Are you an aspiring (or even established) entrepreneur?  Then one  of the best things you can ever do for yourself is attend Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).  GEW is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.

During the week of 14th to 20th November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.  You really DON’T want to miss this!

The Bahrain part of GEW is arranged by Young Arab Leaders (YAL), of which I am a member.  Find out more about the Bahrain event here.  Make sure to register soon, as places are going fast.

Personally, I will be speaking at the Start Up Circuit on the 16th, as I did last year.  And on the 17th during the Start Up Weekend.  For more information or registration call 17 589 855.  Call today!

Hope to see you there!

PS Here are some interesting blog posts I wrote after last years event:

1) Meeting the creator of the 99 super heroes

2) Entrepreneurial conversations

3) Is it important for entrepreneurs to love what they do?

4) Do you need to be an expert in a field to start a business in it?

5) Is it necessary for a business to have a slogan?

This is my first business blog post in I don’t know how long.  You’ll see it appearing in the next issue of Business in Gulf (BIG) magazine, and I thought I’d share it with you here.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, things are bad – really bad.  Every business owner I speak to tells me how tough things are.  Sales and profits are way down, and some businesses are on the verge of closing down, while others have already closed shop.  It’s no surprise, seeing that Bahrain has seen it’s worse political crisis in living memory.

But all hope is not lost, there are things you can do to mitigate the damage.  Remember, you’re an entrepreneur, and us entrepreneurs are by nature survivors.  It’s what we’re all about; facing challenges and overcoming them.  It’s in our nature, right?
Let’s look at some things you can do right away to help improve your business situation:

Remember The Real Economy That Counts

Someone wise once said “the only economy that exists is between you and your customer.”  This saying might be a bit oversimplified, but there is a lot of truth in it.  Your focus from now onwards should be on strengthening your relationship with your customers.  You can cut spending on whatever you deem necessary, but don’t cut spending on marketing and advertising, as these are the activities that are bringing the customers.

Increase Customer Communication

Look, the essence of good marketing can be summarised in this single word: relationships.  If you don’t have a relationship with your customers, then it’s time to start right away.  Send out a monthly newsletter.  And even better, add a monthly postcard as well.  Also, increase email communication to once a week.

Ask yourself, how many businesses in Bahrain are doing that?  The answer is very few, which is my point.  Your customers will appreciate that you are taking time to contact them and ask about them.  It’s a safe bet to assume that your competitors are not doing this, and that they are reducing their customer communications, which means they will pay extra attention to you.

Though you should send out special offers (see next point), at least half of your communication should have nothing to sell.  You can just update your customers on the latest news in your business, and even in your personal life.  You can also provide them with how-to information.  You could even create a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly YouTube video series on the area of your expertise (we’re doing that soon).  You want to make sure that your customers and prospects like you, and that you are the first one they think of when they want to buy.

Create Special Offers

I highly recommend creating special offers to incentivise people to buy, but I discourage you from over-relying on discounting, as this can really eat up your profits.  Instead, do more bonuses and other offers.  You can do things like “buy two get one free” offers, or extended warranties/guaranties, or gift voucher with purchase above a certain amount.  You can also team up with other business owners and ask them to give you free offers or gifts that you can give to your customers.  This is a win-win for all; you get an additional offer you can give to your customers, your customer gets something free, and the other business owner gets a potential new customer when he comes to redeem his gift.

The Superhuman Mind Set

Your greatest assets by far are your attitude and mind set. Make sure not to give in to the negativity and the feeling of hopelessness.  Now is a good time to read and listen to motivational material, and to avoid as much negativity as possible.  Remember that you are an entrepreneur; you are superhuman compared to others, and God willing you will not only survive, but thrive as well.

Talk to you soon.

I returned today from an out-of-this world trip to Shanghai.  It’s my second trip to China, but my first to Shanghai.  I’ve been to Beijing in 2008.

I attended Entrepreneur’s Organisation (EO) Global Leadership Conference (GLC).  Attendance is required of all EO members who have leadership positions, and I’m on the incoming board of the Bahrain chapter for 2011/2012.  I attended the GLC with EO buddies Faisal Aliressa, Mahmood Al-Yousif, and Abdulrahman Almoayed, and let me tell you we had a blast!

