Is success in the DNA of your ambition?

I remember it as if it were yesterday, the excitement, the anticipation, the adventure. It was 03.00, pitch black and my mum came into mine and my brothers room to wake us up. Growing up in our little mid terraced house meant sharing a room with my older brother but it wasn't all bad as it wasn’t forever and today we were off on our summer holidays.

Looking back at my younger years life was full of adventures especially as I was lucky enough to have a huge family. I lived with my mum, step dad, brother and half sister and would visit my dad, step mum and step sister a couple of days a week and one weekend in every four with my annoying older brother Mark. As you can imagine this wasn’t always easy as a young lad, but it’s fair to say I wouldn't change it as I have the best family you could wish for. (Not forgetting growing up with double birthdays and Christmas’s were actually quite a good thing).

It’s fair to say life was a little different for me as not many of my friends had parents that had split up. Living with my mum and step dad they decided to compromise on house size to ensure me, my brother and little sister always had a brilliant summer holiday. This year was no exception and we were off to America only this time we were going to be meeting up with some relatives, Anne and Graham Crowe. To me this was very good news as Graham was an absolute hoot, Infact it’s fair to say I have looked up to him for as long as I can remember, we’d play golf, table tennis and even go for morning runs but the best thing was he was a big kid at heart and in my teenage years what more could a lad want then to have a joke and a laugh with my older cousin. He would have been in his mid to late 30’s (the same age as I am now) when we first started going on holidays. Anne and Graham had 2 children (Laura and Gemma) and whilst they were much younger then me the whole family got on really well.

I guess I was about 13 when I started seeing things differently, I saw my step dad who was a long serving fire man working hard and slowly working his way up the career ladder within the civil service and providing for me and the family, I saw my dad in the police service busy working in traffic and enjoying everything the job had to throw at him and I saw my cousin who was a Sales Manager working for a packaging company selling metal food and drinks cans. My cousin lived in a nice house in Manchester, would seem to have a new car every time we saw him and would speak of playing golf with customers and travelling Europe with work which even back then I recall finding exciting in some way. I didn’t fully understand it but I recall hearing him talk to my step dad whilst on holiday one year about his job and I remember being intrigued about what he did as it didn’t sound like work to me.

Now nothing was really different about Graham other then the fact that he seemed to be liked by everybody he met; funny, charismatic but most of all he had the ability to talk to anybody on any level whatsoever. I recall one year walking along the street and waiters would be trying to entice us into there restaurant for dinner, out of our families it would always be Graham that would take the lead and somehow get us a deal that would leave the waiter feeling like they'd been short changed in some way. Meals out and activities like boat trips were always just waiting for a deal to be done. Always polite and never rude, he was just full of charisma, confidence and with the right amount of cheekiness to boot.

I can look back now and see what was happening during my younger years, my understanding of life and work was being moulded before my very eyes by what I was seeing and experiencing. As the years rolled on I recall one particular holiday when we stayed with Anne and Graham the night before we flew from Manchester airport. As usual I elected to travel in Graham's car much to the annoyance of my own parents and on the way his phone rang, Graham was now a European Sales Director and it was someone from his sales team requiring his help about something, I don’t remember the exact details of what was discussed but I remember thinking to myself how cool.... Grahams on holiday and he must be so important that people ring him even while he’s away. As a youngster with no concept of work/life balance I only saw awesomeness of graham’s importance with no thought of what his wife Anne may be thinking about the calls intrusion into their family holiday.

I guess It was right there, in that car over 25 years ago that a switch was flicked in my head. I realised at that point that if you wanted to be successful you had to leave the mainstream and be prepared to make compromises and beyond all be prepared to go the extra mile. I didn’t know if I could do it or how I was going to get there but everything I have undertaken since that point has resulted in me aiming for exceptional and shooting for the “A grade”. It’s fair to say in my earlier years ability was not always my strongest point and neither was my confidence but the key to progress is to never give up and I truly believe that never giving up is in the DNA of my ambition.

