Dr. Domingo Sanchez – Innovator – Networker – Entrepreneur

Dr. Domingo Sanchez is the President of ISAAAC, a non-profit initiative whose mission is to build global alliances and ecosystems of high-profile partners in academia, the industry and national governments, with a background in geology. Completing a PHD in Business Administration at Trinity College, Domingo carried out research in networks and innovation, and is now an expert in business acumen.

In an interview with Conor, Domingo talks about the roadmaps of business and opportunities, and how important connections are in growing your business.

Business is vertical

Domingo’s recommendation is that, as a business owner, you need to look ahead and understand the plans in the environment around your sector, in order to make good business decisions in the future, as they will have a knock on effect on you and your business too.

He said, “I think there are a lot of verticals that they need to be aware of, you know, I think is important to understand opportunities as cross value chains.”

Connections are engines

Speaking with Conor, Domingo emphasised the importance of connecting with like minded people and avoiding “characters that are sucking your energy” and focus on “people that are providing you with a lot of good motivation for your work and your project.”

Domingo uses the metaphor of connections as engines when discussing development in your career and says “it’s like fueling energy” to keep you motivated to keep going in your path.

Be organic

“I think to create a proper environment to be successful, is something valuable,” says Domingo. He reinforces that you need to build a business around something that you enjoy, and says that this way “you are starting organically to develop something.”

Look out for funding opportunities

Domingo says, “Don’t be afraid to use the public funding available” to help start-up your business. You can use these opportunities to network and connect with professionals with the same interests and experience.

“You will be surprised that the accessibility right now of people that want to collaborate, the public funding schemes, and the public funding programmes are a good opportunity also to start collaborations.”

Conor Cogan – Craftsman – Designer – Entrepreneur

Conor is a Masters graduate in Design Innovation. He’s been making and selling products since he was a teenager.

In an interview with Conor, Conor Cogan talks about how he made a self-made career as a craftsman with his business, Beardedman Ireland.

Be Inquisitive

Speaking with Conor, Conor admitted to always having an inquisitive mind which drove him to eventually become his own boss. “When you work for yourself, you can kind of work on your own basis and your own time” and also stated that he’s never worked well under standard 9 to 5 as he has “never really suited [it].”

He said, “Everything is completely bespoke[…]we rarely make the same thing twice.”

Don’t Be Afraid To Have Fun

Conor says, “When a customer comes to me and says, ‘oh can I get a bottle opener with this logo’ and I say ‘well okay, grand that’s no worries. But can you tell me some more about the brand and we can figure put something much more interesting that actually sells better’. Then I have fun in making and doing something different and then it means that you hopefully get bigger returns, bigger orders, bigger re-orders and also it elevates the whole experience.”

Amanda Scott – Networker – Author – EntrepreneurAmanda Scott is a career coach and co-founder of Personal Boardroom, whose mission is to help people build their networks effectively to succeed in their careers. To this aim, she has co-authored the book ‘Who is in your Personal Boardroom?’ alongside business professor, Dr Zella King.

Amanda shared some of her advice about networking with Conor, building on her decade of experience as a career coach. Specifically, she highlighted how to identify the people that can help you succeed.

Three Key Roles

Firstly, the Personal Boardroom team has established three types of roles that people can play in your network. These are Information, Power, and Development roles.

Information: ‘people that are a source of new knowledge, new insight and new information’.

Power: ‘people that give you access to other people or resources, who can help you make decisions, and who enable and catalyse you’.

Development: ‘people that see you as a work in progress, who provide courage, balance, improvement and challenge’.

Diversify Your Network

In addition, Amanda highlighted the importance of connecting with people who ‘can disrupt your habitual ways of thinking and unlock new ways of thinking about problems that you might have’.

She commented that ‘we tend to focus and cluster on relationships which are similar and familiar to us’, but that these ‘don’t necessarily bring the kind of freshness and difference that a really flourishing or expanding network can do.’

Catch the full interview below to find out more about building the most effective network for your career.

