On Sunday, I drove my 14-year-old son, James, to Entrepreneurs Circle (EC) HQ in Birmingham for Nigel Botterill’s Young Entrepreneurs Training Programme. Getting a teenager out of bed at 6.15am at the weekend is NOT easy, especially when there’s a perception of sitting in a room all day learning. I told him to trust me, trust the process, there’d be nice food (!), and it would be a fun father and son bonding day...

As I knew it would be, it was an AMAZING experience! It was all about the young people in the room – their minds, their purpose, and what it takes to become a successful person and entrepreneur.

And, as I also knew, James was buzzing. He was the youngest in the room and a little overwhelmed, but I left him in the safest of hands with Nigel and Matt D'Butler. At each break he enthusiastically gave me a summary of what they’d covered, and all the way home he was asking questions about how me and Jacki fit into the EC.

When he got home, he couldn’t wait to tell Jacki all about it: “Mum, the morning was all about my mind, we choose what success looks like!”. Then got out his workbook and flicked to page 62 and went through how to work the revenue, costs and profit, then gave Jacki a breakdown of Tax.

He learned SO many life lessons, as did I...

You see, he had no idea what I REALLY do.

All he knew is that I’m in Birmingham every Monday, and often Tuesdays too: “Is Dad away again?”.

He has to creep through the door after school as my office is at the front and I’m often on client calls or group Zooms.

He’ll sometimes find me at my desk late at night or at weekends and ask me if we can go for a walk or help fix his glitching game but doesn’t understand why I can’t right away as I’m working on some spreadsheets or fixing an App that I’m building.

So, on Sunday, I showed him around the offices: where I present ECPlus courses, the Boardroom where I help run Masterminds, Nigel’s office where we talk strategy and leadership...

He asked about where all the “stuff” comes from so I explained about the blueprint Jacki and I created a few years ago that is The Masterplan, used by hundreds of business owners. And all about my past as a CEO and bringing in all that experience to create value.

The penny dropped. For both of us.

Not only had he leaned a ton of value about life and business from Nigel, but he also ‘got’ what Jacki and I do.

And he was proud.

We’d taken it for granted that James knew what we do, and more importantly WHY we do it.

The same goes for all of us in business – whether it be our partners, family, team, customers, friends – it’s so important to share why we do, what we do. Especially as business owners: we aren’t nine to five, five days a week. We don’t want to fit in - we want to stand out. We want to challenge the status quo and help others even if it means we make short term sacrifices ourselves for the longer-term goal.

So grateful for Nigel running this programme for young people – not only is James continuing this course over 12 months to help him learn things he’ll NEVER learn at school, but it was a chance for me to take a step back, reflect, and share.

BW,

Martin

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays