Entrepreneur Lawrence Jones says the key to success is using your time wisely.
Welshman Jones is the CEO of Manchester-based website hosting firm UKFast, which has been tipped by investment bank GP Bullhound as a potential future unicorn company.
He is an advocate of writing down goals to focus attention – an approach pioneered by Muhammad Ali as the ‘power of intention’.
And when it comes to achieving those goals, he says time should not be viewed as a barrier.
Giving the keynote speech at a ‘tech entrepreneurs who want to change the world’ conference at the International Festival for Business, he said: “My mother-in-law sent me this lovely note with a quote: ‘Don’t say you don’t have enough time.
“‘You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”
He cited American self-help guru Tony Robbins and Virgin boss Richard Branson as inspirations.
“You, the audience, could all do what Richard Branson or Tony Robbins does – the only problem is you’d probably need about 50 lifetimes to do it,” he continued.
“Branson manages to cram in so much: he’ll start the morning with a game of tennis, finish it with a game of tennis, and during the day he’ll probably go kite-surfing or suggest a walk or a sailboat race instead of a meeting.
“Everything is about exercise – keeping energised and keeping motivated.
“What he and Robbins do is inspire huge amounts of people around them to go off and inspire other people.”
Jones revealed in a recent column for BusinessCloud that boxer Ali and his friend Tim Bacon, who also sadly passed away this year, are key inspirations – as well as the team around him.