It's been a busy week. Up and down to Aberdeen and meeting lots of new people in the energy sector within Scotland.
The highlight of the week though has to be attending the Entrepreneurial Exchange Dinner at the Hilton in Glasgow.
The Saltire Foundation had a table at the event and it was great to see some of the Fellows there. I can't believe sometimes that it's a year ago that it all started. Mind you when I look at my bank balance - it all makes sense then...!! 650 people, top entrpreneurs like Sir Tom Hunter and Jim McColl and a host of entrepreneurial talent from a wide mix of businesses. Awards for young entrepreneur of the year, entrepreneur of the year, philanthropy and of course - the hall of fame.
This was my first time at this event. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And here's why.....
About 5 years ago, when I started in business, I attended a breakfast mentoring meeting at the Glasgow Audi Conference Centre. It was run by the Herald newspaper and had guest speakers such as Willie Haughey OBE, John Boyle OBE and John McGuire. All three - well known, gutsy Scottish businessmen. As I sat and listened then to John McGuire, who doesn't know me from Adam, he enthused about the Exchange and how it impacted his life, thinking and approach to business. John owns the Phoenix Motor Group. It was at these seminars that I decided I definitely wanted to do something different in life and that life for me was certainly not going to be a practice for something else...
Five years or so later, I was sitting at the Saltire Foundation table at the Exchange dinner, ready to graduate as a Saltire Fellow in just under two week's time: It really felt that something enormous had happened and a step change had taken place.
I approached John after the event and had a brief chat with him. He must have thought I was from the planet Pluto as I recounted this story. However, the whole point of this blog is this.....
The three speakers at the breakfast seminars, a huge percentage of the attendees at the Exchange dinner and I know the 5 Saltire Fellows present at the dinner have all done something different, something life changing at some point to be where they are or where they want to be.... And I bet that there was and is pain, hard times, tough decisions and moments of doubt along the way as well as all the traits that make entrepreneurial people and leaders what they are.
As Tom Hunter said in his address when his father was speaking with him earlier in his life "Tough... I'll gie ye Tough!"
It's been a tough year... It's about to get tougher. I like the sound of that...!! Whatever the future brings - I'm not in practice for the next life.