Business
This week I am joined by my good friend Rob Wilkinson. Rob Wilkinson is an award-winning co-founder of FCA approved property funding platform, Crowd with Us. He heads up a specialist team that provides investors with a variety of debt and equity-based property development investments. Along with his team, Rob is responsible for creating and administering CWU’s Institutional grade due diligence. He oversees all operational and business activities to ensure continued growth and consistency with the overall strategy and vision of the business. Rob is also responsible for building long-term relationships with key partners and stakeholders. Through careful monitoring of market conditions, he maintains a deep knowledge of both the property and finance industries. Rob is a qualified Master Mariner, having worked on some of the world’s largest and most prestigious privately-owned yachts. In this role, he was responsible for managing the assets and relationships of Global Leaders and Captains of Industry, including a senior member of the Saudi Royal Family and former world's richest man with a net worth of over $60bn USD. In this role, he met and dealt with well-known world leaders such as Donald Trump, Tony Blair and Barack Obama to name a few. Here is Rob’s chapter from the book. If you feel inspired and want to read more then buy the book “Advice To Your Younger Self” on amazon and support our great causes. ROB WILKINSON BOOK CHAPTER I’m a Master Mariner (Ships Captain) by trade, having been awarded a scholarship to study as a Navigational Officer Cadet at the age of 16. Prior to my first trip to sea at this young age, knowing that I’d be surrounded by, and leading men much older and experienced than myself, my father gave me two pieces of advice that I’ve never forgotten. “Don’t ask others to do what you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself” and “Speak to others how you’d wish to be spoken to”. These two principles came to serve me well as I progressed through the ranks of life at sea. Up until around my 25th birthday I’d always been the youngest person on any ship I sailed on and had been leading teams on a daily basis for most of my career, up to that point. I’ve always asked myself the question: ‘Would I do this?’ before asking something of someone else. In many cases, especially in new environments, where it’s important to gain the trust and respect of those you’re working with, or where the personal safety of others comes into play, I’ll often carry out the task alongside my team to demonstrate my ability and the fact that I’ll happily do anything I ask of others. The above said, you can’t expect to know everything, so it’s also incredibly important to always show humility. There may be instances where you have no choice but to ask someone to do something you wouldn't do yourself, for the simple reason that you don’t know how to do it. In these situations, I’m always honest with those I work with, explaining that they are the experts, that I don't know how it should be done and that I need to learn from them. This is a much better position to take as opposed to claiming to know something you don’t, as those that do know will easily identify you as a fraud and any respect or trust you’ve built up will quickly erode. My father's second piece of advice goes without saying really, but is easy to forget, especially when we find ourselves in positions of power. This could be anything from being promoted to the Captain of a sports team to running a deck full of grown men. By speaking to people how you’d want to be spoken to yourself, rather than at them, you’ll get a much better reaction. This is where effective communication comes into play. Mastering the skill of interpersonal engagement is fundamental to our personal and social development. It sets rules, boundaries and steps to attain desirable results and success. The ability to communicate accurately with others is a vital life skill that should never be overlooked and is, in my opinion, the number one tool for a successful life, whether that be in personal relationships or business. Think of the most successful people you know, and I guarantee they’ll all be amazing communicators. Whatever it is, the answer is YES! We grow as people through experiences, however we’re not always ready for what life throws at us and there’s nothing more uncomfortable than being out of your comfort zone. As such, the natural reaction is for us to wait until it feels right! This is often a long way off in the future. The strange thing is, the best place to grow and flourish as humans is when we’re in this place of discomfort and unease. As the saying goes: ‘pressure turns coal into diamonds!’. I’ve always made it my goal to jump at every opportunity that presents itself to me. However, there have been times where I was so uncomfortable that I’ve made excuses or procrastinated so much, I’ve lost the chance. Whilst I may have experienced immediate relief, once this subsided it became replaced with regret. As such I’d suggest you say ‘YES’ to any opportunity for growth and run with it! If you don’t know how to do something, or even how you’d find out how to do something, say yes anyway and figure it out as you go along! The mind is amazing at solving problems and I guarantee you’ll figure it out! That said, don’t take shortcuts, as they rarely pay off. One of my mantras is ‘don't do something because it’s easy, do it because it’s right!”