Featherfall Friend, Jerry Ibbotson & The Kellogg School of Management
I read the first ten pages of Jerry Ibbotson's manuscript for Featherfall whilst sat in the car, waiting for my family to end their shopping expedition. I didn't know Jerry, but I had to call him.
"Well done" I said. "On the opening to Featherfall, I mean."
"Who are you?" He said.
"Chris." I said.
"Thanks." He said.
The opening part of the convo was a hint at the humour and repartee that would follow. Now, I may be a little flippant but I did find Jerry to be fun, intelligent, and pretty grateful for the call.
The importance of accidental encouragement
Before the call I didn't know whether Jerry was the needy type. Like many authors he was likely to be hovering on the edge of creative doubt and breakdown, but, when I realised he was no more neurotic that most, I became really glad that I picked up the phone.
“Thanks” Jerry said, gratitude being a normal response to a compliment.
You see, giving a sincere compliment when one is due is not a habit most of us are in. Not to strangers anyway. But Jerry is no longer a stranger, he is a friend now, and, if you want to be successful having talented friends is a very good idea.
The Kellogg School of Management Story
In 2006 I won a scholarship at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago (Evanston actually). It was a an executive course with only 7 'students'. I was the only one not paying. Every other participant had paid in excess of $50,000 to be there for the month, whereas the British government had flown me, as a promising young entrepreneur, to Chicago. The business class upgrade was sponsored by British Airways, and at that point I'd never 'turned left' getting onto a plane before...
The opening day was seriously daunting. My fellow students include the Chair of Johnson & Johnson, Directors of Bosch, and the CEO of a major US hospital network (by the way the money in US medicine is obscene). In contrast to the six who led multi-billion dollar corporates with tens of thousands of employees, I was the founder of a group of companies that had about fifty staff and wouldn't even consider buying me a business class flight.
How would I introduce myself to that group? There I was in the number one ranked Business School in the world, ranked higher than Harvard and Oxford, and I was shaking hands with people used to that type of surrounding - I wasn't.
After a coffee and an informal breakfast we were met by the Kellogg staff. They had just one task for us on the first day - give a 30 minute presentation on who you are and about the business you lead, after which there would be a 20 minute window for questions from fellow students and staff.
"Mr Arnold, you're first alphabetically, why don't you go first."
"F**k"
I gave my presentation, I explained my view of leadership, and I was prompted to share that my greatest ambitions was to be an author. There was a pause filled with silence before the grilling commenced...
"What do you think of networking?"
Was the first question from the esteemed Chair of Johnson & Johnson, a 135 year old company that now happens to be delivering COVID vaccines.
"I don't really see the point, my business is pretty niche and I know everyone I need to."
"You're an idiot."
"Er... what?"
"You're an idiot. Your current business is niche, but what about your next business? What about when you launch your first book, wouldn't you want a network to help you with it? to read it?"
"Er... yeah I suppose."
The moral of the story is... I had to be told about the importance of networking. It isn't my natural disposition, but, wow was that guy right!
Network / Mailing List / Colleagues / Peers / Support Team / Subscribers... whatever you want to call it, the importance of building people around you and being supportive of their dreams and strategies too, that strategy cannot be under delivered.
Call Out to the former Chair of Johnson & Johnson
“You're an idiot." Said the Chair of multi-billion dollar company
So, it turned out that reducing my idiot tendencies was not a fast thing. I lost the business cards of all the millionaire leaders I just met. They were all lovely and kind and supportive but in the days before LinkedIn, that was the end of that. Time has also faded my memory enough to rob this anecdote of accurate names.
But if you are reading this, and you happen to be the former Global Chair of Johnson & Johnson, circa 2006, er... hi. My name is Chris J Arnold. I hadn't inserted the J in 2006, that's just because I couldn't procure chrisarnold.com so I've added my middle initial... nice to hear from you again... anyway... would you please read my book?
