent to the hotel. The plane and pilots were still in Rome for the night, so Gail called the pilot and arranged to meet them on the runway the next morning. So we hitched a lift with them on their way back to the UK.

It worked perfectly, we escaped the chaos of Rome had a few relaxed days in Amsterdam, hit a goal in to the bargain, to the letter.

So as my wise old Gran used to say, “Be careful what you wish for!

Yet there are those amongst us who feel the need to talk about their goals. What they are going to achieve and what they nearly did. I am talking of the ones that you have a sneaking suspicion are “all talk.” Yet, they keep talking and that is all they seem to do.

And on the journey because of their gregarious nature and confidence they have a tendency to land great jobs and rise through the food chain. Yet they never take the plunge themselves.

I know a few people who fall into this category. I dont need to name them as my aim is not to embarrass them. It is something that intrigues me however.

One person in particular on the out side, has all the skills necessary to run a business, yet for some strange reason cannot take the plunge. Even when offered all the cash necessary to set up a business in a sector where they previously have a very successful record, this person chose the easy option. A slightly higher salary and share options (Fake shares as I call them!) over a slightly lower basic, true  50% ownership and zero cash investment from themselves.

Why does some one take what at first seems the easy path, yet it is a path they have trodden before only to find it leads to redundancy and ends in tears. Once the business is established you are a very expensive luxury and extremely expendable.

After selling my first business to Granada TV once I had integrated the 2 businesses and I had trained all the staff I was no longer needed. I was quickly squeezed out. It was a lesson that meant I could never work for another organisation again.

So why do they never take the plunge. Personally I believe it is because they are not true level 5 leaders. What is a level 5 leader? It is a person who shows the correct set of skills and characteristics to lead a business of any type through all seasons.

Yet a level 5 leader is not the sort of person that traditionally gets the job of the MD or other directorships in the UK and US. We seem to employ the loudest, most confident, best communicators, yet ironically these are never the best choice. Yet they rise to the top becasue they are more pushy than their fellow colleagues.

Often these sort of people want to take the credit for all the good that happens, yet when there is a problem, they are quick to point the finger and blame anyone but themselves. A level 5 leader is more likely to apportion luck to their success and be relatively shy when it comes to public speaking or taking the credit.

I suppose it is also about  what makes people tick. Their “significance” as Tony Robbins puts it. The person I am referring to in this article is very happy to have the lifestyle, the clothes, watches all the trappings of a senior director, yet does not want the responsibility or real control of the whole business.

So if you are put off by becoming a businessman or woman because you are not as confident as others, this is not a bad thing. In fact you are in good company.

A great friend of mine, Dan Innes has finally set up and gone it alone after a decade of growing someone else’s business in London. His new business Innesco is already super successful as he has a long client list of those strong relationships he has spent years developing. Dan merely needed the confidence to make that final push.

I gave up ranting and pushing him, knowing he needed to find his own feet in his own time. Last year at his wedding in Bath I said to my wife, “there you go, he will be self employed with in a year from now.”

A great man like Dan simply needed a great woman at his side. When you have someone you love to this extent, being in business suddenly becomes easier. You have someone to work for, someone to build a future for.

If you are not destined for the madness of entrepreneurship however, do not let this stress you out. I do not think any the less of my friend who prefers to work for other people than himself. Definitely not. When the businessman sits at home worrying about the bank, the tax or the detail, the managing director or senior manager is still able to switch off!

One thing I can say though, for Dan embarking on this new journey, “It is a lot like the day when you set off and rowed across the atlantic. You had a goal and a purpose. To that end, you achieved what you set out to achieve. The same applies in business. Set your goals out clearly and stick to them. Revisit them regularly, take nothing for granted. Have fun on your journey and good luck to you sir.”

If you are considering being in business and going it alone, take a pen and paper. Draw a line down the centre. On one side write down all the reasons why you want to be in business, and on the other the reasons why you have not done so yet.

