Success…it’s all relative
When I began playing rugby league at the age of 16 I decided that I was ready to take sport seriously and try to become a professional player. So I played for an adult team, I learnt to keep my head down and how to compete with much stronger players. I found myself at a professional club on an amateur contract with a load of other guys in a similar boat and I learned from the guys that had been around longer than most, these guys exist in almost every profession. They’re the ones that don’t boast (generally because they don’t need to but also because they aren’t too fussed with status), they are all concerned about the work. They will also be the ones that don’t moan or brag about all the effort they’re putting in. However, once a training session has finished, these same guys would be doing extra work after everyone else has gone home. I followed their lead and in two years at this club I was offered a professional contract.
Now okay, my signing-on fee was a bag of chips (and didn’t dare hold out for a tub of gravy) when other players were signing for tens of thousands but that wasn’t the point. My goal was to get signed and be paid to play sport. Job done.
I would route the diligence that is needed to build a company back to this – it’s quite simple: work hard, improve and reap the benefits. You have to figure out your place in a market, where everyone seems to know the rules (except you). You have to be honest about your work, what to charge but also be confident in your ideas. And you have to work very, very hard, and when everyone else has gone home you work some more. This is the only way I have found to get ahead. After all, my company consisted of me and if I wanted to be like the guys slightly ahead of me with a few employees, I needed to work harder than them. Of course you need to have a plan, and a touch of intelligence but 10% inspiration 90% perspiration, is a pretty realistic ratio.