I just love the EO spirit.  We met members from all over the globe, and we just got along swimingly.  I met some wonderful friends and I hope the friendships will last a lifetime.

Anyway, I could talk about the event forever, suffice to say I had a good time, learnt a lot and met some great people.  It was a welcome break from the current stresses in Bahrain.  Hope you like the slide show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oo2QByTYFU

The March issue of Octane Magazine

Hey!  This is my first blog post since the Bahrain crisis started, that is not related to the crisis in some way!  I guess this is a good thing.  I’m not sure I’m done talking about politics yet though… we’ll see.

Anyway, here’s an article I wrote for the March issue of Octane Magazine, the official magazine for Entrepreneur Organisation (EO).  It might inspire some of you entrepreneurs out there.  Hope you like it:

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I suppose like most entrepreneurs, I had a feeling of invincibility starting out. When I launched my first company in 2003, I thought I was bulletproof. I would get up at 4 a.m. and churn out 16-hour days, conquering everything in my path. Sure, I’d get tired, but I could sleep it off later. After all, I had a business to run.

When I started my second business in 2006 and my third a year later, the stress started to accumulate. Still, I felt like I could handle it all. I thrived on the pressure and kept moving forward. I was a locomotive on a mission, constantly moving for the  benefit of better business. Friends and family would tell me to slow down, but what did they know? I was a super-human entrepreneur and they were mere mortals!

Everything came to a standstill in 2009 when my father was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors said he only had a few months to live. The stress I had always managed to avoid began to pile up like a load of dirty laundry. Not only did I have to deal with my father’s terminal illness, but I had three companies I needed to keep afloat. I pushed myself to the limit, trying hard to balance every part of my life: my businesses, my sick father, my worried mother, my wife and three kids.

The final straw came when my father passed away last year. Being the oldest son, I found myself with an onslaught of new responsibilities. I was unprepared and overwhelmed. I felt completely exhausted. I had finally burned out— physically, spiritually and emotionally. I knew I needed a break, so I took some time off to travel and collect my thoughts. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done, and it provided me with some much-needed insight into how to effectively balance my responsibilities as an entrepreneur, husband, parent and sibling.

Looking back, this series of events taught me some major life lessons. First, I realized I’m human. I can’t do everything myself, and I need to let go of certain responsibilities in order to get ahead in business and life. Second, I learned that not operating at 100-percent capacity all the time doesn’t make me any less of an entrepreneur. Work will always be there, but life won’t. By knowing my own boundaries, I can spend more time enjoying what I’ve worked so hard to build. That’s the true mark of success.

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Talk to you soon.

You know, when this whole illegal download fad started, I didn’t really give it much thought.  I wasn’t really too concerned with the morality of it, as I was much more fascinated with the technical aspects of it.  How does a movie get on the internet anyway?  How do you find it, and then download it?  I didn’t understand – and still don’t – what a “torrent” is and how it works.

I even tried downloading movies once or twice myself, mostly unsuccessfully.  It was far easier getting the cheap DVD from the DVD shop owner, who does all the downloading for you.  But over time my opinion on illegal downloading started to change.  The subject started to come up in business magazines.  I started reading articles about how movie and recording studios, as well as recording artists incomes started suffering due to illegal downloading of their material.  I read how singers had to do more touring and work harder on merchandising to keep their revenues consistent.

I now consider it a form of theft, just like other forms of theft.  I admit it took me a while to see it like that, and I guess the main reason is because it’s so easy to do.  And you do it at home sitting at your desk, with no one watching, which makes it seem harmless.  But the thing is it’s not harmless.

Why I Think It’s Wrong

I remember having a conversation with a relative some months ago about the topic of illegal song downloading (he hasn’t bought a song in years).  When I asked how he’d like it if someone stole from him, he replied sarcastically “Oh poor millionaire singers!”  I think this is a dangerous way of thinking; just because someone is rich does not make it okay to take away their money.

If they are millionaires it’s because they deserve to be.  They worked hard!  They worked hard at providing the right value (entertainment) that society deemed worthy of rewarding them greatly for.  What most people don’t see is the years they spend perfecting their skill, and the hours and hours they spend recording and/or writing their songs.  How would you feel if someone dipped into your monthly pay cheque whenever they wanted, you work hard and deserve that pay cheque.  Personally, I wouldn’t like it if someone walked into one of my businesses, and stole money from the cash register.  It would infuriate me!  I feed my kids with this money.

