A Brief Introduction To Part Two

It should be clear by now that luck, coincidence and fate can play a great part in the rise of any organisation. I have already referred to the happy set of coincidences that led me to work alongside Stephen in the first place. Had it not been for a number of seemingly random decisions, Hargreaves Lansdown would never have come into existence. I would like to think however that we have made the most of our “luck”. Even now I have never really known where Stephen's role starts and mine ends. Outsiders may think that I have the ideas and Stephen is the one who makes them work. It is certainly true that he makes the peace while I tend to make waves. He is happy doing the things that I hate, like legal stuff and paperwork, and vice versa. But no lasting business relationship is ever that simple. There are always different roads to take in business and there is often time to try them all, if you wish.

One of the secrets of success, I have found, is to be able to identify dead ends early on and concentrate on the ones that can make the most difference to your main business. I think I have always been good at running with the great ideas at full tilt. Stephen on the other hand has been more inclined to do things which were likely to produce slower results. The newsletters, for example, were his idea. I wasn't keen at first because I felt they were likely to become a rod for our own backs, a chore that we would still need to do at times when we were too busy to be bothered. A newsletter requires a lot of discipline. The newsletters however have set us apart and on a different level to all our competitors, and there is no doubt that he was right to insist on doing them.

In this section of the book, I am going to look at the lessons I’ve learned in both business and investing. The views expressed here are personal, deeply felt and sometimes contentious. You don’t have to take my word for what follows; but I hope that you will recognise the years of experience and reflection on which they are based. I don’t read many business books, because I don’t believe you can teach being an entrepreneur or a good manager. One book about business I do rate very highly however. In fact you could say it has more or less become my bible. It was written in 1970 by an American businessman, now dead, called Robert Townsend. Up The Organisation is, in my opinion, the most humorous, readable and sanest thing ever written about how – and how not – to run a business. His views may be controversial and politically incorrect, but they are none the worse for that. I loaned my original copy to someone, but as anyone will tell you, you never get back any book that you lend, do you? Up The Organisation draws on the story of how Townsend revolutionised the Avis rent-a-car business, turning it from an unprofitable mess into America’s most successful car rental business. If you get the chance to read it, and have any kind of business mind, I guarantee that you will be shouting out loud “that’s so true!”, “fantastic!”, “yes!” all the way through.