My Story
In 1989 I was a junior business analyst at a big retail Bank, working on a project which eventually implemented the largest online DB2 database in the World (at the time – suffice to say my Sky box holds more bytes of data now!).
Anyway, being at the leading edge, the project was struggling to deliver on time and to budget. Managers were making some strange decisions to get things back on track, so much so that I came home ranting about my frustrations to my father.
For 25 years he had been employed by the largest soft drinks company in Britain, working his way up from delivery boy to the Sales Director of a company with 10,000 employees. So he knew a thing or two about large projects and about mobilising resources to get results. I’d ranted to him in the hope for a silver bullet.
The Silver Bullet
He left the room, and returned two minutes later with a book by Dale Carnegie, the American writer, lecturer and developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship and corporate training. Now Mr. Carnegie has written several books which could potentially have pointed the way in my hour of need, including ‘How to win friends and influence people’ and ‘The leader within you’. It was perhaps a little strange then that the book he gave me was entitled ‘How to stop worrying and start living’.
My mum picked it up mystified and said, ‘What does he need that for, he isn’t the director responsible for the livelihood of 10,000 people’, to which my dad replied, ‘That’s exactly why he needs this book’.
He elaborated by revealing that as a director he felt no worry because if he didn’t like something, or if it wasn’t working, he changed it. As a delivery boy however, he used to get very stressed about problems and decisions which were out of his control.
Without spoiling the book for those who are inclined to buy a copy, the basic premise (as I recall 20-plus years later) is that when faced with a problem you should:
1. Ask yourself ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’
2. Assume that thing has happened
3. Now start planning to improve on that situation
The book gives lots of examples of this in action, but I guess in simple terms it means you stop standing around the water-cooler moaning about what might happen and start using your energy to improve things, which, more often than not, stops it from happening.
And then my life changed.
The content of the book changed my approach to my working life in many ways.
I guess this was most obvious when I decided to leave the relative safety of a big corporation and help to establish and shape Icon Solutions. In simple terms I wasn’t happy in the role I had and didn’t feel I was able to make a big enough change to the company direction. I could have carried on, somewhat disenchanted, but in relative financial comfort.
Or I could take the high risks of starting a specialised IT consultancy in the depths of the recession. What was the worse could happen? I’d lose the house. OK, so then what? I’d move back in with mum and dad! Not so bad – dad was a great drinking buddy. Then I’d ask for my old job back and start re-building my life. Right, if that’s the worst that could happen I could stop worrying about it and focus on building the company I really wanted to work for.
The value of positivity
And we have continued to grow that company by recruiting individuals who demonstrate the approach advocated in the book I read over 20 years ago. In particular we concentrate on finding colleagues who ignore corporate politics and take a more positive and proactive approach in focusing energy on what they can do to get the job done.
But beyond the lessons set out in the book, I’d actually say the best advice, or insight, I ever received was my father’s belief that the delivery boy has more worries than the directors. And so I try to listen to and appreciate the pressure and worries of everyone in the company, to help bring about the changes which matter to them.
How about you? What’s the best piece of advice you’ve heard?