2 years into The Change "a toddlers early steps"

2 Years Into The Change!!!

Another year gone! and another year of development for the change-makers. We have taken baby steps towards our massive goal. It's two years since my first post on the matter of the change!!! This update isn’t just about us thanking everyone it includes a mention to some of the exceptional people I have been honored to work with over my time at The Change. An eye-opening journey for me. It has certainly changed my view on my place in the world and why time matters so much this year more than any other!

Lesson One Experience joy! Celebrate the wins! & Enjoy the moments! They are precious every one!

Life is short, to be honest, I had forgotten that over the last years! I had been wasting my time on planning and thinking too much, I wasn’t living the moment and even when I succeeded it felt empty. My goals are huge and to be honest, even I had achieved every one I would have simply shrugged and moved on.

I have been genuinely privileged to watch some exceptional individuals and teams grow over my life. Yet the truth is that I always feel the best are yet to come. They are often too early to mention, they are people who haven’t yet left their jobs but whom I feel can make a real difference with concepts that can really shake things up. (You know who you are! You will change the world when you finally take the plunge in the VERY near future!)

On the other end of my life spectrum, there are firms whom I work with to support innovation who have raised £500m + and there are those who turn over £bns per annum. Some of these companies turn over more money than the collective combination of my projects put together in a single year! It’s humbling to consider and yet regardless so few employees, companies or individuals celebrate their wins.

Hoof a company that has gone through a constant transformation over the last few years emerges to take on a new challenge. Our founders Martin and Brendan travel to Qatar this month after winning support for their world-changing digital horse health monitor set to shape how equine welfare works in the future. The team is relentless in its vision and I am proud to have been a small part in their journey to date.

Avocet Battery Materials (ABM) has had a great year despite COVID and plans for the first battery tab factory are in place. Things are heating up at ABM with a number of key clients coming on board over the last few months ABM is one to watch with some of the worlds largest battery manufactures choosing the best in global tab manufacture to drive sustainable battery production.

QSEE another of our partners is set to take on the world. With reports coming in of Productivity, Waste and Energy showing savings in excess of $1 million per plant in areas such as concrete, paper and chemical manufacture the resilience Danny, Rami and the team have shown over the years is finally starting to pay off. They should be very proud of what they have achieved in what has been a difficult world following their time at Techstars.

Our very own Asset Nexus has begun to gain real traction in the legal and financial fields and is privileged to have expanded its team significantly over the quarter. The company is almost unrecognisable when compared to even 6 months ago. I believe some of the innovations in the company could really tackle the poverty question raised in the previous section. With its Legacy Score, the company is set to change the face of the 50 trillion pensions industry.

NNOVA has made rapid progress on the expansion of its team and I feel privileged to have begun supporting their journey. The first step as always is clarifying the vision and despite it taking time to get right the effort was worth it with major interest from some of the worlds largest orthopedics manufacturers.

I’ve only mentioned our transformation clients so far and that is very unfair given we are also privileged to be involved with some of Europe and the UK’s most innovative organisations.

Working on everything from driving school technology with the exceptional team at Click Click Drive in Aibek Van der Ackerveken & Matthieu Tissot to working with Matthew McAllister at Mortgage Propeller I learn, grow, and get new energy from working with exceptionally talented and driven founders.

In all, we have some 30 innovation projects underway. These are in everything from bitcoin AI to Indexing. Plastics to genetics. Legal tech to heavy engineering. Laboratories to health. It seems crazy to consider that this part of the business only even began in earnest in October 2020. It’s been a whirlwind but definitely also a pleasure! We have completed a number of significant claims for a suite of exceptional and happy clients.

I just have to re-read this section to realise we at The Change have a lot to be thankful for and gratitude should be the word of the moment!

Lesson two Doing something for longer doesn’t mean you're doing it right!

I have had to start at the beginning in what is a highly evolved venture capital ecosystem that has developed over a significant period of time. It's an ecosystem in which someone new can struggle to find capital. Experience and track record are important. Even if outcomes have been sub-optimal for many.

Despite this, I have seen so many venture firms back the wrong companies with the wrong attitude, and founders take the wrong sort of money to fund their businesses. I ask the question why does it continue? My answer Education! It may sound simplistic but we aren’t taught what private equity, bank funding, sales funding, or venture capital are in school let alone what they are in practice and my feeling is that there is often a continued misalignment between those who seek venture capital and those that share it out.

The journey to capital can be a hard one. It is one that ends in the wrong answer for well over 99% of businesses. The Change has had to reinvent itself and in fact the industry approach to go beyond the norms on its first investments.

All this said. There is not doubt that those who know the space well bring huge value to our thinking and we have to be just as open minded to be educated about what does work and where if we are to avoid reinventing the wheel.

There is no shame in pretending we struggled to raise capital at the start. Our journey would have been nowhere near as rich and rewarding had we tried to plough on. To add to that had we had the money we wanted back at the beginning our track record would have no doubt been affected. We can count ourselves lucky that things have happened as they have.

