so how to future-proof your life and
your career now that is the massive
gargantuan BAM off quest and I’m gonna
try and give if not definitive answers
to some perspectives on in this talk and
I’m gonna try and do so by dancing
nimbly between two sins to equal sins to
pit holes pit hole 1 just coming across
as a satisfied biddle age smug and fit
old to just not filling this time with
vacuous platitude and cliche why hey
this for me I know that is a good
question 1 we’ll all have to ask the
organizers I as you can see I’m not a
celebrity I’m not a GB Olympian athlete
I’m not a book or for peddling their
latest theory I’m a pretty ordinary
bloke but I guess I am at least in
possession of two simple facts facts 1
I’ve had a fairly unusual varied and
some may say eclectic career in fact 2 I
stand here today some 30 years on from
where many of you are still the smile on
my face still believe in life is pretty
cool now I wonder already perilously
close to pit hole number 1 but it’s
worth dwelling on a pretty sober reality
which is many people are deeply unhappy
in their careers and their lives so a
recent survey
globally by Gallup reported that there
are more than twice as many employees
who are actively disengaged in their
careers as there are those that are
actively engaged and happy in their jobs
and it is of no surprise that that
finding correlates near perfectly with
the grander question of life contentment
and again a recent UK audit revealed
that only 3 in 10 could claim they were
happy with their lives so the question
about a future-proof your career in your
lives how to end up in what appears to
be a one-third bucket of engaged
contentment was a philosophically
massive question is I’m sure we can all
agree a pretty important one so that’s
the question set what are we going to do
well in the next 15 or so minutes is to
proffer five personal perspectives on
what is served me well in that journey
success will be that one or two of these
hopefully resonate with you and you
remember them and tuck them away in your
own mental toolbox for your journey
ahead now before I dive straight into
them it’s probably worth me to give you
a very brief bit of personal context on
that journey so if I step into your
shoes as an 18 year old boy I was at a
comprehensive school in South London it
was a kind of school where progression
to university wasn’t really talked about
Tomales it wasn’t really actively
encouraged so I went straight out into
the world of work my father at the time
was a builder he had a building company
I used to labor on his building sites in
my school holidays so my first interest
area was building and I I set out and I
found some experience in an architect’s
office
well I very quickly realized that that
interest was not going to morph into a
passion and I changed tack I then became
a trainee computer programmer in a bank
then in out into the world and meeting
people I then sort of realized I
probably should have been a bit more
curious about University so I decided to
apply to read a computer studies and
it’s a testament to how novel hot and
exciting computers were at the time that
I got a good degree without actually
ever owning one but at the end I did not
go into IT and you’ll hear a bit more
about that in a moment
instead with three friends we jumped in
a Land Rover and drove across Africa
with the aim of crossing the Sahara and
climbing the five highest peaks in that
continent and then donating out there
over to a children’s home on completion
well at about halfway through that
tritter trip literally halfway across
the sahara we got held up by twenty five
to Iraq bandits or world in ak-47s and
they stole everything including the
vehicle so the planning goes too well it
took a couple of weeks to extract
ourselves out of that situation
long story different talk but I
eventually arrived in Zimbabwe where I
took up a job as a whitewater rafting
guide on the Zambezi River and did that
for a season I then came back and I
joined took up a officers commission in
Her Majesty’s Royal Marines a very
special period of my life I did it for
all of my 20s and my reflection is you
know real privilege to be a member of
a high-performing organization and have
you know such quality colleagues on my
shoulder and also just a number of
stories and scrapes and experiences
including as an example I was seconded
to a charity that was to leave
delivering a malarial medicines to
really remote Amerindian communities in
the heart of the Guyanese rainforest so
very worthwhile endeavor and it was on
that project where I met my now wife who
was a British medic attached to the same
project so I got to the age of 30 my
first son came along I decided to leave
the forces and via an MBA or Business
Studies I joined a global company called
Deloitte Consulting and I specialized in
essentially coordinating large teams of
people in large scale business and
transformation projects I did that for
four years and then I decided to set up