Ekaterina Solomeina – Educator – Designer – Entrepreneur

Career Profile

Ekaterina Solomeina is the co-founder of Future London Academy, a fantastic learning organisation that creates innovative design events and short courses. Ekaterina is from Russia and began her journey in design and programming. After moving to London, she started speaking at universities and conferences to share her professional expertise with others. She became in high demand for advising others, despite having a full time job as a creative director. With the help of her co-founder, Ekaterina Solomeina grew her expertise into a full time job and highly successful business. This stemmed from her passion for connecting people in the design industry.

We chatted to Ekaterina about her journey to becoming co-founder of Future London Academy, and about how she mastered her skills to become successful enough to share them with others.

Constant learning

“I will never stop learning. I’m definitely still learning and I will keep learning. Lots of skills are never taught to us, especially being from a creative background. It’s not something you learn at university. There is no finance class at university. And all the other things that you actually will have to experience – most of us will have to experience no matter if we will run a company or not. We do need to understand how to manage people, how to lead people and all the other aspects of running successful teams.

I read lots of books and I am obsessed with learning. I don’t know how many courses I attend myself. And I suppose that’s why I run a learning company because I believe that our programmes improve lives.”

Growth mindset

“Something that was crucial for me on this journey was one misconception that I had, that if you’re creative, you can’t be business-minded. I keep mentioning Carol Dweck, who is my favourite psychologist. I know she is probably over quoted a little bit, but I urge you to read Carol Dweck’s book ‘mindset’. A growth mindset can actually improve the way we live our lives. The book essentially proves through research that people who have growth mindset achieve much more in their lives.

Try harder and practice more. The more you do it, the better you get at it. It’s all about learning and just finding information where you can, but also just trying and failing and learning from that.”

The Importance of Planning

“I’m on the planning side, I am definitely slightly over obsessed with operations, which is, I suppose, quite unusual for a creative person. It comes from my engineering background that I like things to be in the right places. We do a yearly plan with the team, we see where we want to be and what’s important for us. Both financial, team and personal goals. It’s important to run the business that you want to be part of. It’s good to have a plan and then adjust as you go.”

Emotional strength

“The magic and the success of the business actually doesn’t depend as much on the product and your knowledge, but as on the emotional strength to stomach it all. All of us have had days where it wasn’t easy. Psychologically, all of us have days where you have to get yourself out of bed, and having someone else who understands you, who can go through these things with you, is really great. I’m very glad that my co-founder is an incredible human being and I can be there for him and he can be there for me.”

Podcast Recommendations

“I’m obsessed with podcasts. Listening to things is such a brilliant life hub for me because I sit all day, so If I have an opportunity to stand up and go for a half an hour walk, I would always do that. I recommend ‘Happiness Lab’, it’s from a Yale University professor, and essentially all about the job of happiness.”

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Michael Kelly – Food Grower – Social Entrepreneur

One day, Michael Kelly found himself in a supermarket in Ireland, gazing at a bulb of garlic imported from China. This bulb of garlic, and the realisation that 90% of Ireland’s food was imported from abroad, led him to set up social enterprise GIY (Grow it Yourself). A social enterprise, GIY has grown from a local gardening group to a global social movement.

A Global Social Movement

GIY’s mission is to educate and enable people to grow their own food, helping to rebuild a sustainable food system. Alongside a cafe and education centre, GIY’s TV series on RTE and Amazon Prime, ‘Grow Cook Eat’, is helping to spread their message globally.

Conor had the privilege of talking to Michael on the Self Makers Show; here are some of his key insights.

The Importance of the Company’s Mission

GIY aims to create ‘food empathy’, giving people ‘a better connection with food’ and ‘a better understanding of how food works’. As a result, they will become empowered to make ‘healthier and more sustainable choices in their own lives’.

Michael therefore highlighted the importance of keeping this founding mission central to everything the organisation does, even whilst scaling up. So, GIY take an ‘etch-a-sketch approach’ to their community groups, allowing people to define membership however they want, in order to ‘keep it as accessible and open as possible’.

