The title of this blog might as well be: Do you believe in fairies?
But reality is, some business owners completely buy into business gurus and heed their advice religiously. Business Gurus have been around since the 1960s. According to Wikipedia, "There is no existing qualifications, anyone can be a business guru by making an impact in a particular business field."
In case you are confused, a business guru or management guru is deemed as a leading authority on business practices and can be defined as a person with influential ideas or themes about business. They are mostly American, normally academics with real-life business experiences. They are normally published authors and so, you can have them sitting on your desk or on your shelves.
Our social media team here at the BEC uses quotes from business gurus often mostly on a Monday as part of our Monday motivation campaign; however, let us see what they come up with for woeful Wednesday which is their new challenge.
Predominantly people are in two camps over business gurus: those that wholeheartedly believe in the theories and concepts they develop and promote, and those who think it is a load of mumbo jumbo.
I thought I would tell you about my favourite guru for quotes in business. I am not sure what nationality he is, but I have been an absolute fan of his theories on life since I was a child. He is the big fat ginger cat in Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire cat is his name.
I listened on Monday, 4th January to Boris Johnson’s speech on Monday night with you must stay home speech and I thought of the Cheshire cats quote of ‘How queer everything is today and yesterday things went just as usual. I wonder if I have been changed in the night. Let me think was I the same when I got up this morning!’
In normal times, I get to deliver quite a few presentations about starting a business and what you need to succeed. People are always nervous about starting a business and this will be heightened in the current financial climate and pandemic restrictions. I always use the Cheshire cat’s ‘Every adventure requires a first step’ to encourage that first push to entrepreneurship. This one also describes the journey of being an entrepreneur ‘Only a few find the way, some don’t recognise when they do some don’t ever want to’.
I have talked about this many times. I am a planner. Visualise whiteboards, fancy stickers and coloured pens, and fabulous stationery because it must be fancy to inspire me. I talk about planning a lot with businesses and with my team at work.
However, I have never always quite managed it in my own life; especially when it comes to careers… I went from hospitality, to teaching, then to adult social care, and now have found my niche of supporting businesses. In life like us all, I have had challenges; and we are all facing our greatest challenge in working out how we are to survive this and think about business recovery.
Well, the Cheshire cat can give us all inspiration. The plot is, Alice reaches a crossroads and says to the Cheshire Cat, ‘Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?' and the cat replies ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’. Alice retorts ‘I don’t much care where’, and the cat replies ‘It doesn’t matter which way you go’. Alice replies in exasperation ‘So long as I get somewhere’. ‘Oh, you’re sure to do that if you only walk long enough,’ concludes the cat.
Whatever you feel about business gurus, what is clear is that we all need inspiration at this challenging time and it's great to find a kindred spirit someone you can wholeheartedly believe in and rely on for advice, a sounding board or just to reaffirm your decision-making process. For some, this may be a guru, for others who use our services it is the fabulous business mentors who support the BEC. In my case, it is the Cheshire cat and our fabulous Operations Director Donna Finley, my work wife… the ‘ying’ to my ‘yang’. And if you were ever in any doubt about how well we know each other and why the relationship works so well… below is a picture of my Christmas present from her!
