I'm going to take you on a little
journey with me a journey of
Entrepreneurship but just before I do
one question hands up those of you who
like me consider yourselves
entrepreneurs okay
entrepreneurial okay for all of you that
didn't actually put your hands up don't
worry because the reason why I always
ask this question is when I was your age
if someone had asked me to put my hand
up as to whether or not I was an
entrepreneur I would have never put my
hand up either um I thought when I was
growing up in a way the idea of an
entrepreneur we just had Richard Branson
and I would sort of compare myself to
Richard Branson and think well there's
no way I am like Richard Branson you
know I thought you have to have a
special chromosone to be an entrepreneur
some sort of a magic dust or at least
Like Richard Branson you had to be a
school dropout which I wasn't in any way
um so looking at him and now you guys on
top of Richard Branson you've got the
dragons which are terrifying images of
Entrepreneurship and The Apprentice so
clearly I thought I'm not at all the
entrepreneurial type I didn't love
business in kindergarten I didn't make
my first million sending suweet to the
school playground so basically I thought
clearly I'm not at all the entrepreneur
so I actually went off and I became the
opposite of an entrepreneur
I went off and became a lawyer um but
very quickly I realized that actually I
had chosen completely the wrong career
for my personality because there are
just about two things going for me my
optimism and my enthusiasm and quickly I
realized that just about the two
qualities you don't need to be a good
lawyer optimistic or enthusiastic so I
was sort of wasted in what I was doing
and just work felt like I was leaving
myself behind to go to work work felt
like incredibly bored ing really it was
just it was I just did it for the
paycheck I just went in every day not
being able to be me and I remember
thinking why is this not fun and I was
just asking my work colleagues saying
guys you know why aren't we having fun
and I remember they said fun at work
they're not paying you to enjoy yourself
and I just refused to accept that
because I thought you know what I'm
going to be working the best years of my
life most of my waking hours so how on
Earth could work not be fun how could I
accept this um so I ended up basically
staying there because sometimes you
really have a dream but it's scary to
change um because you're in a sort of
comfort zone in a way and I ended up
staying at the law firm sort of really
hating it but thinking this is life this
is working life um until something
happened which really snapped me out of
it and sometimes you get shocks you get
Dreadful shocks that happen which snap
you out of things um what happened to me
was because I come from a close family
of four my mom and dad my brother and I
and in January 1993 my dad died very
suddenly very unexpectedly and I
remember the shock was so big it was
like my world had fallen apart and I
just remember the very next morning I
came back from hospital and I thought
you know what actually this comfort zone
is an illusion I've got to be true to
myself and I've got to do something
Absol love doing because this is not it
and I've got to do something where I
could be me doing it so I basically took
big jump I took a big leap I left the
law firm I had no idea what I was going
to do but actually my motto in life is
leap and the net will appear and I just
really believe you've got to take the
jump sometimes so I basically took this
jump I went to visit my brother Bobby
who's my only sibling so he was working
in New York at the time I went to visit
him in New York I had terrible jet lag
thinking you know I'm just going to take
some time be in New York have some
change of air um and I remember the very
first morning I got up thinking with
this Terri jet lag thinking let me go
and get a cup of coffee and back then
America was known for horrible coffee
even we would make fun of American
coffee and I remember just walking down
Madison Avenue and I was sort of hit by
the smell of freshy ground coffee beans
um this is even before Starbucks had
come to New York but I walked into this
coffee bar there was all the smell of
coffee where the coffee came from I said
can I have a cappuccino please and they
said would you like it with full fat
milk skim milk semi skim milk soya milk
and you know I sort of just couldn't
believe it I'm always on some sort of a
diet so I couldn't believe I could get a
skinny cappuccino and I just fell in
love with it and I just didn't think
anything of it and I got back to London
and I was actually sitting um with Bobby
in a Thai restaurant with my mom we just
gone out for a thae meal and in the
middle of this time meal I said to my
brother how much I miss these coffee
bars I just wish we had them in London
and I couldn't believe that I was stuck
at home there was no nowhere to stop my
morning apart from making some instant
coffee and I wish we had those amazing
New York St coffee bars so I could go
and have a skinny L every morning and as
soon as I said this to my brother he got
the light bulb you hear about he said I
can't believe you've said this this is
incredible you and I should be the ones
to bring American style coffee bars to
the UK this is like an amazing business
idea and my reaction was hang on a
minute Bobby you got me completely wrong
I meant why didn't someone else open it
and for me to go to it in a way I was
the customer so I couldn't quite
understand why I had to provide a
solution for my own problem in a way
it's but anyway my brother was having
none of it he said you know what if you
don't want to do it I'll pay you to do
research for me and just cuz my brother
was paying me basically the next day I
got myself a one-day Tu pass and I got
on the circle line and that was the
first day of my research I got off at
every single of the stops on the circle
line to see for myself what that was and
I could see the crap quality of coffee
everyone was getting and by the evening
when I got back that that was really the
night when I thought you know what
there's a real Gap in the market and if
we bring American style coffee bars to
the UK it's going to work but the thing
is you know I didn't think 100% I just
thought about 1% this is going to work I
wasn't 100% sure so one side of my brain
is this is this is amazing there's a gap