If you find yourself procrastinating  and looking for reasons not to, seek help, but never give up. It’s easy.

It is a difficult answer and to define one event as anyone in business will know it is a fast paced journey of peaks and troughs and no 2 days are alike. The most difficult challenge I face and continue to face is the pace I am required to develop.

10 years ago the skill set I had to set up a small business was very different to the one I now have running a multimillion pound organisation. That in itself presents challenges year after year.

I know if I’d walked into a business the size of UKFast 10 years ago, I could not have managed it. Yet I dont feel I have changed that much. However it is very easy to under estimate the experience you gain from being on hand day to day.

If I take a snap shot of me a decade ago and me now, along with the aging process on the outside, the inside is very different too. Eight years ago I was interviewed on Granada News by Lucy Meacock. Last night at the National Business Awards in the Hilton Hotel in Manchester Lucy Meacock was the presenter. We had a chat afterwards and she remembered Gail and I, however she could not believe how much we had changed over the years. It made me think, she is right, I just assume I am the same person. I often describe myself as a man with “no qualifications” and this may be true, however I now have experience, and that is priceless.

Jim Collins describes “great businesses” in Good To Great as having leaders who grow from  within. It makes perfect sense now. Experience out ranks qualifications.

So why then do some businesses grow faster than others? Is it safe to say people are gaining experience at different speeds. I think the answer is obvious. This then explains why businesses evolve at  different speeds. It is relative to the amount of learning and experience the entrepreneurs with in the business encounter.

One of the responsibilities Gail and I have at UKFast is to continue to learn and every year we regroup. We go off to the Maldives for a 3 week holiday. 2 weeks of family fun and 1 week of intense preparation for the year ahead. We write huge lists which fill books and we review the lists from previous years. And we tick off our accomplishments and those we miss we carry forward. Imagine a graph that is steadily rising. This upward curve represents everything we do in our lives. It is easy to peak and trough in life, so we then draw a horizontal line at the highest point we are at at present. This line now becomes the platform for continued growth. Anything below this line is considered an area of dissatisfaction, there is only one way to grow.

So if that means, if I had done 6 hours a week of exercise in 2008 and if we consider being in good shape important to maintaining our growth, I would set a goal to increase that to 7 or 8 hours.

We apply this principal to everything we do.

To be truly successful you have to be disciplined. On that journey to achieve whatever you set out in the early days, you will be tempted to ease off, take your eye off the ball, but I have never met a successful person who was not incredibly disciplined.

Take Lucy Meacock for example. She was employed to present the awards at the ceremony last night. Her schedule of responsibilities from her employers that night would involve arriving early for a rehearsal, and being ready to perform between the hours of 8 and 10 o’clock. During those hours she is on show. She will be required to perform her duties at the highest level. For that she will have received her fee and her rider.

Yet she is the consummate professional. Once the show had finished she took the trouble for the next 2 hours to walk around the entire room greeting and thanking everyone for coming. This is a discipline which not only made her successful but keeps her at this elevated level.

I will give you an example of a fallen star. Do you remember Victoria Wood? The comedian. In a previous life before hosting dedicated servers I had a small business that Granada aquired from me called MDC (The Music Design Company). I organised events. I was lucky enough to win the contract for a charity fund raiser, Christies for Cancer. I chose the venue, The Palace Hotel, Manchester (a place I later got married in).

I wanted Steve Coogan ( a then rising star) however Angela Rodden the MD insisted we went for Victoria Wood. Between her and my PA I was out voted. What a big mistake. Steve Coogan was a mega star by the time the event happened. They both commanded the same fee. £17,000 for the hour.

I should have known when I saw Victoria Woods rider. Her list of particulars was ridiculous. I had put on events for mega pop stars with smaller requirements.

We provided everything to the letter. The flowers (a particular length) were ready in her dressing room, the particular alcohol, the flesh coloured microphone that she taped to her forehead, the Steinway grand piano and the spot light that resembled a bomber tracking light from World War II, we did everything. 