Affecting Me And My Family Directly

So far, I’ve only written one book and co-authored another, and to be honest I don’t think there’s any danger of people rushing to make my IP (Intellectual Property) available free on the web.  But I actually know people who make their living out of their IP, and they’re not big movie stars or singers.  They’re feeling it, and they’re really frustrated.  They’re real people that work hard at what they do.

And now I can feel their frustration, because I’ve seen illegal works of my late father on the web, and it annoys me!  My father was an author, poet, and novelist who’s written over 80 books, and whenever someone makes them available free online, it takes away from the income I and my family are entitled to.  Not to mention the income of the publishers who’ve taken the business risk of printing, marketing and distributing the books.

The Karma Thing

I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge believer in Karma.  If you steal, even if it’s an invisible type of theft like illegal downloading, then it will come back to haunt you, either in this life or in the next one.

I guess anyone under the age of 30 reading this probably did’t understand a single thing I just said, but these are my two cents on the subject.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m very much in the minority.

Thanks for listening and talk to you soon.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko

I attended the two-day International Entrepreneurship Forum this week, which was held here in Bahrain.  It was sponsored by Tamkeen, who are really putting a lot of effort into supporting the Bahrain business/entrepreneurial community.  I can’t really say it was amazing, as it was run by academics, pretty much for academics.  But still, to give credit where credit is due, Tamkeen does try and the Tamkeen team that worked there did a good job.

For me the talk that stood out the most was by a reserved British lecturer, Prof. David Storey, who – as I understand it – did a study of start ups with or for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

What I found surprising was that I agreed with everything he said 100%, and I usually disagree with academics 100%, especially when they start to pontificate about entrepreneurship. A topic they don’t really know about, living in their ivory towers.  But this really resonated with me, as I’ve lived through most of it.  Here are some of the points he raised:

• A firm is three times more likely to contract than expand
• 60% of new firms cease to trade in 5 years
• Sales and profits fluctuate massively in the same firm in the short, medium and long run
• Fast growth firms over a long period of time are very rare (but important)
• Only 6% of the Cambridge high tech firm he studied grew year-on-year.  Most did not have straight growth lines.

A few more interesting factoids:

Good businesses often don’t survive

Business survival reflects access to resources, alternate employment options and interpretations of “signals.”  What I think is meant by “signals” is spotting market trends or general changes in time to react to them.

Medium term growth if very rarely linear

That is certainly what I experienced.  I believe it 100%.

Venture Capital (VC) funds make [almost all] their money from 15% of the firms even after all their “due diligence”

Two more points I want to add from his presentation:

- You can do the “right” things and fail.

- You can do the wrong things and succeed.

Professor Storey compared starting a business to gambling.  He said that you might think you have the perfect system to “beat” the roulette wheel, but at the end of the day it’s still a game of chance.

I think the roulette wheel analogy is a bit extreme, but I agree that entrepreneurship (pretty much like investing in general) is a game of odds.  If you do everything “right” – the right marketing, the right systems, the great customer service etc. – you can still not make it, but at least you’ve stacked the odds more in your favour.  Make sense?

Some thoughts on luck

So from the above, it’s fairly obvious that luck has something to do with your success – BUT I think that entrepreneurs make and attract their own luck.  There’s a saying by Benjamin Franklin (sometimes wrongly attributed to the bible) “God helps those who help themselves”, so if you are proactive, work hard and don’t have a victim mentality then you are likely to attract good luck.  I think that 80% of a business or entrepreneur’s success is his efforts, and 20% is down to luck.  That 20% might screw you over, or it might give you that added, unexpected boost.

If you’re a wannabe or budding entrepreneur, don’t let the above facts scare you.  Hey, you only live once, right?  Even if you fail, at least you get to say that you tried it, which most people are too afraid to do.

Talk to you soon.

You know, at Falak Enterprises (Zen-Do and DreamBody Centre), we go out of our way to please our students and members.  We really strive to provide outstanding service and amazing experiences for our customers.

Of course, from time to time we might mess up, and when we do, we apologise and rectify the matter immediately, often providing the affected people with generous compensation gifts.

