Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration - 99% perspiration and I often think of this when trying to plan the next stage of strategic growth or working with sales and marketing people on a campaign.
Too often we are looking for the next big thing or shortcut to a fortune. Please don’t get me wrong, occasionally people do hit the jackpot with a Eureka moment, but most of the time the road to success has been a long hard slog fraught with difficulty.
Some of the UK’s greatest athletes literally lay everything on the line and go to hell and back training everyday to enjoy their 1% of inspiration in an Olympic Final. Who cannot fail to have been uplifted by the Rowing of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, the Cycling of Chris Hoy or the endeavours of the best female athlete in the world today – Jessica Ennis.
My daughter Alex and I spent a day with Jess Ennis and Kelly Sotherton at Loughborough earlier this week…WOW, footballers could learn a lot from these girls. Totally committed training regimes whilst being supportive and encouraging to everyone around them – truly awesome!
On Tuesday I had the pleasure of listening to Stuart Miller, not quite as pretty as Jess or Kelly but a truly engaging local entrepreneur nonetheless, who spoke enthusiastically about his ventures and openly about not knowing the best way to monetise Bybox, his rapidly expanding local collection box service. Stuart spoke anecdotally about his experiences, which included references to terrorism and fine wines (don’t ask), and accentuated the point that innovation is about not being afraid to experiment. The anecdotes were regularly punctuated with some of the pain Stuart and his family have been through to get to this point. Take a look at www.bybox.co.uk – what a great idea.
Listening to Stuart reminded me of some other inspirational (and local) entrepreneurs and business people who suffered in pursuit of their dreams. People like Sir Martin Wood who founded Oxford Instruments, one of the first Oxford University spin-outs. Sir Martin was pioneering and decades ahead of his time when it came to supporting business start-ups as well as business incubation and he actually started Oxford Instruments in the shed at the end of his garden!
Someone else who has spent a lifetime, or at least 25 years, supporting start-up and early stage businesses is Kim Hills Spedding. Kim is just about to have his book, The Really Practical Guide to Starting Your Own Business, published. With so much experience Kim’s technical capability is unquestionable, but what really sets Kim apart is that he cares, he really cares. Thanks Kim for the support and guidance you’ve given to all of us and best of luck with the book.
It’s been a busy networking week and at a social networking for businesses event at The Fishes on Wednesday evening I was talking to Scott Harkness, one of my barometers when it comes to the local business economy. Scott reported lots of activity without too many deals being done commercially in and around Oxford and he went on to say that one local commercial agent had resorted to cold calling in an act of desperation.
Cold calling, an act of desperation?...this really got me thinking. Whilst cold calling might not be the best way for a commercial agent to find businesses thinking of relocation, it’s been a necessary and essential component for most of my selling life. Unlike a commercial agent, most of the products and services that my businesses have provided can be sold to just about any company and cold calling has found some really good customers for us over the years.
Personally I’m always quite impressed when someone presentable and articulate appears in our reception seeking some information about us and promoting their wares – in fact we ended up employing one of them! So what have I learned? Well, if the inspiration is in the idea, the perspiration is in developing the product or service and finding some customers. It doesn’t matter about the percentages, just that there are no short cuts and that true success is achieved through hard work and determination – just ask anyone referenced in this blog!
All the best - Brendon…and thanks for all the great e-mails following the blog on business mentoring.
The Really Practical Guide to Starting Your Own Business, by Kim Hills Spedding - ISBN 978-1-4520-6156-6 – Waterstones or Amazon.
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