The Crazy Ones

 

 

I once presented an investment opportunity to Luke Johnson and believe you me, it was a disasterclass in how to pitch an idea.  To say that Luke was underwhelmed would be to define new depths of whelming thus far unplumbed by man or beast.  Silk purse it wasn’t.  Pig’s ear, it was. 

On a more positive note, and over seven years later, The Telegraph has some inspiring words from Luke, now Chairman of Channel 4;

“I spent a very enjoyable day last week in the company of a number of powerful company founders at an event organised by Jonnie Goodwin of LongAcre and Brent Hoberman, formerly of Lastminute.com.

It was an exhilarating occasion; one really felt that the high voltage brainpower assembled was capable of anything. Certainly I have far greater confidence in our inventors and entrepreneurs coming up with solutions to perceived problems such as global warming than the politicians and pop stars.

The online explosion has triggered waves of enterprising activity, and Britain has benefited from all this effort and investment disproportionately, thanks to our command of the English language. The size of the internet economy here is 20 times that of the French internet economy.

In the long term, our future is dependent on the ingenuity of individuals, not the giant corporates or government. We need the troublemakers who have impossible dreams and yet make them reality. 

They create new industries, employment and prosperity – almost as a by-product of their mission to make things happen”

This reminds me of the wonderful Apple advert which pays tribute to ‘The Crazy Ones’, first shown to me by the amazing Rich Mulholland in Capetown.  Well worth a watch when you have time this week.