So I 'Started With Why'...

Motivation is everything.

Understanding your belief to not only keep on ‘keeping on’ but keep on creating should be at the heart of every career.

My working life has been, quite deliberately, based around sports content. I have been paid for virtually nothing else since I left University.

And, despite everything, I still believe in sport as a force for good.

But, at the same time, I worry that it has lost its own why.

We all start playing, watching or writing about sport with glory in mind. Yet somehow, somewhere that vision can become tainted.

My ‘why’ is to reconnect fans with ‘their’ game and ‘their’ team once more. To use the most modern tools of story-telling and communication to re-ignite an enthusiasm that may have been lost or tarnished. 

In other words, my why is to help reveal your why once more.

It was a privilege to lead Arsenal, my own club, into the digital age and, I hope, lay their foundations for their vast global reach.

But it was not enough. My ‘why’ took me to the US, where soccer is an underdog, then Indonesia where the football is religion but somehow fails to fulfill its potential. There were more straight-forward jobs at home but I wanted to develop, expand, create.

I always have and always will.

Each time there was an immersion in the problem, deep thinking as to a solution and execution with tangible return. But my drive was always the good of the sport.

I don’t want to build a digital agency; others can do that. I just want clients who desire positive change, if you offer that then you’ll get 100% of me. 

My motivation is to help clubs, athletes and organisations tell a story that inspires. I believe everything else – reach, revenue, positive PR - will follow from that.

I’ll be your sounding board, expert or go-to guy. There will be emails of ‘thoughts’ at 1am and I’ll be tweeting about you long after the contract is complete.

It will not be because I suddenly support your team or want more clients.

It will be because revealing your story is 'my why'. 

It is what I do.

* This piece was inspired by Start with Why by Simon Sinek