my own business doing essentially the
same and I grew that business to circa
70 staff and I sold it in 2008 and then
I stayed on for a number of 30 years and
then essentially steps back to a my
latest I guess current work life chapter
which I would best describe as having
fingers in pies I am advised a number of
businesses I’ve got a few
entrepreneurial flutters I’ve got some
writing projects and a number of
non-work more community related projects
so that’s the context set that we now
dive into what I feel I’ve learned on
that journey so my first call it
reflection but tip if you want principle
is develop a personal guide in principle
now I’m going to tell you mine and
you’re welcome to steal it okay mine is
whoever has the most stories wins
I say gain whoever has the most stories
wins now this became really kind of
clear to me in my second year break from
university amazing experience in Africa
well such a core principle and believe
me you will all have yours sort of
tucked down deep inside you somewhere is
an invaluable device when it comes to
navigating all of those crossroad
moments in life and in your
those points of multiple paths dilemma
which career option to take which job
offer to accept by example when I got to
the end of my computer Studies degree
and I was faced with a very lucrative
offer to go into IT and be an office job
and talking to an electronic box all day
or to drive a Land Rover across Africa
and join the Royal Marines I consulted
my principal whoever has the most
stories wins no-brainer decision made
reflection to have a plan now plans and
the act of planning they’ve come in for
a bit of a bashing recently particularly
in the business sort of entrepreneurial
startup world where it’s all now about
agile flexible working now having a
mindset of improvise adapt and overcome
as the raw Marines definitely told me is
invaluable but so our plans and I’m
talking about plans now in the context
of your own life and career the brutal
reality is most people spend more time
planning their summer holiday at holiday
tech days than they do their lives and
I’m imploring you to take the time and
effort because it does take time and
effort hence why plans have probably
fallen a little bit from favor so map
out your own life and career goals and
because it’s a very function of mulling
those aspects over and writing them down
on paper that will significantly
increase your chances of being
successful in delivering them now this
doesn’t mean having all the answers
those plans can be high-level and nor do
planned stay static they can and should
evolve and nor do plans somehow sort of
squeeze the serendipity out of life
conversely having a plan sets the tram
lines on which great adventures can be
directed and overlays but by example sat
on that rock and I remember taking the
photo is where I wrote down my post
University goals whilst I was in Africa
to come back and drive a Land Rover
across that continent and to join the
raw Marines
when I left the Royal Marines this was
the plan I wrote which amongst other
goals I decided I wanted to start my own
business within five years at year four
of that five year journey I took a
week’s holiday from my then employer and
sat down and wrote this business plan
which described how I could go from a
singleton startup to a company of value
in five years and then this is the plan
that sort of tries to keep me honest to
my current work life chapter including
goals such as supporting great
initiatives and institutions as this one
so plans work writes one reflection free
regularly review in life balance now
you’re at an age where you don’t need to
worry about this too much at the moment
okay I mean one of the unalloyed joys of
being young is the crazy imbalance on
occasion just don’t leave it until
you’re thirty to sort of check in on
this matter
you see balance in life is not done over
a time horizon of a day a month or even
a year but leave it ten years and you’re
at serious risk of joining those two
third malcontent I personally have many
friends and acquaintances at this stage
of their lives who are very successful
that I great for is some event stacks of
money but many are deeply unhappy many
are grossly unfit many of personal
relationships that have suffered a death
by a million tiny knife acts of omission
and million tiny knife cuts believe me
that is a really hollow victory
especially so because all of the
research into life contentment says that
nurturing quality relationships is what
really lies at the heart of that matter
if I’m really honest I wondered
perilously dangerously close to it
myself so driving a business that was
based in London for nearly eight years
was a dangerous asymmetry and hence why
I took a very deliberate decision to
recalibrate now I’m going to share with
you a really simple tool it’s called the
balance will it’s with my sort of
modification but it’s it’s a borrowed
concept and we’ve some prescient
