Our Ethos
Reality Based Training
Business schools, Entrepreneurial Incubators and Accelerators are great place to learn about business and start building your own company. They are ‘safe’ positive spaces to craft an enterprise to meet your vision and ambition. Assim gained huge amount from all these environments and is fan !
But, our belief is that these places assume a ‘Rational World View’. Because is easier to be positive about the future, which can sometimes over glamourise the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
The truth is not so !
Our ethos is to base teaching, speaking, mentoring, consulting on an ‘Irrational World View’ otherwise known as ‘Reality’
The basis for all everything we do at the Entrepreneurs Trust is :
- What you want to happen…might not
- What you might not want to happen…might
- People do what is right for them…not always for you
- Assumptions are hopes
- Hopes are not facts
For those who have the opportunity to get some formal training for business – enjoy and treasure that peaceful dream land !
As any entrepreneur knows – its not like that. If you get to spend some quality time with any ‘successful’ business hero you will soon find they all battle scars hidden behind their smiles and confident exterior. Those deep scars are unfortunately an unavoidable route to their successes. I totally respect the academic, rigorous and data driven approach of the schools. But business is a ‘craft’ and that means and an MBA or a seat in an accelerator is just the opening into the subject….there is still much to learn through practice.
The reality of business is that majority of businesses fail and those that succeed have to navigate through a challenging pathway.
But when you every hear a business person deliver a speech – you will hear their inspirational story lifting any ambitious entrepreneur onto the cloud of motivation. I have been there listening, on the edge of my seat, so many times. Whilst this inspiration provides fuel to drive one forward, this DOES NOT prepare them for the ‘shocks’ along the journey.
My Failures
My business journey has been one full of many challenges. I always have been able to deliver on my commitments whether it was to raise Euro 150million for a renewable energy plant, get a patent for one of my inventions, launch a new product and create revenue. I calculated that I have been involved in over projects valued around $2billion – yes, Two Billion Dollars ! But so many things went wrong. After one failure too many, it hit me really hard.
My Epiphany: I found what I was missing!
After a long and deep reflection of my work history – it dawned upon me that entrepreneurs get very little preparation for the fact that there is a 60% failure rate. They get trained to succeed, but that is not the same a being trained to avoid failure, training to manage the challenges ahead, seeing risks before the hit the business.
Realising that I had found something that was not taught was ‘wow surprise’. But I guess it should not be as I wonder how many business people are willing to speak openly about their failures, how they goofed up, made a mistake, got beaten or cheated…the truth is that not many – our ‘ego’ gets in the way a lot too.
This lead to a flow of ideas, concepts, theories and thoughts on how I could have been a better prepared entrepreneur. None of which I have seen in any of my business classes, business journals, magazines, events or seminars !
My purpose was now clear : Teach entrepreneurs how not to fail !
I had long lost my ego, so I was free to be totally honest about my failures and use myself as the example of ‘how to goes wrong’. This also become a form of healing for me and helps rationalise the purpose of my failures.
A unique approach to business education
I use a grounded ‘real world’ approach to business, assuming that things may go wrong and people will make things difficult for you if it serves them best!
Using this approach, we can actually talk about the challenges of business in detail; what they mean for entrepreneurs and how they can be affected. Only when we talk about the unfortunate reality, can we talk about real solutions and tools that will protect us (I practice what I preach) from failure.
The foundation for my teaching is to create a safe environmental to talk about the big tough world, then build entrepreneurial strength and confidence – really strong powerful muscles that make massive positive difference to get entrepreneurs the success they deserve.
I make this a positive, humorous and joyful process to increase learning rates, improve confidence and create stronger entrepreneurs.