Although this is ‘a slightly scary, risky approach’, in terms of intellectual property, it all comes back to GIY’s original mission. ‘It’s ultimately way more successful in terms of getting people growing, which is the reason we’re doing it’.

Handing over Control in a Social Enterprise

Michael then discussed the ‘mistakes and challenges’ that arose throughout his career from employee to side hustler to employer. Specifically, he emphasised the unique journey that a founder of a social enterprise has to go on.

‘There’s a sort of giving over control at some point that has to happen as part of creating that structure as a social enterprise. You effectively give control to the voluntary board of directors who could fire me potentially tomorrow, if they’re not happy!’

Take the Leap

Finally, Michael’s advice to others thinking of starting a social enterprise was to ‘just go for it’.

‘It’s a big leap into the unknown, but it’s such a privilege to get to work on something you’re passionate about…So if you have that opportunity ever, just grab it with both hands.’

Catch the full interview below to find out more about Michael’s fascinating career journey.Register for email updates to receive more of Conor’s profiles of the best Irish and international personal business success stories

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Ariana Dunne – Multi-hyphenate

Career Profile

Ariana Dunne has worked over the last fifteen years for some of the biggest publishing companies including The Daily Mail Group, Bauer Media, and JOE Media. Building on her experience and connections, Ariana is now a real multi-hyphenate – with multiple incomes from her multiple roles. The name multi-hyphenate comes from the use of many hyphens; it’s simpler than it might sound. So, Ariana has lots of roles and hyphens e.g. career coach – celebrant – trainer – mentor – recruiter – ad sales manager.

Her in-demand skill set has made this possible with a staggering eleven income streams. Her main focus is to help people at a crossroads; to choose their next path.

In this interview, she gives personal insights into her own successful career. Below are some of her key insights.

Being a Multi-hyphenate

“My experience of being a multi-hyphenate has been really interesting. I’m not putting all of my eggs in one basket. I wouldn’t have been as successful over the last 2 years if I had been putting all my eggs in one basket because there’s so much stress and pressure that gets attached to that, especially when you’re working for yourself”.

Get out of your own way

“I always say to people, get out of your own way. Someone who doesn’t engage with social media thinks Facebook is stupid and Instagram is for influencer idiots, that’s fine but if its going to serve the purpose of your business then you need to get out of your own way and get on board by creating social media accounts”.

You can’t be good at everything

“I think people who go out on their own, think that they have to be on their own. A really important acknowledgment is knowing that you can’t be good at everything”.

Why I became a coach

“One of the reasons why I became a coach, particularly with women, is that I wanted women to have a voice. I wanted them to not be afraid to say to their bosses – this is the work I’ve been doing and I want more money because chances are if you are doing a good job you’ll get it”.Register for email updates to receive more of Conor’s profiles of the best Irish and international personal business success stories.

Adrian Avendano – Connector – Coder – Entrepreneur

Career Profile

Adrian Avendano is an inspiring entrepreneur with a real passion for building communities in the tech industry. Since growing up between Mexico City and New York, he now has 16 years of coding experience and set up his first start-up in Galway, where he lived for six years. The core theme of Adrian’s ventures is using technology to connect people in a meaningful way – adding value to their professional life, personal life, or knowledge base.

Now with 12 exciting years of starting companies under his belt, we chatted with Adrian to hear more about how he leverages technology to create meaningful connections and his working style that we could all benefit from.

Adrian is based in Georgia which is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. He’s waiting for lockdowns to lift so he can move back to Asia in early 2021.

Joining communities

“I would definitely recommend joining communities. I don’t think we realise, especially in COVID times, relying just on your family and friend network, I feel is quite limited. So it’s the same with your professional network, right? Most people rely on those three cohorts. Family, friends, and colleagues – that’s their social circle. But I think it’s quite limited in terms of the scope, in terms of how much you can learn, how much you can share, how much you can build together. So that’s why being part of a local community, I think is fundamental.

