When Burlesque returns Bill Clinton - Entrepreneur 2012 1/4

I was surfing the internet trying to plan my friends hens party using search words like "hens party", "pole dancing", "girls night" and "burlesque" and Google directed me to a page titled "Bill Clinton". The associated page was for the infamous voucher company Groupon who were selling heavily discounted conference tickets where Mr Clinton was a keynote speaker for a mere £17. 

I recognised the bargain and I with plenty of time on my hands at the moment, Dianne (the hen) and I signed up for the 4 day Entrepreneur 2012 conference at London's Excel. What simply seemed a  nice distraction from job hunting and the confines of my house, where the walls feel like they are closing in on me some days, would turn out to be the most emotionally stirring 4 days since I have been back in London. 

On Day 1 we were whipped into a frenzy by a Motivational speaker Andy Harrington, a tale of rags to riches. Andy was once a Churchill Insurance tele-sales person earning £1k a month....until he took a loan out to "buy a car" and launched a business selling it for £58m 10 years later. He now preaches on the Power to Achieve. Andy had such velocity in his persuasion techniques that I found myself on stage and him looking directly in my eyes asking "do you want to make the change" I nodded obediently, like a dumb Churchill Dog bouncing on the car dash, before coming to my senses realising I don't have £2000 or 15 friends even mildly interested in buying his £97 DVD box set to net this off to attend his "Power to Achieve" seminar. See the truth is I am unemployed and all of my friends are either in successful jobs or read books, talk to friends or buy shit off the internet before they would buy some mumbo jumbo from me! (although I would have handed out flyers at the conference the next day if I had have actually signed the paper - I do know something of being entrepreneurial). My will power and Scrooge McDuck attitude saved me from being Britain's most annoying speaker. Praise Be!

Then came Daniel Priestly an Australian entrepreneur who was just plain good value. The kind of guy you would gladly have a pint with (despite my reservations on hearing his accent!). Daniel outlined a few home truths about the fact we are no longer in the Ideas Age but in an Implementation Age where the ideas have got to mean something now and its our chance to make a difference. He also had a wonderful diagram about life - and for Dianne and I this was the take home for the entire 4 day conference. The concept that we all look to balance the good stuff of Love, Value and Reward. For years I have probably been on the Value and Reward scale. While one of my oldest and dearest friends who works as a Teachers Aide is more in the Value and Heart quadrant and a professional footballer would be fairly placed in the Love & Reward quadrant. But very very few people can be identified in the sweet spot where you are able to indulge your passion plus feel you are adding value from your efforts and be equally rewarded for these efforts. 

Honestly the only way I see I will get in the sweet spot would never be in my day job but a combination of my day job and my desire to do charitable and embrace environmental initiatives to satisfy me....but this was part of the journey these thought provokers sent me on and now I can see. I would recommend having a listen to Daniel or to try his book (you can get the first couple of chapters from his website). 

On came former BT Project Manager Simon Coulson who had taken his redundancy and turned to the self help e-book trade to make a very healthy living for himself. I couldn't help but feel he was definitely not living in the sweet spot and living directly in the reward circle - bouncing off its walls with every new e-book title inspiration. I rather pitied his soulless source of money and thought of all the people who would buy a £20 e-book as someone who had more money than sense. Go to the damn library!

Then came the kicker for the end of Day One Daven Marshall of 123 Employee. This dude was a polished performer and it came as no surprise that he came from Los Angeles with such a concept and gloss. Daven along with so many today see Resource Outsourcing as the source of professional freedom. Why not have an intelligent Indian or in Davens case Filipino do all their work for them. 

Having spent months in India this year and returned to a high unemployment in Britain I have seen just how negatively such "initiatives" are effecting the global workforce. The India I experienced worked unsociable hours catering for their British, East Coast or West Coast of America customers completely changing the social dynamic of the cities and turning the people into a generation of capitalist craving, obese, arrogant, new money consumers. And when I return home jobs are scarce as there is always someone in the offshore business hubs capable of doing the task for half the cost. No wonder the American and British economy is going down the drain. We can't even support our own communities to build a better tomorrow, as innovation stagnates with time differences, communication barriers and technical hurdles.
Daven's speech annoyed me sufficiently to leave for the day and made me recognise that I believe in national pride. Maybe its because I am from a small island nation so far from the rest of the world that I believe that you must ensure you have to be self-sufficient otherwise how can you really support your customers let alone your community as a whole.

This is part of a 4 Part Series on Entrepreneur 2012 
Day 1 - When Burlesque returns Bill Clinton
Day 2 - book-worming your way to success
Day 3 - the Entrepreneur Emotional Rollercoaster 
Day 4 - Bill Clinton and Pole Dancing a tenuous link