business time

My Dad’s briefcase was a real life treasure chest. It was shiny and black and made out of soft leather, closed tightly by two big shiny gold buckles that only he knew the code to. Sometimes he’d let me in to his secret world of paper clips and post-it notes and I’d spend hours marvelling at how the carefully carved out sections would hold everything so neatly in place.

There was a pocket for his calculator, one for his ruler and one for his crisp white note pad. There was even a strap to keep hold of his fancy fountain pen. At the top, inside the zipped pocket, was where he kept his big mobile telephone, the one with a flip case and an aerial that you had to pull out before making a call.

Sometimes, I’d pretend it was my briefcase. I’d take that fancy fountain pen and scribble down my ideas onto the blue and pink and orange post-it notes, and I’d stick them down on the floor beside me. I’d map it all out; my plans for a new secret club to invite my friends to or a garage sale to sell my belongings and make some pocket money. And once my dreams had crystallised, I’d drizzle them down onto that crisp white paper, covering the sides of my hands in dark blue ink.

When I look back, it’s easy to see that my fascination with business has been deeply engrained in me since childhood. I’m in love with the idea that one tiny thought inside one single person’s head is a seed planted, and all it takes is the right conditions to help that seed grow from a dream to a reality. It’s the complexity of organised chaos; the people, processes, and politics, all wrapped up in the psychological wizardry of ego-systems that, more often than not, have been built with a burning desire to change the world.

My own business journey has been a fascinating one, and one day I hope I get to write down all the lessons I’ve learned. There have been set backs, knock backs, mini failures and big lessons. I’ve burnt myself into the ground several times over. I’ve given up sleep and health in exchange for an almost psychotic drive to make things happen. I’ve made bad decisions, good decisions and everything in between. But there is one thing that has remained consistent, particularly over the past two years as I’ve built out the Mindless brand, and it’s that one thing that I believe in the most; the power of my mind.