I thought I would add this one from my Linkdin archive as I am running a workshop this week on problem solving and decision making

I have just finished reading an article by Anne Sullivan in Entrepreneur Magazine, in which she speaks about the human spirit, and how tragedy can lead to innovation. This innovation is quite simply, in Anne’s terms, down to the need for survival. This led me to reflect, and gather my thoughts on my own business journey.

My first steps were taken at around the age of eight. From a working class background, where money was always tight, and watching my mates all pile onto the local bus on a Saturday lunchtime, eagerly of to watch my favourite football team. It was more probably a sense of injustice that drove me to seek a way to join them, some of those going didn’t even really support my team! But even at eight years old I had recognised that people paid for things that others no longer wanted. There followed a period of Saturday mornings, collecting unwanted newspapers and books from friends and neighbours, building up a network of contacts which enabled a steady stream of suppliers, and a list of local book stores and paper merchants to distribute to.

First lesson learnt at an early age, solving others problems led to getting what I desired. In the eight year old me case, bus fare, bag of chips, programme and entry to watch my team (for better and worse).

Fast forward several years, and many more small entrepreneurial adventures. It was once again a sense of injustice at work which gave me the push to join my wife in another, much larger adventure. This one was truly stunning for about six years, a business started with just £1, turned into a business which once again, solved a problem and turned over a substantial amount of money. Alas, partly through some naivety on our part, and external factors, the business was lost, and guess what? Yep, we were in survival mode.

Now never being ones to role over, we adapted, and learnt from the experience. Instead of giving up, we took what we had learnt and started again. This led to two new businesses over the next ten years, both sold for a profit later on. On these occasions though, the driving force had quite simply been survival, not injustice, we hadn’t the luxury of time to dwell on what had happened to us. The basic need to feed and clothe our young and growing family had provided all the stimulus we needed to get on and do what needed to be done. Out of challenge comes solutions, without those challenges we just waste away, doing the same old things day in, day out. Never moving forward, just happy trying to maintain the status quo, and in there, lies huge danger for any business.

Now, in my position as commercial director of a business apprenticeship company and  business advisor, helping people begin their own dreams, I never forget my own journey. And when I look back, it was never about avoiding risk and uncertainty, it was embracing the idea that it is always there. And, although never trying to run headlong into it, those two bedfellows are the constant spectres which challenge us to be innovative. When they knock on your door (and they will), that is when you find out how the entrepreneur in you can be awoken, and it is at that survival mode juncture that good ideas can change direction to become great ideas, not only changing your life, but in many cases the lives of others.

It is at this point, just as life was starting to settle down, and find its status quo, that we are at the beginning of a new survival period. Our daughter, who suffers from Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and hyper mobility has lost her support payments, which allowed her to stay at Northumbria University, and keep her hard fought independence. So once again, instead of hand wringing and gnashing of teeth, survival, as stated by Anne Sullivan,leads to innovation. A new plan is being brought together right now, risk and uncertainty, my lifelong companions have once again ripped away the bedclothes of comfort, and awoken the entrepreneurial mindset to continue the journey. As Sherlock Holmes declared “the game is afoot”, it may be an interesting new chapter.