I went to her dressing room and introduced myself. My God, what a rude woman! I politely explained that Angela (who had chosen her) was a massive fan, and would it be possible for her to have a photograph with her at some point before the end of the evening. It was a flat “no” “you have employed me to do a stage show, and that is what I am here to do!” or words to that effect.

We got the last laugh though, when she was doing her stand up, the sound engineers tripped over a wire and switched off the spot light mid act, which was being operated by Jonathan Bowers who is now UKFast’s communication director.

But this sort of attitude explains why Victoria Wood is no-longer on our screens. It is a great lesson, whatever your profession, always be professional. I have a rule that I only do business with people I admire or have the greatest respect for. If somebody’s standards slip in any way, ethically or performance wise , I will not want to do business with them. I have been known to turf suppliers out if they have not stuck to an agreement, either verbal or written. If you agree something, stick to it. Honour it at all costs.

I had a supplier who  cost me a great deal of embarrassment and stress not so long ago. When I confronted their acting MD on the matter, I was told to read the terms and conditions. He said “I think you will find we are doing everything we are contracted to do.”

Two weeks ago, I wrote a cheque for almost £3,000,000. That supplier who has had a monopoly in Manchester on the service he supplied is about to find he has a very passionate competitor in his midst. At a time when they are planning expansion, they are about to loose their biggest customer and find out they have an exodus of existing clients who we already have undertakings with that they are coming on board with our new venture.

Lack of professionalism isn’t a one off. People who are unprofessional are consistently unprofessional, day in day out. And, if you want to be successful, in whatever profession, stay alert and learn from everything that goes on around you. Be disciplined and be a great person. Follow these simple practices and you cant go far wrong. 

I’ll see you at the top! Or on that great journey.

Lawrence Jones @ UKFast

It is a good ice breaker and for those of us assessing the candidates, it starts to give you a snap shot of what is to come.

A young lady stood up, and I don’t have her name to hand and she described her momentous achievement as creating a small shop on ebay and selling a variety of things.

When she sat down, I immediately asked, “so why are you here?” At first I think she might of felt that I was criticising her at least I hope she realises that I was singling her out because she was clearly different.

Out of the 40 to 50 soon to be leaving education, she truly had done something momentous. She has taken a small amount of cash, purchased something, found a route to market, built a shop however rudimentary and started marketing a business. This woman, because in my eyes, she is no longer a young lady she is a business woman.

Now that I write this blog, I realise that I need to follow up  her progress and make sure she is given encouragement. So often entrepreneurs are discouraged from school, university throughout careers. Usually by people who wanted to do things themselves yet, they never followed through.

If you fall in to any of these categories, it is never too late. My parents left their jobs in their 40′s and bought a run down hotel. Some in the family described it as a midlife crisis. Even I, the eternal optimist questioned their sanity of selling a beautiful family home and giving up great careers to become owners of a semi-dilapidated hotel.

20 years on, how wrong was I and what a hotel. They now have the hotels on either side and it sleeps 100 people. It has an awesome reputation and a massive returning customer base.

Ironically the kick that triggered my father was doing my first years accounts. After tax, it transpired I had earned more than my mother who had been teaching for 20 years.

Last year a young lady came to be interviewed for the job of PA. As soon as I read her psychometric test results, I knew that she would make an excellent personal assistant. However I also realised that  she had the perfect profile of a fledgling business person.

Her test also identified that she would benefit from traveling and it sensed that she was in a bit of a dilemma. I confronted her on this matter and sure enough she was torn between “going travelling” with her boyfriend and starting a job.

I suggested that she should be decisive and as her profile suggested a job working for someone else may just drive her bananas.She just needed a little motivation.

Last week I got a telephone call asking for an appointment to meet with her and her now fiancee. They were back from their holiday, and they had formed a solid business idea and they were putting a plan together. They wanted my advice. I was honoured to meet with her and excited to be a small part in giving her the confidence for her to choose the correct direction of her life.

