Branson and Bezos – Inspirational or Egotistical? Like many people, human beings in Space fascinates and excites me. I’ve paid close attention in recent years as SpaceX works on colonising Mars. Yes, we’ve got plenty of big problems to solve here on Earth, but I also think it’s important that we Sapiens set ourselves enormous, inspirational goals. But something about
Autumn 2001, a friend and I are promoting a pantomime. I’ve never done this before, so am learning as I go from my significantly more experienced friend. He has the great idea of running a competition for tickets in collaboration with the local radio station. “I’m going on the breakfast show to do an interview – why don’t you tag
Back to 1995, and I’m selling business telephone systems. [Spoiler alert – it didn’t last long.] Our sales trainer was a larger-than-life North Londoner. The sort of guy for whom selling was a competition, with winners and losers. “And I hate losers.” The first part of the sales process was getting past whoever answered the phone, and through to the
At 12, I started working as a kitchen porter at a local hotel. [Yep, 12. It was run by my best friend’s mum and dad, and they were big fans of illegal child labour!] First day – I absolutely hated it. I was doing cutlery, and can vividly remember how utterly bored I was. But I worked in that kitchen
Late ’95, I moved to London for the second time and got a job as a luggage porter at a swanky hotel near Marble Arch. I’d worked in a hotel before, loved it, and thought this would be the same … Didn’t quite work out like that. Tips were everything, and £100 a shift wasn’t particularly unusual. In theory, there
PART 1 :: My First Business I started my first business when I was 9. I built a go-kart, and painted it red, black and white. In the back of my geography exercise book, I roughed out a business plan. 2p a ride down the hill opposite Mum and Dad’s house. I reckoned I could easily do 50 rides a
Weekly [digital] email to help navigate the [analogue] world …
Weekly [digital] email to help navigate the [analogue] world …