If you’re getting started, LinkedIn is useful to at least reach out to potential new people in a specific vertical industry. LinkedIn is a must, everybody should know that by now.”

Partnerships are important

“Focusing on the product is great, but now it’s so easy to build something. There are so many tools out there, so many people playing around. So building something, obviously, there’s an art form to it, but it’s not that hard. The hardest part is really attracting users or building partnerships. Once you have someone who could be a potential partner that you can leverage, you can use each other to basically create more traction, users, and feedback.

I spend most of my time like ‘Hey, who can I build a partnership with and have conversations with?’, ‘Are the goals aligned with what we’re building, does it ring a bell with them?’ ‘Yes, no? Why?’ If yes, continue. If not, then what’s missing? I feel partnerships are fundamental. Collaboration is a word that a lot of people say, but don’t act on it that much. People don’t collaborate enough.”

Focus

“My motto is play and focus, play, and focus. Meaning you need to play a lot, play hard, work hard, but really focus. How can you create the best methods and habits to better focus on the work that you’re doing? It takes years to really master the focus area. What habits allow you to better focus on stuff that you’re doing? And what noise?”

When it comes to blocking out noise, Adrian explained that “It’s like a holistic thing, right. In terms of exercise, diet, even taking cold showers, I take cold showers now. Meditation. Also, I block everything on my laptop. Only the stuff that I’m working on is open on my browser. I use ‘BlockSite’ to block stuff. We subconsciously go into those sites without even thinking too much about it. So we need other tools to help us counteract our bad habits. Writing a list of habits, small habits that you can do every day could help you to have more focus and less noise.

The other thing that has helped me is a lot of the basics, you know, basics like diet meditation, exercise.”

Looking for information

“First is pick the industry. Create a list of the most relevant sites that provide quality information. What’s the goal? What are you looking for? Find the most relevant ones and then check them out on a regular basis.”

Healthy habits

“What can you do today that will help you achieve? What set of steps can help you? Then if you feel you have achieved something in the last two or three weeks, if not, tweak, tweak, tweak, bring it back and change. It’s like an iterative process.”Register for email updates to receive more of Conor’s profiles of the best Irish and international personal business success stories.

Discussion about this podcast

Dylan Bradshaw – Hairdresser – Brand Ambassador – Entrepreneur

Career Profile

Dylan Bradshaw is a multi-award-winning hairdresser who has achieved many accolades since opening his own salon in 2000.

A strong presence in the fashion world, Dylan and his creative team are regularly requested for magazine editorials, fashion shows and industry advertisements with their work gracing the pages of international and Irish publications including Vogue UK, Vogue US, Bazaar, Rolling Stone Magazine as well Irish Tatler, Image, VIP and U Magazines to name but a few. His remarkable career and signature approach has received impressive critical acclaim winning countless industry awards for artistic and technical skill.

Ireland’s only hairdresser to be appointed an International ‘K-Stylist’ Ambassador for the Kerastase brand and the only Irish Judge on the panel for the UK L’Oréal colour trophy Grand Finals, Dylan’s vision and talent is ever-evolving. Working with an exceptional team of experienced, highly trained and artistic hairdressers, their talent and drive keeps the salon at the forefront of Irish hairdressing.

With Over 60 accolades already achieved some of the most recent Awards are: Winner Creative Head Magazine MOST WANTED Awards 2016, 2017,2018, and 2019 Exceptional Stylist, London – meaning he joins the Hall of Fame with top industry names like Sam Mc Knight and Errol Douglas MBE.

We chatted to Dylan about his fantastic personal branding, career highlights and heard some of his funny stories from over the years. He also shared some of his best entrepreneurial tips that have helped him succeed and he kindly shared with us.

Creativity

“I’m the kind of guy that’s the pain in the arse. If somebody is doing something, I’ve got the finger in the air, ‘but why can’t we do it this way?’. I spend most of my life dreaming, daydreaming about things and what I’m going to do. I’ve always had that, and that’s the creative thing with me. I always have a very clear thought of the product that I want at the end of the day. Some people probably say I’m a control freak, but you know, I’ve got to think about my business for the next 10 years and what it says to people when they come through the doors.”

