Part of today’s blog has been taken from a blog I posted at the beginning of June, but I end todays blog with a new story which everyone at naseba can relate to.
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I went to boarding school for three years with Chipper Jones … who is now one of the best baseball players in MLB today.
He has played for the Atlanta Braves for his entire career, broken many records, won the National League MVP, won a world series, earns 17 million dollars a year salary … and without question will end up in the hall of fame.
I think it is worth noting that Chipper signed a contract when he was first drafted that several agents and players complained was not big/good enough. Many people claimed Chipper signed for too little money.
I remember reading a quote by Chipper - although he was just out of high school 18 years old, I admired him for his maturity — he said something like: “my goal is not to be the highest paid player in the minor leagues … my goal is to play professional baseball.” (8 years later he would sign one of the biggest contracts ever in baseball)
Chipper did not rush to his summit.
Although we were not friends in high school — I have watched his career develop with great interest & respect because he was drafted 1st pick right out of high school.
Instead of rushing to the majors (like I would have wanted to do if I had been in his place), Chipper spent 4.5 years in the minor leagues preparing/training/developing for the day he would be sent to the big leagues.
The same year Chipper was drafted 1st — another young, up and coming super talent was drafted 4th overall pick …. Todd van Poppel. Van Poppel was expected to become the next great pitcher, maybe even the greatest ever and I remember him being on the cover of several sports magazines.
Van Poppel’s agents fought to ensure he went to the big leagues as soon as possible - and fought and fought with the team that drafted him to ensure he made as much money as possible upon signing.
He rushed to his summit.
A few years later …. no one remembers Todd van Poppel because he went to majors very quickly, ended up getting injured, bounced from team to team for a few years and retired completely unfulfilling what was expected from his talent.
I wonder how his career would have turned out if he and his agents had not pushed so hard for him to go to the majors right away.
…. Fabien Faure, Sophie Leray, Nic Watson, Eugene Zola and I started naseba in the basement of an apartment building. (all 4 of these people are still with naseba today)
From the very beginning, we were all naively optimistic about our future.
Fabien Faure was just a young french kid from Lyon … someone who had worked for me at my previous company in Nice, but quit when that company transferred the office to Barcelona.
In fact, Fabien and Sophie were the first two employees of naseba - if not for them, naseba would not exist today.
Although several people whom I was personally very close to, either did not believe in naseba or betrayed me — Fabien stayed focused and loyal. He did not give a shit about his title or the size of the office — he only cared about succeeding.
Over the past 6 years - Fabien has develop from a French neo-socialist who was more excited about having holidays than he was working — into a brilliant business man.
6 months ago, I promoted Fabien to Managing Director of naseba group, a role which has him much more administratively and operationally involved at group level.
This past Monday - I had a board meeting in Dubai and I asked Fabien to present to the board his ideas for 2009 schedule.
As I watched Fabien present to the board, discuss and challenge the detailed group financials as well as strategy for 08 and 09 — I could not help but think back to the 23 year old who I interviewed 8 years ago in London…
Although he still has a long way to go to the top of his mountain — Fabien’s success and what he has achieved today as a person is almost unbelievable.
Fabien told me when we started naseba his goal was to own an apartment.
… 6 years later he owns 3 apartments in Dubai and one in France — but more impressive than his financial achievements, he has become exceptional at what he does.
Please note: I am NOT boasting about his financial achievements to say FUCK YOU to those who let me down along the way …I am not praising Fabien just for the sake of praising him.
I use the example of Fabien Faure because many of us (esp. at naseba) can relate to him. He is someone who wants to be successful - but he understands where he wants to go is not going to happen over night.
Although the western world bombards us daily with advertisements promoting/selling us “short cuts” … the truth is, there are no short cuts.
Losing weight; learning another language; building a group of companies into 100+ million euros; achieving our goals…. does not happen over night.
Instead of rushing to the top of your mountain; or goal ….and getting frustrated when it does not happen immediately — stay “consistent and focused.”
and if you do not see success immediately, try and remember:
the man at the top of the mountain did not fall there.
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