Matchsticks- Igniting Successful Futures : Let the Guru speak

I have being doing quite a bit of research lately into other people's work and finding experts and gurus on subjects that I know little or nothing about, but in areas that I know I need to do some work on. Last month I was invited to spend a day with The Academy for Chief Execs http://www.chiefexecutive.com/ . I had been looking for a group of individuals to help me move forward with my business planning and their approach was one of mentoring and coaching, which you know is my raison d'etre and something I am very passionate about.

In 2001 I was introduced to a coach who through belief and persistent support gave me the courage to step right outside my comfort zone and change my working life completely. In essence that is how Matchsticks was born and I can remember the moment we all stood together in her beautifully converted outbuilding brainstorming ideas for the new company name. She simply asked me " exactly what do you do" and I replied " I make a match and then I work with the client and candidate to make it stick" Voila !! Matchsticks!!

In early 2004 I began working with another coach who led me down another path of discovery but this time it was different as I didn't want immediate change but something more subtle. I wanted to make a big difference to the market place I was working in and design a unique value add package to make us stand out from the crowd. My coach also worked alongside me to help fulfill some of these ideas and demonstrated to me a completely different dimension to trust and support that I had never seen in a coach before. It was a real win/win relationship and one that I couldn't have succeeded in without her support. Thanks a million Bev!!

Whilst on that visit to The Academy for Chief Execs I was very privileged to spend a morning listening to Patrick Holford talk to us about nutrition and how it can help and hinder performance. He cleverly related all of his ideas around our working life and picked 4 topics that we would all be interested in: Mood & memory, feeding the mind, energy and weight loss. I have attached a link here for you to look at in case any of you want to do some research for yourselves. http://www.patrickholford.com/content.asp?id_Content=443 . He was excellent and didn't make me feel like I was going to need to eat soya beans for the rest of my life...not a chance, Yuk.

I think what I am really trying to say here is that not every Guru sits on a throne or can only be accessed via the rich and famous but are around us in our daily lives. The key is that we just need to have a need and as Julian Mantle quotes in "The Monk who sold his Ferrari " when the Student is ready the Master will appear" and it's true. Just ask a question in your office today and I bet somebody in the office will not only know the answer but could probably spend ten minutes telling you a lot more about the subject if you show an interest.

By the way, The Academy day was brilliant and I am looking forward to my next date as it was great to spend some time in a room of like minded people who turnover several million a year. It certainly gave me food for thought!!

Have an excellent day and do drop me a line sometime or post a comment below with some of your thoughts.

Thanks again

Emma