A couple of weeks ago we closed the office for three days. It’s not something we make a habit of doing and, of course we still covered emails and phone calls remotely.
We closed the office because we felt it was important to celebrate Trainers’ Library’s 20th birthday together as a whole team.
This is, after all, a team that has been together a long time - with an average service of 17 years. (Our newest member of the team, Jodie, has been with us six years today!)
Without this amazing, dedicated group of people (and our customers, of course) we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate so this week’s newsletter is an opportunity to share pictures of our team enjoying themselves in rural France and to reflect on the nature of success.
As a child raised on Dynasty, Dallas, Wall Street and Yuppies, it felt for a long time that success meant making as much money as possible whilst wearing pin stripe shirts and aspiring to drive a Porsche.
I did eventually get the convertible, but it’s a 14-year-old TT with a dodgy roof.
I’m not pleading poverty, but it turns out that all those old measures of success were, for me at least, false.
Success to me looks like this. These pictures represent what makes me most proud. A group of people who have stuck together through thick and thin and who have made a real difference, not just to our business, but to the lives of countless training professionals and, indeed the wider world.
This is the team whose efforts have resulted in tens of thousands of pounds being donated to charity over the years, which has helped us plant 281 trees in the Scottish Highlands to help
Trees for Life with re-wilding projects there and who have always gone the extra mile to help our customers. This is the team that just got on with it and did what was necessary when our office flooded in 2005, the financial crisis hit in 2008, and again when the pandemic hit in 2020.
This is the team that means I can begin to enjoy more ‘me’ time away from the business, enjoying the company of my husband, dogs and horses, knowing that everything and anything will be managed in my absence.
I mean, I probably wouldn’t say no to a Porsche (preferably, an electric one) if anyone is offering, but isn’t all this ultimately more important?
Looking back, I think it took me too long to learn that I don’t need to measure my own success by other people’s measures. My own measures are just fine.
As are yours! So, with that in mind, how do you measure your success and what does success look like to you? A good place to start might be to think about what gives you the greatest sense of pride and happiness.
Until next time…