Who are you?
I’ve always been told it’s never good to speak about yourself when writing. I’ve also never read a business book or blog without first looking at who wrote it to understand why they’ll be worth listening to. It’s universally true that it’s easier to learn from people you admire, respect or wish to emulate. So, I feel it’s important to give you all an insight into who I am and probably much more importantly why it might be worth paying any attention to me at all. Truth is that maybe you shouldn’t. I don’t have any particularly impressive skills, my highest degree is a bachelors, as a member of my team once pointed out I’m not a “real entrepreneur” and I’m 33 with a broken shoulder and a rather unfortunate passing resemblance to Steven Seagal. Fortunately I do have a few things going for me – I’m disciplined, creative, good tempered, good at talking, relatively smart and have pretty low level OCD which is a benefit on a daily basis.
Starting at the beginning. I grew up in rural Gloucestershire in the south of England which is exactly what it sounds like. VERY English. The youngest of 5 brothers to my poor mum who only ever really wanted a daughter. It was a loud, boisterous and distinctly happy childhood. My mother, an administrator for a university and my father, a quantity surveyor (don’t worry I’m still not sure what that is either) distilled in us from an early age the value of hard work, perseverance and finding the good in everything. They are wonderful people.
I went through school with a report card that almost always said “could try harder” a statement I always knew was true. I found Rugby (that’s English Football for you yanks) at around 14 and let it carry me through high school and into university where I played at a good enough level to get my tuition covered but not good enough to make any money from it which meant that when I had a pretty brutal injury towards the end of Uni (thus the destroyed shoulder) I had to have a think about what I actually wanted to do with my life.
Lets take a monumental, plot hole filled, jump forward 5 years and I’m sitting on the tarmac at Heathrow waiting to take off for America having been tasked with setting up a business in the US. The founder of the company had made me a partner following 2 years as the top performer (a statement that certainly sounds less impressive when I mention there were only 5 of us in the company) so at the tender age of 25 I’d been tasked with setting up an office in New York City. I was woefully unprepared for the gargantuan task ahead but fortunately my rather large ego backed up by my hugely misplaced arrogance led me to believe that everything was going to be fine and I should be a millionaire in the next few weeks.
8 years later I’m nearly there. Actually, as I write this, I’m realizing that what we’ve created is pretty great. We have 115 people in 5 different offices across the US, UK and Europe. We have a number of awards for various achievements and we generate millions in revenue every month. Perhaps what I’m most proud of is the team that’s been created which isn’t a team but one big, completely insane, family. Had anyone told me the failures I’d go through to get here I’m not sure I would have stayed on that plane but looking back I’m incredibly glad my ego carried me through and incredibly excited about what’s still to come because in truth I don’t think we’re even half way there.