I’ve just read the first couple of chapters of Duncan Bannatyne’s autobiography, and he tells a story there that reveals much about the roots and foundation of success.
When he was a kid, Bannatyne’s family were very poor. There was scarcely enough money for food and clothing, let alone luxuries. So when the young Duncan wanted a bike, it was little surprise that there was no money available to buy one.
Undeterred, he resolved to get a paper round and buy one himself. But when he went into his local newsagent to ask for a job, the lady owner took one look at the scruffy urchin in front of her, and told him there was no work. Duncan suspected this wasn’t true ~ that the owner was put off by his appearance ~ but rather than argue, he did something that not one in a thousand others would.
He set about knocking on doors in the area where he lived, and asked householders whether they would like a newspaper delivered. Over the course of a day or two, he built up a list of around 100 new customers, and then went back to the newsagent with a ready-made round. What could she say? She had to give him a job, and he got his bike.
Despite showing such great entrepreneurial flare, Bannatyne now says this represented his first big mistake in business. That list of 100 new customers was valuable, and he should have sold it to the newsagent, rather than giving it away in exchange for a job!
No matter. What he did showed astonishing enterprise at such a young age.
Reading about that got me thinking about my own childhood. We weren’t well-off either ~ not quite as poverty-stricken as the Bannatynes, but there was certainly no money available for ‘fun stuff’ aside from Christmas and birthdays. So between the ages of about nine and 13, I earned most of my own money on the golf course ~ not by playing golf, but by selling second-hand balls to the players.
Now you might think this is a mundane activity with not much to be learned, but take it from me, many of the elements necessary for success in any business, were present in that early enterprise. I learned about stock, sourcing, pricing, marketing, wholesaling, profit margins, discounts, special offers, negotiation, customer relations, up-selling, win-win deals…and a whole lot more.
Of course I didn’t attach those labels to what I was doing at the time. I was just trying to find and flog as many balls as I could, for as much money as I could get. But when I look back, many of the things I now take to be common knowledge were grounded in that seemingly simple enterprise. Much of what I’ve done subsequently, is just the same stuff, scaled up and adapted.
And I’d have never learned any of that stuff if we’d been ‘comfortable’ and I didn’t need the money.
When I was young, there were times when I bemoaned the fact that I wasn’t born ‘into money’. Watching my own children take advantage of opportunities that I didn’t even realise existed as a child, has given me cause to wonder what it would have been like too. But I now realise that I’d have missed out on so many experiences as well…
And what I’d have gained on the swings, I’d have almost certainly lost on the roundabouts.
I think that’s the same for all of us – irrespective of our backgrounds. Where we start out is important but it’s just that, a starting point. What’s far more important is how we use the positive aspects of where we start out, to get to where we ultimately want to be.
John Harrison
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