That I should have spoken up sooner.

 

Ten years ago, the offers of help flooded in but they came too late to save my business. I’d been busy keeping up appearances. When colleagues and friends asked how things were going, I wanted to put on a brave face. No-one likes to hear bad news, I thought, so I told success stories instead.

 

Grand, I said, things are grand, they couldn’t be better. But they weren’t grand and they could certainly have been an awful lot better.

My business was slipping away from me and I was too proud to ask for help.

 

The day I took the painful decision to shut up shop and made the emotional announcement, I was immediately surrounded by concerned colleagues and friends. Why hadn’t I said something before now? If we’d only known, they said, we could have done something. But we thought things were grand. After all, you told us so.

 

There’s a fine line between confidence and bravado in business. All around me were the things I’d needed and people who were only too happy to give them to me.

 

I’d only had to ask.

 

But I learned my lesson. Now, when I need something in business, I ask for it. I don’t go whistling past the graveyard, hoping that no-one will suspect I’m troubled and afraid. Some time ago, when Islandbridge was going through a dry spell, I spoke frankly to colleagues and friends and asked for help. And, once again, the offers of meetings, introductions and referrals came flooding in and our business really took off.

 

Think about it. Ask and you will receive. If a friend or colleague came to you and asked for help, and you had it in your power to offer it, what would you do? You’d help them, of course. That’s how you are.

That’s how we all are.

 

Like me, you’re surrounded by people who would be only too happy to give you what you need to succeed in business. But how could they know what you need unless you tell them?

 

You only have to ask.

 

Gerard Tannam