maturity you might want to use this as
the index page on the personal plan I’m
advocating that you
right but promise me you at least look
at it before you hit 30 okay he has a
toxins you can see them there family and
friends story and experiences physical
health financial security maybe some
early savings remember stories and
experiences whoever has the most wins
career and work home in habitats you
probably don’t need to worry about that
too much for a while
personal development beyond college and
university and community how you might
serve yours so this has really sat at
the heart of all of my personal plans
and I often take a stocktake I kind of
give myself an honest 1 to 10 score I
make sure I’ve got a number of
meaningful goals in each and I guess in
summary we haven’t got the time for me
to unpack all of my other octants and
nor do I pretend you’d be particular
interested in hearing it but I seek to
fill as much in those as I do to octant
5 let me finally say this on balance
balance is not some utopian just
destination you ever arrived at it’s
deluded to think that ok however if you
meaningfully take active self ownership
of it because no one else is going to do
it for you aspire for it and take
decisions germane to it that is
absolutely what separates the 1/3 from
the 2/3 so your challenge is to find a
device that keeps this aspect in check
for you even if that is in five years
time you schedule your first life review
reflection 4 beware the talent myth but
I am fascinated by the topic of
high-performing teams and organizations
and why some organizations absolutely
excel and others just sort of meander
along my personal observation is those
that are super successful they always
have this unrelenting pursuit for
excellence but coupled with a collective
humility to recognize they never quite
get there my personal render of this to
you is take your future career and
profession very very seriously but not
yourself
it is about having what Professor Carol
Dweck calls the growth mindset as
opposed to the talent mindset which is a
sort of sense of you know talent is an
inherent given now of course we all
stand here with different attributes
different backstories different
experiences but the determinant of your
future skills and talents and
achievements hinge is not on your
predisposition now or on your mindset
whether you genuinely believe life is
about that humble continuous learning
and self-development or a kind of fait
accompli I am what I am
type attitude the former mindset will
take you very very far the latter
mindset nowhere you see
talent is vastly overrated it is hard
work and applied effort that converts
talent into skill it’s hard work and
applied effort that converts skill into
achievement applied effort is the force
multiplier
not Talent so all I would say on this
one is just maybe take a moment listen
to your own self-talk growth mindset or
fixed mindset and maybe chart time to
make a life changing mental switch now
my fifth and final reflection is invest
in the interest in so I don’t know about
you but when I was 18 I used to get
really irked by the follow your dreams
pursue your passion tight rhetoric I had
friends who had this kind of future
crystal clarity and I really disliked
them for it because frankly I didn’t
have a clue so I’m just going to
discharge some slightly more pragmatic
advice on this one you are setting out
on a long journey and I hope one day
you’ll arrive at a place where you can
say you’re passionate about what you do
the field you work in you may even say
you’ve found your purpose or even your
calling just don’t beat yourself up if
that doesn’t happen straight away rather
when you leave school college university
just get out in the world take your
interest something you’re intellectually
interested in something you enjoy doing
and rub it against the world engaging it
ideally with other people because only
then will you discover over that
interest morphs into a passion if it
does great if it doesn’t doesn’t really
matter get the next interest and rub
that against the world yeah it’s far
more about the proactive search than it
is the destination so invest in the
interesting and the rest will follow so
there you have it the five reflections
develop a personal guide in principle
have a plan regularly review life
balance be where the talent myth and
invest in the interesting I’m going to
leave you with just one conclude in sort
of observation when I was asked to give
this talk a few weeks ago I hurriedly
went around and conducted an informal
survey grabs my friends and
acquaintances down the streets and the
corridors I said look if you go up in
this stage and you had to opine on this
matter what would you say and I was
really struck by two phrases that kept
coming back over and over again
so I’m going to leave those with you but
in so doing I’m definitely gonna jump
into pit ol number two I just want to
say I wish you every future success
travel well
[Applause]
