A slice of humble pie and a cup of motivation to go, please!

Last week was a full one with lots of networking and business seminars. All good stuff and useful to my business but without a doubt the most inspiring of talks came from an unexpected source.

For nearly two years now I have been working with a very determined and increasingly succussful local businesswoman, Rebecca Varley. Rebecca has built up a very interesting company called 'Speakers from the Edge' (www.speakersfromtheedge.com) which represents the best motivational speakers from the world of adventure, exploration and ultra-endurance.

Rebecca invited me along to an evening she ran at Sheffield University and let me tell you, I was blown away!

To put this into context, let me explain first of all that I don't consider myself to be the biggest risk taker in the world. It took me two years to commit to buying my business, plus excessive reading of books such as 'Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway'! (Amazon - Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway). I am a firm believer in the mantra '...It won't kill you!'

Well, the talk delivered by Ian Parnell (endearingly mad) and Andy Kirkpatrick (off his trolley) put 'what's the worse that can happen?' completely into perspective.

These guys have an unfaltering passion for extreme mountaineering. What struck me was that their passion was not money-driven but came from a thrill for the challenge, the aspiration to achieve greater and greater levels of self-improvement and no doubt a desire to view from the most unusual of perspectives some of the most amazing places in the world.

Of course, they could just be completely crazy but whatever the driver, what struck me was that their achievements are so real, so tangible, so obviously beyond what most of us consider ourselves to be capable of and yet their attitude and demeanour so matter-of-fact and self-effacing. Chuck in some humour and beautiful photography and you have the makings of a great evening.

I recognised many analogies to the challenges faced in business and it reminded me of something I'd heard earlier in the week "Don't look at how far you've got to go but at how far you've come". It might sound cheesy but for many of us, this is something we're just not very good at as business people!

I'd like to thank Rebecca and her speakers, Ian Parnell and Andy Kirkpatrick for a fantastic evening and I'd encourage anyone looking for truly motivational speakers to give Rebecca a call.

I promise you equal measures of humble pie and motivation and more than a little food for thought!