Hey there Andrew Hawkes here once again,

I want to change things up a little today... I am going to be pretty frank... some of the things I say may come as a shock... others maybe no surprise at all.

You know the world is changing, and it is changing at a rapid pace... in fact sometimes I think that we maybe evolving to fast, at the same time there is a stirring of excitement inside of me of the abundance of opportunity that will be, and is being created because of it.

We all have things that we have done or not done in our life that we would rather forget. It is all part of life's journey and it makes us into the people we are. We do what we can with the tools we're provided and we pick up and learn new techniques and strategies along the way.

Some things that we must keep in mind is that it takes years to build a reputation and only minutes to destroy it, and there are, unfortunately, people out there that would try and slander your name or your reputation for their own personal gain. The internet has been a little like the wild west, it has been a free for all for people to say what they like about anyone, regardless of whether it is true or not, I mention that briefly in this post, and basically people have this belief that what ever they do on the internet is totally anonymous, like there is no way to track them, and while there are some very techie people out there that could make this so... for most internet users everything they do has a digital signature or trace as to where they have come from... so people really should be careful what they say... if there is no truth to it or they misconstrue or misrepresent what actually happened they could find themselves in hot water. Now this is not what this post is about, I just find it very amusing that there are people out there that are really that naive.

So who is Andrew Hawkes and where did he come from, what has he done?

Well I am just like the majority of people (and you won't hear me say that very often), you see I believe that people are inherently good, I believe that people generally try to do the right thing by people. That is most certainly how I have lived my life. If you have read my bio you will know that I spent the better part of 11 years in the RNZAF, I did my trade as suggested by my father and found myself still searching and yearning for something else. And also like the majority I am always looking for ways in which to improve my life. However unlike the majority I am prepared to do something about it... perhaps this is what makes people targets... I am not sure. Anyway I digress, you will also have read that I had some failed business's and this is where I want to start.

Talk to anyone is business and they will tell you that if you have not failed at something then you have not been trying hard enough. Building a business is not easy and of course there are many factors that come into play. I learned some of the best lessons from those failed business, so therefore in my eyes I actually won. When you are master of your own destiny (and really everybody is) you allow yourself to look at things from a different angle or in a different light.

The first business is probably the key to my failure in the subsequent business. I went into business with a friend, now people will tell you that is a bad idea, I think that if you are both professional and treat the business in a professional manner, you document everything and you are on the same page as to the direction of the business there should be no problems. That being said, it is a lesson I learned after the fact, so it did in fact cause issues. In fact regardless of the fact that I am married to his sister he still, to this day, does not talk to me. Despite the fact he never invested any money in the business (v's my 30k) I apparently ruined his, and his wife's life. And you know what... for him that is obviously true, that is his truth. I have no control over how he chooses to look at something... all I can do is to try to do the right thing, which I did.

Now one of the biggest lessons I got from that is that you can't please everybody all of the time. We were all in debt from the business, which was a cafe, and given my main business was trading property I needed to have a clean credit rating. (this was a belief that I held). I resigned from the Cafe as I thought it was the right thing to do by my business partners, and yes it was a bit of self preservation also, I could see where the cafe was heading and being that I was unable (or more likely unwilling) to put my foot down, it was not a good direction. I had invested an unmatched amount of money and was not willing to invest any more until it was matched (I didn't think it was that unreasonable, you decide).  The lesson here is to trust your gut, and if something is not going the way you had envisaged then say something!

This failure had a follow on effect. I was also a partner in a Hair Salon franchise (my wife is a hair dresser).

I am looking at how long this is already... so I am going to leave you hanging.. I will be back in another post to finish this, or at least follow on

So this is Andrew Hawkes saying I will see you next time.

About the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.