The track records of both Praveen Paranjyothi & Raghav Bhola dwarf my own in venture funding and it will be them and others like them who lead The Change towards its funding goals.

The truth is you can’t lead a monetary venture without those who can see the importance of balance in deploying capital to stimulate progressive change. It's taken us two years to realise, perhaps to accept it BUT its been 2 years well spent!

We have ignition rocketman!

Lesson three Traditional thinking doesn’t work for an innovation and new thinking doesn’t work for a traditional business. Style is everything!

Traditional businesses are there to do things as they have always been done those who grow up as followers creating only incremental change are not normally the leaders of change without a truly remarkable eureka moment.

Those that live and breath change often have as Steve Jobs called it “A reality distortion Field.” It’s a view on a life that might be rather than a view of life that has been before. People who are born like this think backwards into reality and connect the dots in an alternative way.

Innovation if present in late stage business is often slow and methodical not rapid and life altering. That does not make it bad but it makes the focus and goal money in a way that the more extravagant don’t focus on.

For businesses that have a radical shift planned for our reality the paradigm is switched. In that case the businesses core aim is to create change in an existing mechanism and as a result the multiples at all levels change.

It takes a while to get your head around but through working with people from both extremes on the spectrum. It is as difficult for the traditional business person to create something world changing as it is for many a world changer to live in a traditional business.

I will always remember the lack of connection between style when in 2 years one of my own businesses had grown to approx. £4 million in revenue from a standing start even after creating lots of new tech. I was asked by a more traditional business person how I had done it. When I explained how and added that I saw money as only a consequence I have no doubt he was baffled. The fact that the part he considered impossible I didn’t even see as a challenge would have meant that he no doubt walked away unfulfilled without the answers he sought. His thinking had been purely traditional business driven even though he hadn’t even realised it.

What an interesting world we live in! We are all so different!

Lesson four go fishing for what you need not for what you want!

Its easy to look for things we want but it can bring limited reward and can in fact distract us if we get what makes us comfortable. Opposites attract and they also often work well together. If everyone was like us the world would be a sad place. It also simply wouldn’t work.

The only thing you can’t be flexible on if you are building a culture and a community in your organisation is attention to your value set. If that shifts it's probably something to go and do something new!

When you have found the right fit with others well maybe its time for an adventure of a lifetime! Its up to each of us to build on the friendship of the people that matter to us and then shape the reality around them so they can continue to grow and become the person you knew they were ready to become.

We found that in employee number 1 Sarah Doyle! I hope we work together for a very long time. Lets create a joyful workplace that changes the reality of others for the long haul.

Lesson five its only just beginning

So the truth is that we haven’t built the infrastructure we would expect to exist in our little company. We really did move to slow. Perhaps it was like starting a university course while starting a company at the same time (Yes its probably the 3rd time I have done both together so 4th time I’ll learn right?). We need to push on the accelerator now the course is over. No more time for lessons rather its time for The Change.

www.thechangegroup.co is here for the long haul we now realise “what we are,” and its time as a 2 year old toddler to begin to grow up.

Lesson six time waits for no one so spend it wisely. Think Deeper Go Further and Do Better

The pandemic was a huge event and one that has stolen a year of many lives. It’s been an event of global change and in the words of Biden has been as significant and impactful for America as two world wars.

Many have never heard of Seneca and yet for me it’s his words that many need to hear during such a time of strife. Indeed we all as modern thinkers would do well to understand the boundaries of time.

“A man who has taken your time recognises no debt; yet it is the one he can never repay.” I recognise how much time I have wasted over a lifetime of 38 years and perhaps interestingly the time I felt was a waste was not the bad experiences but the time during which I procrastinated and had little to no experience at all. Memories are what we make from experience and I for one have recognised I need to create many more a memory on this short time on this planet.

This last quarter I have been focusing my time spending it with the people I like and redirecting my efforts towards those that share my values. With every passing moment I have to work less and less with people only in it for the money and less and less with those who are seeking to create a society that I would prefer not to see. As a result I am moving closer and closer to “The Change I want to see.”

I have no intention of becoming a follower. It’s time for me to set a new trend at The Change.

For everyone reading this post do not waste your time working on projects that don’t matter. Profit should never be the goal as money is but one consequence of genuine change. 

My TED Talk - Think Deeper Go Further and Do Better TEDx

Lesson seven: Keep an open mind in Listening to Experts, listening to Engineers and Business People, and when listening to “B******t.” I’m paraphrasing but Barbara Lampl has taught me a valuable lesson!

This point is inspired by a conversation I had with Barbara Lampl a behavioural mathematician and the inspiring mind behind The Feminist Economy. Barbara brought this particular point into focus for me in a way that was more clearly articulated than I had heard from anyone else before.

Perhaps its social media, perhaps it’s the pandemic, perhaps its just what’s happened to the world today but please don’t become a sheep! (Don’t know anyone remembers the film black sheep! That was a one!)

