in this video I want to share with you a story and you probably find it hard to
believe but you can rest assured it's an absolutely true story back in 1986 I
started out in business at the age of 23 and in 87 or 88 my best friend from UCD
came back from New Zealand Bernie was a stood manager and he suggested that I go
to the south side speak with a lot out there who was in a similar business to
my business my business was the new jatis stroke convenience store this was
started in 1986 so it was long before the whole notion of convenience stores
and so on became a thing so whenever one Saturday morning I met this guy so I go
out on the Saturday morning anywhere to meet your man and just put it in context
my best friend in UCD was from Mullingar and I coincidentally went to school in
one car I went to a boarding school there Moyer and the chapter he was asked
me to go and have a word with he was from rolling Arab or had gone to college
in in a boarding school actually in Kildare Clongowes and he had gone to
Trinity indeed the BBS as a Bachelor of Business Studies and I gone to UCD and I
did a Commerce degree Bachelor of Commerce so degrees were pretty similar
so I went out honey we're on the Saturday morning it was 1987 or 1988
I know shortly after whether it was within while I was in Glasnevin and I
started in the staff in a 6th of December 1986 but when I was honey when
I met you man and he was in a similar business to mine it was a convenience
store stroke news agents
he was a walking stone I wasn't last never know that harsh corner beside the
brine brewpub famous Pope they're owned by Hennig ins and the features in
nothing Ulysses and reference to in James Joyce's Ulysses but anyway I went
out here man they spent half an hour with him and we had a good old chat in
the way that young men do trying to make their way and trying to get on in life
and improve themselves and improve their loss no 1986 87 88 was a really really
bad time in terms of the economy it was a serious serious recession in 86 87 88
and I can remember interest rates going through the roof there was three general
elections in the space of about 15 months and those talk about the IMF been
coming coming in to talk about devaluing I think the pound was in the Pont was in
situation or in was our currency at the time it was catastrophic sort of
experiences and events which Charlie how he was involved in which gave that rise
to the name boo boo or the phrase go boo grotesque unbelievable bizarre
unprecedented so it was a strange time and interest rates went to 16 and 20 22%
for a period and it was a frightening time but anyway myself and my
Brotherhood started off business we were born nicely so I go to him and walk on
stone anywhere as to say it's a similar background to me you went to Trinity he
did a Business Studies degree I did a Commerce degree he was from Wollongong I
went to school of 1-yard here she went to school gelareh coincidentally so we
chatted away and we bought agreed one thing neither of us wanted to be
accountants we were doing commerce we're doing business studies but most of our
colleagues and most of our class would have been going to take accountancy
apprenticeships neither of us wanted to do that because neither of us well we
had different views I certainly interviewed that I was an entrepreneur I
was young but I came from a family of entrepreneurs he was in my blood and I
wanted to be a player not a scorekeeper that's the way the others and I didn't
pursue you come sitting and this other entrepreneurship
the convenience store business property development the salon was going well but
I met you man anywhere and we spent 45 minutes to an hour chatting away he was
complaining and whinging about how bad business was they would stop raving him
off but the customer driven off about the nature of the business and so on I
discovered them that he had a leasehold property and he may even have had two
leasehold properties very very close to another and I can remember well that
Saturday going back across the city from Waukesha at last heaven very very
satisfied with myself because my business was going very well I was very
happy with it good staff I was happy with the punters business was going up
and I had a freehold property not a leasehold
I didn't have to worry about rent and I had some serious appreciation to
experience in terms of property increased values if the market took off
uneventful II the market did take off and so I had that upside and I had the
trading and it was great but I discovered afterwards then that that
fella even though both of us had sworn that he would never go into an
accountancy firm and you know that wasn't for us he actually quit shortly
afterwards and he went into an accountancy firm and between the jigs
and reels he became personal assistant to tony ryan the founder of Ryanair and
he was sent out to dublin airport and one of the first things that he did when
he went out to dublin airport was to carry out a review of Ryanair and his
advice to tony ryan was to close the place down it would push him on the road
Tony Ryan didn't agree with that and said nope not close the door gonna keep
plugging away we're gonna keep going and eventually and Ryan actually sent a man
out to herb whatever his name is in Southwest Airlines in attic Texas in the
United States he copied the modular they copied the module from Southwest
Airlines in the United States the low-cost model and it was very very
successful but in addition to that the he Minister for transport at the time
FINA for brennon he actually had the government
generally had difficulty from time to time with the trade unions in Aer Lingus
and because it's an island nation they were anxious to kick the unions in check
and they took a landing slot - from your Lingus and gave it to Reiner
because they were afraid that Ryanair would fold would fold up the tent and if