But every once in a while (every other year or so) there is a customer who is hell-bent on making our life miserable.  They complain constantly, and/or are rude to my Team.  When this happens we try to politely explain our point of view, and if this does not work, then out they go!  I give them the proverbial boot, and in most cases, their money is given back to them.

One of the worse and most inaccurate business maxim’s is “the customer is always right.”  To be honest I’m surprised by the number of people who believe this BS.  Don’t get me wrong, the customer should be treated like a king as much as possible, and you should go out of your way to please him, but that’s not the same as him being right all the time.

Let me give you an example.  Imagine someone walks into your store/business, helps themselves to any item and walks out, without paying.  Would you tolerate that?  What if a customer walks in, and decides to urinate on your reception desk, is he right?  You get my point.

At the DreamBody Centre (DBC), we’ve had two European members who’ve been complaining on and off for years.  Their names would come up in my management meetings every few months.  They complain bout the temperature in the DBC circuit, and treat our Team Members disrespectfully.  They happen to like the temperature to be FREEZING in the circuit, which causes other members to complain.

Like I said, we’ve been dealing with them patiently for a couple of years now, but recently I’ve had enough.  They’ve been shouting at and intimidating my Team Members (which affects their motivation and morale), and shouting at other members.  I asked my Marketing and Operations Manager to have a chat with them, which did not help.  In fact, it only lead to racial slurs from them.  That’s it, I thought, time to kick them out!

Just because they give us money does not mean they can treat us like dirt.  Of course, just because we’re about to give them the boot, does not mean it should be done disrespectfully.  So we prepared a polite, but firm letter, explaining the situation, and telling them that their membership with us has been terminated.

Here’s the letter that was given to each:

Dear ____________

This is in regards to your disappointment about the temperature inside our circuit. After the attempts of several Team Members to speak with you, it seems that there has been no resolution of this issue. I understand that you had a similar complaint in our Seef branch.
We have standards in place regarding our temperature inside the circuit, based on a few factors. These are
•    Member feedback
•    Change in weather/outdoor temperature
•    General feel in the circuit
We have had no other complaints regarding the temperature being too hot. On the contrary, we have had majority of our member feedback saying that it is “too cold” inside the circuit. All our members are important to us, including yourself, but in such cases where a common ground cannot be met, we must go with the majority of the feedback that we have received.
We are sorry to hear that this does not meet your standards.
As a result, we are forced to invoke the following, clause no. 10 on your membership agreement(enclosed)
“The Principal has the right to discontinue a Member’s membership for any reason deemed to be sufficient, without any explanation being given and without returning the Member’s subscription or any part thereof.”
Effective immediately, we will be discontinuing your membership at the DreamBody Centre. We will also refund you completely for the previous two months of your membership.
This is a very difficult decision, but we can no longer bear the disruption caused by this issue inside the circuit as well as confrontations with other Members and Team Members that have occurred recently.
I apologize for any inconvenience all this may have caused you and wish you all the best in your health and fitness goals.

Suhail Algosaibi
CEO and Founder
DreamBody Centre

Well to say that they were shocked would be an understatement!  They could not believe it, and they did not believe I wrote the letter.  They demanded to speak to me personally, which I did not do.  Once you’re out, you’re out baby.  If you can’t respect my Team, and cannot control your racial prejudices, then this is no place for you.  Sadly, these two European ladies accentuated the arrogant expat image some expats have here in Bahrain.  They are in the minority, but there is a category of expat (mostly Europeans) who look down at locals, and have an “oh we’re so much better at everything” attitude.  Not in my business!

They of course did the usual threatening, saying that they would write to the newspapers.  It’s not like I ever shied away from some publicity – or controversy for that matter.  Good riddance!

Talk to you soon

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I have written a follow up blog post to this piece.  See the link below:

Suhail Fires Two DBC Members Part Deux: Reflections and Apologies

The Atlantis Hotel in Dubai

A common mistake entrepreneurs and business owners make, is assuming that their staff always have the business’ best interest at heart, and that they always try to increase sales.  That, sadly, is not always the case.  Often times, intentionally or unintentionally, employees sabotage sales.  Let me explain.

We just came back from a long weekend break in Dubai.  We stayed at the Atlantis Hotel.  Me, my wife and our three kids really enjoyed it.  Dubai, as usual, is larger than life.  And the Atlantis Hotel was lovely – mostly.

