WEBVTT

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Thank you.

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Has anybody heard of a lemming
and what a lemming is?

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Well if you don't know I'll tell you.

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A lemming is a little furry rodent
that basically jumps off cliffs,

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into the water and drowns.

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And they don't just do this by the ones
or twos, they do it by the thousands.

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It's almost as if a senior lemming,
the head lemming decides,

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"Hey guys, let's go for a swim!"

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So, they all go,
"Yeah! Let's go for a swim!"

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So, they all run to the cliff
and they all jump off

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and it's like,
"Right, now, everyone swim!"

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And they go, "Swim?"
(Gurgling)

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And they all drown.

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And society today is very much the same.

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If you are going to a school,
you might find a head lemming

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which decides that they will take drugs,
and then a whole bunch of other kids

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will come behind and go along
with that head lemming.

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Or they might be lucky,
there might be one young individual,

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that says "no" to drugs,

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and a whole bunch
of other kids come behind.

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And that's the direction
that those people go in.

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And today we will find
that the business culture

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has changed a tremendous amount

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over the last five, 10,
particularly 15 years.

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And what I want to talk about today
is ethical business.

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If you go back to the literature
that we've been reading

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over the last hundred
to 150 years of the success

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of what's made businesses
really work well,

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it's always been based on character.

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It's been based on things like integrity,

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service, loyalty,
gentleness, understanding.

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But it seems that over the last
five, 10, 15 years

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it's been replaced, what slowly crept in.

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And it's the personality ethic is where -

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It seems like websites today,

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their aim really is to manipulate you,

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lubricate the wheels of a system

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which would extract as much out of you,

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as it possibly can.

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So, what I want to suggest today,

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is that the success of the world
is based on character.

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But over the last 10 years,
it's like this personality has crept in.

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Where there is no character,
and it's all about lubrication.

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And with that, could that
be a contribution

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to what's happened in the world today?

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I think it probably has.

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There's problems all over the world
with finances, etc.

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So, I believe then
it was a character ethic.

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Today it's slowly being replaced
by the personality ethic.

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I want to quickly introduce
my company to you.

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It started 14 years ago when a tornado
went throw my hometown in Selsey.

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I had no money, no business experience
and I had a very limited education,

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but I saw many tradesmen
come down from all over the UK

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to rip homeowners off.

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There were cowboy trades coming down
and they were basically overcharging

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or even stealing money off consumers.

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And I looked at the time
at the guilds and the federations,

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I looked at what local government
was doing

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and the central government was doing,

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and I couldn't see
an answer to this problem

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where tradesmen
were doing a really poor job.

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So I set out almost from day one,
I want to make a difference.

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I want to bring something
to the UK which is of real value.

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I didn't set out thinking, wow,
I want to build something

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that is going to make me
a tremendous amount of money.

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If you build something which is worth
and something the consumer

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or business needs,
and they're interacting with it,

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and it's got that whole world
"worth" around it,

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your money will automatically flow.

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I've never had one single business meeting
around my board table

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with my senior managers, saying,

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"How can we extract
more money out of people?"

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That's never happened.

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It's always been,

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"How can I build more worth
into what we are doing for other people,

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how can we make more of a difference
in what we are doing?"

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But today I'll stand here,
and I am not being proud or big-headed,

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but we are turning
over a 160,000 Euros a week.

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And it hasn't even been
designed to do that,

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it's been designed to work
on the character ethic

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and to make a difference.

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Begin with the end in mind.

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So what does that mean?

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I don't think many people today
really know where they are going.

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They really haven't got a plan
for their personal life,

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for their social life,
their business life, their family life.

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They really don't know
where they are going.

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And I just want you to imagine
something for a moment

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that you are at a funeral,
and it's very quiet, very somber,

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and there's a resounding atmosphere 
of love and appreciation

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for the person that's died
and there's going to be four speakers

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and they are all going to be speaking
about the person that's died.

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And then you suddenly realised
that it's actually you that's died.

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And it's your funeral.

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What would you want someone

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from your immediate family
to say about you?

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What would you want

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from someone from your extented family
to say about you?

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What about someone from your work?

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And what about
someone from a social group,

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your friendships or something?

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What would you really want them to say?

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If you were to take the time -
unfortunately few of you will do this,

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that's my experience -
but if you were to take the time,

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and to meditate on those things,

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you'll actually touch
some really core important values,

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and I bet money will hardly come into it.

