The Accidental Entrepreneur, The Survivor Edition

2Natural born winners

I often reflect on my travelling years and look at what those years taught me later in life, and how what I learned helped me as a young businessperson. I think the first thing my travelling showed was a level of adventure and courage; an ability to give it a go and see where life takes me. Getting on that plane in the 1980s — when you could still light up a cigarette and some rows were simply marked as ‘nonsmoking’ (which clearly made sense … not!) — and travelling to the other side of the world with no mobile phone or internet and snail mail as the only form of communication took a level of courage and adventure. Starting Boost was the same. Selling your home and putting everything on the line with no experience in running a business took that same sense of adventure (or naivety) and trust in the spirit of the journey.

Some of the experiences I mention in the book show that the young Janine needed to think on her feet and make quick decisions, aware that failure was not an option because the consequence in some circumstances was life and death. The same skills are required for businesspeople. You need courage, a bit of faith in your own ability, quick decisions and the power to stay at the problem until you find a solution. I would never have travelled if I knew the real dangers and some of the problems I was going to face. And I may not have started a business if I knew the struggles, sleepless nights and fear that came with having everything on the ...