your career now that is the massive
gargantuan BAM off quest and I’m gonna
try and give if not definitive answers
to some perspectives on in this talk and
I’m gonna try and do so by dancing
nimbly between two sins to equal sins to
pit holes pit hole 1 just coming across
as a satisfied biddle age smug and fit
old to just not filling this time with
vacuous platitude and cliche why hey
this for me I know that is a good
question 1 we’ll all have to ask the
organizers I as you can see I’m not a
celebrity I’m not a GB Olympian athlete
I’m not a book or for peddling their
latest theory I’m a pretty ordinary
bloke but I guess I am at least in
possession of two simple facts facts 1
I’ve had a fairly unusual varied and
some may say eclectic career in fact 2 I
stand here today some 30 years on from
where many of you are still the smile on
my face still believe in life is pretty
cool now I wonder already perilously
close to pit hole number 1 but it’s
worth dwelling on a pretty sober reality
which is many people are deeply unhappy
in their careers and their lives so a
recent survey
globally by Gallup reported that there
are more than twice as many employees
who are actively disengaged in their
careers as there are those that are
actively engaged and happy in their jobs
and it is of no surprise that that
finding correlates near perfectly with
the grander question of life contentment
and again a recent UK audit revealed
that only 3 in 10 could claim they were
happy with their lives so the question
about a future-proof your career in your
lives how to end up in what appears to
be a one-third bucket of engaged
contentment was a philosophically
massive question is I’m sure we can all
agree a pretty important one so that’s
the question set what are we going to do
well in the next 15 or so minutes is to
proffer five personal perspectives on
what is served me well in that journey
success will be that one or two of these
hopefully resonate with you and you
remember them and tuck them away in your
own mental toolbox for your journey
ahead now before I dive straight into
them it’s probably worth me to give you
a very brief bit of personal context on
that journey so if I step into your
shoes as an 18 year old boy I was at a
comprehensive school in South London it
was a kind of school where progression
to university wasn’t really talked about
Tomales it wasn’t really actively
encouraged so I went straight out into
the world of work my father at the time
was a builder he had a building company
I used to labor on his building sites in
my school holidays so my first interest
area was building and I I set out and I
found some experience in an architect’s
office
well I very quickly realized that that
interest was not going to morph into a
passion and I changed tack I then became
a trainee computer programmer in a bank
then in out into the world and meeting
people I then sort of realized I
probably should have been a bit more
curious about University so I decided to
apply to read a computer studies and
it’s a testament to how novel hot and
exciting computers were at the time that
I got a good degree without actually
ever owning one but at the end I did not
go into IT and you’ll hear a bit more
about that in a moment
instead with three friends we jumped in
a Land Rover and drove across Africa
with the aim of crossing the Sahara and
climbing the five highest peaks in that
continent and then donating out there
over to a children’s home on completion
well at about halfway through that
tritter trip literally halfway across
the sahara we got held up by twenty five
to Iraq bandits or world in ak-47s and
they stole everything including the
vehicle so the planning goes too well it
took a couple of weeks to extract
ourselves out of that situation
long story different talk but I
eventually arrived in Zimbabwe where I
took up a job as a whitewater rafting
guide on the Zambezi River and did that
for a season I then came back and I
joined took up a officers commission in
Her Majesty’s Royal Marines a very
special period of my life I did it for
all of my 20s and my reflection is you
know real privilege to be a member of
a high-performing organization and have
you know such quality colleagues on my
shoulder and also just a number of
stories and scrapes and experiences
including as an example I was seconded
to a charity that was to leave
delivering a malarial medicines to
really remote Amerindian communities in
the heart of the Guyanese rainforest so
very worthwhile endeavor and it was on
that project where I met my now wife who
was a British medic attached to the same
project so I got to the age of 30 my
first son came along I decided to leave
the forces and via an MBA or Business
Studies I joined a global company called
Deloitte Consulting and I specialized in
essentially coordinating large teams of
people in large scale business and
transformation projects I did that for
four years and then I decided to set up
my own business doing essentially the
