how did it all start?

...well i was born on the ..... (oops - too far back)

several things coincided.
firstly, i had always wanted to run my own business and always knew i wanted to make a difference. after several years being interested and being trained in this area i was clear that the business would be in the area of coaching and human development.

...but that wasn’t enough.
secondly, in 1999/ 2000 i was doing a leadership programme on which i had undertaken, and declared, that i would do all the assignments over the 6-month period of the programme. the first set of assignments were confronting (to say the least!) - [and also transformational.] despite being greatly challenged by them i was my word and completed all the assignments in the time. at that moment (when i completed the last bit of the last piece of the assignment) i got i could trust myself. [up until that point in life i had always related to myself as unreliable, someone who could not be trusted, a ‘quitter’ and somebody who failed to accomplish what he set out to accomplish.] as a result i had never set up a business - because i didn’t trust myself to make it work. now, i knew i could trust myself.

...but that wasn’t enough.
thirdly, i spent a lot of time in april & may 2000 in hospices and hospitals watching my aunt and my father die within weeks of each other. one from ovarian cancer and dad after 3 weeks in intensive care as a result of a car accident. weeks before, everyone expected them to live for many years. looking at them in those beds i wondered what they had put off until ‘next year’ or ‘someday.’ i really and truly got the urgency of life.

...that was enough.

two months later i had resigned my successful and lucrative position at egg plc, gave back the keys to the flash italian sports car, and on the monday morning i found myself staring at a telephone on a desk. i had not had to drive to get there. my own business was born!

...and then ‘mermoz’ came along ...

many people ask about the name of the business and why it is called mermoz. it is named after a french pilot - jean mermoz - who was a ground-breaking, adventurous human being who made a practical difference. he inspired me when i read about him. he was a friend and fellow pilot with antoine de saint-exupery who mentions him many times in one of his books. one particular paragraph which mentions mermoz sums up the philosophy of the business: the joy of working with people committed to making a practical difference and making something else possible. all you french scholars will need no prompting but for those of you who do a loose translation follows:

"La grandeur d’un métier est peut-être, avant tout d’unir des hommes: il n’est qu’un luxe véritable, et c’est celui des relations humaines. En travaillant pour les seuls biens matériels, nous bâtissons nous-mêmes notre prison. Nous nous enfermons solitaires, avec notre monnaie de cendre qui ne procure rien qui vaille de vivre. Si je cherche dans mes souvenirs ceux qui m’ont laissé un goût durable, si je fais le bilan des heures qui ont compté, à coup sûr je retrouve celles que nulle fortune ne m’eût procurées. On n’achète pas l’amitié d’un Mermoz, d’un compagnon que les épreuves vécues ensemble ont lié à nous pour toujours. Cette nuit de vol et ses cent mille étoiles, cette sérénité, cette souveraineté de quelques heures, l’argent ne les achète pas................ ce concert des petites choses qui nous récompensent, l’argent ne les achète pas."

antoine de saint-exupéry terre des hommes

rough translation
"The greatness of a career/vocation is to connect human beings: it is a real luxury, that of human relationships. If only working for material benefits (money), we build ourselves a prison. We cut ourselves off with our dirty money which never gets us anything that makes life worth living. If I look back through my memory to those which have lingered long , if I add up all the hours which have really counted they are definitely those which no fortune could ever have purchased. It is impossible to buy the friendship of a Mermoz, of a companion who has lived through testing moments with you - moments which stay with you forever. This night flight with its thousands of stars, that serenity, that feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction which lasted for several hours - money cannot buy that ................ this collection of little things which sustain us - money cannot buy them."

...and having ‘built’ it they came:
people to work in and with the business and clients.
if you’re interested in altering your future or the future of people within your company and you think we could help then we’d love to hear from you.