HRS RECOMMENDED READING
"Leadership" ~ by Rudolf W Giuliani and Ken Kurson
"Everyone Needs A Mentor" ~ by David Clutterbuck
"Shackleton’s Way" ~ by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell
by
Denise Blackburn
by Charles Handy
For his new book Handy interviewed twenty-nine London-based entrepreneurs, ranging from household names such as Richard Branson (what book on entrepreneurs would be complete without him?) and Charles Dunstone of the Carphone Warehouse, to William Atkinson, Headteacher of Phoenix School and Andy Law of St. Luke’s Advertising Agency.
Some of the interviews are inspiring - the sort of stories that give you goose pimples! Accompanied by portrait photographs taken by his wife Elizabeth, they capture the essence of each individual as a snapshot in time. They also go some way towards proving that there is a little of the alchemist in all of us, so you are sure to find something with which you can identify.
Everyone interviewed by Handy seems to both set and break rules and he concludes that New Alchemists all share three vital characteristics: dedication, doggedness and difference.
Just starting out on my career, this book has encouraged me to consider my future. Am I a potential New Alchemist? Or, as magazine publisher Martin Leach suggests, why worry when there is no need to hurry? For him, things did not start to ‘come together’ until his mid-thirties.
Like many of those featured I am fortunate to have the support and backing of my family, which will no doubt help me balance work with study. For inspiration I need look no further than HRS: a business started from scratch eight years ago and now flourishing, largely due to the vision of its founder. There is definitely something infectious about ambition!
I have also tried my hand at a bit of enterprise, designing and manufacturing jewellery and crafts to sell at local craft shows. In common with most New Alchemists it seems, profit was not my main aim. Enjoyment was the driving force.
Although Handy’s view is that New Alchemists have created something out of nothing, how can a combination of talent, personality and creativity be classed as nothing? They may be nothing in financial terms, but dedication, doggedness and difference are extremely difficult to value, priceless even. Yet surely they are the prerequisites to success.