To be honest, I’m always a bit weary of these mega hotels/resorts, as so much can go wrong, and it often does.  When you have a hotel or resort on the scale of the Atlantis, which I’m sure takes over a thousand guests, and must surely have several thousand staff, there is the inevitable inconsistency in service.  In my humble opinion, the systems are just too complex to make it all work smoothly.

There were a couple of instances where the staff were actually encouraging guests to spend less money, or sabotaging sales altogether.  A couple of examples:

On the first day we arrived we went to a restaurant in the hotel to have a late lunch.  We were served by a young German waiter, who took himself a bit too seriously.  My wife asked about the size of the kids onion soup portions; he gestured with his hands, cupping them together indicating a relatively small size.

When she saw this my wife asked the waiter to bring four large (adult) portions for us.  The waiter was surprised and said “Umm… madam, the adult portions are really big [again he gestured with his hands].  I think it’s better if you take two adult portions, and two kids portions.  It’s also cheaper that way.” he said rather proud of his logic.

My wife thought about it for a moment and then decided to go for the adult portions instead.  The waiter did not give up.  He made a sort of hrmmph sound, and tried to explain again, as if my wife were a child.  “Look” he said, “it’s really too much for the kids to eat.  I suggest you take two adults and two kids portions.  You will save money.” he added.

My wife smiled at him and said “will I pay for this or will you?”  He got the message then and said okay, and went to the kitchen to deliver the order.  Now, I’m sure this waiter had the best intentions, but not only was he annoying us, but he was also costing his employer added profits.  Everybody loses with his insistence.  And you, Mr. Business Owner, don’t assume that your staff doesn’t commit stupidities like that, because they probably do.

Another example. On one of the days I was walking in the hotel’s shopping avenue, pushing the baby in the stroller.  Now, I’m not a big shopper at all, but I passed this shop and saw a really nice looking pair of shoes.  I really liked the way they looked and I thought I might try on a pair to see if they fit.  I was ready to spend money.

As I walked in there were two staff members (a male Levant Arab, and a Philippina) sticking a large sticker on the window, presumably announcing some sort of Christmas promotion.  I walked in with the baby stroller and walked around in the small store, looking for a shoe section.  Not finding it I thought I’d ask they male attendant (at the time I was not quite sure that he was working there, as he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt), “excuse me, do you work here?”  I asked.  “Er… yes, but we’re a bit busy at the moment…” he replied.  Riiiiight, what wonderful service.  “You’re busy… okay…” I said as I turned to walk out.  Noticing that I got annoyed he said “No, please, how can I help you?  Were you looking at the colognes?”

“No, it’s okay.  You’re too busy to look after customers.” I said.  “Yeah we’re a bit busy, if you can give us 10 minutes or so..” he said.  “No I can’t” I replied, walking out.

Let’s analyse this a bit closer.  The shoes were kept in the display window to draw people in, and the sticker they were so busy putting up was also meant to draw people in.  And when someone walks in, there too busy to make a sale!  These employees had their priorities all wrong.

One last example.  My wife told me this story.  She walked into a jewellery store in the hotel, asking about a pair of earrings she liked.  Again, the attendant there was a Levant Arab, who was busy talking on the phone, and did not like the idea of having to interrupt the call serve to my wife.  He attended to her with utter disdain.  My wife assumed that she was not getting any respect because he thought she was a foreigner, so she spoke to him in Arabic.  “all of a sudden he completely changed!” she later told me.  he became courteous, respectful and very attentive.  By that time my wife had lost interest and walked out.

How to avoid this happening to you

Look, please don’t assume that this does not happen in your business.  And please don’t think that for a moment I’m disrespecting your staff, I’m not at all.  The employees in the above examples either thought they were doing the right thing, or did not really know that their behaviour was inappropriate.  It says a lot about their training, or lack there of.  Believe it or not, many people don’t actually make a connection between their sales-preventing behaviour and the salary they earn at the end of the month.

Here are some things you can do to prevent sales reducing behaviour by your team:

Treat them well – with dignity and respect

I guarantee you, if you don’t treat your employees like valuable human beings, and show them the importance they have in your business, they won’t care about your customer.  It’s that simple really.  Treat them like gold, and they will treat your customers like gold.  Read the blog post I wrote on employee motivation here.

