Why am I a business coach?
Transcription:
Why am I a coach? Why has this become my life’s work and my passion for the last 16 years and will continue to be well? I used to be an accountant in the City of London. I was bored, I was unfulfilled because I didn’t have the opportunity to really make a difference and the people I wanted to help are the small business owners of this country, the people creating jobs, creating opportunities and wealth in our local economies.
So I made the decision to be trained as a business coach and it was the best decision I ever made in my career.
And there was really one experience right at the start of my coaching journey that cemented the importance of what we do for me and my team, and why we very much believe that being in business should be about more life, more opportunities, more fulfilment, more happiness, more money, of course, and wealth and more time.
And unfortunately for most business owners it’s the opposite and my first ever client all those years ago when it was just me working from home, my first client was an accountant called Philip over in the Isle of Dogs over the river from where I live in Greenwich.
Philip was a 56 year old accountant and he said to me, Parag, I want to retire in a few years. I’ve got a good business here but I don’t have a retirement fund. I don’t have anything to live on after I’m 60. So can you help me grow my business, grow my cash flow so I can put money aside to fund my retirement? I said yeah, of course, let’s do that.
And three months into the coaching, I got a phone call from one of his team members. He had a decent sized team, 12 people and one of them called me up out the blue and just said Parag I want to let you know that unfortunately Phillip suffered a heart attack this morning and has passed away.
And after I got over the shock, the initial shock of what had happened, the real tragedy for me was what happened to Philip after he passed away. Unfortunately his business also died with him.
His clients just went to other accountancy practices because the business didn’t work without him. There was nobody there who could continue running his business in his absence, so his clients left.
His team had to suddenly go and find new employment, but the biggest tragedy was that one of his goals was he had three teenage daughters and he wanted the business to help fund their university education. And because the business effectively ceased trading, there was no income for Philip’s family when he passed away.
So they had nothing. There was no legacy for all those years of effort and stress. Everything that he’d done, there was nothing left afterwards.
And for me that was the greatest tragedy and all my team know this story and therefore they understand the importance of what we do and that’s what gives me the energy and the passion every morning to help people like Philip and really make a difference in their lives.