I recall early on in my career being shown a graph in a review meeting by my HR Director at BSS and being told; “Dan, you are progressing very well on your trainee course however we need to establish how far you are able to go within the company by reviewing your ability as well as your enthusiasm to achieve, to enable us to consider the direction we wish to move you in as you continue to grow”. "Wow"... "big stuff"... I thought to myself and at this point I was shown a graph and on one axis he wrote ability and on the other he wrote enthusiasm. As he started to draw lines on the graph he said some people have great enthusiasm but lack ability and some people have great ability but lack enthusiasm. He continued on and said that the best people have a high degree of enthusiasm and a high amount of ability. That statement interested me as I sat in that office, my ability in the class room sense measured by my qualifications to date should have discouraged me from progressing as I was not an A Grade student that’s for sure. That said, interestingly and as he continued to talk I considered what he was telling me but couldn't help but see that he focused on enthusiasm as well as ability and as he continued to speak the take home message from that review was clear. You can have the most ability in the world but if you lack enthusiasm to go with it you will fail to realise your full potential, equally if you have loads of enthusiasm but limited ability you will risk being nothing more then a day dreamer.

Sat here writing this almost 20 years on it is possible to say that we all progress on life’s journey differently and it is easy to become complacent about the direction you are traveling in as at times we all loose sight of where we are heading and what we are trying to achieve. I always try to remember that the most important consideration in my career has been the importance of other people’s perception of me and ensuring I have a clear direction of where I am trying to get to.

Think about that for a moment... it’s a harsh reality as we don’t always get things right. At School, College and University, progress comes from grades..... you have passed with distinction, well done you would say. The measure is very black and white and typically has nothing to do with peoples perception of you. In your career, progress comes from other people’s perception of you as well as your performance. It doesn’t matter if it’s sales, engineering, marketing, it could be anything at all but progress comes from your ability and drive and of course other people’s perception of you and what your doing to enable reward and new opportunities to present themselves to you.

Considering this I always find myself recalling the graph described above and asking myself the question of;

1. “ Is my ability matching my enthusiasm?”
2. “Is my enthusiasm matching my ability?”

The most important element for me is ensuring that I am always enthusiastic and if not something needs to change. As I’ve progressed up the career ladder I have become increasingly aware of how my personality and mood impacts other people’s performance, it is clear that in work at different times pressure can apply itself in different ways but the one thing I have come to realise is that enthusiasm, inspiration, solidarity, leadership, and energy can go along way in filling in on a persons developing ability and hunger for success.

My advise to anyone is never give up and more importantly than anything believe in yourself and on top of all of that ensure that people can see your eagerness to progress as that will encourage people to provide additional opportunities to you. Remember perception is everything and positivity is infectious and remember this... negativity is destructive and does not help anyone nor does it help you to sell yourself or the products or services you are representing.

What I have gone on to realise over the years is ambition and success do not come easy and comes to those who have drive, determination and an unrivalled desire to succeed. Looking back at my upbringing and own career I have had a little luck that is true but as I sit here writing this it’s fair to say I did not always get it right first time (This I know for sure). That said I am absolute in saying that with passion comes drive and with drive comes the ability to keep going. Whether it be working as a tree surgeon at the age of 17 and loading a chipper with wood and wanting to complete my pile quicker then my colleague to impress my boss or whether it be not willing to go home early even when offered to do so from my Sales Trainee job at BSS as I didn’t want to risk looking bad in front of my team.

My drive has been my eagerness to be the best I possibly can be regardless of my ability and the activity I am undertaking, my biggest awareness is appreciating perception at work is everything.

Getting the right work life balance is not something that I profess to be brilliant at Mrs H can definitely tell you that but I have come to realize that sometimes compromise has to occur in order to maintain direction against your goals to provide the best opportunities you can for you and your family.

I am lucky, I have a very understanding wife who has been there every step of the way, through the good times, the bad times and even the ugly times and for that I am very grateful. My drive will never die and I now find myself looking at how I can help others, whether it be my family, colleagues or connections.

Since my first publication I’ve received a lot of questions asking for advise and opinions on peoples careers. What is clear is that life is like a book and your career is a series of chapters. Nurturing your own story is something which takes time, attention and an obsessive amount of devotion.

Looking back over the last 20 years, my career has made me who I am today and has been made up of 7 main chapters;

• Chapter 1: Schools out - what next?
• Chapter 2: Wearing the Greens
• Chapter 3: The holiday
• Chapter 4: Life as a Sales Trainee
• Chapter 5: Large multinational PLC to small family owned LTD company
• Chapter 6: Becoming a Managing Director and understanding my purpose
• Chapter 7: The future

Each chapter has enabled the next and over the next few months I look forwards to telling each ones story to enable others to achieve their dreams and objectives in a similar way to how I have.

Stay focused, shoot for the stars and never give up on your dreams.

Dan Harding