0:00

Paul Blair: A lot of lessons learned from the military environment, such as teamwork, self-sufficiency, calmness under pressure, resilience, all lend themselves to starting a business.Any entrepreneur, certainly anyone with a military background, it's that resilience that failures happen to all of us day in, day out. And it's just a case of, of accepting what is thrown out, learning any lessons that we can learn from it and dusting yourself off and trying again.Richard Miron: Welcome to the Success and Ideas podcast. I'm Richard Miron.This is the podcast where I pursue my fascination to try to understand success. The word tends to suggest financial accomplishment. But I want to dig deeper to find out what has driven those who have succeeded in their chosen path, in a range of fields from sport to public life and all types of business.On this episode, I'm joined by Paul Blair.Paul's a former major in the British army. He served as a paratrooper and in his more than 20 year military career, he operated all over the world in training, as well as in combat. Paul was deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 and saw action there, commanding 127 men in Helmand province, which was at the forefront of fighting between allied forces and the Taliban. Paul himself was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his service.In 2012, Paul left the army, but reinvented himself professionally in an entirely different role as an entrepreneur. His first business venture, Safestix, involved inventing and selling an innovative toy for dogs. He even appeared on the BBC TV series Dragon's den in 2011 in a bit to get investment. He's continued with other ventures and is now working on something called ArcX, a sports tech device. The idea for which he got when skiing, but we'll come to that.Paul, thanks so much for joining. Paul: Hello, Richard, thank you for having me. It's really good to, to join you.Richard: First of all, the connection between the military and business – is there such a thing or was your decision, you know, when you left the army to go into this new field to go to somewhere completely different to fresh path?Paul: The military does teach a lot of very transferable skills and you see quite a lot of service leavers starting their own businesses, creating products and services, and a lot of lessons learned from the military environment, such as teamwork, self-sufficiency, calmness under pressure, resilience, lots of other transferable skills, all lend themselves to starting a business.Richard: It's interesting for me, because you were 20 years in the military. That's a very significant period. And I know it's not comparable, but I'm, I'm going to sort of make a vague comparison if that's alright. I was a journalist and I worked all over the world and it was terribly exciting and news and sometimes in combat zones. And then I left journalism in 2007. And life, it felt like going to sort of civilian life, if you will, life became very different. And I personally found making that change quite difficult. How hard was it for you? Cause I I'm imagining that maybe there's a similar process that you underwent. You're leaving an institution and a lifestyle that you worked in for decades and embarking on something where you are as it were just another person walking down the street.How was it for you to, to make that change? Paul: It was, it was tough and it can be, can be quite hard for lots of service leavers making that transition. As you say, we are a part of an institution, uh, with its own rules and regulations and, and culture and camaraderie. And that is fantastic. And it can be all happening one day. And the next day, as you say, we're just a civilian walking down the street.And everyone leaves for their own reasons and it was my time to leave. And I did find it tough, but I have to say my last job in the army commanding the Red Devils freefall team was, was a really good transition rather than going from say a combat zone into civilian life. I’d an easier transition into the business world. Richard: Hold on. I need you to scroll back – Red Devils freefall team. The Red Devils are the, the formation flying squad, aren't they of, uh, the armed forces. So what did the freefall team involve exactly? Paul: Falling out of perfectly serviceable aircraft, all of the worlds and jumping into various sporting events.So yes, the freefall team represents, uh, the British army made mostly from, from parachute regiment soldiers. We do a period of training. I'd, I'd been skydiving anyway through the army. And, um, uh, as I say, we, we jumped into various sporting events, up and down the country representing the British army, showcasing what we can do and, and talking to.Richard: I would observe that there is a degree of adrenaline involved in, in what you did. How it does business in any shape or form – how much adrenaline for you is involved in, in business as compared to falling out of aircraft?Paul: There is a fair amount. I think less so in the corporate worlds where, where you're a part of a large institution, which I did for a couple of years to round out my, my business education.But in a small startup where you're making decisions, quite a few decisions on a daily basis, there are so many highs and lows. There is the element of adrenaline when you achieve a milestone, reached some sort of level of success. Um, but then you're, you can be quickly brought back down to earth again with the day-to-day challenges.So I would agree in a small startup, there is a, I wouldn't say comparable, but there is a level of adrenaline and excitement. Richard: In the area of the military, what constitutes success? Is it getting into a place and getting out of it safely and successfully? I mean, I know objectives are set. I mean, in Afghanistan, I