I have been reading ‘Sales on a Beermat’ by Mike Southon – the Beermat Entrepreneur recently. Two reasons. Firstly I’m rubbish at sales (I think) and secondly one of our clients have asked him to do a session for them and I’m helping them co-ordinate the programme so I was due to meet him. I wanted to read the book and then meet him to see what I could learn. Now as an aside this programme is a bit of a speaker-fest. They wheel in a bunch of book writers to ‘inspire’ the troops. I’m into applying learning not entertaining people to earn my money….but they have nicer cars than me so maybe there’s something in it…Anyway the book is great – very easy to read, practical and thought-provoking so I was really looking forward to meeting Mike. He’s a very interesting bloke, but (by his own admission so I mean this in the most respectful way) has quite a strong ego. He got me thinking about the other entrepreneurs I know and they tend to be the same! We all have a bit of an ego. I do, I like to think that I’m good at what I do and add value. The difference is I judge myself against what I think about me, the entrepreneurs I am thinking of like everyone else to think they’re good at what they do!
But they are very successful. So, does success breed the ego or do we need an ego to be successful? Not sure, the answer is probably a bit of both. Would it fit with our clients? No.
Which leaves me in a bit of a dilemma. Conclusions? We talk a lot about authentic leadership in our business which is really about being true to yourself. That’s probably it - be yourself.
Paul Everitt
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