Mark,
I wanted to drop you a note to say what an inspiration you were to my team when you told your story at our conference today in Northampton. We have been fortunate that having build a great team of people, we have taken Blossom Hill to become the Nations biggest and favourite wine brand….but I want my team to achieve more? My head of Customer Marketing, Jonathan Owen had read your story and believed that you would be the perfect person to talk to our team about overcoming challenges, the importance of goal setting and demonstrate how to overcome barriers, that we perceive to be there. Suffice to say that after you left, there was a very different feeling in the room and words like ‘can’t, hard, difficult, complex an complicated’ that sometimes show up when we talk about breaking down the barriers to achieving goals were no where to be seen. As I mentioned when we met at the end I have a couple of good friends in the forces, I would also like to add that my father was in the Scots Guards, so I believe there is a huge amount that we can learn in business from the military. Thank you once again for showing us what can be achieved when you set the right goals, have the mental strength and a never say die attitude, I really can’t imagine the mental and physical pain you have endured to get you to where you are today, but as a father of an 8 year old girl, I can be sure that you must be loved as Dad, admired by friends and colleagues and be an inspiration to people like me who you have met. I have sent you a request on linked -in, as I would love to post this recommendation on your page. All the best John