don't know what your objective was, but how’s success defined in the military context?Paul: It can be very much mission led. So yes, we are given a mission, a set of objectives, a number of goals to achieve, and it's delivering on those objectives and achieving the mission. That is very much the basis for, for success. So there is a, an adage that ‘says no plan survives contact with the enemy’. So going into an operation, it can change dramatically from what was planned to the way it unfolds, but success can still happen and that success can be measured in any number of ways.It could be seizing an objective in Afghanistan. It could be assisting, building a COVID center in London, delivering sandbags to prevent flooding or, or whatever. It can be very much black and white and it is quantifiabl. Less so in, in business. Of course, there are various milestones in business that can be quantified by perhaps revenue targets or sales figures.So, um, yeah, different metrics, but it's very much mission-driven. Richard: Now you mentioned that you left the military and you went into corporate life, but then you went and set yourself up as an entrepreneur. Your first venture was Safestix, a device for dogs, a toy for dogs. And just first of all, tell me about the process of coming up with that and how you started to sort of think about how you were going to make this succeed.Paul: It's very much based on personal experience. I was taking my, my little Jack Russell for a walk at the time, picked up a stick in the park and threw it for him. Something I'd done hundreds and hundreds of times. It was a bit of a cack-handed throw and the stick lodged into the ground just as he arrived on it. And it lodged in his mouth.I took him to the vet and got one of the biggest telling-offs of my life. And that kind of prompted a thought, that I was told ‘sticks are dangerous. We shouldn't throw sticks for dogs.’ And so I set about researching safe sticks. There was nothing out there that met this requirement. So I set about designing one.Richard: And you went on in 2011, as I said there in the introduction, to Dragon's Den on BBC TV, which I think in, in the US is called Shark Tank, where you face a panel of hard nose, business people, and you ask for investment. I'm firstly curious about what that felt like. It always looks like the people standing in front, like they are standing in front of a firing squad.Paul: It was pretty nerve wracking. I got off to a really bad start. Before filming starts, every entrepreneur gets to do a little dress rehearsal, just to walk up the steps as it was back in 2011. I had a dog with me, uh, who was supposed to walk up the steps with a product in its mouth and, and walk neatly right behind me, sit beside me and I would start my pitch.Um, yeah, that plan didn't survive contact with the dragons. And we got to the top of the steps, the dog drops the toy, he got tangled around my feet. I picked up the toy and it was covered in dog spit. That kind of threw me off my, my train of thought. Um, but I had to recover pretty quickly. And once I got past those initial sort of 30 seconds, Uh, I got into my pitch.It's, it's a great experience, but yeah, pitching for a large amount of money can be, be pretty nerve wracking, particularly when there's a whole film crew with cameras and spotlights, in addition to the dragons.Richard: Now you didn't get the investment that you sought. In fact, one of the dragons, I believe called it a stupid idea.It must be psychologically quite hard. You go in, you psych yourself up, you're standing there, you know, you've got complete belief in your product, and then someone says, ‘no, no good’. How do you pick yourself up from that? Paul: Yeah, it was tough. I got some good comments, as well as bad. I walked out of the den and took a deep breath and thought, ‘okay, well that's their opinion, but they're only five individuals.’So had a long hard look at myself in the mirror, convince myself that this was still a good idea. And I came up with a plan to go in a different direction. And I think any entrepreneur, certainly anyone with a military background, it's that it's that resilience, that failures happen to all of us day in, day out. And it's just a case of, of accepting what is thrown at us, learning any lessons that, that we can learn from it and dusting yourself off and trying again. Richard: That word resilience is very important because, I mean, as you know, business inevitably, very rarely does it involve kind of a straight linear line to success. There are setbacks. And so I suppose contending with that, is just a very important part of ultimately succeeding.Paul: Certainly with, with startups, the odds are stacked against small businesses. So many fail in, in the first few months, in the first year or so. And it's a case of, I think, just, just pushing through. Clearly resources, both time and financial resources are limited and it is just a case of, of trying to make the best use of what you've got. Providing that the original idea or concept, be it a product or service, is sound and there's a demand out there, it's just a case of pushing forward.Richard: I mean, how has Safestix gone since then, since you, you left the den?Paul: I've, I've got to say pretty well. And I did send a note to all the dragons, including Hillary Devey, who was less than complimentary, when we reached the million unit sales mark. Uh, I didn't get a reply, but, um, it's gone on pretty well. We've now sold 4 million units worldwide and, uh, and going strong. Thank you.Richard: Wow. Now, but you moved on from there. I mean, you didn't sort of sit on your hands and you've come up with something new, which you're now working on called ArcX.Tell me about how that idea first of all came about, because I find that in itself, very