So many people are there trying to tell you how to live a better life, they try to tell you that they have it sorted out and you don’t. They try to tell you that they know what is best for someone like you. It's all a load of cobblers. We need open ears and an open heart to learn from the experience of others but also to remain self aware enough that we don’t follow someone else’s path. We should of course learn from the behaviours of those we wish to be like but even then its our own stamp on those that we bring to the table. For me the success of a concept is always going to involve economics, experts & simplified messages that audiences get. That’s the complete package.

Barbara has a deep understanding of what it all meant:

The Business people tell you how to make more money “just like they did.”

The Engineers invent new things “Like they had done before.”

The B*********** tell you to buy what they are selling and it will all be ok.

The truth is none of them are right and yet they are all right within their own bubbles. Reality is highly subjective and it works because people buy into/ accept it. Knowing your own range of skills on the three points is critical.

What would money be if the business person couldn’t spend it?

What would invention be without someone to adopt and use a technology?

What would fame be if the tout wasn’t noticed?

We must interpret deeply all the information at our disposal for the real truth is often gained from looking at all aspects of life and then using that insight for yourself.

We are surrounded! Advert after advert, an onslaught of message after message. The impact on the mental health of the masses is huge and yet we are prepared to suffer this. Why? because many a fool buys into it and continues to fund the cycle!

We can all look back at indulgences as sold by the Pope of the day up to 1517 as wrong, yet we are prisoners of our time and don’t see these free passes sold by The B***********s to a better life in quite the same way. History repeats itself!

There truly are very few original thoughts rather there are just new combinations of ideas to be considered. Sadhguru per example influences the thinking of millions today and yet the majority of any teachings are inspired by the ancients. We bring our own colour to thoughts but few are genuinely original. Ideas can change the world even when reinvented! For me the origin of ideas when we seek deeply enough can be attributed to the giants who went before us.

We live in a modern society. It is a society that has forgotten so much and which remembers so little of what true knowledge is about.

Lesson eight Fighting for something important! Sustainable Development Goal One: Poverty Alleviation and getting rid of modern slavery

It came to me not for the first time! Why do we have to be doing it for money to be seen as successful? Why are we measured by how much money we extract from the system? Why is it the wealthiest in a business who is credited with its success? Why have we accepted what are unchanging economic patterns for so long. Where is the movement to create new ways of thinking around economics?

Slavery is not a new concept it’s been present in society since we formed groups. It pays no head to race, region or religion. In all cultures there are those who are economically superior and those who are economically "inferior," ie they have less access to resources.

I look around and the pandemic has compounded more than any event I have seen the difference between have and have not.

One person uploads a family pic another an extension to a property or new build in the country?

Does the definition of slavery need extended to those working to survive rather than the restricted definition we see that suggests only 40 million people globally are so enslaved. For me we need to lift the lid on economic injustice and transform the lives of the financially illiterate for the betterment of a wholesome society and the enlightenment of us all!

Society today vilifies the weak and exemplifies the strong. Sparta had such a society and after the Peloponnesian war it was a society that stopped existing.

Could we use the pandemic to be a catalyst for genuine change in how wealth and income are divided? Could the SDG goals, in particular, goal number one of poverty alleviation really be embraced by investment and society? Could applied mandates of organisations such as B Corporation make for a better more equal society?

Why does the worker get so much less than the business owner? Why do certain demographics continue to be underpaid? Could the ideal embodiment of shares for all in fact be used to change the greed and excess present in a society where many have nothing?

Its been a year where I realised The Change must be more than the supply of money or ideas to companies, rather its been a time where I realised we have true purpose and potential.

Lesson Nine When doing nothing that adds value stand back

Big lesson for me and one I wish others could see in themselves! When you don’t add value stand back. Give those that deserve them their own wins! There are things I personally am just not cut out for. In other cases I’m the missing piece in the puzzle. Knowing the difference is priceless for every human being. #knowyourlimits

Never of course forget to step in when you need to! If you’re a natural born pessimist don’t forget your strengths when considering those weaknesses! Yin Needs Yang!

Lesson Ten Love what you do! When your too busy to do the things that you enjoy bring someone into the team whose fulfilled by the things your not

Your too busy to do the things you enjoy and do well. Recognise that it’s important that you add value through giving someone else the chance to do their bit and bring a little piece of themselves to the plan. Learn when to recruit. Learn when to train. Learn when to support and when too step back.

Aim to avoid micromanagement but never undermanage either! To be true to the point natural-born leaders tend to under rather than over-manage and that leads to a loss of vision in a team and a resulting failure to achieve results! Teams and structure go hand in hand. Guiderails for communication are useful if not essential tools!

If you got it right all time every time then your home and dry. I continue to need lessons! The fact is the lessons I need are painful for those I care most about as they eat my time and theirs.

No doubt we at The Change have been a little late in recruiting help, so a big lesson learned. It's now time to learn from some of our best clients, and to begin to scale. We should have done it sooner but we have positions open NOW!

In closing

So the lesson of this update. Be grateful for what you achieve and enjoy every minute. Success isn’t to be found in the money you extract, its in the value you create.

The future is bright and is full of The Change!

What a journey it will be.