After a a couple of hours, it turned out, she and her fiancee are about to become UKFast clients and it is looking likely that we will designing and hosting their software to run their new business idea.
If you have a dream, dont lie in bed and procrastinate, or talk about your venture to your pals for years and years. Get a pen and paper and start writing lists, start goal setting. Start organising what you need for your new future. And OK, if it fails, guess what, you pick yourself up, brush yourself down, remember the lessons of the failure and start again. You keep doing this until you get it right.

If a baby is struggling to learn how to walk, do we give up on the baby? Does the baby give up? Never! They keep standing up and falling down until they perfect the art.

Yet as adults this is drummed out of us. We become fearful of what our peers think. A great entrepreneur is born out of simply not caring what those around them think. This in my opinion is why so many dysfunctional kids succeed where clever folk fail. A dysfunctional child is reminded all through their life how much of a failure they are. So it becomes easier to go it alone than be reminded of this throughout a professional career.

My fathers favourite line which stuck with me was “son, you will not even be able to hold down a bin mans job” it was said so much I believed him. So when the time came I did not dare attempt to get a job. Instead I became self employed by default.

All the big entrepreneurs that I know tell a similar story.

Ignore teachers, parents and your peers. Get out and have a go! What is the worst that can happen. Especially whilst you are young and in a recession. In a climate like today’s there isn’t a more perfect time to cut your teeth.

Good luck!

Mid recession, with no clear understanding of how long is the tunnel or how dark it might get, I am drawn back to the hypnotic clouds.

There are some things in life you can’t predict or influence, “weather” you want to or not. But do these unpredictable elements stop you from going about your normal business or day to day lives. Of course not. Only in extreme cases, but even these are “blips” and they cannot halt progress.

I am reminded of Earl Nightingale and his anology of the ship. He describes the damage caused by a ship in a harbor cut loose without a captain, crew, charts or destination. He then describes the same vessel, but this time with a captain, a crew a destination and therefore a purpose. The vessel will reach it’s destination every time. It will seldom be on the exact course, the currents and wind will do their best to divert them. However their collective purpose is stronger than the outside elements.

Just like the plane overhead. It’s destination firmly programmed in to the captain’s head and the onboard computers. The elements are constantly changing, but the clear path is set.

I set a path a few years ago, and every day I tread closer towards my goal. Some days slower than others I might add, but I carry on unperturbed. One of my intentions was to continue learning in order to keep myself interested and able to manage our rapidly growing responsibilities. And even though I am forced to change my location as the rain starts to spit, my vision is not spoiled by the change of scenes.

Far from it in this case. One of my goals is to surround myself with successful people so I can learn from them. I think my wife took this too literally and booked us into a place called The Lodge. Sir Richard Branson’s private Ski Chalet in Verbier Switzerland.

Although Richard isn’t here this week it is a real eye opener to meet some of his team and to see how real everything he has created is. And to realise  just how achievable it is to set and follow similar goals.

So we take a couple of hours a day on the slopes carving our future strategies in our heads before cataloguing, discussing, arguing, debating our future in these sumptuous surroundings.

I realise  that not everyone can afford to take time out in such lavish style. However you do need to take time out! However you do it, it can be in a garden shed as long as you get uninterrupted time to yourself. The important thing is you have the time to reflect and think about where you have come from, what you have learned, and where you want to get to and what you might encounter on the journey ahead.

Planning and knowing your outcome in the reverse order are the two most important factors that separate the Bransons from the Brainless.

“So where do I go and how do I do it?”

Personally I always head for the mountains. At home in Wales, we have been lucky enough to find ourselves a house and lake in the Snowdonia National Park. It is a place where mobile phones aren’t banned, they simply wont work!

