Realising your natural potential

I’ve already touched upon this several times, but it’s worth mentioning properly. Life is about realising your ‘natural’ potential - do what you enjoy, and you’ll naturally be good at it and successful. Plus you’ll be happy, work will be a hobby, how great is that!!

I realised that I was not a food and drink person, but definitely a finance person. It’s what I enjoy and what gives me a buzz. So coming back to work at the bank is one of the best moves I made, as it means that my day is filled fun and challenging work, and Iget paid well for it. It also means I get to focus on my other hobby of property investment, where again I am responsible for the bits i enjoy - sourcing, research, raising finance and structuring a deal.

With Tonic, I enjoyed the business and analysis aspect of it, but what I didn’t enjoy was the operational aspect and even though I thought I’d hired someone to fill in that gap, it was not enough. With the property business, I actually have a partner that enjoys the bits I don’t – the renovation side – planning and managing the renovation works themselves. This is good, because it means we have complimentary skills, but more importantly we’re both investors so we have a stake in the business and will have a firm commitment. In Tonic, that was another problem, there was nobody that had the skills I needed, and had the commitment to the business as well. I now know that I should not get involved in that type of business unless I am simply investing and the people running it are passionate and committed and, most importantly, have the right skills.