Bye Bye 2017. It has been emotional...

Before you read my attempt at storytelling below I want to start with the intended outcomes from this post, such that you don't get lost in my drivel.

1. Life is a choice
2. Each day is a new adventure. Embrace it
3. Life is too short not to learn, regardless of how tough or uncomfortable you feel it is at times
4. It is not that bad. Take a real step back and look at where you are. Is it really that bad? Tomorrow is a new day, full of new opportunity

So let's try this.

I sit here on December the 21st 2017 having traversed a pretty traumatic year and survived.

A tad dramatic I hear you say. Yes very probably. There are many tougher challenges for humanity all over the world than a set of personal and business challenges that a CEO can experience. This I know, not least from my military experiences. Just indulge me for a few minutes:

I entered 2017 mid MBO (management buy out). At that stage I wasn't even sure what an MBO actually was, although I was in the middle of one and apparently leading it. I learnt a whole new set of business rules, a new business language and experienced relatively new human traits that exist across the business landscape as a result of tackling my first ever MBO process.

The MBO was to last eleven months! Yes eleven. We eventually concluded in late June of 2017. The rollercoaster journey that I had been on had taught me so many new things about myself, my team, about business and about how the human form truly reacts under intense business related pressure.

Phew! I thought. Maybe I can sleep for a week now, just to get back to normality. Wrong answer! A new Board, new shareholders, new plan and a set of expectations were already on the table and in play. Here we go again, forget taking a breath, we are off!

During the year I also was provided with an opportunity to take the job of my dreams. I didn't go looking for it. It came as a result of a 'throw away' discussion over dinner and from a great friendship that I have with a very special leader in my network.

I was asked to take on a CEO role of a pretty special football club. OMG! If you know anything about me, you will know that I have banged on and on about one day leading commercially a football club. However, the discussion came just two weeks before completing the MBO. I was torn. On one hand the job of my dreams in front of me, on the other, a group of really great people who had backed me, trusted me and were about to part with significant sums of money. Coupled with a great business that I had led for circa three years, some awesome talent that we had available to us and a philosophy that we were here to change society, to continue to have a social impact by getting talent into work.

It was an easy decision in the end. You see, I have always tried to do the right thing. Personal ambition is a by-product of who I am as a person and as a leader, not the driving force. We completed the MBO and we were off!

Needless to say, like any plan, there have been deviations, challenges, opportunities, tough decisions, tears and some very heated debates well into the evenings that have caused angst both at work and at home. Such is the life of a CEO. You are not here to be liked by everyone all of the time. You are here to do the right thing, to make the tough decisions and to protect the whole. Your role is to ensure that the future of the business, the talent within it and that the customers that you serve, are your highest priorities. Forget ego if you want to be good at this stuff. Forget having that pat on the back or that 'well done', that is your job.

So as I sit here, having completed my fourth year as a CEO, having learnt more this year about business, people and myself than ever before. Having chosen to take on an MBO, chosen to turn down the job of my dreams, having put my family, at times, through purgatory with my 'bear with a sore head' moments and having realised that it is Christmas (yes I have just realised), it is time for me to stand back over the festive period and to realise that whilst I need sleep (never admit you are tired as a leader) and that it may have seemed tough at the time of the specific challenges shared with you above, when you put it all into context, when you step back and take in all of the learning, the experiences, the ups & downs, it has been worth it. But more importantly it has been my choice. Nobody has forced me to be a CEO. Nobody forced me to try an MBO. Nobody forced me to turn down the job of my dreams. Those were my choices.

Life is a series of choices that either come to you for various and spurious rationale or that you create through hard work, having the right attitude and a little bit of talent.

Embrace tomorrow like it was a fresh start. See each day as a new opportunity. Take responsibility for your choices and for where you find yourself in life.

I believe that you only get 'one shot at the title' in this life. Personal view, so before you berate me, I can hold a view right?

I for one certainly do not want people to stand at my wake and to talk about how I wasted my life. Each day is a new adventure and that adventure is shaped by your choices. It is down to you to make of that what you will.

Life is a choice.

Have a great Christmas.