Karren Brady’s 10 Rules for Success

Copyright

Collins

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First published in 2012 by Collins

Karren Brady asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

KARREN BRADY’S 10 RULES FOR SUCCESS. Copyright © Karren Brady 2012

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HB ISBN 9780007395927

TPB ISBN 9780007466757

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780007486816

Version: 2017-08-25

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

10 Rules for Success

About the Publisher

10 RULES FOR SUCCESS

Over my working life, I have learnt that certain skills, habits and attributes are essential to achieving success. You will not instantly master them all. It will take time and practice. But if you follow these ten rules — and, importantly, keep trying to follow them — you will get very far along the road to where you want to go.

That I can promise you.

This extract is taken from Karren Brady's business autobiography, Strong Woman.

Buy the ebook here

RULE ONE: WORK HARD

Success is about the relentless pursuit of what you want. Before you even start trying to get what you want, you need to accept that hard work is going to be a vital ingredient. It sounds simple, but a lot of people don’t want to recognise that, because it’s hard and it’s work. I’ve known many people who really just want a get-rich-quick scheme, a shortcut to success. They are always chasing that one big deal. They don’t realise that the path to success starts with the understanding that you will require dedication to what you want to achieve through hard work. You will sacrifice your ‘spare time’, you won’t have a hobby and probably not much of a social life. But as you take the steps needed towards being a success, you have to remember that the first step is always hard work, and lots of it.

I work relentlessly to achieve a business goal, and I believe that is the single most important reason why I am successful. It may be a.m. and I may be exhausted, but I keep working until it is finished. Whenever you are facing a huge pile of work or a major challenge, it is psychologically essential to have that acceptance. No matter how bad things are, no matter how hard the battle you face, you have to accept the reality of the situation, and embrace the pressure. You just have to take the view that it has to be done. This takes self-discipline and energy, and you’ll not meet anyone successful who doesn’t have both.

In my case, I think my energy is partly a compensation mechanism for the things I don’t have. I don’t have every quality that you need to be a really successful leader – I have one or two. I’ve met people who have them all, but they are exceptional. Most people are like me, in that you can compensate for areas where you might not be as strong.

The Olympic Stadium – if we get it – will be, for me, the ultimate example of a success that was down to hard work. Down to gritting your teeth, relentless energy and hard work. We have faced hurdle after hurdle with that project, but my attitude is that they’re there to be jumped over. We’ll do our best and we’ll wait and see. And if we do get it, the great thing is that it is something that we really know is worth having.

But, in order to push yourself, to have the discipline to work that hard, you do have to really want it. If I was asked to run a marathon, I’d probably drop out halfway through because I’ve got no desire to do it, it’s not on my radar as something that is important to me. Whereas if you find something that you love doing and feel passionately about, it won’t feel like hard work. If you don’t, you will never summon up the energy when you need to. You will be beaten pretty quickly because you don’t care about it enough. Remember that nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else. So pick a career where you won’t want to do anything else.

Very often it’s that ‘care about’ factor that underpins everything in your life, be it your reputation, your business, or your employer. If you don’t care about them, then everything is a struggle, and there will be only so much you can force yourself to do.

And I do believe that, if you want to succeed, the work never stops. I find the idea that you would want to turn your mobile or BlackBerry off, for example, completely strange. You read about people keeping their BlackBerrys by their beds, as though it were some sort of crime. I disagree. And it’s not about being prepared to be available – it is about wanting to be available. I know, given the staff I have now at West Ham, that if I said at three o’clock in the morning, ‘Right, we’ve all got to get together,’ they’d come. That’s the sort of enthusiasm I am looking for. I have it myself and I don’t employ anyone without it.

There are of course times when I really, really don’t want to do things, but somehow I find it within myself to do them. I think that comes partly from being at boarding school from an early age, from having to tolerate that lifestyle, and partly from an innate ability just to grit my teeth and do it. But it’s like a muscle, in that you can develop that ability: the more you steel your resolve and make yourself see something through, the easier you will find it to do so the next time.

It would be unthinkable to me not to work hard, whatever job I found myself in; it is ingrained in the fibre of my being that what you get out is tied to the effort you put in. And even if you are in a job you don’t particularly enjoy, it is better to work hard. You will get more out of it, and you are more likely to be able to move on. Someone once said that if you worry about the job you’re in, the next job will sort itself out – and I think that’s very true. Remember: to be able to work hard and persistently is a quality that not a lot of people have. You stand out if you’re prepared to do the stuff that’s not much fun.

RULE TWO: HAVE CONFIDENCE

Confidence lies at the root of personality. I meet a lot of professional people who don’t have any personality, and therein lies a problem. Whatever qualifications you have, personality is at least as important, because people do deals with people, not with brains. When it comes to choosing between two people who have the same qualifications, you choose the one who has the personality you want to work with.

Confidence expresses itself as energy, as being able to articulate your thoughts, having an opinion, being able to be a bit charming, and being a good listener. But you can have too much confidence. There is a fine line between enthusiasm and delusion. Success is about ability as well – there are lots of people who are very confident but they can’t deliver. They soon get found out.

To lead a team, you need confidence. Some people who lack confidence are scared to take on a managerial role because they think they need to be able to do every aspect of the work. But what really sets you apart as a leader is not how much you know how to do, but how you behave when you don’t know what to do. If you don’t have the confidence to ask for advice or to gather people together or to listen to people, you will not succeed.

You also need to have the confidence to avoid the my-way-or-no-way mentality. The best leaders are not afraid to work with and listen to people across a broad spectrum, and they get excited when they meet people better than them. That’s because they are confident in their own ability. I have met some leaders who have refused to hire people because they think they may be better than them and therefore might challenge them and put their own position at risk. These are my least favourite type of people. If you care about what you do, you want to employ the best, and that may well mean you employ people better than you. Full stop. And if you do employ someone better than you, you ultimately prove you are better than them, because you have shown that leadership in taking them on.

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