Personal branding

“It’s very funny when you first open a business and people start talking about your brand. You’re so paranoid and conscious going ‘My brand? What does that mean?’. It makes you sound like you’re big headed or whatever, and that was the same about my name. But branding yourself as a person is timeless, it’ll never age.”

Don’t dilute the brand

“We’re not here to open 20 shops. We’ve never had any interest in it. I’m just happy to have one big store and that we’re a destination space. I don’t want to manage and have hundreds of staff. I’m just happy to have a place that I can call home from home, but I go to work and that I can control the environment. It’s important that we have a good space that doesn’t dilute the brand in any way.”

It’s about the balance

“There’s always trade offs, but in life it’s about that balance. What do you want? Do you want to be the best one thing which is great, and then suck at another thing? Or do you want to have an equal balance? I like the idea that we work hard but we don’t have to work ridiculously hard. If you keep thinking that the destination is success, then you’re leading yourself a failure.

It doesn’t matter about the destination at the end of it, like ‘I’ve made all this money’. But it’s about – are you happy in your life?”

Focus on the right people

“Spend time and concentrate on the guys that are really up for it. Sometimes you let them down because you’re too busy trying to put out fires. So that’s what I have learned in business, that you just concentrate on the good guys, because they’re loyal, they work hard and they believe in what you do. That’s something that we spent a lot of time on these past few years is just looking after the good guys.”

Listen to people and to podcasts

“The most important thing is listening. You know, it’s important to learn to listen because you can pick up all this free advice and information. So from people that are in business or who have families, people that have failed at something and that have succeeded in things. You just pick all this information up.

I love listening to people just talking about experience. It doesn’t have to be like a clear message at the end of it. I got completely addicted to desert Island discs over the lockdown because it’s just personalities. You can listen to an academic and what floats their boat. You can listen to a musician, an actor. I love listening to people.”

Be prepared for the fall

“Charlotte, who’s a huge part of the business, says that we ‘jump off a cliff and build the wings on the way down’. I think you have to enjoy what you’re doing, but also be prepared for the failures as well and for the fall – just so long as you bounce back from it.”

Keep pushing forward

“I’d say to people just to have faith in themselves, that’s it. Because a lot of times people aren’t going to have faith in you, you know? It’s something that we kind of bang around a bit, but you’ve just got to believe and keep pushing forward.”Register for email updates to receive more of Conor’s profiles of the best Irish and international personal business success stories.

Discussion about this podcast

James Burke – Entrepreneur – Food Consultant – Retail Advisor

Career Profile

James Burke began his career in the food and retail industry working part-time in Supervalu Bantry. In 1984 he joined Superquinn after subsequently studying retailed management in DIT. James spent over 20 years in Superquinn, the last 10 of which were at Boardroom Level. His Superquinn executive roles included Business Development Manager, Group Purchasing Manager and Trading Manager.

In addition James served on the advisory board of AMS €1 billion European buying group and was a director of the Irish purchasing company ‘Aontas’. James holds a degree in retailing and wholesaling from Stirling University in Scotland.

At Self Makers we spoke with James about his journey from employee, to freelance, to employer and gained some insightful advice for anyone that may be thinking about proposing an idea within the food and retail industry.

1. Have confidence

From James’ perspective, “Going from employed to self employed to employer. It was a process of getting to a point where there was no fear. You get to a point where you think ‘actually, it really doesn’t matter because if that doesn’t happen I can do this, etc’”.

“‘There was no fear in it and there was a plan, so just go for it, and see what happens. It was a one year plan to freelance and see what happens but that grew into something else.”

“Before I even left, I had so many industry contacts who said ‘oh yes, come and do two days work with me, come and do three days with me, and so on. So in effect, I can’t remember how many weeks or months were full but I had enough confidence going out there that the foundations were laid down. I suppose that I have been fortunate in the earlier times that it was all new prospecting territory, and sometimes the phone just rang. That’s wonderful to be in that space.”

