As I sit here today, the road ahead is unknown. And, to a certain extent, IM MORE itself is still unknown. What it will become, where it will go, who it will reach, who will walk through the door, who will listen and who will change. I don’t know all of those answers yet. But perhaps that is what makes this journey so important.
You see, I have always been about people. My whole life. I enjoy working with people, meeting people and helping people. And I think one of the biggest things I have learned throughout my career, whether working with somebody individually, working with a start-up business or working with a much larger organisation, is that you can only really help somebody who wants to be helped.
I’ve spent so many years trying to help people who didn’t want to be helped. They didn’t want to change, they didn’t want to adapt, and sometimes they didn’t even want to believe that something different was possible. And that drained so much energy out of me. Perhaps, looking back, I have always wanted people to realise that they could be more than they might realise themselves.
At the same time as trying to help other people, I have spent my own life trying to improve me. Trying to understand myself, trying to improve what I think about life, how I look at life and how I feel about the person I am becoming.
I’m 56 now, but this fascination with people started when I was probably 12 years old, perhaps even younger. I used to watch people. I used to study people. I would see how some people appeared completely content with their lives, while other people were constantly busy, constantly chasing something, constantly trying to get somewhere. And I became fascinated by why people behaved the way they did.
Why does one person step forward while another steps backwards? Why does one person speak while another remains quiet? Why does one person believe they can do something while somebody standing beside them, perhaps with exactly the same ability, believes they can’t?
I’ve always loved understanding people. And as my career developed, I found myself naturally wanting to lead people, develop people and help people. Sometimes people would come to me because they wanted a job. Sometimes they wanted advancement in their career. Sometimes they wanted to start a business. Sometimes their business was growing and they didn’t know where to take it next. And sometimes they had built the business they thought they wanted, only to discover they had become trapped inside it.
So I helped. I helped people move. I helped people grow. And the more I did it, the more I realised something. Everything comes back to people.
No matter what I do, where I am, where I go, what business I am working with or what problem I am trying to solve, eventually it always comes back to people. Businesses are people. Communities are people. Families are people. Teams are people. And change starts with people.
But creating an environment in which somebody feels safe enough to change isn’t easy. Some people are confident. Some are quiet. Some are reserved. Some are frightened of making a mistake. Some have spent years protecting themselves from change. And some have spent so long being told what they cannot do that they have almost forgotten to ask themselves what they might be capable of doing.
But they are more.
That, to me, sits right at the heart of IM MORE.
What I have realised more than anything is that anybody can arrive at a point in their life, at any age, where they simply don’t know what to do next. They don’t know which way to turn. They don’t know who to speak to. They don’t know who to ask for advice. And perhaps the first person we have to confront whenever we want something to change in our life is ourselves.
We have to look at ourselves. Not just at where we are, but at who we are. And perhaps more importantly, who we could become.
Because there are people everywhere who are unhappy. There are people who are uncertain. There are people who know that something in their life isn’t quite right, but they cannot see what the next step looks like. Sometimes the hardest journey isn’t travelling hundreds of miles. Sometimes the hardest journey is the one that takes place inside us.
And perhaps that is where those two words become so powerful: IM MORE.
The road I’m travelling now isn’t necessarily the normal road. But when I look back over my life, I’m not sure I’ve ever travelled the normal road. And maybe that’s the point.
Today, we have people working around IM MORE who are themselves wondering what their future looks like. They’re thinking about their careers. They’re thinking about their confidence. They’re thinking about what they’re good at. They’re thinking about what comes next. And our job isn’t to tell them who they should become. Our job is to create an environment where they can start discovering that for themselves.
We can support them, challenge them, encourage them and give them opportunities. But ultimately, they have to want it. Because the most powerful change doesn’t happen when somebody else tells you that you need to change. It happens when you look at yourself and recognise something.
When you look at the person in the mirror. When you look at the person inside yourself. And eventually you ask: Is this all I am?
And if the answer somewhere inside you is, “No. I’m more than this,” then another question follows. And that question is perhaps the most important one of all: What am I going to do about it?
That isn’t always an easy question. Moving forward takes courage. It takes honesty. It takes acceptance. Sometimes it means admitting that something isn’t working. Sometimes it means asking for help. Sometimes it means starting again. And sometimes it simply means taking one small step towards something different.
For me, this road continues today. Tomorrow is still unknown. IM MORE is still developing. The people around us are developing. I’m still developing. And perhaps we’re all going to grow together. We’re going to learn from each other, challenge each other and support each other, because none of us has everything worked out.
So if you’re reading this and you’re going through something in your own life, your career or your business, I want you to know something. You’re not alone, and you don’t have to remain alone. There is always somebody you can talk to. There is always somebody who can listen. Reach out your hand. Use your voice. Make the call. Ask for help.
And if somehow our paths cross, whether through IM MORE, through my work, through an event, through a conversation or simply because you’ve read something I’ve written, then I hope I can help you move forward. Maybe towards a career you hadn’t considered. Maybe towards an opportunity you didn’t think was available. Maybe towards a business you didn’t believe you could build. Or perhaps simply towards believing in yourself again.
I don’t know exactly where this road leads yet. That’s why I’ve called this The Road into the Unknown.
But I do know what sits behind it: people, potential, belief and opportunity. And that feeling inside somebody when they finally begin to realise: I’m more.
Thank you for joining me on the journey. I’m sure it’s going to be different, and that’s exactly why I’m looking forward to finding out where it takes us.