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Money would be a by-product,
oh, I really wanted to help this person,

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I want people to remember me
for achieving this and this,

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helping these people,

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and of course money
is that vehicle to make that happen.

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But begin with the end in mind,

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know what your final destination
is going to be.

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They say sticks and stones
would never break my bones

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but names will never hurt.

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And my parents used to say to me,
"Oh, you shouldn't care what people

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say about you, or think about you".

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I actually very much disagree with that.

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I actually believe
that what people think about me,

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and what people say about me,

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is really, really important,
because it's my reputation,

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and because that's a real
core value of mine,

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that's what I aim at all the time.

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I would never do something to you
that I wouldn't want done to myself.

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So what's your working frame?

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What's your end goal in life?
Your end goal in your business?

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Begin with the end in mind.
Take that time to find out.

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Also, when you've ouind that framework,

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you can build some expectation
around your life.

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When you know what you want to achieve,

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when you've got that framework
and you are looking forward,

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you can start to build expectations,

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and expectations are key.

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Without expectations, you just
bounce along the bottom of life.

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Expectations are like a magnet

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that will pull you towards something
you believe is going to happen

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whether it be good or whether it be bad.

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If you have got this expectation,

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this job role or this business
that I am involved in now

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is probably not going to be
very successful.

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How are you going to act towards that?

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But if you've got an expectation like,
"Hey, I am going to start this business,

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I am going to be incredibly successful,

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and I've got this framework
which I am going to work with

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within my values,
and these are my goals ..."

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and if you feed upon that,
it is like a magnet

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that just pulls you
towards those expectations.

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But very often
you can have those expectations

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and then the pressures of life
come upon you.

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And the pressures of the cash flow,
and the problems with staff

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and the problems with the market
and the problems with marketing

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come around you

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and those expectations
can start to [unclear].

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But hunger is the key.

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Let me just read you something quickly.

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"Fish are biting.

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And after catching a 70 cm pike,

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the local man raised the fish from -
you know, for a photograph -

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and the fish lurched forward
and grabbed his nose with its mouth."

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It grabbed onto to it so tightly,
that the fisherman had to be taken

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to the local doctor's, where a surgeon
actually surgically removed the fish.

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If you want something so badly,
do you know what?

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The chances are, you won't let it go.
And do you know what?

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The chances are
you'll probably end up getting it.

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Hunger is the key.

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But you have to feed that hunger.

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For me one of the biggest words in my life
is significance and recognition.

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Those are my drivers,
that's what I work towards in my life.

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And, how do I feed that hunger?

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For me, I imagine being before my Queen,

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"Arise, Sir Kev."

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I want to be knighted,
I want to be recognised

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as the man that's ended
the rogue trade problem in the UK.

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That's my driver. That's my goal.
That's what feeds me.

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I picture that happening in my life.

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Not just once a month, but I meditate it,

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I meditate upon it, and I physically
see myself in front of my Queen

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being knighted
for my services to the country.

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But make sure, that you are doing it
for the right reasons.

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Make sure that it's not just for profit.

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Make sure that you're looking
at the character ethic.

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People in their enviroment.

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This is the key I just wanted
to slip in at the end,

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because it's so important
when you're growing a business.

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One of these types of meetings
many years ago,

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there was a Questions and Answers
and someone said,

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"Kev, how have you grown
such a big business"?

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And I've said, "Uhm, I haven't
really grown the business,

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I've never really looked at it
like that, what I have done,

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is I've focused on people
and I have built people up.

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And when the people
around you are built up,

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you'll naturally have
a successfull business.

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But the environment, it's absolutely key.

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Most of us are like the rest of us.

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I am very much like you,
you are very much like me

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you wouldn't want me
to do something to you

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you know, that you
wouldn't have done to yourself.

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You know, I think that's universal.

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But in business, if the bottom line

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the most important thing
is the bottom line

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and how much profit and money
have we extracted from this sector,

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if that's what it is,
if that's the driving force,

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then really it falls
into the personality ethic,

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really it falls into, "How can we
manipulate people into getting things"?

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But within the environment of my company,
I employ about 90 people,

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I would say to my staff, OK,
here's the situation you've got

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with a supplier or a customer,

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If you were the supplier or the customer,
what would you want to happen to you?

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And I empower my staff
to make those decisions.

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And if the decision is,
"We've really messed up on this one, Kev

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we should give them their money back,"

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my staff are empowered to do that,
because that's the right thing.

