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Ever wondered about those crazy men and women who compete in gruelling triathlons such as Ironman – successively swimming, cycling and running impossible distances with their veins bulging, muscles pumping, eyeballs almost popping out and sweat spraying in all directions?
Well, perhaps they are no “crazier” than people who leave their steady, well-paid jobs because they are driven to pursue their business dream – often with no money or even an office to work from, and with little more than an idea and a plan. However, with lots of guts.
Just ask 42-year old Mike Fannin, Group Operations Director at the Cape Town-based wealth and capital management group Carrick Wealth. He has completed some 20 triathlon endurance races, including one full and two half Ironman races. And he and his colleagues have just celebrated Carrick’s highly successful first year in business, exceeding by far their own initial expectations.
They had more than doubled their first-year targets by opening fully regulator-licensed offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Harare and Mauritius; establishing partnering arrangements in London and elsewhere; built a team of 127 advisers and support staff; and had over R1.308-billion invested funds under management on behalf of 429 clients. A true gold-medal achievement.
But it hadn’t been an easy race…for Mike or for Carrick. Just three days before his first full Ironman event in Port Elizabeth he learnt that colleague, mentor and manager Craig Featherby was leaving the company they were working for at the time to start a new business venture, Carrick.
“Given the option by my previous company of leaving with Craig and other members of the management team, I had 15 hours to decide the rest of my life,” Mike recalls. And that is just what he did on his first Ironman while swimming, cycling and running the tortuous, life-sapping distance.
Not only did Mike complete his first Ironman in good time, but by the end of the race he knew he would join Craig, now group managing director of Carrick. That was the start of another gruelling race. Craig and his initial team began with no registered company, no licence and no premises. “But I had a dream,” says Craig.
So what makes for achieving success on this scale? Is there any analogy to be drawn between preparing for, and competing in, an event like Ironman and achieving success in business?
“Yes, absolutely,” says Mike. “Although I am not always sure if it was business that prepared me for triathlons, or the other way around.”
It’s hard to believe that the super fit, trim and muscular Mike was once, by his own admission, a chubby, 13-year-old bookworm with no interest in sport, whose mother talked him into swimming, found he loved it and never looked back.
While participating in triathlon events has taught him more about skills such as planning, focusing, preparing and strategising, Mike believes it was his 15 years of being an entrepreneur that prepared him mentally for triathlons.
“When I started my first business I was so broke; I owed so much money and the only thing I could do was borrow more money. But you back yourself and you never give up. I absolutely refuse to give up, in business or when competing in a marathon.”
The analogy he draws of applying the Ironman mind-set to business is fully supported by many top professionals and successful businesspeople who also happen to be top triathletes.
They include Jack Daly, a highly successful American entrepreneur and CEO who has completed 15 Ironman triathlons on five different continents and 60 marathons in 33 different US states; the successful Jordan Waxman, managing partner of a top US advisor-owned financial services company who has competed in seven Ironman 140.6’s (full Ironman); and Sami Inkinen, founder and president of Trulia, the fastest-growing online real estate company in the world and a triathlete ranked second in the world in his age group; or top South African Ironman athlete Stuart Marais, winner of this year’s Ironman 70.3 (half marathon) in Durban.
In fact, this very physical endurance sport seems to have become the sport of choice for successful executives and professionals around the world – some already well into their fifties and still extremely fit, focused and driven.
Mike believes the single most important quality required for business, as for Ironman, is to believe in oneself; to believe that anything is possible and to never give up. Underpinning this is focused preparation, consistency, steady growth, the ability to endure, having a game plan and to pursue the big dream no matter what.
Mike compares Carrick’s first year in business to being in the triathlon swim when thousands of competitors storm into the water, thrusting, shoving, kicking and churning up the water as they try to get into a good position for the next two stages.
“It’s like trying to stay alive in a washing machine out there. It’s the most terrifying part. But you calm down, complete it in the leading pack, and then get onto your cycle for 180 km. When changing into your cycling gear, you take stock of where you are. Most Ironman races are won or lost in the cycle stage.
“In its first year Carrick completed the swim. We have survived the washing machine, put ourselves in a good position, and now we are starting the next important stage of the race. Our goal is to become the top firm in Africa over the next two to three years – that’s Carrick’s ‘cycle event’,” Mike says.
