A Way of Life Not Just A Job

Seven months now seems to pass by at a blink of an eye, however back in 1985 it appeared to be a very long time. With John and Kay (primarily John) as my mentors there was so much to learn and get to grips with in a new career. As I was finding out it wasn’t just a job but a ‘way of life’.

John took his ‘way of life’ very seriously and was constantly looking at ways to improve, always had his finger on the pulse with the market competition and maintained high standards at all times. This last point in particular has stood me well in my life realising that you can please some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time. John always used to say ‘the customer is always rights..... except when it comes to money!’ Both John and Kay were a wealth of information, but from my side it was understanding how to access that and utilise it to my advantage.

Unlike most publicans, I had two days off a week (never had that with my own business) and would generally go back to my parents home and spend time there. From my perspective I thought that was all I needed to do as I was working 5 days per week (including weekends), long hours but I thought it was my right to ‘switch off’ from this new career, I was wrong.

One week after returning from two days off John was not in the best of moods (his moods did tend to vary anyway), I really wasn’t sure why. A few days later I remember him exploding with rage on how I didn’t seem to really care about this new career. He was clearly angry and accused me of not committing, this really did catch me on the hop, in fact I was quite hurt by his remarks because I thought I was working really hard and getting on with what was needed doing. However, the point that I was missing was when it came to being ‘my own business’ the success and failure would be down to me and that would be where the buck would stop. Quite clearly I had missed the point that having your own business you never really switch off from it and need to be constantly on your guard and develop your ‘way of life’. After spending a few days of licking my wounds, I decided I would ‘show him’ that I ‘did’ care and prove to him (more importantly to myself) I did have what it takes.
The next two days off weren’t spend relaxing at my parents, instead they were focused on visiting as many pubs in 2 days and assessing the opposition, seeing what they were good and not so good at, compiling a mini report on each and returning back to John on the Tuesday evening with the findings. In fact 19 pubs were visited over that two day period and much was learnt in a very short space of time, the penny had dropped!

From that point onwards, I had learnt a lesson which I have stuck to ever since. If something means that much and you believe in it, then you need to put in the spade work to give it a real chance of sustaining and growing. In fact it was a ‘way of life’ and realisation that by putting something in to it you will get something out.