The Gut Decision
28 November 2006
In late 1998 I was given a choice between my gut, and a million pounds plus salary and benefits. It was a surreal meeting. This is how it happened.I was standing beneath the umbrella of a grubby street cafe, coffee in hand, watching as the torrential rain washed people past me down the street. Next to me stood a client, John, and he was talking big money.
''Work with me for a couple of years and I'll make you a millionaire'', he said.
I believed him. Money was not John's problem. He was the CEO of a very serious group of companies backed by some even more serious offshore investment. In the months since I had started working with them the group had invested aggressively in internet startups, floated one of them on the US stockmarket, and gone looking for more. They were riding the dot-com boom hard and fast. Even peripherally it was a dizzying display of capitalism.
I was twenty-seven at the time, eighteen months into my consultancy business and loving the freedom it gave me... but a million quid is hard to ignore. I listened.
''You'll have a proper job with a bloody good salary and the stock options in your back pocket'', he said. ''All you have to do is sign-up for three years, then you can go back to poncin' around.'' John was old school, he had a direct way with words.
''And you'll get a decent bloody car'', he said, waving a donut at me. He was a big man, and he'd never been impressed with my sporty hatchback.
''I don't need a new car''.
''Bollocks you don't''.
We lapsed into a strange silence. We weren't friends really, although we had spent a fair amount of time together over the previous couple of months. John had inherited my services from his predecesor, and after a period of extreme suspicion he'd decided that I was pretty useful to have around.
''You're a lazy bugger,'' he said, ''that's your problem. You don't like hard work''.
I didn't argue. It wasn't about how hard I worked. John was unimpressed with my freelance status and missed no opportunity to remind me that I wasn't a team player. He was wrong of course, but the the fact that he couldn't order me around as an employee gnawed at him. It was one of the reasons he'd made such a ridiculous offer in the first place.
Not that I was about to reject it out of hand. Those were ridiculous times and I had no problem with earning ridiculous amounts of money... lots of other people were, including him. Maybe it was now or never. I knew I could do the work, and I wasn't afraid of long hours. All I had to do was say 'yes', knuckle down for a couple of years and watch the money to roll in.
That... and ignore the uneasiness I was feeling in my gut*.
I looked at John. He wasn't a fool. If you offer someone a million pounds and they don't bite your hand-off you know something is up. He could sense it. In that way we were similar people, we both took more notice of our own gut-feeling than we did of other people.
''Bloody hell", he said. "I'm asking for help here''.
''I'll think about it.'' I said, but we both heard the lie. I wasn't thinking about it. My gut feeling had decided it for me. I wasn't going to be weighing the pros and cons, or discussing it with my mates. It didn't smell right. That was that.
As readers you will now be dividing into two groups. Many of you will be think me a fool, or worse, for turning down the opportunity. But others of you may be nodding. You'll recognise that feeling that can neither be explained or ignored... and you'll understand why I declined John's offer and walked happily out into the rain.
And never regretted it. Although I continued to work with John and the group for a few more weeks there was a storm brewing. As months went by he came under massive pressure from the off-shore 'partners'. More hours, more work, more acquisitions, more share offerings... and more and more and more. By the time the stock market crashed in early 2000 John had already been discarded... and when the crash did come the company that owned that group of businesses lost more than 95% of it's value in three months.
Of course I had no idea about what would happen... all I had was a feeling that I trusted, and the freedom to act on what it was telling me.
Eight years later, at Semantic, we still have that freedom... and it's the single best thing about our business. I've talked elsewhere about why small businesses beat big ones... but right at the top of that list is the ability to turn down opportunities that don't smell right... even when the numbers disagree. Over the past few years we've declined several projects, including a couple of major ones, for just that reason... and walked happily out into the rain.
*Malcom Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) calls this instinctive response 'thin-slicing'... and pulls together evidence for it from all over the place in his most recent book Blink.)
Posted by Nick Warren at 8:11 AM
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A Shot in the Arm
22 November 2006
Anyone with who thinks the NHS is universally inefficient should see what I saw this morning.One of the advantages* of being borderline asthmatic is that once a year I get to queue up with old people and chronic smokers to have a free anti-flu shot. At least that's the theory. The reality is different. There is no queue - and not just because old people and smokers are easy to shove out the way - it's because my local surgery have got the process exactly right.
I won't describe the whole system, but suffice to say that it is a production line that takes in people at the top and passes them through a five stage process with astonishing speed and kindness. (There's a word you won't often see in a description of a process).
1) Meet and greet (nurse 1)
2) Name check and vaccination card (nurse 2)
3) Read the safety guidance (with nurse 3 on hand to answer questions)
4) The actual injection (nurse 4)
5) Tea and biscuits (friendly old bloke)
It is a startling display of efficiency, but that's NOT the big thing. As I've said elsewhere I'm not a big fan of efficiency... it is too often used as an excuse to be shoddy, or inflexible, or just plain rude.
