A British Entrepreneur in America

I've got to share two business tips with you - this time coming from a restaurant owner friend of mine, Melvin Sidki.  Now Melvin is originally from Cyprus and opened an American sports bar in Bromley, London many years ago, which became a French restaurant for a week, then a Mexican Cantina and then another Mexican Cantina!  True entrepreneurship!. Now Melvin is a very funny guy and never ceases to make me laugh, but I nicknamed him 'Mournful' a few years ago, because when he gets depressed, his face takes on this deep mournful look - in fact, if I talk to him in one of his mournful states, I feel like going to the nearest bar and ordering a large cyanide and a rope!  I asked him why he has this mournful look and he said "Neil, If I walk around looking happy, the staff may ask me for a pay rise"!  Classic.  

Anyway, us entrepreneurs  cant always be happy and during my early days, I had no one to bounce ideas off and I was so frustrated on one day that I took myself off to see Mournful at his restaurant - now you know the saying, 'a problem shared is a problem halved', or as another would say 'doubled' and in the case of Mournful, trebled is the minimum!  During lunch I was discussing my problems at the time and he looked at me straight in the eyes and said "Neil, my Father gave me two pieces of advice when I went into business all these years ago and they echo in my mind every day". Eager to listen and capture some new found words of wisdom I ask him to tell me - after what seems to be an hour of silence - he goes on…"First, if you spend every waking hour on your own business and I mean literally every waking hour and you put your business before anything else and I mean anything else, you'll end up with 50%! Second, don't even trust your own shadow"!  "Thanks Mournful", I replied and headed off to the nearest bar!

I was talking to Dataworkforce VP and General Manager, Nadene Chaplin yesterday.  Nadene has been with me for many years and I was sharing some old memories with her about how I got started in Dataworkforce.  In the early days, I needed legal advice, but could not afford the fees of the partners of the law firms, so I hatched an entrepreneurial plan!  Instead of paying the 300 pounds per hour the partners would charge, I would take them out to lunch, spend 250 pounds, get them drunk, or 'Franklined" as was known, have all afternoon with them and get all the advice I could.  Brilliant, I convinced myself - only the lunches were great, but I was too drunk to remember the advice I was given! In fact, Dataworkforce is often abbreviated to DWF and one definition is 'Drinking With Franklin' and as some people will testify to, an event worth avoiding at all costs!

I remembered the above having had a couple of recent conversations with Mournful and Lawyers Edward Judge and Steve Taylor.  Both excellent guys and lawyers, who were partners together at the time at Judge and Priestley, a law firm in Bromley, Kent, Steve is now managing partner and Edward has since moved on and is the Insolvency partner at a London firm called Sprecher Grier Halberstam.

Great Memories!

~Neil

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