YIBC: Unconventional entrepreneur truly inspirational
HE may have been wearing jeans and an old shirt and peppered his speech with a few expletives but Tim Smit words of wisdom couldn’t fail to inspire.
The man behind the Eden project and the Lost gardens of Heligan spoke about his journey from archeologist, to jobbing muscian, to successful green entrepreneur with wit, candour and refreshing honesty.
“So many people p**s their lives up the wall. We put off our ambitions and stuff we want to do because we’re worried about risk,” he said.
“But the very act of seizing risk by the throat means there is no risk.”
Mr Smit’s personal ‘tipping point’ wasn’t when he was an archeologist, nor while he was on the dole and penniless but when sat in the back of a limo in Paris, a string of hit records to his name, heading for one of the city’s best restaurants.
“I felt totally desolate,” he admitted.
“About that time a friend had given me a pig. I then got it a companion. It was then that I decided to start up a rare breeds park.”
His decision led him to visit a run-down stately home in the South West. Armed with a machete (to attack 70 year’s worth of undergrowth), he instantly fell in love with the estate, which a few years later transformed into the Lost Gardens of Heligan.
As with Mr Smit, the garden’s success wasn’t conventional. Knowing nothing about plants and gardens however proved to be an advantage.
“I think if you show professionalism or knowledge in this country people try to bring you down. If you don’t know anything people will try to help. It’s the Janet and John guide to doing things,” he quipped.
Following Heligan’s success, Mr Smit decided to “turn a clay pit into the eighth wonder of the world”.
A combination of charm, passion, and making the effort to attend every third invitation to speak, ended up in him successfully raising finance for the Eden project.
He managed to persuade firms and contractors to give their time for free, got agreements to share penalties over project overruns and cost overspend (there weren’t any), and got loyal Irish workers to perform engineering feats that no dbout to continue to astound.
Prior to officially opening in 2001, more than half-a-million people visited the site to see it’s ongoing development.
To date, more than 11 million people have visited Eden. His unconventional management style (which he protests is not hippie sh**), extends to looking after his 450 staff.
Annual drumming sessions, regular meal cooking, presentations to other members of staff as to why working at Eden is great, book reviews, film reviews and for the management team one “guerilla” act of kindness a year.
He might refer to his employee principles as “monkey business” but Eden’s success is proof that looking after your business in a more sustainable way works.