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So you can imagine my staff now,
they're not fish out of water,

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they're not in an environment where
they think, "Oh, I am being forced,

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I'm being pressured into making things
and doing what the boss says,

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I feel awkward going back to this customer
or this supplier and saying,

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they can't have this
or they can't have that."

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Is it any little wonder that in the UK-
I believe it's worse in Serbia -

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that the average person works
for a company for 18 months

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and then they go off
trying to find something better?

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In 14 years of running a company
and having 90 people work for me

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I can only remember four people
leaving my employment.

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It's because I give them that environment

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where they feel
as if what they are doing is right.

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I give them that environment
so they've got the ability to do to others

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only what they would have done
to themselves.

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And does that make my company stand out?

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Absolutely.

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Does it make my company very different
from the vast majority of the companies

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in my same sector?

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Absolutely.

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And do you know
what my customers say, now?

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Do you know what my tradesmen
that join us, say?

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Do you know what our suppliers say?
Do you know what?

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"I can't believe that in this day and age
there is still a company

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that would have the ethics
that this company has.

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And is it any wonder today
that even in recession in the UK

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where companies haven't grown
for two years,

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that I am growing
two and a half percent every month?

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Is it a coincidence? Absolutely not.

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Character ethic is so important.

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Decide. Make a decision.

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How you want to run your life,
how you want to run your business.

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Is this based on character, integrity,
loyalty, friendship, gentleness

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or are you going to change
and be a lemming

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and do what all of the new companies
are doing in the world today?

00:15:44.275 --> 00:15:46.881
And decide, no, I am going
to manipulate people,

00:15:46.881 --> 00:15:49.662
I am going to use
Content Management Systems,

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and I am going to use the software

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to make out that my customer is important,

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but really the bottom line
is how much money I make.

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I'd suggest, please,
go for the character ethic.

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Find out what your core values are.

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If you don't know
what your core values are,

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how can you possibly even achieve them?

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How can you set targets?

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How do you know if you have achieved
anything in life?

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Go to that funeral.

00:16:20.405 --> 00:16:21.961
Write those things down.

00:16:23.249 --> 00:16:25.182
Build your expectations.

00:16:25.785 --> 00:16:30.069
If you don't believe you can achieve
something, you will never act upon it.

00:16:31.073 --> 00:16:32.617
It's so simple.

00:16:33.154 --> 00:16:37.781
Most people have no expectations or,
if they have, it's really loose.

00:16:38.646 --> 00:16:40.092
Really loose.

00:16:41.065 --> 00:16:44.321
Someone might say, "Well I've started
a business a few weeks ago,

00:16:44.321 --> 00:16:47.421
and my expectations
is that it would be successful",

00:16:47.427 --> 00:16:49.424
or "that's what I am hoping for."

00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:53.591
But really define
what your expectations are.

00:16:53.900 --> 00:16:55.542
They are like a magnet.

00:16:55.542 --> 00:16:58.118
Get fotographs of what
you want to achieve.

00:16:58.118 --> 00:17:00.853
Put them on your walls,
in your living room,

00:17:00.856 --> 00:17:02.681
in your business, in your toilette,

00:17:02.681 --> 00:17:04.221
in your kitchen.

00:17:05.022 --> 00:17:06.700
We are all visual people.

00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:08.790
If you can see what you want to achieve,

00:17:08.790 --> 00:17:10.202
what your expectation is,

00:17:10.202 --> 00:17:14.860
and if you see that every day,
it's like a magnet, it will draw you.

00:17:14.860 --> 00:17:17.551
And your actions will come from it.

00:17:19.052 --> 00:17:21.049
And if you want something so bad,

00:17:21.049 --> 00:17:23.410
never let it go
and you'll probably get it.

00:17:24.091 --> 00:17:27.059
Feed that hunger as much
as you possibly can.

00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:32.260
And create an environment
people want to operate in.

00:17:32.260 --> 00:17:34.015
Put yourself in their shoes.

00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:36.843
How would you want to be employed?

00:17:36.843 --> 00:17:39.387
How would you want to be
a supplier or a customer?

00:17:40.301 --> 00:17:42.550
Treat people the way you would want to.

00:17:43.366 --> 00:17:47.864
If you catch this,
it will revolutionize your life.

00:17:47.864 --> 00:17:51.739
It has taken me in six years,
from a 200,000 pound company,

00:17:51.739 --> 00:17:54.475
to a 6.8 million company.

00:17:54.958 --> 00:17:56.207
Thank you very much.

00:17:56.207 --> 00:17:57.970
(Applause)