Philippe’s rigourous training for this walk took place mostly in a quiet meadow. When he was there he would visualise the twin towers & the the city below him with its noise & distractions. When he was on the actual walk he brought himself back to the quite & peacefulness of that meadow. There was method to his madness & to his training.  He was able to use powerful visualisations to help him prepare & when doing the actual walk, keep him focused on the job at hand. But truly inspiring part for me is that Philippe had a crazy dream & he was willing to sacrifice his life to achieve it.

The other interesting piece to this is his regime of training to prepare for all scenairos (ok it was a life or death scenario so he had to!) Philippe had to prepare for all eventualities. His friends would shake the wire vigorously, he practised in all types of weather, the worst the better. One of my favoutite lines from this book is  “He laughed into the teeth of the wind”.

The  “GIVING A START” Competition 2011 is aimed at encouraging potential entrepreneurs to follow their dream and to start their own business.

The judging panel will include Bobby Kerr CEO of Insomnia and of “Dragons Den”, Paula Fitzsimons, of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and Terry Clune of Taxback.com.

The winner‟s prize is valued at €25,000.

This prize will be made up as follows:

-Office, business support, conference and meeting rooms in 11 Patrick Street

-Accommodation and events in The adjoining Pembroke Hotel

Support and consultancy from businesses in 11 Patrick Street to the value of €3,000.00 per business.
-Paschal Bergin Accountants & Tax Consultants
-MD Media PR Consultants
-Brian Dunlop Architects
-Optimize Recruitment
-Real Solutions, Staff training and coaching
-Fitzwilliam Partnership, Strategic and Financial Management

-Support from the Invest Kilkenny Business Support Unit and seed money of €1,000

-A strong PR campaign behind the competition locally and nationally aimed at giving profile to the winner and finalists.

For full competition entry details go to

http://www.elevenpatrickstreet.com/givingastart

I recently delivered a customer service programme to group of individuals.  As part of the programme we reflected on a number of questions.

• Who are your customers? Do you segment or categorise them?
• What do they do exactly? What is their business about?
• What are their challenges? In their specific role, in their business, in their industry?
• Are you reactive or proactive with them?
• How do you sound,  speak to your customers?
• Who does most of talking?
• Do you know what they say about you & your company to other companies?
• Do they recommend your company to their customers, suppliers?
• Do you keep your promises?
• Do you say Thank You for your business? Do you say sorry if you make a mistake?
• Do you go beyond your competitors in service? How do you WOW them?
• Do they consider you to be an expert/leader in your field?

This is a pro active customer service strategy. If you have answered yes to most of these questions then you have excellent customer service & I would love to hear how you got there.

When I think back on all the bosses I have had or reflect on the many conversations with clients – the more successful ones demonstrated some of the attributes in the below article.  We cannot be everything for our team or business , we have got to use the resources available to us & around us.  So letting go some of the reins will empower you to be more & enable you to achieve more. The difficult part is to understand what to let go & to whom?

Once you have figured that out you yourself will not only feel empowered but your team around you will feel empowered. This has a rippling effect that should benefit everybody.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/managing/article/lessons-in-leadership-susan-sobbott

Invigorating as it lead me to think about all of those enterprising people who are trying to tame the wind & waves, using it to produce energy, leading one of our greatest natural resources into the future.

In the face of our customers or potential customers, isn’t this what we should be doing also. Leading our customers , not just responding to their needs. By showing our customers that you will go 200% for them  & more, they will come back for more. Customers don’t just want a standard product or service anymore they want to know how you can help them drive their business forward, save costs, take them to new markets, help them to be a leader to their customers.

Oren Harari discusses widely this concept of entrepreneurship in his book “Break from the Pack”. If you can get your hands on a copy its very interesting reading.

To enjoy the western seaboard at Easter be prepared. Bring your wetsuit, fleece, wet gear, gloves & most importantly a hat! To enjoy your customers be prepared with how you can help them to achieve what you want to achieve – success & survival into the distant future.