they did then the government would be very much held well in a weakened
position with one airline flying in and out of the island so it was in the
government's interest and a policy decision I supposed to encourage Ryanair
and keep them there for competition reasons and so on access reasons
infrastructure reasons and competition reasons and so forth and cherish Brennan
the Minister for transport took a couple of landing starts from Gatwick or
Heathrow and Gatwick Stansted or Gatwick from Aer Lingus gave them to Ryanair and
the rest was history the guy who I had met he probably guessed by now was
Michael O'Leary and he implemented at Tony Raines requester direction the
operating and strategic policy of Southwest Airlines in the United States
the low-cost model implemented it very very well but I've always wondered
afterwards if O'Leary had succeeded what would have happened would he have ended
up running two or three supervisors or spires in the Greater Dublin area or
whatever but I always wondered about the role that look and serendipity and
coincidence and good fortune and so on can make in somebody's career and it
always struck me that as Tony Ryan listened to
O'Leary he would've closed Ryanair he didn't and had earlier he done well
really we're at walkers town roundabout with his news agency he would never have
ended up meeting 20 Ryan or going back into I think it was Coopers and Lybrand
ultimately became personal assistant to Tony right
but obviously O'Leary made the best of us when he got to break but it always
has you know cause me some wonderment and
some you know you be always wondering was he very lucky was he gonna make it
anyway if he had succeeded after news agents came at the convenience store
game would he have would he have never have missed or worked with Tony right
that brings me onto a book that I'm reading there recently called outliers
by a guy called Malcolm Gladwell and in this book
Gladwell looks at a number of very very successful people and tries to identify
exactly holidays that gives rise to success how do people become successful
is it IQ is it genius is a talent is a hard work is it persistence is it
whatever a red book and it is a good book no doubt about her and it does
identify some things that definitely have played or do play a huge role in
anybody success and if you are to get anything from this video then I will
give you the three points that I have found discovered from reading outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell and I would strongly recommend that you get the book readers
so this short book but it's good but the three points that makes you first one is
that success is not you to talent or genius it's down to circumstances and
opportunity so you must come from the right circumstances you must get an
opportunity to get a break and let's face it or Larry did and then it also
comes down to doing 10,000 hours of practice so whether it's playing a
violin or doing playing in a band like the Beatles going to Hamburg or Bill
Gates doing computing and computer writing programs and so on from the age
of 12 13 14 and the opportunity in the access that he had to a computer and in
time and circumstances where nobody have access to computers those breaks and
though hours so the circumstances you come from
or the background you come from the opportunity under 10000 hours of work
that's key number one this is what I've found from the book outliers by Malcolm
Gladwell that's number one number two is the difference between the high IQ
people who succeed and those who didn't succeed was her family circumstances the
better off ones were better able to negotiate ordinary life and the one very
very important part is analytical intelligence who pure IQ is not
practical intelligence where you came from matters and the fact that you are
unable to deal with life or negotiate or have a chip on your shoulder is a huge
factor so your circumstances practical intelligence is critical and there's a
guy in the United States lying and I think his name is Logan Lionel Logan he
has an IQ of 195 to put it into context if Einstein was alive he'd have an IQ of
150 if the ordinary person has an IQ of 100 this guy has one 95 is off the
charts and yet he didn't really get on all that well that he works or lives on
a farm in United States he's perfectly happy but he never really got on because
he came from very very difficult background very very difficult
circumstances he had three or four half-brothers and his father was a
violent man who beat him beat the entire family beat his mother and so on and
this chap with the IQ of 195 and found it difficult to deal with people found
difficult to industry practical intelligence and actually had a bit of a
chip on his shoulder who can blame him because of the circumstances that he
found himself in and that he was brought up in what he you know the point is that
once you get past a certain IQ the rest of it really doesn't make any difference
in other words once you have an IQ of you know 120 130 250 there is likely to
win the Nobel Prize for science as a person will make you 185 or 190
the bottom line is you need to be able to this
practical intelligence and you need to be able to deal with ordinary
vicissitudes of life the third thing is only thirteen the found was that hard
work is critical hard work so pure hard work and these are the three things I
have found or that I haven't found what I found in this book outliers by Malcolm
Gladwell as the main contributing factors to outstanding success and he
looks at the Beatles he looks at Bill Gates he looks at various other people
who are very very successful hope you find this video useful if you do give it
a thumbs up down below and you may be interested in subscribing to my youtube
channel I put a link down below to the book and as I say if you find a video
useful you give it thumbs