SBT Recommends: I DON’T WORK FRIDAYS By Martin Norbury

I Don’t Work Fridays is the latest book written by the Scalability Coach and Business Mentor of the Year 2015, Martin Norbury. Here SBT gives an insight into what the book is about and why anybody in business, those thinking of starting a business, or simply anybody who is interested in business, should read it for themselves.

Are some people just born lucky or naturally brilliant?

I’ve never been much of a ‘people’ person – although I am a person who understands a lot about people.

Just like all of the other discoveries that we are going to explore through the pages of this book, that was something I learned much later on in my journey. It was only by looking back and getting under the surface of those experiences, that the ‘Scale’ philosophy for creating and managing business growth ever saw the light of day. The process was there but it needed defining in order to release its potential and turn it into something I could share.

It is an interesting observation, and far more common than you’d imagine, that successful people often don’t know how they got there. Many of the pioneers, gold-medallists, award winners and multi-millionaires of our world simply can’t understand why other people aren’t like them. Often it is only by soul-searching and self-examination that they can even start to get a handle on what they do differently. Typically it is only when other people start studying their seemingly super-human instinct and passion that the rest of us can learn the processes and motivations that make them tick. So, if many of the greatest people who ever lived can’t tell you what makes them so different, it seems logical to conclude that they genuinely were just lucky enough to be built that way.

If that is true, then life is pretty unfair, although nobody ever said that it was supposed to be fair!

The really exciting news is that those inbuilt, instinctive behaviours that drive the great and the good to live amazing lives can become learned behaviours for anyone.

The same goes for successful businesses and their owners. If you have that spark which led you to go out on your own and chase the dream, or even if you were led there through circumstance and necessity, you are already half way to escaping the norm. That is a partial compliment, but it is mainly meant as an encouragement. You see, no one ever won a race by doing really well at the beginning but not finishing. Likewise, the business that shows potential then fades away or barely touches the surface of average is as far from the headlines as it is a healthy bottom line, but if you have started and you still believe the dream is achievable, then I salute your courage and your quest for a solution. If you keep on reading, I promise to show you the ‘how’ which will reward the ‘why’ you started in the first place.

The fact is that we can all be better than we were yesterday and the cumulative effect of daily progression, applied throughout the rest of your life, would make more difference than you could possibly imagine – for you and ultimately for those that mean the most to you. Think about that for a while.

The very same principles and rules that drive excellence in ‘above average’ individuals can be applied to businesses. This book has been written to teach you how to apply scaling to your business, through the lessons that I have observed and learned through a life of dance, magic, rebellion, tragedy, entrepreneurship and major corporate directorship.

Our Review

In I Don’t Work Fridays, entrepreneur and scalability coach Martin Norbury takes the reader through the story of his career up to the present day, populating the pages with brief asides and using his experienced hindsight to show the reader how his path and decisions shaped his future and the lessons he was learning – whether he was aware of them at the time or not! He carefully explains why the entrepreneur is the wrong person to grow their business, and reveals a set of simple tools to help any striving entrepreneurs achieve sustainable growth and realise their ambitions. Martin’s words give a much-needed confidence boost whilst also keeping any ambitious feet firmly on the realist-ruled ground.

The book contains a wealth of very useful lessons for any budding business person, however, for those who are looking for hoops to jump through or a quick-fix, it’s not a miracle ‘get-rich-quick guide’. Without trying to tell the reader how to be successful, it equips you with the thought process to make it happen by your own means, which I believe is the ideal tactic and best means of truly learning. The book focuses a fair amount on highlighting transferable skills and training the business mind with successful scalability principles so that any potential that’s already there can be expanded.

Written in straightforward language and with relatable personal experiences, I Don’t Work Fridays is a concise and even amusing read for anyone at any stage of their business career. The key messages to take away are messages of determination, simplicity, motivation and effort; that hard work pays off, but the best ideas aren’t necessarily the complex ones.

This book is definitely one that will stay on my shelf, and one which I will refer back to in order to broaden my knowledge and relearn important business principles.

Overall an easy, enjoyable and thoroughly informative read, and one that I would thoroughly recommend.

I Don’t Work Fridays, by Martin Norbury, £11.99 amazon.co.uk