The Great Gordino

Dave Fishwick is a businessman from Burnley in the north of Britain. I’ve seen him featured in two TV documentaries, and found him inspirational in both, so it’s no surprise that he’s someone I’d want to write about…

Dave is a self made multi-millionaire, owning one of the biggest van leasing firms in the country, and he decided to take on the banks.

With the recession in full flow, the big banks, which caused the crisis, don’t lend to small businesses. This stifles those businesses in their growth, and can often see them fold.

Dave decided that he would start his own bank, taking deposits from savers, and lending the money out to local Burnley businesses. He would go and visit the businesses himself, making his own decision on whether the business was sound. The loans would be underwritten with his own money.

He could offer savers a high rate of return, and any profits would be given to local charities, and he wanted to call it The Bank of Dave.

Sounds good, right?

Not according to the Financial Services Authority, who told him he would be prosecuted if he went ahead. Upset, but undeterred, Dave went ahead with a savings and loan collective, and put a big sign above the door saying Bank ON Dave.

Now, these documentaries were done ‘reality’ style, so not everything might necessarily be as it seems. Dave himself says that in business he is ruthless, and it isn’t difficult to see that he could be as hard as nails on the business front.

On the other hand, he says that outside business he is ‘just Dave’, and what struck me was his drive and enthusiasm. His attitude is not ‘it can’t be done’ or ‘let’s give up’. His attitude is ‘it CAN be done’, ‘let’s get stuck in to make it happen’.

Cheerful and encouraging to others, coming from a poor background which had him bullied at school for being poor, it’s this kind of individual effort and drive which builds and drives economies.

His Bank of Dave was ticking over nicely – the savings were coming in, the loans were going out to local businesses, the profits were going to local charities. Sounds good, right?

Well, not according to the FSA, again, who wanted to shut it down totally, and told him to stop taking deposits with immediate effect.

Much to Dave’s amazement, the FSA said that there was not enough risk offered to savers! The single rate of interest did not offer savers the chance to take more risk for more return. Dave could not understand why offering more risk had to be in the mix, particularly considering the part that risk had played in causing the recession.

Dave took his case the Houses of Parliament with the help of his MP, and went to explain his model to the FSA. They relented, and the threat of closure was lifted.

Dave definitely goes for the ‘bull in a china shop’ approach to goal achievement. He’s a bull in a china shop with a smile on his face too! Rolls up his sleeves, thinks of the next step, and then presses ahead.

When obstacles come his way, which tends to happen as you move forwards in a new field, his style is to get annoyed, get angry, and then work out how to get it sorted.

I found him very inspirational, with an impression that he would throw himself fully into anything he turned his mind to, and would have an expectation of success.

Energy and enthusiasm. Essential ingredients of goal achievement – so, look to your goals, get a smile on your face, and ask what you can crack into next, to make progress. Then, get stuck in, and you’ll develop the confidence to bank on yourself, just like Dave banked on Dave!

As ever, do let me have your feedback, why not leave a comment below!
‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t forget you can get email updates of new posts by signing up via the box at the top right of any page!
P.P.S. You can also grab my motivational book ‘Transform Your Life in 21 Days!’ at rock bottom kindle pricing

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In a previous article I wrote about what we can learn from the invention of the steam engine. In this article I’m going to take that goal achievement point a bit further…

There’s a link to that previous article at the bottom, but it basically covered the invention of the Thomas Newcomen atmospheric steam engine, by Thomas Newcomen. Imagine the coincidence for it to be invented by someone with the same name!

Anyhoo, that invention kick started the industrial revolution in 1712 which changed the world. It was so innovative and so widely accepted that it held sway for 50 odd years.

In 1763, a model of this engine used to teach students was sent to be repaired, sent to a man named James Watt. Watt set about repairing the model, but it soon occurred to him that he could tweak the engineering to improve it.

Without getting too technical, he worked out that the operation to condense the steam could be done in a separate chamber as opposed to the same chamber in the Newcomen version. This would make the whole thing much more efficient, making it smaller and needing less coal to power it.

Watt’s business partner Matthew Bolton had the idea of taking out a patent, and requiring anyone who used it to pay them a percentage of any energy cost saving.

That made them rich. Very rich.

That’s because although people hated paying the commissions, they knew that the energy savings were still well worth it financially. This engine really got the revolution working, because many machines could now be powered by the same engine, which led to the rise of the factory.

The workers got a steady wage, so had money to spend on the goods which were now cheaper to buy, thanks to the lower energy cost to make them en masse. As well as Watt and Bolton getting rich, it made Great Britain rich too.

In the same way that Newcomen’s engine had held sway for 50 years, so did the Watt version, but it was inevitable that someone would come along with a new development.

That someone was Richard Trevithick. With the help of his blacksmith father in law, he came up with a cylindrical container strong enough to hold high pressure steam, meaning the steam pressure itself was strong enough to power the pistons of an engine, totally bypassing the need for a condenser.

If that wasn’t enough, he also worked out that if he heated the water via a tube *in* the water, not only was the efficiency ramped up further, but it was something that could now be put on wheels.

That meant powered travel in 1804, leading to the railway, and the rest as they say, is history!

I was lapping all this information up when I watched the documentary on TV, I found it fascinating, and it rams home some points I make over and over about goal achievement and self improvement…

Sometimes you just don’t need to come up with anything new, you can simply use a technique someone else has worked out, follow along in the footsteps of others. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it can lead to some amazing life adventures and achievements.

Sometimes though, you *can* come up with someone that shakes the accepted ideas, that pushes boundaries. It’s well over 300 years since the Newcomen engine, but does that mean invention is dried up, that anything that can be invented, has been?

Of course not. New inventions come along all the time – some of them may fade away without lasting impact, while some of them will become the new standard, in the same way the Watt engine overtook the Newcomen, and Trevithick’s overtook Watt‘s.

Analysis plus action, equals achievement. A powerful formula indeed.

Look to your own goals – will you need to push barriers, create new frontiers, or will it be enough to add your own personality to methods already out there and established? I’d love to hear from you, telling me which option will get you moving full steam ahead!

‘Til next time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Here’s that previous article – Goal Achievement – Building Up A Head Of Steam!

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