Life Long Learning
Every day is a school day - and so it should be
Continuing to learn is essential for personal growth and of course business growth.
I have taken many risks in my life and career in order to pursue both of these things. I have never settled for life being ok.
I have always wanted to learn more, be better, discover new things.
A lot of this has come from my parents; my father, a jazz loving physics teacher from a working class background with a profound interest in philosophy; and my mother who left school at 16 with no qualifications but went on to train as a Montessori teacher and run her own nursery school.
Why has always been at the forefront of my mind; to the irritation of many.
And being present in the moment is something I strive for (even though it goes against my love of planning!)
I have learnt that it is important to fail early. It certainly came early for me when I dropped out of university at 19. I was planning to follow my father into teaching; which he knew I would excel in; but being thrown into a classroom of 30 twelve year olds from a council estate put an end to that particular ambition for both of us
I got the first job I could, serving tea and coffee at Kew Gardens for 6 months and then went back to college to do hotel management. This was a much more positive experience; and there followed a number of roles working in the hotel industry before getting my first big break!
Failing Early
There is far too much negativity around failure, when in fact failure is where you learn the most. When you take risks, there is always going to be a chance of failure, but by taking those on early means that you:
☑️ Minimise risk by allowing you to identify flaws in your strategy, product of processes before investing in scaling
☑️ Build resilience by learning from your mistakes and enabling you to improve and encourage a solution oriented mindset
☑️ Reduce your fear of failure knowing that it is a natural part of business growth
Cultural Differences in Business
So, my big career break came when I was taken on by STA Travel (a student travel company selling round the world flights) to set up a business unit from scratch - contracting hotels worldwide and setting up booking systems with full P&L responsibility. I built the business from zero to $10m in 5 years, employing a team of 10 and travelled the world!
Now travel has alway been a passion of mine. I am not one for sitting on beaches. I love to really understand the place I am travelling to - the people, the history, the art and the landscape. It is the best education you can ever have; as it opens your eyes to the cultural differences in business and how important they are to success.
No surprise then that I ended up in the travel industry. My first overseas trip was to Berlin attending an expo when I worked in hotel sales. It was 1989 just as the Berlin Wall was coming down. I was with my German colleague so when we went into East Germany; she went through the Brandenburg Gate and I went through Checkpoint Charlie. I went back recently with my daughter and it was barely recognisable as the same city.
I think back to my interview for the job at STA Travel and wonder what made my boss think I was up to this massive challenge. Yes I knew about the hotel industry and had worked in sales, but knew little about student travel and didn’t even speak any other languages (other than O level French). Looking back, I realise that what he recognised was something I hadn’t seen in myself - pure determination. I would work my socks off to make it a success and did just that.
There was a lot to learn, but I also had a lot of fun along the way. From my first contracting trip to Paris to travelling around the world - one trip included meetings with suppliers in LA, Sydney, Auckland, Hong Kong and Delhi; meeting customers in Tokyo and setting up a new operation in Zurich.
LIfe Long Learning in Business
Life long learning is essential if you want to grow your business as change is continual and it is essential to take the opportunities when you can as well as minimise any risks. It will enable you to:
Stay relevant, keeping ahead of the trends and the competitive market place
Expand your knowledge and skills
Improve your problem solving abilities
If you are ready to take the next step on your business journey; you can watch my FREE Webinar here or register to receive my Resilient Founder weekly updates.