But the nurses use a bendy system... sure it's efficient, but there is enough flexibility there to cope with all of those who don't fit into neat little holes. Those who need help, or reassurance, or want to talk to a doctor.
And the first thing every single one of them did when they saw me was smile. That's the BIG THING. Efficient yes... but human beings who are there to help their customers... and I reckon they had about as many happy customers as they could expect considering they were sticking bits of metal in people all day.
"Are you feeling okay" asked nurse four... for the third time.
"Really I'm fine", I said, looking hurt. "I always look like this".
"Oh god, sorry... I didn't mean..." she spluttered, and then realised I was winding her up. Excellent. There's something about nurses, ya just gotta mess with them.
But the bottom line is that they could teach the rest of us a lot about the way to balance the dark side of efficiency with a bit of flexibility and a smile.
:-)
*there are always some advantages to everything, aren't there?
Posted by Nick Warren at 7:44 PM
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Small is the New Big
16 November 2006
I've just got back from Liverpool on a trip to see all our friends at www.blueplanetaquarium.com. Good folks, good fun and another great client to be working with.It's a ten hour round trip so on the road I've been listening to Seth Godin's new book, "Small is the new big". It's an easy 'read', a collection of short pieces he has written over the last few years... including the eponymous blog post that I mentioned earlier in the year... the one that kind of explains why Semantic works.
Of course it is interesting and provocative... and of course it makes me feel like a beginner, even after doing this for a decade. But most of all it makes me feel excited to work right here, at Semantic. But here's the thing. I think a book like this might make you excited too, wherever you work.
Posted by Nick Warren at 6:23 PM
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SkillsFactory goes live
14 November 2006
Late news. A couple of weeks ago we launched the new SkillsFactory web site... our latest collaboration with Granada Learning. The SkillsFactory sells software that makes teachers lives easier... how can you argue with that?
Posted by Nick Warren at 3:40 PM
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On dodgy foundations
10 November 2006
Earlier in the week I talked about the value of doing things for which you have no discernible talent... and to illustrate the point I published my first ever cartoon. It was rubbish (obviously), but then I am usually rubbish at things I have never done before. Who isn't?My big problem with the cartoon wasn't the stick-man visuals, or the derivative gag... it was the fact that it didn't say anything interesting about its subject, Creativity. But it did get me thinking, and this is the result.
Okay, so it's still not Shakespeare, but it is quite a lot closer to what I wanted to achieve. It alluding to something that has been true for me, from time to time... that 'Blind Panic' sometimes succeeds as a creative engine when everything else has failed. I've done some of my best work in a 'blind panic'.
But the real point is this... if I had strangled the first cartoon at birth (which I think we can all agree it deserved) the second one could not exist. Yes, I'm still a rubbish cartoonist... but I like the second effort twice as much as I liked the first. I wonder where I can get to if I keep at it..?
And the cool thing is I have 'no discernible talent' for almost everything... I wonder what I'll do next week?
Posted by Nick Warren at 8:56 AM
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When Bad is Good...
06 November 2006
Are you ever paralysed by your need to be good at stuff? I am, all the time. Many blog entries have died on this very spot because they didn't seem quite useful or amusing enough to waste your time (or mine) on.In that case self-censorship (mine) is clearly a good thing, but fear-of-failure can be a problem when it starts to get in the way of trying anything new. When this happens I try to bear in mind the great advice given to me by a friend back in my college days. The guy was a mature student, smoked roll-ups, and delivered his wisdom in the manner of a thoughtful Buddhist.
"We must remember", he said, "not to leave all the fun things in life to people who are good at them".
From time to time I take that as license to try things for which I have no training, skill or natural aptitude (which covers more or less everything). Here is a case in point, my first comic strip.
Yes, it is pretty awful. Obviously I can't draw for toffee, and the 'gag' is familiar and derivative. It says nothing interesting or insightful about creativity... which was my aspiration, and it's far too obvious a punch-line to be funny. On every reasonable level it deserves to have been smothered at birth...
Except...
...I like it. I like that I did it. I like that it is something I've made, however awful. I choose not to leave all the fun stuff to those who are good at it. I may not be a Bill Watterson* or a Scott Adams, but who cares.
It is easy to kill things off because they seem stupid, or obvious... or because they make you look a fool. I get that urge all the time... and then I try to remember that ten years ago I jacked-in a great job with fantastic prospects even though I had no idea what I would do instead... and never once looked back.
*If you haven't read 'Calvin and Hobbes' do yourself a favour. It's gold.
Posted by Nick Warren at 9:16 PM
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