“I remember getting some great advice from a guy, Andrew Bradley. I said to Andrew ‘look I’m a bit concerned, there is nothing in my diary for 5 months time’ and he said ‘get used to it and have the confidence that it will fill’. You need that confidence when you operate on your own that it will fill. There is braveness that needs to be there.”

2. The person is more important than the idea

“The idea for me usually isn’t the issue, it’s the person. We come across so many super ideas and you just have this inclination at an early stage to say ‘i’m not sure that this person can carry this off’. In a lot of cases that maybe follows through, that they do move on to something else at a later stage or maybe they have suddenly become self employed. Maybe that space isn’t for them.

“Yes of course the idea is important, – it is critical that the research has been done because you don’t want another pot of strawberry jam UNLESS the objective is correct. For example, when you hear someone saying that this has to pay a salary and put the kids through college. Perhaps they are coming through with an idea that is possibly in an overcrowded category, or it is challenged in some ways, OR the person may not be able to bring it through.” That is when the objectives don’t match up with your product idea.

“There’s always a challenge with everything you bring. ‘Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Are you sure about that piece?’ But that’s what it is about and then it is down to the entrepreneur. The person that gets this instinct that says they have to take this gut feeling, and take a call to it because they’re close to the idea, making a decision that turns out to be the correct one.”

3. Funding is important

“Funding is quite obviously a problem. Many people come really enthusiastic and excited about a project, but when you probe the finance and ask ‘how are you going to fund this?’, it gets lost.”

“The other misconception is ‘I am going to get an investor’. It is really difficult to get an investor into any business, it is extremely difficult to get an investor into a food business and it is practically impossible at start-up stage because you have no proof of concept. Unless, there are exceptions and that might be a family member who says that they are happy to go in with you on this, but as a typical rule it is a challenging one.”

Furthermore, “If you are in the retail space or opening a cafe, the cost of start-up can be quite staggering. If you were fitting out a restaurant it could be tens of thousands of euros before it can serve a cappuccino – that can be daunting for some people as well.”

4. I view the role of an accountant as critical

“Having a good person on the numbers externally is critical to any business. I would say that to any business owner. I view the role of an accountant as critical.”

Moreover, “It’s about being backed up by a really good PA or office manager because there is a danger that while you are immersed with clients and doing tremendous work with them, that you suddenly look and go ‘who’s driving the business?’. So for any business you have to have somebody, otherwise it becomes an impossibility and you are trying to process invoices at 1am.”

5. Sign up to newsletters

When asked for his book or podcast recommendations, James responded with “I am more of a believer and a user in making sure that you are signed up for newsletters and updates. I task myself that at least once a week I have got to take something out of one of them. Sometimes something might come through in the retail space and there will be half a dozen clients that I think of. I’ll send it out and say ‘look – this sounds like something that is interesting’. But if you don’t stay stimulated, you could become out of date or start using reference points that are five years old and already failed.”

“Now it is about where our sector is going and what are the influencers in it saying. That can be really interesting and chopping and changing those periodically is important. If you find that three weeks have gone by and you delete it each time, it is probably time to freshen up your subscription list.”Register for email updates to receive more of Conor’s profiles of the best Irish and international personal business success stories.

Dr. John Teeling – Serial Entrepreneur – Explorer – DistillerCareer Profile

John Teeling has half a century’s experience in building, growing and investing in businesses. Apparently, those who can do, those who can’t, teach. John has done both at an exceptionally high standard as he was a lecturer in Business Administration at University College Dublin prior to his entrepreneurial career.

Since then, he has established a number of exploration and resource companies in addition to renowned distilleries including Cooley and Great Northern Distillery. He sold Cooley Distillery to Jim Beam for more than €70m in 2011. John is considered by many to be the ‘Father of the Irish whiskey renaissance’.

John is very down to earth despite his lifetime of achievements including a tremendously successful business sale. His passion and energy are inspirational. His habit of extensive reading and research unearths opportunities he is well poised to pursue.