same and I grew that business to circa
70 staff and I sold it in 2008 and then
I stayed on for a number of 30 years and
then essentially steps back to a my
latest I guess current work life chapter
which I would best describe as having
fingers in pies I am advised a number of
businesses I’ve got a few
entrepreneurial flutters I’ve got some
writing projects and a number of
non-work more community related projects
so that’s the context set that we now
dive into what I feel I’ve learned on
that journey so my first call it
reflection but tip if you want principle
is develop a personal guide in principle
now I’m going to tell you mine and
you’re welcome to steal it okay mine is
whoever has the most stories wins
I say gain whoever has the most stories
wins now this became really kind of
clear to me in my second year break from
university amazing experience in Africa
well such a core principle and believe
me you will all have yours sort of
tucked down deep inside you somewhere is
an invaluable device when it comes to
navigating all of those crossroad
moments in life and in your
those points of multiple paths dilemma
which career option to take which job
offer to accept by example when I got to
the end of my computer Studies degree
and I was faced with a very lucrative
offer to go into IT and be an office job
and talking to an electronic box all day
or to drive a Land Rover across Africa
and join the Royal Marines I consulted
my principal whoever has the most
stories wins no-brainer decision made
reflection to have a plan now plans and
the act of planning they’ve come in for
a bit of a bashing recently particularly
in the business sort of entrepreneurial
startup world where it’s all now about
agile flexible working now having a
mindset of improvise adapt and overcome
as the raw Marines definitely told me is
invaluable but so our plans and I’m
talking about plans now in the context
of your own life and career the brutal
reality is most people spend more time
planning their summer holiday at holiday
tech days than they do their lives and
I’m imploring you to take the time and
effort because it does take time and
effort hence why plans have probably
fallen a little bit from favor so map
out your own life and career goals and
because it’s a very function of mulling
those aspects over and writing them down
on paper that will significantly
increase your chances of being
successful in delivering them now this
doesn’t mean having all the answers
those plans can be high-level and nor do
planned stay static they can and should
evolve and nor do plans somehow sort of
squeeze the serendipity out of life
conversely having a plan sets the tram
lines on which great adventures can be
directed and overlays but by example sat
on that rock and I remember taking the
photo is where I wrote down my post
University goals whilst I was in Africa
to come back and drive a Land Rover
across that continent and to join the
raw Marines
when I left the Royal Marines this was
the plan I wrote which amongst other
goals I decided I wanted to start my own
business within five years at year four
of that five year journey I took a
week’s holiday from my then employer and
sat down and wrote this business plan
which described how I could go from a
singleton startup to a company of value
in five years and then this is the plan
that sort of tries to keep me honest to
my current work life chapter including
goals such as supporting great
initiatives and institutions as this one
so plans work writes one reflection free
regularly review in life balance now
you’re at an age where you don’t need to
worry about this too much at the moment
okay I mean one of the unalloyed joys of
being young is the crazy imbalance on
occasion just don’t leave it until
you’re thirty to sort of check in on
this matter
you see balance in life is not done over
a time horizon of a day a month or even
a year but leave it ten years and you’re
at serious risk of joining those two
third malcontent I personally have many
friends and acquaintances at this stage
of their lives who are very successful
that I great for is some event stacks of
money but many are deeply unhappy many
are grossly unfit many of personal
relationships that have suffered a death
by a million tiny knife acts of omission
and million tiny knife cuts believe me
that is a really hollow victory
especially so because all of the
research into life contentment says that
nurturing quality relationships is what
really lies at the heart of that matter
if I’m really honest I wondered
perilously dangerously close to it
myself so driving a business that was
based in London for nearly eight years
was a dangerous asymmetry and hence why
I took a very deliberate decision to
recalibrate now I’m going to share with
you a really simple tool it’s called the
balance will it’s with my sort of
modification but it’s it’s a borrowed
concept and we’ve some prescient
maturity you might want to use this as