Share the big picture

If you have a grand vision for your business, share it with your Team.  Let them feel that they are part of it.  Have a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) and rally everyone around it.

Give proper training

I’m a huge proponent of having operations and training manuals.  Your manual should have scripts in it and explain all the things that should and should not be done.  Also, have a customer service section in the manual that gives proper guidelines on behaviour.  See my blog post on systems and manuals here.

Do Scenario training

This follows from the previous point.  When doing the training in the manual, actually act out different scenarios with your Team.  Not only are these a lot of fun, but they are very instructive.  An employee might indicate that he understood what is in the manual, but when you do the scenario training he might completely mess it up.  You can then sit together, analyse what just happened and then try again.  In our company, we do weekly Team meetings followed by compulsory training in a certain section of the manual.  That way the Team Members stay fresh all the time.

Link reward with results

If you have a retail store, I highly recommend that you have a commission system in place.  You can give a per item percentage, or you could give a commission after a certain target has been hit.  In fact, with enough ingenuity, you can link reward/behaviour/results to virtually any type of business.  Please don’t be stingy with this, the advantages of having a commission system in place far outweigh the disadvantages.  It’s obvious that the sales people in the above examples were not on commission, otherwise their behaviour would have been very different.

Share stories

Whenever you encounter situations of bad customer service, share them with your Team.  Yes, actually say “the other day I wanted to buy this pair of shoes when…”  Stories are one of the best ways  for people to learn.  Discuss what went wrong in your story, and then relate it to your business.

Don’t assume!

I’ve said this but it bears repeating to drive the point home – don’t make assumptions about your employees’ behaviour! Even if you do all the above, they might still sabotage sales, so imagine if you don’t.

I hope you found this useful, if you’ve not done so already, make sure to sign up for my FREE weekly marketing/entrepreneurship email course at RadicalMarketing.com.  There’s also a FREE video that shows you how to create systems in your business.

Thanks for reading and talk to you soon.

I was asked this question several times in the last few weeks.  It was asked mainly in the context of entrepreneurship, but I’ll answer it in as general a way as I can.

First, for non entrepreneurs

In a nutshell, yes, I think it’s important for a career person to  love what he or she does.  The last thing you want to do is wake up in your 50′s, 60′s or even 80′s and realise that you waisted your life doing something you hate.

I know I know “It’s not that easy / it’s easier said than done / excuses excuses blah blah blah…”  Look, no one said leaving your job and finding one that you truly love and inspires you is easy.  Listen my friend, life is not easy.  It’s supposed to have it’s challenges and difficulties.  So yeah, I know it’s easier said than done – so what?

The first step is for you to DECIDE that you want to do something else.  Make the firm decision that you will leave the job you hate, and find a job that you love.  Then start looking and applying.  It might take you 18 months or more, so what?  You’re going to live those 18 months anyway, right?  So get off your back side and take action.

Second, for entrepreneurs

This will probably surprise you, but no, it’s not necessary for entrepreneurs to love what they do.  It helps, and if you can do it, that’s certainly better.  But a few important points, you might love doing something that has no value to society, and therefore you might have a hard time charging for it.  For example, you might love lounging around and watching Japanese anime, but I doubt you’ll have many people willing to pay you to do that.  Or you might love reading – as I do – but there might not be any (immediate) way of making money out of that.

What is vitally important for the entrepreneur though is this: he needs to love being an entrepreneur! What the business is is almost irrelevant.  He needs to love the idea of being independent and in control of his own destiny.  That’s what entrepreneurialism is all about.  Let me give you an example, I have a friend in the UK who used to be a banker.  He hated his job and decided to start his own business.

He really did not know what kind of business to get into, so he did some research, and decided to get into the old people’s care home business!  He found it to be very profitable and so he jumped into it.  He got financing from a wealthy backer and bought a centre.

He introduced a lot of changes and made it quite profitable.  He then bought a second, and a third and I believe he even bought a fourth one.  He eventually sold them at a very hefty profit and left with a few million pounds in his bank account.  Get my point?  He had no emotional attachment to what business his business was in, but he was very passionate about his business.

Let me end this post by the famous inspirational poem by Robert Frost, which I think you’ll enjoy:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

I hope you found this useful.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and talk to you soon.