interest. Paul: Again, it was based on personal experience. So I was skiing with a friend. We were both still in the army at the time. And the joke is he very selfishly injured himself on day three of a two week holiday. It was just the two of us.So I was skiing by myself every day, listening to music and podcasts. And I find that when I wanted to change the volume, skip a track, even accept a phone call, I had to stop, take a glove off, reach inside my jacket, pull my phone out to perform that operation. More recently, I had similar experience in the gym, cycling, even on a rowing machine, for example, and there's a lot of great tech out there, but there was nothing that I find that would let me intuitively with one hand change a playlist or, or adjust the volume.So, similar to Safestix, I set about doing some market research and started to design a product. I'd left a corporate job, which was quite a big step, leaving the security of having a regular salary and threw myself into developing ArcX full-time. And that was two and a half years ago.Richard: Just describe to me, what is ArcX? What does it look like? How does it operate?Paul: It is very simply a small Bluetooth-enabled joystick inside a waterproof and shockproof housing. That little tech module is then interchangeable among a series of different sized stretch fit rings. So it's designed to be worn on the index finger and control with the thumb.It can be worn on a naked finger or a gloved finger. That tech is also interchangeable with various mounts. So for example, in, into a handlebar mount that can be Velcroed around a handlebar if you're cycling or kayaking. And at one level designed to control your phone, so you can easily, almost hands-free, control playlist, control volume.But it’s versatile given that it's Bluetooth and it will connect to and control other devices such as sports cameras, wireless speakers, AR/VR headsets. Even connected to a laptop, it makes a nice little presentation clicker, but the idea is very much rooted in, in sports and music. Richard: Where's it at now? Can we go out and buy this product?Paul: Not just yet. So we have taken the product as far as we can take it. We're happy with it. We've tested it backwards and forwards, given it out to a wide number of people who've been, who've tested it in various environments. So we're really happy with that with the product and the tech. Uh, we've also got an app that we've developed, that's sitting alongside it.So we're just about to press the button on our first manufacturing run and we hope to have them on sale initially in the UK, in early 2022.Richard: It strikes me that in what you're doing, there's, there's a long, as it were, run up. It takes a long time from the original thought on a ski slope to getting that thing out there.And then no doubt. There are lots of things looking at what else is out there in the marketplace, the costs of manufacturing, which are no doubt, considerable obstacles, and sometimes might be very off-putting to, to think of a proceeding. How do you deal with that? Because it strikes that the kind of thing that you're involved in is, is very much of a marathon rather than a sprint.Paul: Yes. I think the, the adage that ‘hardware is hard’, um, I find to be true, certainly over the last 12 months. And like so many projects, they end up going over both timeline and, and costs. And this has certainly taken three times as long and twice as much, but I think that's been necessary. We've gone through four iterations of a prototype, testing them in every stage, getting a lot of feedback, good and bad from various individuals in our network and improving, taking that feedback on board and improving the product.And all of that takes time. Even more so with global supply chain issues and in the middle of that, the pandemic. So yes, it has taken us a lot longer than, than we thought, but, um, we are, we're pushing on.Richard: What motivates you both with Safestix and with ArcX? What's the factor which drives you forward?Paul: I think it's the excitement of taking what is a concept, an idea, proving to myself and others that it’s, it's feasible and there's going to be a demand out there. And it's not just my crazy harebrained ideas and then turning that into reality. And if anything, I really enjoy that, that process.Safestix was very much me as a one man band, but ArcX, there are a lot of elements to bringing this to market that are well beyond my skillset. So I found the small team that, um, we've pulled together, just invaluable to bounce ideas off, take all that feedback and turn it into a product. And it's so rewarding getting other people on board to share that passion and the vision, but even more so getting feedback from individuals we've met at a couple of sporting exhibitions in the last couple of months. Just to get that reassuring feedback that ‘oh, wow, that, that is a good product. I can see myself using that.’ That's yeah, really, really rewarding, helps me sleep better at night.Richard: What's the differences in leading a workforce from leading a, a group of soldiers in the field somewhere? I mean, in one scenario, at least, what you say must be obeyed. Does that management style work in business?Paul: Definitely not. So in the army, there is a code of conduct. We work on strict discipline rules. Leadership at any level can be very autocratic. That just doesn't work in the business world. And I find that in the corporate job I was in for a number of years working for a large multi-national that I had to soften my, my leadership style to become a much more consensus building.And learned a lot, both about my own leadership style, along the way, as well as what motivates and how to pull a team together, I'm constantly learning. I don't think any leader is ever, ever the finished