ENVIRONMENT
I now live on a surfing beach in one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, after spending far too many years living where I didn’t want to be, working for a company that didn’t care whether I worked for them or not!
FAMILY and RELATIONSHIPS
Both my parents have died and neither had brothers or sisters, so I have no aunts or uncles or cousins. That only leaves myself and my sister. Her life has been challenging, but she has chosen to live ‘down the road’ from me, which is much nicer than when she lived 400 miles away!
I had a six year relationship, which sadly ended a while ago. Like many relationships, you have times when you don’t ‘like’ each other, and at this time she does not appear to have any time for me. That said, my love was always unconditional , and I will love her ’till the end of time’…
I have a number of great friends, but a definite vacancy in the relationship area!!
EDUCATION
I found school boring and a waste of time. The things we learned were either simple, such as basic maths and English. Or they were of little use to the average person, such as calculus, or the digestive habits of a fly. Or they formed some form of indoctrination such as Religious Education. Like most of us I don’t like to be told what to believe, so I ignored all that stuff!
The net effect of this education system was that as soon as I could, I left school very unimpressed with the whole experience. All I had learned was that you either went to school, or out to work. I hated school – Work must be better??
EMPLOYMENT
My parents knew very little about how the world worked, and were very ‘old fashioned’, so I was told about a job interview, went for it and got the job! It may sound almost unbelievable, but I had no idea how to look for work or how to follow my own dreams and passions!
I had got a job with the UK’s leading Telecoms provider. I bounced around inside this organisation, not understanding any of the bigger picture. I slowly progressed into Network Quality in the mobile Telecoms arena and could not understand why simple solutions and improvement suggestions were not taken up.
I have since learned, but, wow!! I will write a book on that another day!!
Eventually, the company recognised the poor state of its network and went on a Quality push – This meant pushing out the Quality staff, rather than listening to them, and I was made redundant!
TIME TO BE MY OWN BOSS
After quite some thought as to what should I do next, I concluded that I still knew my previous job better than anyone else, and it was still required. It fact, it was now needed more than ever. I set up my own small business employing one of my ex-colleagues who had been made redundant at the same time as me and I set about tendering for some of the roles I used to perform.
I had to start by encouraging the remaining staff to create the tenders in the first place! We hit numerous hurdles which basically centred around poor decisions of the middle managers. This was a very challenging time as I had little support and no mentor to help me set up the business aspect. It proved to me I am a good self-learner and I don’t give up easily!
Over the next few years we managed to win various contracts with 4 of the UK’s mobile fone networks, and many of their suppliers, and at one time I had 15 guys (and gals) working for me. This work included auditing contractors, training contractors, and process and management consultancy.
The biggest challenge was that as soon as a project started to gain momentum and we were able to make a real difference, there would be a change of staff or a poor decision, and we would have to start over.
We finally lost all our work in one fell swoop when the industry was getting rid of its smaller suppliers and all the work given to a handful of big multinational companies. I am confident they are now paying many times the amount they paid us, and I know the work has been sub sub contracted and all Quality Control has been lost. Hey ho!
Over the last two years we have only has a little bit of work from the industry – In each case, those responsible for the networks have called to say ‘we think we are in trouble with our Quality’. In each case, we were able to confirm , ‘Yup! You are, but we can help you resolve it at zero cost, if you will let us work with you and guide you’. We are back in the zone of waiting for a reply again….Whilst more work is carried out to poor standards!
THE INTERNET
During this time, I have had to really consider what to do next. I just knew I was not respected as an employee or an employer in the telecoms industry And I did not feel inspired to start again, either in the industry or elsewhere. After a lot of thought I realised my priorities were to have the freedom to live where I want., and to work the hours I want. This led me to the Internet.
The way I see it, is a huge migration from conventional advertising media and physical products, to ‘web’ based advertising and digital products. This spells opportunity for those who can learn how to make the most of this evolution. Even if you still have a physical product or service, there is still a need to understand the need for web based marketing.
I have since partnered up with a number of different people working together on a number of different projects.
HOBBIES and PASSIONS
Over the years I have tried many hobbies. They include
‘classic cars’ of which I still have far to many!
Ceroc -(or modern Jive). To me, dancing is something two people do together, and it is therefore important to me that the other person and I have some sort of ‘relationship’. That may be just a good friendship, or simply a dancing relationship, but it is important that we have a ‘language’ to our dancing that we both understand.
I love walks in the countryside, as long as there is water around. The lake district is good, but the sea is better!
I have tried a number of more unusual things such as fire eating and fire walking. I recommend both. Walking on fire helps you to believe that you can achieve anything, but fire breathing is even more fun!!