I started my first business at the age of 38 - I know, pretty late!. I’d worked in large mobile phone companies learning my craft and suddenly, with a colleague, there was an opportunity to launch a new business. The idea was simple enough; to offer the mobile network operators, like Vodafone, customised phones that contained their brand on the device, software and packaging – and be able to deliver within a few days of receiving their orders. It was a new idea and we executed it well. The business quickly grew.
I was motivated to start my own business because, whilst already being comfortably off, I wanted to be seriously rich. Strangely enough it wasn’t a desire to make more phones or have a business, it was pure money at the start. I had an idea that being wealthy would catapult me into a better life.
And so I became rich – not immensely wealthy, but with enough never to have to work again if I didn’t want to. On the day it happened I wrote in my diary, “Today I’m rich”. I’d done it.
My business partner had always dreamed of owning a Ferrari, and now he also had enough money to buy one. He went into the Ferrari dealership, put the cash on the table and drove out in a brand new car. Don’t ask me the model; it was red, that’s all I know. But six months later he sold his nearly-new Ferrari at a significant loss and went back to his BMW Estate. He told me the original desire for the car was stronger than the actual pleasure of owning one. He preferred to see one from the outside not sit on the inside looking out.
That was also my experience – the desire to be rich was stronger than the pleasure of actually being there. Having the wealth wasn’t enough – it was what to do with it. After that my moments of pure pleasure came from seeing people I’d helped recruit into the business grow and achieve significant things. Some of them left to start their own businesses and I would take immense pride in that. I became fascinated with developing strong, high performing people and teams; that desire has stayed with me and gets me out of bed. Money doesn’t, not anymore.
You may feel the same desire to get rich, and you’ll find no criticism from me if you feel like that. And it may be something you have to go through before you understand what I’m saying. But as we say, “the sizzle is better than the sausage”; the anticipation of being rich is better than the reality and you may find that money really is a means to an end and not an end in itself. For me, those are wise words.
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