Another one from my Linkdin profile. I thought this seemed appropriate one year on from those tragic events and with my increased interest in tiny housing. We all have value, the way we want to live has value to our fiscal wellbeing, our mental health and the environment. The triple bottom line has now, I believe, become central to business and solving problems which focusing on profit alone will never achieve.

I have been wanting to write this piece for a while, I suppose it being Father’s Day and the events of this week have finally pushed me to do it.

I grew up in a fire service family, both my father and brother were fireman and I also gave it a great amount of thought before joining a different service. I spent many of my weekends either playing in a fire station, or asleep in the back of a fire engine (station protocol was a bit more relaxed in the 70’s), and saw at close hand the qualities these special band of people have.

The dreadful events at Grenfell Tower has brought back many childhood memories. Fire service families must also be robust, and I remember the unspoken nervousness in our house whenever there was an incident.  We could tune into the radio band, and that would give us a rough idea of how serious the situation was, on a major incident we would remain quiet until we knew they were on their way home. I also remember vividly how quiet my father could be after a serious fire or road traffic accident, you could almost feel his thoughts as he tried to make sense of what he had witnessed.

Watching those pictures this week of fire personal sitting in the rest areas, and looking at the expressions on their faces, one can only imagine what they have seen, and how they are trying to make any kind of sense of it all.

It may only now be starting to become apparent to many how professional, dedicated and brave these people are. And not only fire personnel, but also the police officers and medical services. They are the ones who are not only faced with the immediate situation, but also must deal with the aftermath. One thing always struck me about my father and those he served with, and that was their total dedication to what they did.

When I am asked about who my hero is, it is a very simple question, it was always, and will always be my dad. Although he died in 1981, I still remember that underlying feeling of strength that emanated from him, and that determination to do what he believed to be right, not easy. People had huge respect for him because even though he knew his role inside out, he was also willing to learn, and freely share what he knew.

In this topsy turvy world we have built, we appear more and more to worship those who seek fame and fortune, those who have wealth and possessions, those who use the tools of the modern world to self-promote. Only in times of need do we even give a thought to those who put others before themselves, certainly not for fame and fortune, but for a sense of duty and caring for their fellow human beings.  Our young are being fed with a fear of failure, with the benchmark of whatever failure looks like normally measured by what they have, rather than what they do.

Well for me the benchmark of success can be clearly seen in West London. Groups of people, many who would be deemed as failures by others living in the same Borough, coming together and putting in place systems and processes that many huge businesses could only dream of in a short amount of time. And why? Because there was a need, not to earn wealth or gain possessions in a self-serving manner, but simply to help other human beings who were in need.

There are many things that have happened in my life to shape the way I think, and how I behave. I have no problem with profit, and reward for working hard and taking risks, however, I truly believe we need to re-evaluate what we deem to be failure and success. Just because someone doesn’t look at the world the way you do, or place value on things the way you do, does that make them less valuable than you? There are always those who will take advantage of a system, and no system is ever going to be perfect, but it is human spirit that always appears to prevail.

Some of those deemed to be at the bottom of society will have played major roles in the relief effort last week, they will have discovered skills and abilities they never knew existed, and society would never have bothered drawing out of them if not for extreme circumstances. Those people may never have been sought by businesses, giving meaningful employment quite simply because of a social barrier, but it is their loss.

One thing that I have always believed is that everybody has value, and it is those driven by purpose and passion who achieve real success, and change lives, we just have to allow them to explore how they can apply those attributes, and allow them to believe that they have real value. That is the lesson my dad taught me.

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.