Mentors.

I have decided to start writing this newsletter to share my thoughts and experiences to those in my network who are either in or plan to be in a leadership position. I have a number of wide ranging thoughts to share but I thought I would start by writing about the importance of mentors both generally in life and in developing your career.  

My main mentor was a man called Clive Richards who was a very successful entrepreneur and investor.  He sadly passed away a couple of years ago and I am now very proud to Chair his charitable foundation where we support a number of talented young people and great causes.

I learnt many things from Clive during the time I spent with him including the importance of backing the person, not getting confused between strategy and tactics, the importance of business models, gross margins and cash and being comfortable leaving some value on the table when selling or IPO’ing a business. 

However, the most valuable one in my mind was that the most important tenet for success is fundamentally down to hard work.  I remember he once said,  “business life is a race but for the tortoises not hares.  To succeed make sure you work longer and harder than the competition.”

This is something I have tried to follow during my career both as an entrepreneur and now an investor and I have the quote on my wall in my study as well as a sculpture of a tortoise and a hare in the garden outside my study window to make sure I never forget it!

When you look at business and sport, I think this is always true. You often find that the team mates of the most successful sports people say they train the hardest and are the last off the training pitch etc. In the 1980’s, the World Champion Decathlete Daley Thompson used to train every day including Christmas day knowing that he needed to train harder than his main rival at the time German athlete Jürgen Hingsen. The pair constantly traded world records, but Thompson always had the upper hand in the major events, remaining undefeated in all competitions for nine years.

In my opinion, hard work also increases the chances of what Good to Great author Jim Collins calls “who luck”. Whether that is by us all investing time in networking, one more meeting or investing time in learning from mentors and experts.

So, if you are interested in developing your career and yourself and you haven’t yet considered it, I would urge everyone to think about how mentors can help you and reach out to ask someone you know and respect if they would spend some time with you.  You will be amazed how many people will be generous with their time.

Founders do you have a mentor?  

Who do you respect that you could ask?