Set Your Goals

Are you a competitive person, do you set goals and how often do you achieve them? Goals have always been part of my life, I am competitive and have that desire to win but I like to play fair but hard. If you could see me, I’m certainly not built like an athlete but that has never been an obstacle, I just go for it!

Embarking on a new career seven months previously, and now I had the accolade of being the ‘youngest licensee in Cornwall’. Being the youngest never bothered me as I was the youngest of 3 boys so it was the norm. Thinking back to that time which is now a quarter of a century ago, I had a fighting spirit, a fear of nothing coupled with a raw naivety, it was a wonderful combination. The naivety may have gone but the fighting spirit and fear of nothing remains and burns just as strong today.

The Daniell Arms, Truro had a new licensee on 12th November 1985, and it was me. It was so exciting and I was so proud to be there, in fact I was on top of the world. Over 40 years previously my mother had been evacuated to Truro during the Second World War so it was a kind of familiar territory. The pub itself was a little bit up market, no spit and sawdust, carpeted throughout with nice furnishings and ambient lighting. There was something quite unique about the pub within the city, even before I arrived it was a bustling establishment, my goal was to make it even busier!

Two nights a week there was a local DJ Vince who came in and ran competitions, one in particular was very popular ‘The Paper Chase’. Each week Vince would bring up a batch of the previous editions of the local paper and run the competition on its content. This would end up with small teams of people spread throughout the pub tearing their way through the paper desperately looking for the answers to the questions. There were prizes but what it did it brought people into the pub on a midweek night, most of the other locals could not compete.

From this established base I worked on other ideas to make the pub unique. One of them was to buy old radios and site them throughout. This linked very nicely to the musical nature of the pub itself. Even the menu was changed to feature more snaky food to cater for the customer and each dish had a musical connotation. The Daniell was going from strength to strength, hard work and a steep learning curve but so much ground was covered.

My satisfaction was gained from watching and helping people to have a good time, that way they spent more money and the turnover kept going up. It all sounds so easy as I write about it now but it did take working long hard hours. Every week that passed I wanted to beat the takings of the previous week; I was never satisfied in sitting back and putting my feet up.

To succeed in life you do need to set your goals, without them you will never know how you really are doing. I remember a phrase I learnt a long time ago and it still rings true today. ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’.

Taking the Opportunity

In those seven short months of coming into the licensed trade I had learnt so much and the bits I didn’t know I quickly found out about with my inquisitive mind. Whilst the knowledge on what was out there was growing, knowledge on our own existence was growing too, not just within the pub itself but the licensed trade net work.

John was now confident enough to go on holiday and leave me in charge. It is fair to say the staff he had were all well established so it wasn’t ‘that’ difficult. Never the less I felt very responsible in my temporary role and strived to do my best.

During this time I received a rather strange phone call. It came I’m sure towards the end of a busy lunchtime session with the person on the other end asking to speak to John. When I explained that John was in fact on holiday they then said ‘well in fact I would like to speak to you’, this puzzled me. The content of that conversation was simple, word had got around that a ‘young management couple’ in Cornwall were making a name for themselves and the Brewery saw them as ‘ideal’ managers! It is fair to say, not only did this come as a shock but when looking round several pubs in Cornwall even though the aim was to have one of our own, it never dawned on me it would happen so quickly!

On John’s return from holiday I spoke with him at the appropriate moment, he was a little angry as someone was going to benefit from his labours but at the same time was pleased that we had an opportunity to make it on our own.

Shortly afterwards, we were to make a trip heading west to Truro where the Daniell Arms was going to be the next chapter in a very successful licensed career.

Thinking back on this, which happened twenty-five years ago, I was so excited to be given the chance and no one was going to stop me taking the opportunity.