Jim’s Journey

I confess I have been a failure; I also have had spectacular successes...

The year was 1988, I was in the infancy of my boat building business.  It was hard and rewarding work. But I knew I wasn’t being the best I could be, I knew there had to be things about business I did not know, but I didn’t know what. I called the industry association; they had a mentor service which I could use. The plan was the mentor would drive from Melbourne , have a look at what I was doing, advise me what I should do and drive back to Melbourne in the afternoon. The plan had some obvious flaws to me. Like I knew myself well enough that I was unlikely to blindly follow his instructions; The price It was a serious investment; There was no follow up later to answer those unanswered questions I was bound to have. The biggest flaw was that I actually just did not have any information on what the service actually offered. It may have been fantastic value but with scant information from the secretary, I was in no situation to make a decision.  So I didn’t go ahead.

I knew what I wanted, someone to bounce Ideas off, and someone who could tell me when I was doing the obvious wrong, and someone who would give me honest feedback about my plans. What I wanted was a coach, The only problem is that the concept of business or personal coaching had not yet being thought of. The profession came into existence in 1994.

I was successful; I read books and attended seminars, built the business I wanted. I reached the “top of the mountain”.  The sad truth is I may have been much more successful with the right person helping to guide me. When I look back over my decisions over the years many were made based on the emotions of myself or my family. Others were just made out of inaction i.e. no decision is a decision in itself. In the end knowledge does not replace a structured thought process. So my business was a mix of success and failure. Mostly the successes outweighed the failures, I learnt from them and the business grew. Boyer Fibrecraft became the best in the world at what it did- building light weight catamarans. If you wanted to win a world title you used our boats. If you want to know more about the boats I made see the link at the bottom of the page.

When I tried to climb the second mountain I stumbled, I just was not sure which path to follow I lacked the guide to help me. I assumed climbing this mountain was the same as climbing the first one. It wasn’t.  Eventually the market caught up, and growth stopped, nothing worked as well any more. I was baffled, I did not understand.

Then I received that magic letter in the mail offering a coaching service. I took it up and followed a period of enormous change, the decisions I had been resisting were made. Did the coach help me get the business on track- well sort of, more importantly I learnt where I really wanted to be, and helped me move it on. I restructured so I did not need to be involved, and pruned out the dead wood. Today I keep a small interest and the rest has been moved on.

I had lost the passion and it was time to move on that’s all. I had been struggling not because of employees and circumstance, but because of what I had become. I had changed and not realised.

 I look back on my experience and think: I knew the right decisions, but I only chose them sometimes, I lacked that truly independent person to talk them over with, I didn’t need someone to tell me what to do, I just needed someone to help me sort through the options.

I often wonder what else I would have achieved if I had been able to use a coach; would I have completed the next stage of my business as I had dreamed and conquered another corner of the sailing world? Or would I have found another niche market for my talents much earlier.

Strange how that journey that started in 1988 when I knew I was the one needing a coach ( but not even knowing what it was) to today when I am the coach and facilitating others to live those dreams we all share- I love being able to contribute to people being successful every day.

Jim Boyer