I’ve lost a month. Absolutely diabolical.

When you factor in the lull over Christmas, then add me playing the character of Hop-along, spending more time on crutches than in my businesses… it’s driven me to despair.

No, I don’t want to Netflix and chill.

I want to get up and go.

What does it feel like to see a bone pop out of your skin?

What does taking drugs in epic proportions feel like when you have never taken drugs before?

What happens when you carry more responsibility than most people and are completely incapacitated for a week?

What is it like to be cut open and have surgeons say “we love your videos” as the last thing you remember?

As the year draws to a close, I’d like to reflect on some of my biggest lessons for you to swipe and deploy.

The overriding lesson is that both macro and micro tasks are essential for staying in the game long term.

The big lesson of the weekend was the sheer and utter amazement that is Ryanair.

We did not check in. We thought we would just do it at the airport as we were checking bags in.

Wrong.

£55 fine per person.

£220 fine for not checking in online.

Unbelievable.

Then I was subject to a new class of customer service: what I can only describe as cattle-class service.

I read a fascinating article about Nokia. If you are 35 or older, you will remember when they dominated the early days of mobile phones.

Text messages and Snake. It was everything.

We became obsessed and controlled by this new trinket. Nokia was cool. They were the Nike of phones and tech.

Then they weren’t.

If you are a business owner or you earn an above-average salary, you will face a trade-off.

I can almost guarantee it.

The trade-off is less family time, more stress, greater commitment, more anxiety and more time spent doing things you do not want to do.

You know what?

I’ve been sending letters like these to the good folk of the entrepreneurial community for some time.

I know you enjoy it when I open up and tell you my secrets, my struggles and my biggest wins. The day to day just is not that exciting.

We as humans love the unusual. We love the rare. We lean in to ultimate losses and ultimate wins.

Discovery, and being the first to know something, gets our juices flowing.

Frustrated?

Consider this: have you got the right people in the right seats?

Many business owners hit glass ceilings. They cannot break £100k revenue, or £1m, £3m or £10m. You know the sentiment.

The solution is always E plus M equals S (entrepreneurship plus management equals success).

You know what, I’ve felt really good this week. A weekend of planning and writing gave me a real push.

Clarity plus action puts me in the best setup for success.

The formula for change is very simple. You need a powerful vision and you need first steps that are stronger than resistance.

It’s been a difficult six months, but I can see the light and there’s heaps of it.

I need to generate more cash to keep up with the constant onslaught of overheads.

Here are some facts for you:

My companies are spending £600k a year on insurance, £500k on software, and £2 million on head office staff.

As my FD totted up the numbers and presented them in a freshly bound pack, I realised we’d become something of a giant.

In the first six months of this year, we did £10 million more in sales compared to last year - and yet, we basically stood still on profits.

Rachel’s new taxes have kicked in.

Dig deep and find those minutes, you’ll need just 90 of them a day.

If you’re in business and things aren’t going the way you want, join the club.

That’s the daily reality for entrepreneurs. The constant jostle against whatever storms come our way is part of the job.

The rollercoaster of ups and downs is part of the territory.

Running a broad range of companies has changed my leadership style - it had to.

You can’t have over 2,000 people all around the world, as we do now, and still expect to operate with the same maverick approach you had when it all began.

I’ve often said when teams get beyond 6 people then 12 people changes occur. 

The past six months have been relentless.

I often think long and hard about my effectiveness, and that naturally leads me to think about the effectiveness of my businesses.

I know one of my companies is doing well when it doesn’t need me to stick my oar in.

That’s the hallmark of greatness: when you genuinely have a commercially profitable enterprise that works without you.

We’re tribal… and that’s dangerous.

Tribes are what human beings love; it’s in our DNA.

Comfort, trust and recognition are where we like to be. Yet sometimes, it’s failure or disaster that leads to our greatest discoveries.

A redundancy can finally push you to start that business, or a heartbreaking breakup can pave the way for an even better love.

Sometimes things need to go wrong for things to get better.

We really are different.

This weekend I’ve been in full-on education mode, training business owners to change gear and reach super success! 

Say you want to build one of the biggest companies in the country, heck, even the world?

Then I really want to bring you the answers at my events.

£300k here, £500k there, “£200k for me too, please.”

These are the daily emails, WhatsApps and calls I get from my team for the projects and bills that sit above the norm.

Of course I sort it, but when you’re owed millions and trying to grow a company, getting all the pennies, pounds and millions to line up can be exhausting - especially with ever more turnover taxes.

On Friday I watched £1.2 million leave our accounts in a 12 hour window.

No Days Off for Responsible People.

I’ve often pondered the notion that if you're a “grand fromage,” there are no days off. Death, of course, is your day off.

This week, I have gathered some concrete evidence to support this theory.

Convenience is Death.

The question to ask yourself is this: is it convenience for us, or convenience for them?

When I say “them”, I mean your customers.

We look for logic in most things we do – it has moved us forward. But in reality, it’s the illogical that has created the most magical moments in life.

This letter reflects on a chat I had with Chudds. (He’s basically in charge of everything you see me put out — the big cheese of the James Sinclairbrand.) I love this guy.

We had a little chat about stress and happiness on Friday, in between filming for a video.

That happiness question always seems to crop up, especially when you’re making and sharing as much personal development content as we do

In my quest to never eat alone and to make mealtimes a valuable use of my time, to delve into fascinating conversation, I’d like to share a story from two dinners I had this week.

Both featured my accountant.