article. So very much a work in progress. Richard: One of your partners in, in ArcX is a veteran. What's the difference between working with someone who's been inside the military and someone who hasn’t?Paul: I try when I'm chairing a discussion or having a meeting to, to treat everyone equally. But given the fact that two of us are veterans, it's so easy to slip into military terminology and to say things in a, almost a different language that our, uh, CTO doesn't understand. We can communicate very quickly and say lots of ‘roger that’ and different military terms. But I do have to remind myself now and again, that not everyone has been in the army. And to bring it back to some sort of more universal language.If I could compare it to the team I had in my corporate job – very young someone just at a university. And so my leadership style was, was very much along the lines of training and educating and almost mentoring them. Whereas I think the more experienced individual, and particularly if they've been in the army, there's less of that. And it can come down to just a couple of short, sharp questions or directions, and they know exactly what to do and they get on with it. So, but very much comes down to the individual. Richard: Do you think you could have done what you're doing now without your military experience? I wonder whether you, when you go to the extremes of human experience, everything else in a way becomes maybe slightly less fearful. Because for many people taking the path for entrepreneurship is simply terrifying and they're not going to do it because they risk losing a lot from it.Paul: Certainly made me who I am today, for better and for worse, but looking on all the positive aspects of, of military training and those transferable skills that I touched on before, has definitely helped me.I think, for so many entrepreneurs, it is a huge step. And by its very nature, there is a lot of risk involved, but everyone I talked to, the various forums and groups I'm part of, and I also mentor a number of service leavers who are starting out on their own businesses with a view to see if I can help them avoid the mistakes that I made, that would be a wonderful thing. But I think by its very nature, entrepreneurs are slightly less risk averse than others.And it's that challenge that, that excites us. A lot of failures along the way. I did have another business that – I'm not describing it as a failure. It was a learning experience, but I just couldn't get that to work. And so back to resilience and learning lessons from, from those setbacks and taking that forward.Richard: I like the way you, you avoided, or you refuse to accept the term failure and frame it as – and believe me, I understand completely – and frame it as a learning experience, which I'm sure, well, I know, is very important about, you know, finding a way to carry it. Paul: Yeah, it is all about perspective, I think. So many times I have dwelt on something that's gone badly, whether it's a decision I've made or a decision that someone else has made that has affected the business, I've stewed on it and taken it personally, and all the, the things that, that we shouldn't do, I think that's only natural. It is human nature to, um, to look on the pessimistic side of things. But it's there that, that deep breath and it's ‘okay, well, what are we going to do now?’ Let's fix this. Let's do something different. Let's try a different plan or a different approach and, and make a success of this.Richard: How do you personally define success? Paul: For me, it's achieving various milestones. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I've, I can say to myself, ‘yes, I'm now successful, time to put my feet up and relax.’ I think there’ll always be for me, just those challenges of whether it's bringing a new product to market, selling that product into a new territory, creating something new.But at my stage now, it's also developing others. So if I can help someone improve in some small way, become a better version of themselves perform at a higher level. I think that is successful as well.Richard: Paul, it's amazing to hear what you have done – army, Safestix, ArcX. I wish you all the very best in your latest venture. I'm actually going to go out and look for a Safestix for my dog now, you've convinced me. And wishing you well. Thank you!Paul: Richard, it's been great to talk to you. Thank you for having me and, um, yeah good luck with Safestix and, uh, and your dog.Richard: I, if there's any problem, I'll come back to you.Paul: Please do!Richard: So that was Paul Blair and of course, you see, in a way, the two halves to his professional life – his military career, and then his role as an entrepreneur. And in hearing him talk, I was wondering how does one feed into the other? And feed the success of the other? Clearly there are things in the military which have helped him in business. As he said, resilience, getting tasks done, being highly organized, no doubt, goal-orientated, and so on. On the other hand, he's also said that you can't apply that leadership style in the military to business, which is far more consultative.So it seems to me that Paul has certain skills, highly developed skills. And yet also one of his major attributes seems to be that he has not stopped learning or developing, and seeing how he can alter himself according to circumstance, and help himself succeed in his next objective. If you've enjoyed this episode, please make sure to go and listen to the other wonderful interviews in the Success and Ideas podcast. And please do subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. It would really help if you could also rate and review us.I'm Richard Miron, the producer is Anouk Millet. And this has been an Earshot Strategies production. All the best.