. Whilst I’m all for carrying out tasks in the most efficient manner, shortcuts are rarely shortcuts and inevitably result in you having to do something twice, so I’d always suggest doing it right the first time around. Failure = Feedback What’s the worst that can happen? We’re often so concerned with failure that it clouds the bigger picture - So what if we fail? ‘What will our friends or family think?’. Who cares! I believe the only failure is in giving up. If you don't succeed the first-time round, take a step back and analyse what you did, what went wrong and why? What could you have improved upon? Work on getting better then try again! If you’ve failed an exam for example, re-book it the same day you find out you didn’t pass. Whilst it’s OK to be disappointed, don’t dwell on the result, focus on doing it better the next time around and I guarantee you, your friends and family will be just as excited when you do get the result, whether it’s your first try or your third! Approach failure with excitement and positivity. How thrilling, inspiring and stimulating it is to get a chance to do something again. The more you fail, the better success feels after all. The importance of Mentors Always seek out mentors. Try to spend as much time with people who have achieved what you aspire to and less time with those who pull you back. You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Just think about it. If you want to learn to drive, do you try to teach yourself, have someone else who can’t drive teach you, or do you employ the services of a qualified driving instructor? I’d probably go one step further and interview several driving instructors to find out from each how many of their students passed the first-time round in the last six-months and go with the one who had the highest success rate! Whether you want to learn a new sport or want to rise to the top in your career, spend some time identifying the best person in that field/industry and become their friend. In many instances, those people haven't made it there alone, they’ll also have had mentors and will be very open to helping you. That said there are two important rules that follow this. Number 1 - listen more than you talk; and number 2 - if they set you a task, make sure you follow it through and report back. In the same way that mentors are important, if you notice anyone in your life pulling you back and taking more from you than they give, start spending less time with them. Whilst if you’re lucky you’ll be surrounded by fans, those family and friends that support every success with you, you’ll find there’s another subset of family and friends that struggle with your progress and try to pull you back. The more successful you get, the more they’ll talk to you about the ‘unnecessary risks’ you’re taking and that ‘it’s all going to end in tears’ and how they’d do it much differently. Whilst this is never easy to hear, it’s very common that your success pushes them way out of their comfort zone and results in them projecting their fears onto you. Don’t pay attention to what they’re saying. I find it best to limit time with these people and generally over time they’ll adjust to your new level of being and will come back into your life. Don’t work to live, live to work - The importance of goals! It’s so easy these days to get bogged down by work, to get caught in the rat race with your only focus being on making money and living from one month to the next. Money is important, but don't lose sight of the bigger picture! We’re only here once so let’s ensure we have the best time possible! Set goals and work towards achieving them. Work out what you want out of life and ensure your life revolves around making them a reality. It doesn't matter how crazy or ‘out there’ your goals seem, write them down anyway. Bigger goals are much less daunting when chunked down into more manageable bitesize pieces. If you want to learn a new language or play a new musical instrument, you may ask yourself how on earth that could be possible. However, spend 20 mins a day for 3 months practicing, and you’ll look at this once impossible task from an entirely different perspective. Look at your goals every day and review them regularly. Are you progressing towards them or moving away from them? Accountability is a massive factor in ensuring success and can be achieved in a number of ways. A friend with similar values who can question you and help you stay on track, or announcing your goal on social media, are two strong accountability tools I use. Have short, medium and long term goals and most importantly, when you achieve one, ensure you celebrate it! Have goals beyond your comfort zone, because in order to do something you’ve never done, you’ve got to become someone you’ve never been. Media links: https://www.facebook.com/robbie.wilkinson | https://www.instagram.com/rob_wilkinson46/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-wilkinson-a3360523/ URLs: Business: www.crowdwithus.london | Personal: www.rrwilkinson.com Go Fund me charity link: gf.me/u/xcp3qy See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.