Planting the Seed

To start my story, to get to where I am now, I have to delve into a little history. Not ancient history – I won’t bore you with tales of my childhood and schooldays, early successes and ignominious failures, lessons learned and advice unheeded, but we do need to go back to the end of 2007 to trace the first steps of this new journey.

There I was, running my own business – an accident repair centre if you’re interested, and, I think, doing a pretty good job. I mean, I’d built it up to over a million pounds in turnover from next to nothing, in less than 10 years, and without actually knowing how to fix a dent or paint a panel. You see, my ability lies in being able to bring other skills together to provide a service, and I am passionate about giving good service. The trouble was, our customers – the ones actually paying the bill – were insurance companies, and, well, they’re not really bothered about service, only cost. That’s reality, and I am not complaining about it, but it made it very difficult to provide what I considered to be the right levels of quality and service and still remain profitable, and gradually my business stopped being a great, fun place to be and turned into a tiring, stressful job that I wasn’t that keen on.

So, when circumstance conspired with fate, and an opportunity came along to get out of the accident repair business and into the wonderful world of technology, I closed my eyes and jumped. At first, it was a pretty comfortable landing – I was learning new things, in a new industry and meeting new people. It was bound to be fun for a while, but then I realised a few things:

I wasn’t really passionate about the product.

Without passion, you can’t excel at what you do.

The fun, for me, comes with the responsibility of being in charge, and I wasn’t.

I really, really, like to be in charge!

The realisation put me in mind of one of my favourite quotes about business, that I had forgotten somewhere along the way.

“If you don't do it excellently, don't do it at all. Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?” Robert Townsend, actor, director, producer, writer.

That’s when I started looking for something fun, that I enjoyed, that I could make a living or perhaps even a business out of. But what? What did I enjoy doing? Reading and learning new things. OK, great, but I couldn’t conceive of a way of getting paid for that.

What about golf? I love golf. But I’ve been playing for 7 years now and have a handicap of 22 – somehow I don’t think Tiger Woods would have much to worry about if I announced my intention to turn professional but I am sure my bank manager would.

There is always the food industry. Anyone who has met me will tell you that my waist size is a testament to how much I enjoy my food, but what to do? Friends suggested a restaurant. Hmm. Risky and expensive. Food critic? Excellent idea. Getting paid to eat out and give my opinion, how cool is that? You can’t even get it wrong – it’s my opinion! But hey, all those jobs seem to be taken already. Bummer.

What about a chef then? Hey, look, you know, I love to cook at home. I’m even pretty good at it. Good enough to know that I’m not good enough, if you know what I mean. I’ve even been on a few cookery courses but although they were fun and enjoyable, they were too much demonstration, too little hands on practical for me. If I ran them, they would be a lot better…