Last week my name as well as naseba was associated with possibly the most mediocre event that I have heard about — “RAW Africa” which was hosted by a naseba group company, ambition events.
My old buddy, the MD and founder of ambition events delivered an event that was so disgustingly, poorly prepared, managed and operationally run - that as soon as the event was over, I terminated all professional contracts & relationships with him.
Over the weekend, Gary Burrows in our Cape Town office fwd Liam and I a link on the “runner’s world” website forum with my corporate picture someone had taken from our website and several comments from people calling me a “capitalist tyrant” and another person refering to me as “Lex Luthur.”
The hand full of disgruntled people were refering to my termination of the MD as well as a comment I had said in an interview on TV, one of which I later approved to be included in a press release — a comment that to this day, I stand by every word:
“one can only get so far up the mountain by cheating and dishonestly hustling their way until they fall off it…”
One person said my comment was “unprofessional…”
My role as the Chairman & CEO of the naseba group is not to candy coat a pile of garbage … or turn a blind eye to mediocrity, but to ensure the group expands, develops and grows financially…
I made a big change after the race, but no one was made a scape goat.
Liam commented to Gary that “Scott embraces mistakes…and always turns them into a positive….”
We all make mistakes, but is up to the person who makes them to learn from their mistake and climb higher.
whatever success I have achieved thus far, one of my secrets is that I am proud. I am proud of my team; proud of our product; and proud of the culture that everyone associates with naseba.
Last week I felt a deep sense of disgrace to be associated with ambition events and our RAW series.
As far as the comment someone said about me being “unprofessional” …..The term “unprofessional” (in my opinion) is reserved for someone who lies; dishonestly hustles; and intentionally misleads people … which no one in my industry, group of companies, friends, investors, circle of business competitors, even those people who may not personally like me —- no one refers to Scott Ragsdale as unprofessional nor dishonest.
I am demanding.
I am demanding that all the people that work at one of our 4 different naseba group companies wants exactly what I want — to be the most successful one can possibly be.
I despise mediocrity.
I DO NOT expect employees to work 6 days a week and live only for naseba — HOWEVER, I do expect each manager level/senior level manager (which ideally is the way each leads their teams and products) to be focused, honorable, dynamic, driven and proud of ones own work ethic.
A good example…. Kerry; Leila; Gary work for naseba in Cape Town– but because the ambition events race was held in South Africa, they helped the MD run the event. While the boss of the event was hiding in his car, these three pro-actively got involved trying to make the race/event better and did not hide behind anything.
I am very proud that in all the negative feedback on the race director/MD of ambition events, each participant included very positive comments about the naseba employees (Leila, Kerry and Gary)
naseba is turning this (mistake) negative into a positive by re-focusing ambition events; promoting a new Managing Director who is an ironman finisher, someone who has worked for me for 4+ years and knows exactly what I/naseba stands for. We are also launching a new series of “make it happen” events which will be entirely (honorably) focused on the spirit of “ambition.”
Today’s blog is not about kicking my old friend, it is not about finding, or justifying excuses for a bad event that my name was associated with last week …. today’s blog is about reminding every reader to take pride in what you do — and do whatever you do (even if you work for a competitor) do your job to best of your ability.
Anyone can bull shit.
Anyone can talk about how hard they are going to work.
Anyone can talk about how great things are going to be, etc….
But it all comes back to the same thing …. you have to make success happen.
I will not post any negative comments about the previous MD of Ambition Events . I will not post any negative comments or opinions on today blog.
instead of focusing on the negatives ….
just f…ing sell….
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