To Jump Or Not To Jump – An NL Week Revisited

IMAGINE if you could fail – what wouldn’t you do? An ingenious title for a Naked Leader Week from David Taylor which sparked an enormous response on the website.

The question was raised as a result of a dilemma faced by Naked Leader devotee, Alan, who emailed David about whether or not he should throw himself into the deep end with a new business venture. He wanted to overcome the voice of doubt in his mind.

David Pawley’s advice was: ‘Be aware of the small voice and use it as a positive force. ‘My view is better to try, and then not be as successful as you would like, than never try and regret the missed opportunity. Failure only happens when you quit. Good luck and good fortune.’

Another came from David Sharp who added: ‘If you haven’t already been a consultant then you might want to get some practice at the cycle of finding opportunities, bidding for work, winning it, delivering it, handling contract extensions, getting paid, creating case studies, obtaining client-endorsements etc.

‘You could potentially do this as an Associate to an established consultancy. Charteris plc is an example of a consultancy that draws on Associates where specific skills and expertise are required in excess of the internal capacity.’

A third voice of reason was offered by Mike who said: ‘I want to share my experience in setting up in business. Firstly, you must believe in your self and your trade.

‘Secondly, you must have passion for your trade. Thirdly, you must be very good at your job and have the administration skills your trade requires so you can believe that you can succeed. Finally, if you do not take risks you never get anywhere in life.
I took the risk and I now have a very successful accountancy business.”

Gill Kincavel was straight to the point: ‘Decide what you want to be, do and have – live the dream and challenge your reality, I did, it works!’

As for David Taylor, as you would expect, his thoughts included many key  points, including: ‘Follow the fastest way to be successful – find out someone who has already achieved success and do what they have done. If you don’t know what they did, ask them. This increases your chance of “success” dramatically.’

So, that – as well as many other contributions – was the Naked Leader’s collective voice to Alan and, hey presto, he added this post, on Saturday, September 11: ‘Hi everyone, Great news! Yesterday, a new company called ‘Chat Marketing’ was officially born. My company!! Thanks for all your advice and best wishes which spurred me on to take the plunge.’

A heart-warming story. Who needs phone a friend when you can ask the Naked Leader audience? Alan was someone who wanted advice, who dared to ask and was brave enough to act on the positivity of others.

Best of luck, Alan. May the force be with you. For the rest of our readers, why not add your contributions to the Naked Leader website? You may have something invaluable to share. We’d like to hear it.