And so it begins….let me introduce myself…
It was inevitable that I would eventually end up writing blogs on Medium. Quite frankly, I don’t know how I delayed it this long…
I’m Faris and I’m 42 years old. Two years ago I decided to throw caution to the wind and leapt from the comfort of a full-time, well-paid job into the fraught dangers of starting my own business (and that was even before we take into account the impact of everyone’s least welcome guest, the pandemic). Many friends thought I was crazy and my parents certainly weren’t too sure that it was the best idea (my mum’s initial reaction, if I recall, was along the lines of “Oh my god now you’re unemployed, you’re unmarried and you don’t own a house, what will I tell people! “— I’m still not sure which one of those three was worst in her eyes)
Despite this ‘feedback’, I had a firm belief that there would be a demand for the skills I had accrued over 12 years working as a strategy consultant combined with 4 years working for a big Energy company and 4 years working in the international education and development world. I had come to discover that I had a talent for reading a room, thinking through how others might be feeling and then adapting my own approach to fit exactly what those individuals needed. Be it at networking events where everyone was feeling a bit awkward so I would happily play the fool to break the ice and draw everyone together, or in a meeting where there were clearly differing opinions so I would pivot to being the one to give space for facts, emotions and not being afraid to challenge biases, or times I focused on just listening when I could see a clearly distressed person in front of me.
As a younger man, I’d always thought everyone could do this but I soon realised that this wasn’t the case and by applying them as a facilitator or trainer I could carve out a niche as a person who gets teams to align around new ideas, breaks impasses and simply gets people just to work better with each other.
It was this offering that I decided to build my business Shiageto Consulting around.
Now, I’m an economist and mathematician by training and I like to think I am quite analytical but no amount of analytics could prepare me for the roller coaster of starting my own business in the face of Covid-19 [I have previously written several blogs about those early days and will dig out the links for you]. The highs were immense but then so were the lows and one of the biggest challenges I found was having to go it alone. Not only was it a bit lonely, but there was nobody to share the successes with, to have a coffee and vent a little with or just generally bounce ideas off.
Obviously this would change once (hopefully) the business grew and I started to take on team members but in those early days one solution was to try my hand at blogging. Originally I simply published blogs on LinkedIn; sure there was an element of ego about it but initially it was more a way to promote my business. Much more than that though was that, as soon as I did it, it felt cathartic and made me feel like I was connected to everyone who read my blogs (which, let’s be honest, wasn’t many). The blogs became a place of solace to share my ideas, my successes, my failures and I enjoyed writing them as often as I could. That was until work actually began to take off and I got too busy, so one necessary casualty was to be my blog writing.
Which brings me back to Medium. It’s been almost a year since my last blog (a year during which my business has been gathering pace). As I slowly got to grips with running the business I realised I missed blogging and at the same time I began hearing more and more about how great this platform Medium was from so many friends and colleagues. For some it is their go-to place for interesting articles, for others it is their writing release. After a bit of exploring, I decided to do what I did when setting up my business and “just bloody go for it”…
So, that’s my blogging backstory and explanation as to why I am blogging now. For those who are keen to join me on the journey, expect me to pick up the baton of where I got to. That means I'll mainly share stories of how it’s going creating my own start-up and lots of effectiveness hacks around IQ, EQ and FQ (that’s basically hacks on how to come up with great ideas, how to get others to buy into great ideas and how to be focused enough to deliver on the great ideas).
Quite frankly I’ll probably write about other things too and some of it may be terrible. But, stick with me dear readers and I promise you, together we will have quite an adventure.
Watch this space…
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