It is perhaps no small coincidence that so many top business executives are also outstanding Ironman athletes, for the Ironman competition itself has become a global brand and a highly successful, multi-million-dollar enterprise.
The idea of the Ironman was born in 1978 when, during an awards banquet for the Waikiki Swim Club in Hawaii, John Collins, a US naval officer stationed there, and his wife Judy, discussed the idea of combining the three toughest endurance races on the island into one race to see who the toughest athletes were: swimmers, cyclists, or runners.
On 18 February 1978, 15 competitors, including Collins, took on the first-ever Ironman challenge with no prize money or medals; by 1980 ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and Sports Illustrated were bringing worldwide recognition to the event. Soon Ironman became a global company – World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) – bought by Providence Equity Partners in 2008. This resulted in a sevenfold increase in its annual revenue to more than US$150-million. In August this year, the Chinese Dalian Wanda Group, headed by billionaire Wang Jianlin, acquired WTC and Ironman for US$650-million. By then it was staging more than 130 races worldwide with over 230,000 competitors.
In the full Ironman, competitors swim 3.9 km, cycle 180 km and run 42 km, all in under 17 hours; in the 70.3, or half event, they swim 1.9 km, cycle 90 km and run 21.1 km. The 17-hours cut-off is based on John Collins’ official finishing time in the very first Ironman. In that first Ironman there were no winners – just those who finished it, and those who didn’t.
In his personal race Mike, who grew up in Port Elizabeth, has come a long way. After several entrepreneurial ventures, a B Com. degree from the University of Port Elizabeth, and being mentored by a former Wall Street adviser, he left for London to “conquer the world”. He redesigned fees, billing and accounting systems for some of the large banks; then co-founded a business advising South Africans about tax-structuring their offshore assets; and left to co-found the financial services Principia Group which he and his partners sold to the Montpelier Group in 2007.
Mike returned to South Africa in 2010 to work for one of the industry’s largest financial consultancies, before teaming up with Craig and the rest of the Carrick team to lead the charge into the African wealth management and investment landscape.
During his time in London he joined a local triathlon club and a gym, but on his return to South Africa he got out of shape. While his mother had talked him into swimming as a teenager, it was his PA who now talked him into doing a half marathon, or “otherwise face having a heart attack”.
Looking back, Mike says, whenever he becomes involved in a new business venture he always seems to get involved in a sport alongside it – it sharpens his mind and prepares him for the challenges. He thrives on challenges where the game changes, as with Carrick.
Mike believes that, while you do need the shining stars – those who win and triumph – in business and in sport, an important aspect as a leader is to help uplift others for the benefit of the whole. “To lead you actually need to stay in the pack,” he says.
This is a role he extends to a more charitable level, such as assisting a blind athlete in a triathlon for instance, regardless of whether or not he will make the race cut-off time as a result. It is also a feature found in Carrick where the directors and staff are passionate about the company’s philanthropic endeavours through its Signature of Hope Trust.
Mike says that in triathlon, as in business, it is important to have a dream, the ultimate goal. But one should know that, when setting goals or targets, unforeseen changes may be necessary along the way and you should be well-prepared for them.
“Preparation and training is key, being 90 per cent of what you do, while the actual competition is only 10 per cent, both in Ironman and in business.”
“The hard work is the preparation, and while I do set personal goals in the race, generally during the race I just try to have a good time while doing the very best I can,” he says, a philosophy he also follows in business.
Just as John Collins and his wife set out to invent the ultimate physical challenge with Ironman, Mike says Carrick came about in much the same way. They brainstormed how they could, as a financial services provider, do things in a better way. Some of the key aspects they penned down included being an employer of choice, becoming the best advisers possible, having their clients view them as partners, and setting the bar high when it comes to integrity, transparency and professionalism.
“We laid out all our goals and principles and that was the start of our race as Carrick.”
And it has been an excellent race thus far, but what about the prize at the end of it?
“The prize is about being able to challenge ourselves – to go out and do our best, not about the purse or the medal”, he says.
* Carrick are leaders in wealth and capital management. For more information and advice on trusts and international retirement plans, call on +27 21 201 1000 or visit www.carrick-wealth.com.
