By Alec Hogg
There are advantages to being an only child. Or a shy, socially awkward kid. They are more likely to discover the joy of reading early. And learn that within the covers of a humble book lie friends and adventures beyond their imagination. Like other great investments, a love of reading deliver ever growing dividends.
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In time, one also learns to be more discerning. I’m always on the lookout for recommendations from wise people and a couple of years back at the Berkshire Hathaway AGM, paid attention when Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger advised us to pick up Dream Big. It was a recent translation from Portuguese chronicling Berkshire’s new private equity partners 3G Capital of Brazil.
Think about the title for a moment. Here were two of the world’s most talented business practitioners urging their disciples to read a book promoting the antithesis of their rationality. Dreaming is, well, for dreamers. Business, we’re taught, is about logic and numbers. Not all that airy-fairy stuff. That’s for artists.
But Buffett and Munger will be just as quick to tell you the world is not a binary place. The most rational of beings can also be those who possess the most audacious dreams.
Until hearing him at a PSG Konsult conference a couple years ago, I’d never heard of Kevin Gaskell a tall, slim Brit who describes himself as a businessman who occasionally gives talks. Gaskell is a turnaround specialist – a man bankers and investors call in when all hope appears lost. He delights in achieving the impossible.
He happily shared his secrets with the 1 500 of us in the audience, because to him they aren’t. The road to success, I remember him saying, starts with a dream to create something extraordinary because that’s the only thing that inspires passion, provides a common purpose. Only then does the magic happen.
Gaskell says every plan begins with a dream big enough to align the team and provoke and incentivise them properly: “People are extraordinary and they enjoy making a difference. Having a dream is the start of that process. It’s rare that you are able to outspend the competition. But you can always out-think them.”
His host that day, PSG founder and super-successful entrepreneur Jannie Mouton’s followed up with some excellent advice of his own: “Believe in yourself. Have a dream. Read a lot, look at every opportunity, dream it and then formulate your plan. A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.”
Mouton’s favourite quote is from Winston Churchill who said “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” As we are all on this mortal coil for such a short spell, why not make the most of it? By dreaming again. Starting right now.