Before the Lakehouse , I’d put on a rucksack, pack it full of beer, squeeze in a tent and enough provisions and off I’d go. My first weekend away with Gail who is now my wife, was in a serious thunderstorm where we camped at the top lake on Snowdon.

It rained so hard that breakfast turned to soup and we had to pitch the tent on a steep slope to stop it from filling with water.

But I’d set myself a goal years earlier, I’d find the perfect partner when I was still poor and she would be resilient, determined and kind.

I got more than I bargained for. She indeed became my partner in every sense, wife and business. Yes she had all the traits, and my friends who know me would laugh saying, she needs to be resilient and determined to put up with me!

So what do I mean when I say I got more than I bargained for? Well, I’d set the goal to find Gail whilst I was still poor. A fundamental flaw in goal setting.

“You have to be careful what you wish for” my Gran always used to say. She must have been on a Tony Robbins course!

What I should have set was to simply find the perfect woman. As a result, I remained “poor” and unsuccessful until I met her.

This is not superstition. This is simple programming of your brain. Whatever you ask for you get, whatever you focus on you will feel. This is how seriously I take goal setting now.

To give you an example of a goal I set as a child, “one day I will have a house in the mountains by a lake.”  I also set a burning desire to have a home that was big enough for everyone in my family to enjoy.

Gail found the perfect place amazingly less than 2 miles from the summit of snowdon, with an estate that has a 250 acre lake and the properties combined are big enough to sleep 28 people.

Coincidence? No, I don’t think so. I remember not being able to afford the fee at the Snowdon car park, plus I have too many cases of other goals for this to be coincidence.

It is worth noting that every super successful entrepreneur that I know follows the same key principals. Be very descriptive about what it is you intend on achieving, be bold and don’t hold back.

So instead of trying to switch off from your business at the weekend, get in your car or on a plane. Get a note book and pen and take some time out to pat yourself on the back for all that you have achieved and focus on Stage II.

Your business journey consists of many rungs on a very tall ladder. You determine how high you go. You can get off at any time if you get vertigo like Nixon of MoneySuperMarket.com, or you can keep climbing new ladders. Or in Bransons case, when you run out of ladders to climb on this earth, go Galactic. All I can say in his wake, is “Go Branson!”

And to fellow aspiring entrepreneurs like myself, never stop learning, never stop pushing, and certainly never stop trying.

Nothing should distract you from the path you set and don’t be hypnotised by events surrounding the economy. Your purpose will outlive any economic downturn.

I blogged a few weeks back after Rob Williams from Dolphin Music  died on the mountains where we are now.It is humbling to be reminded that life is so short. So get up, stop procrastinating.

All you need is pen, paper and you have a purpose.

With rucksacks full of packed lunches, dog food for my two boxers (Indy and Lara) and plenty of water, we left the St.Kilda hotel, Llandudno in a convoy of cars after a full welsh breakfast. (Same as an English one funnily enough)

The were a few of the team nursing headaches from the night before and a couple still suffering from partying too hard at the awards ceremony on Thursday night where we won Best Business Host in the ISPA hosting awards in London.

So the weekend was part celebration, part team building, and with a few new additions to the team a great initiation to UKFast and the way interact. Every department was represented with almost 50% of the company involved.

So why do I think it is so important?

In a world where we set ourselves goals that are so far in the distance, it is important to have a series of smaller goals, to help you get in the habit of achieving them and get you used to succeeding. How many of us have said or heard the phrase, I want to retire by the time I’m ….? The problem with a goal like this is it is so far in the distance.

Part of the fun of goal setting is the achievement of hitting the target. Climbing Snowdon is a big enough achievement to make you feel good about yourself, yet it is also something you can achieve in a day, and also share with others.

If you have any doubt, try it. Take a day out and take a few friends or colleagues and go and share the experience. To hit the big goals you have to hit a series of smaller ones.

UKFast’s hosting team up Snowdon

In my opinion, a goal is not necessarily something you’ll hit every time. The purpose of the goal is to make you a better person during the challenge.