20-21_Grid 27/09/2017 11:30 Page 20
OVER THE COUNTER
Motivational
Speaker Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, reflects on some motivational meanings. Three words said simply and asked directly can tell you a great deal about a person in relation to their work and beliefs: ‘What motivates you?’ Job interviews, Dragons’ Den and many other q&a situations have all used this as a staple question over the years and I have lost count of how many times I have had this question thrown at me. Professional athletes’ careers are also bookended by this question. At the beginning it is easy - they want to be the best, striving to break the world record – but once they have won all the trophies and medals and made their fortune the question takes on a whole new meaning. What is the driving force that makes you keep practicing, training and working to achieve once you have been to the top of the mountain? So the reality, as with most simple questions, is there is far from a simple answer. Motivation has been at the forefront of my mind for some time, perhaps because I am questioning my current ambitions. My shop buildings and large-scale design and build projects are all done for now; with the next grand design nestling in 2020. The shortterm goals - website, better management of time, more sleep - are in-hand and the day to day challenges are those that face all businesses - footfall, cash flow and of course staff. I have no desire to open any more stores for lots of reasons, not least that I would need to look at employing mid-level management. Also, if I am brutally honest I would miss the total interaction I had with my parents on these projects. As they get older it is not fair to keep expecting them to back and support them, despite my mum wanting to be totally involved. Perhaps because I am writing this column on my 43rd birthday I am more reflective. Your birthday is often a day you look 20
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
at the past, present and future - where you question where your position in the world really is. As most of you will know, having read this column or meeting me I am a positive person. I try and look to the future honestly but with great optimism. I always see that there is a way out, that there is a way to make things work. I always believe that you can get there if you try. It so happens that my birthday - 13th September - also happens to be Roald Dahl day. Dahl was a fascinating character. He took on the role of author, pilot, inventor, philanthropist and he would have been a 101 this year. He merged a successful career writing both children's stories with those of the macabre. I woke this morning to this quote from Dahl Day! “I began to realise how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full
Above: Professional athletes train hard to reach their goal. Left: Illustrator Quentin Blake created the artwork for many of Roald Dahl’s amazing children’s stories – A design from Woodmansterne. Below: Just a few of the birthday cards David received for his 43rd birthday.
speed, embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good.” Dahl’s life was far from easy. It was complicated and twisting, like one of his stories, full of fascinating characters. It was also filled with tragedy. A sibling passed away young, his father died when he was only three, and yet despite these huge life challenges Dahl was by all accounts a very positive person and of course he went on to have an amazing varied career, which despite significant wealth was not driven by money. I believe passionately, as Dahl did, that you have to really want it. You have to live it and breathe it, whatever it may be. Sometimes though life happens, and it makes things really difficult. Sometimes hurdles keep coming, that keep getting bigger, and it gets more and more difficult to get over them. So these thoughts made me look and question why I do all this, and in honesty I looked to the people that motivate me the most, my parents. My dad is now completely retired from his business, and he is fascinating in terms of what drove him. He had no interest in money, never sought or desired material things and would give away his last penny readily. His desire had always been simply to run and own a business, which he did successfully, although not starting this journey until the age of 53. My dad lost his own dad in his early years (10 years-old), and as the youngest any