Professional Choice, Personal Risk-Taking and The Third Door

I’ve just finished reading The Third Door by Alex Banayan – and I’d like to give a huge shout-out to Dani Saveker, who sent it to me out of the blue, knowing that I would love it. And I do.

As much as it’s a very engaging read of Alex’s quest to learn from the world’s most successful people, the real kicker is in the last chapter – the course that our lives take is more about the choices we make than our abilities. There are a lot of very, very talented people in the world and not all of them achieve the level of success that their raw abilities might warrant – why? The choices in our lives steer the course we take.

So, I started thinking about my own choices and what led me to be the CEO of Shirlaws Group. As much as it's about anything, it boils down to a single email.

In 2012 when my role was Head of Online, a project that I was leading was being blocked by the assigned senior leader ‘project champion’. I’m sure he had his reasons – but the upshot of that was that I was failing on a project that I knew was incredibly important to the Founder. 

As 2012 drew to a close and I became more and more frustrated I decided to take a huge risk – I would write to the Founder – factually, respectfully and unemotionally – highlighting that progress was not being made and the reasons why as I saw them.

Crucially, the focus of the email was on what needed to happen to bring that project to fruition – what was needed by the team that we weren’t getting from our champion. In other words, the focus wasn’t on my frustration and the problem, but on the solution.

Why was this such a huge risk? Because I was admitting unequivocally that I was failing – and even worse – I was citing the inaction of someone else! As in, it could be perceived that I was blaming my failure on a senior partner – someone who had been with the Founder since the beginning. It went something like this:

Dear A,

The nearing of the final month of 2012 and the headlong dash to Christmas has brought to mind that we will be into 2013 before we know it.

I find myself having to write to you directly as attempting to work with B to make something of Online through 2012 has been completely unproductive. I have lost count of the number of calls I have scheduled on this subject that he has backed out of, culminating in the latest call on 2nd November that, despite confirming less than an hour beforehand, resulted in a no-show….

Six paragraphs later, re-reading and revising over and over, I slept on it. And then in the morning I read it one more time and pressed ‘Send’. And then I held my breath.

That email led to a telephone conversation, which led to being called to London to attend a strategy day, which led to being asked to attend a two-day strategy retreat, to working as the right-hand of the Founder for several months, to being appointed COO and, later, CEO of the global entity. That email led to so much learning. That email opened doors and led to massive opportunities.

That email was my vulnerability in black and white. “This isn’t working – I need help.”

As I step down from my role as CEO of Shirlaws at the end of this month and go on to new challenges I want to acknowledge how much I’ve learned and thank each and every one of those at Shirlaws who’ve helped along the way.

I also want to encourage anyone reading this to pick up a copy of The Third Door, to understand how the decisions you make today impact your role and your life in the future, and to take the risks others aren’t taking.

Is there a lot at stake in doing that? Absolutely – and so much more to gain.