Everyone is talking about the World Cup and in particular the performance of the England team. Much is made of the money they earn and the lack of spirit they demonstrate. For everyone sitting on the sidelines (some who have saved and spent a considerable sum to go to Africa) this is a particularly upsetting state of affairs. 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… Read the Rest »
Have you ever wondered whether or not you could have made it as a professional sports person? I remember hearing Sean Connery talk and explain he turned down a place playing for Manchester United to carry on acting and although it wasn’t for the salaries they have these days, it was a brave move as acting is a hit and miss profession. There is little doubt in my mind that attitude determines your outcome. I am even more convinced after a night at the Veledrome in Manchester with 40 of Manchester’s top entrepreneurs and 2 Olympic cyclists, Rebecca Romero and Sarah Storey that it is all down to attitude. The event I was kindly invited along to started with a training session racing around the… Read the Rest »
If you think getting to the top of where you want to go is hard, think again, that’s the easy part. Many people achieve it, yet only few manage to sustain it and even fewer go on to greater things. So why is this? 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… Read the Rest »
It would be a great deal easier just to explain that I hopped on a plane and flew there, after all I am currently flying on the smallest plane I have ever been in that we have chartered to take us from Barbados to Beef Island. But in real terms the journey started way before. And if Richard Branson has taught me anything, the brand experience is truly transferrable between Virgin businesses. My first encounter of Virgin was Culture Cub. A great band in the 80’s. They wrote a song called Victims, which has truly the best piano introduction of any pop song. I went on to approach Virgin Records years later with a demo after recording a song called “Whenever the Leaves Fall” on… Read the Rest »
We are all looking for success in life, be it in your career, in your family, in sport or a blend of all. What defines success? And why do some people become more successful than others? Is there a secret? There are a million questions that need answering on this subject. It is a subject that I am fascinated by and that I have been studying for as long as I can remember. 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… Read the Rest »
That old question that I must have heard a thousand times, “so, what is your exit strategy?” always makes me smile. As if you’d tell someone you barely know. 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… Read the Rest »
I remember an argument between 2 friends years ago. It was a regular discussion that happened between 2 actor friends of mine. I remember trying to play the piano whilst they both went at each other. My closest friend Ashley Paske played Matt in Neighbours the Australian soap which consumed the UK in the 80′s and early 90′s. Ash had finished with Neighbours and was treading the boards in Oxford. He couldn’t go anywhere without being mobbed. People would interrupt every occasion when we were out in public, it is incredibly frustrating, but one he thrived on. 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… Read the Rest »
According to many leaders of small businesses “Goal setting” is a waste of time and energy. It is an outdated American principal for the happy clapping brigade. 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… Read the Rest »
Entrepreneurs and business people. Being a business man or woman is not clever. It doesn’t make you any more special or less special. Yes you can get a great feeling of connection from some of the things success can help you achieve, yet these are no more important than those of doctors, teachers, nurses etc. 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… Read the Rest »
I was recently asked by the TechTrack or FastTrack what was the most challenging thing that faced our business over the past decade. 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… Read the Rest »