the index page on the personal plan I’m
advocating that you
right but promise me you at least look
at it before you hit 30 okay he has a
toxins you can see them there family and
friends story and experiences physical
health financial security maybe some
early savings remember stories and
experiences whoever has the most wins
career and work home in habitats you
probably don’t need to worry about that
too much for a while
personal development beyond college and
university and community how you might
serve yours so this has really sat at
the heart of all of my personal plans
and I often take a stocktake I kind of
give myself an honest 1 to 10 score I
make sure I’ve got a number of
meaningful goals in each and I guess in
summary we haven’t got the time for me
to unpack all of my other octants and
nor do I pretend you’d be particular
interested in hearing it but I seek to
fill as much in those as I do to octant
5 let me finally say this on balance
balance is not some utopian just
destination you ever arrived at it’s
deluded to think that ok however if you
meaningfully take active self ownership
of it because no one else is going to do
it for you aspire for it and take
decisions germane to it that is
absolutely what separates the 1/3 from
the 2/3 so your challenge is to find a
device that keeps this aspect in check
for you even if that is in five years
time you schedule your first life review
reflection 4 beware the talent myth but
I am fascinated by the topic of
high-performing teams and organizations
and why some organizations absolutely
excel and others just sort of meander
along my personal observation is those
that are super successful they always
have this unrelenting pursuit for
excellence but coupled with a collective
humility to recognize they never quite
get there my personal render of this to
you is take your future career and
profession very very seriously but not
yourself
it is about having what Professor Carol
Dweck calls the growth mindset as
opposed to the talent mindset which is a
sort of sense of you know talent is an
inherent given now of course we all
stand here with different attributes
different backstories different
experiences but the determinant of your
future skills and talents and
achievements hinge is not on your
predisposition now or on your mindset
whether you genuinely believe life is
about that humble continuous learning
and self-development or a kind of fait
accompli I am what I am
type attitude the former mindset will
take you very very far the latter
mindset nowhere you see
talent is vastly overrated it is hard
work and applied effort that converts
talent into skill it’s hard work and
applied effort that converts skill into
achievement applied effort is the force
multiplier
not Talent so all I would say on this
one is just maybe take a moment listen
to your own self-talk growth mindset or
fixed mindset and maybe chart time to
make a life changing mental switch now
my fifth and final reflection is invest
in the interest in so I don’t know about
you but when I was 18 I used to get
really irked by the follow your dreams
pursue your passion tight rhetoric I had
friends who had this kind of future
crystal clarity and I really disliked
them for it because frankly I didn’t
have a clue so I’m just going to
discharge some slightly more pragmatic
advice on this one you are setting out
on a long journey and I hope one day
you’ll arrive at a place where you can
say you’re passionate about what you do
the field you work in you may even say
you’ve found your purpose or even your
calling just don’t beat yourself up if
that doesn’t happen straight away rather
when you leave school college university
just get out in the world take your
interest something you’re intellectually
interested in something you enjoy doing
and rub it against the world engaging it
ideally with other people because only
then will you discover over that
interest morphs into a passion if it
does great if it doesn’t doesn’t really
matter get the next interest and rub
that against the world yeah it’s far
more about the proactive search than it
is the destination so invest in the
interesting and the rest will follow so
there you have it the five reflections
develop a personal guide in principle
have a plan regularly review life
balance be where the talent myth and
invest in the interesting I’m going to
leave you with just one conclude in sort
of observation when I was asked to give
this talk a few weeks ago I hurriedly
went around and conducted an informal
survey grabs my friends and
acquaintances down the streets and the
corridors I said look if you go up in
this stage and you had to opine on this
matter what would you say and I was
really struck by two phrases that kept
coming back over and over again
so I’m going to leave those with you but
in so doing I’m definitely gonna jump
into pit ol number two I just want to
say I wish you every future success
travel well
[Applause]
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