in the market but this left left side of
my brain is telling me shorty Sahar what
do you know about coffee balls this
isn't going to work it's too good to be
true just cuz you like drinking skinny
lattes doesn't mean this is a brilliant
business idea but what I've learned in
life is that whenever you want to do
something these doubts and I'm sure
you're growing up and the more you grow
up the more you hear these doubts these
doubts are always going to be there and
you must never stop them so my solution
is when you start doubting yourself when
you start feeling insecure you basically
press the delete button because if you
don't press delete listening to that
voice you think it's the voice of reason
it's not it's the voice of fear and fear
is a zero some game there's no point
indulging in it so we didn't press
delete the next step was okay let's go
and do some research because a lot of it
is about doing homework making sure
there's room for it making sure there's
a market for it and the problem was well
Bobby and I we had no idea about this we
were clueless about this business in a
way I worked as a lawyer all my life my
brother is a banker so we were entering
this world we are completely clueless
about clueless about retail clueless
about coffee clueless about catering but
one law I've got in both my books I call
the importance of being clueless so
never worry about not knowing never
worry about not having expertise not
knowing is actually good because you can
teach yourself and you can teach
yourself with the fresh information and
basically once you start jumping in and
that's what my brother told me don't
worry about not knowing because you're
about to go to the best business
business school in the world right bang
in the middle of this so you will teach
yourself as you go along never worry
about that and being an outsider is a
huge Advantage so basically we were
Outsiders we gave ourselves three months
to learn all there was about coffee at
this point we moved back to live a home
with my mom which you can imagine is a
bit of a cown if you've like moved away
and then you mov back in with your mom
and your brother at a certain age but
anyway we did that and we just gave
ourselves three months to become experts
I can't tell you just drank as many
coffees as possible I once almost
actually killed myself oding on 26
espressos in the course of a morning cuz
no one had told me you have to spit it
out and not drink them so we did that
then I said you know what let me go back
to New York um on a reconnaissance
mission because when I was in New York I
just had no idea that we wanted to copy
this so I said to I'll go back to New
York and I went back to New York I took
some disposable cameras which is what we
had and started taking a picture of this
coffee barall which was the the
predecessor to Starbucks of every single
little thing they do and of course as
I'm doing this the manager is getting
quite pissed off so she noticed that I
was taking a picture of every single
thing so we can copy it and just she
followed me onto the pavement and
confiscated my cameras so I basically
thought oh my God I there's just you
know I've got to come back home without
pictures of his coffee bar with the
manager finding out so I ended up doing
something that entrepreneurs do that you
all do an everyday life it's just that
entrepreneurs use it for business
bootstrapping basically in order to come
back to London with pictures of the
coffee bar without the manager finding
out my bootstrapping solution was I had
a couple of cousins who lived in New
York and me and my cousins pretended as
if we were innocent New York tourists
taking innocent tourist snapshots of
each other you will see a picture of my
cousin coming up lovely you hardly see
my cousin there which is the point but
you fully see how they display their
pastries what everything looks like
again another cousin showing the bar
seating this is the first time I've seen
employees where t-shirts and baseball
caps and this is um another cousin so
basically we took these clandestine
pictures and this is the the picture I
drew on the back of the Virgin Flight
back from New York um I've kept this
because I genuinely believe there's no
point having ideas in your head ideas
are worthless you've got to make them
happen stop putting them on paper if
you're inspired after today start
putting stuff on paper it starts
happening and another thing for us we
were coming up with a brand imagine
coming up up with a brand when you've
got no idea about branding and we knew
we had to be up there you know on the
High Street with those big players and
we had no idea but you know that's the
thing about entrepreneurship is just
trial and error and sometimes you make a
fool of yourself as I'm about to share
with you a logo that we actually
considered lovely you could imagine this
would have been nice and out ofd but you
know that's the thing entrepreneurship
is not a genius tendency it's about
trial and error until you get things
right then we wrote this business plan
again the business plan wasn't the right
name but we wrote it when the word
business plan came up I have to tell you
I was terrified I said to my brother you
know what let me go through business
school and I'll come back in two years
and I'll R by the business plan and my
brother said you know what actually all
the business plan is is answering a few
questions what is you going to do how
you going to do it how much is it going
to cost you and who are you going to do
it with and anyway in this plan we
calculated we needed to raise 90 grand
to open the first store just give you an
idea we started calling random bank
manager off the Yellow Pages basically
um we got rejections from 40 bank
managers um this page goes on and on I'm
just sharing with you the first page of
the 40 bank managers we called we got
interviews with 20 bank managers of the
20 we got interviews with the first 19
said to us there is no way we'll give
you money to open a coffee bar we said
why on Earth not they said it's really
obvious isn't it we were like what's
obvious like it's it's obvious we're
nation of tea drinkers you know Britain
is famous at tea drinking so what the
hell are you doing bringing coffee in
the na tea drinkers but I done my
homework and yes we were in na tea
drinkers but basically in the 80s we
were drinking four times more tea then
we were drinking two times more tea so