Self Makers was lucky enough to chat to John about his journey to self-made success. Here he shares his top tips that have helped him along the way.

Prepare for uncertainty

“My ability is that I can handle uncertainty well. You know, there’s a difference between uncertainty and risk. So if you don’t want strange things to happen to you, then you don’t go into business. Now I’m good at handling that, and I’m also blessed which I think is very important. I’m blessed with good energy. When you set up a venture, you have to be able to adapt when things go wrong and change. You must have energy to change when it goes wrong.

Very few plans survive. I think that some famous general said the best laid battle strategy does not survive the first engagement, and that’s very true. There is no doubt that serendipity plays a part, good things happen sometimes. They really do.”

Be resilient

“I think the job of a business creator is quite a lonely job. Lonely is a horrible word but it’s a unitary job. It’s yours and you have to be happy with it. You might wake up at four o’clock in the morning and say ‘why in God’s name did I do that?’. Every single person is going to say that. But you have to be able to handle that.”

There will be both good and bad times

“It’s a very good lifestyle, though it can be stressful. Having your own venture and controlling it yourself is satisfying – even the very bad times are good. Four o’clock in the morning becomes half eight or nine o’clock. To my sons, I said “fellas you should enjoy these bad days. It’s a hell of a lot better than sitting in the office talking about figures.

I think you have to go to war when things have gone wrong, when you’re called to the barricades. Now you might prefer a little less of it, but I actually think for Jack and Stephen, these two years will be the making of them. They sink or swim, and they won’t sink, they’ll swim.”

Make the most of resources

“To me, setting up a business is your idea that you believe in and you have to persuade others. The ability to get the resources, it’s not just the money. Can you get the technical skills you want? Can you beg, borrow or steal the ten dollars if you have to get it? I know nothing about whisky because I don’t drink it, but I was able to get somebody who was a chemical engineer from the states. As for the mining ventures, I’m not an engineer, I’m a money man. I’m not a geologist, so I was able to get unemployed geologists who were really world class.”

It’s never too late

“You get the odd very strange person who’s 18 and who can do all the things – we all hear about them. But in fact Jeff Bezos, who’s the best of them all now, was probably in his thirties. Elon Musk was probably in his thirties too before he set up Tesla. So experience is not a bad thing to get because you get a bit more self confidence. Before the big ventures, I was probably in my late thirties.”

Read!

“I always loved to read thank God. You have to be open to ideas. I’m a voracious acquirer of knowledge. I read three newspapers in the morning from 6-8am and read a lot of business magazines like The Economist and Business Week. I wouldn’t really read a lot of business books, I’m not into that but in terms of the ideas I would just gather as much information as I can.”

Get to know your numbers

“I’m a numbers man. I still like the numbers. We were doing something this morning – literally talking about a joint venture, and three of us were all numbers men. We were just looking at what we would get, what would be there at the end. You do it with a pen and paper and a single page. The numbers can be simple. Don’t make it too complex.

You need to be able to read a balance sheet. I really think you do need that. You don’t need to have advanced training like an accountant. You don’t need to be able to do sensitivity analysis and all but I think it’s no harm to know the difference between various items on a balance sheet. No harm to understand cash flow – simple things like working capital. Whether you’re looking at 18 months, 2 years, 2 and a half years, you have to understand how you can manage your cash.”

Be curious about the future and get out there

“I read a lot of reports on different industries. I’m a great believer in trying to see what’s out there and in 10, 15, 20 years time. I like futurology and I like looking at when megatrends are going to happen.

I’m a very strong believer that business academics need to be practitioners – like lawyers and doctors. You can learn everything you like, but you’ve got to learn out of the trenches. I’m afraid maybe now they don’t do that.

John did what needed to be done, even if it did not come naturally to him. “I don’t socialise much or join things as I tend to be a bit of a loner. However, I was a founding member of the Irish Whiskey Association and the MBA Association of Ireland.”

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