I'm seeing this is going the right way
which is why us um entrepreneurs called
bank managers enemies of innovation this
is just a quick um fax I wrote to my
brother about a certain bank manager
which you'll see um it's just all you
know sort of this the life of
entrepreneurs we're not perfect um this
is the picture of the bank
manager and basically um the next one
was making it happen you know you've got
to actually do it and that was a
nightmare you know when you're an
entrepreneur it's an obstacle course
everyone's against you um we were
looking for cups no one had these cups
at that time all they were had was po
iring cups the cup suppliers thought we
were crazy they were like I don't know
what you're going on about we've never
had cups like this we ended up
bootstrapping we did we ordered blank
cups from America we had two parties
five bottles of wine some passed got all
our friends and they stuck the stickers
on the cups the same thing with the
muffin suppliers they were like
blueberry muffins fat-free muffins sorry
the only muffins we've ever baked are
yellow the only thing they've got in
them are raisins so we ended up making
the muffins at home delivering them
ourselves getting more parking tickets
delivering them ourselves but we ended
up nicking our first employees from
pretam M this is all bootstrapping stuff
that all entrepreneurs do do and
basically we open the doors to the first
store this is the first store just to
show you entrepreneurship is not
necessarily about original or new ideas
it was a copy the benches came later so
it was a complete copy of what we seen
in New York and basically this was the
first coffee bar was kind to open in the
UK just to give you an idea it was a
disaster when I say disaster at break
even sales were 700 and every single day
we're making2 200 of sales a day and
when I say 200 lound of sales a day I'm
discounting my mom who's coming and
drinking as many cappuccinos as humanly
possible so without my mom's excessive
coffee consumption we were making much
less this is just you know telling
people what we're about educating people
about coffee and one by one sort of you
know we converted One customer at a time
sales started creeping towards Break
Even Starbucks came it was absolutely
terrifying time but by this stage we
were a big brand and when we got to 2001
basically Bobby and I both sold our
shares because we thought that's what
you do when your company successful huge
mistake I remember when I sold my shares
instead of celebrating I'd taken my mom
we'd gone to celebrate but um to America
and instead of celebrating I was so
upset that apparently according to my
mom in the British Airways Lounge I
started reading the story in the
financial times The Story of Us leaving
and instead of kind of celebrating I was
crying so hysterically people must have
been thinking what could be quite so sad
at the Ft that this girl is bullying her
eyes out um but that for me is
entrepreneurship out a bom I started
writing my book I always visualize this
is my visualization of the book um I
wrote this book and this book was almost
my ATI Richard Branson book saying do
you know what actually if we did it then
anyone can do it and this myth we have
that entrepreneurship is a special
chromosome is rubbish don't listen to
the Dragons Den it's not a personality
trait entrepreneurship everyone's got it
you don't need skills or expertise you
become an entrepreneur it's a process um
it's something you don't need to be an
entrepreneur before you start no one is
determined in advance if they're an
entrepreneur you become one when you
start and when you start basically there
are five steps to entrepreneurship and
my brother taught me these steps and I
want to share you these steps because
going going through every step from A to
B you turn into an entrepreneur step one
the idea make sure it's something you
love the beauty about entrepreneurship
is you don't have to live someone else's
life you find something you love and I
guarantee what you love doing you will
be good at and vice versa what you hate
doing you'll be crap at so you might as
well stick to what you love doing and
what you love doing activates the
entrepreneur within you because all of
us have an entrepreneur within we just
need to bring it out so make sure you
find the star within you and do it and
jump that is the idea that's going to
bring out all these wonderful qualities
about yourself you never knew you even
had had I stayed a lawyer I would have
thought I was a pretty mediocre lawyer I
would have never known I have all this
creativity within me and that's the
Journey For You number two do your
market research lazy people can't become
entrepreneurs you have to be thorough
you have to know your Market back to
front so you have to do your homework
there is no substitute for hard work
that's why it's not about genius
Tendencies it's about hard work do your
business plan you've got to be organized
it's just it's a really easy thing it's
just a couple of questions
and just but you have to organize
raising money people are going to say no
to you we got 40 NOS guess what Howard
schults of Starbucks got 275 NOS JK
rling 12 people said her manuscript for
Harry Potter was rubbish so you got to
have stickability in
entrepreneurship you've got to make it
happen because making it happen is about
doing doing brings self-belief I never
had self-belief when I started I had 1%
but self-belief doesn't grow on trees
self-belief comes when you start doing
when you're committed when you go on
Journey that's how you gain your
self-belief and my last Point don't give
up entrepreneurship is difficult it's
not a fairy tale everyone's against you
everyone tells you your ideas rubbish it
won't work the critics come out but it
is an absolutely incredible journey if
you learn to stick with it it is a
journey where you find things about
yourself you never knew you had every
single single one of you has a star
within you and Entrepreneurship is an
amazing journey where you find that star
within you and all I can tell you is in
my life it is something as well that's
where you combine what you do and who
you are so work doesn't become the
opposite of Life work and life are the
same thing and I can tell you it's a
difficult Journey but it's a wonderful
journey and I in my life have absolutely
never met an happy entrepreneur that's
my story thank you very much
thank you