New Chapter Starts 29th June: Farewell Athol and IOM – Viva Ayn Rand

Life as a visitor to a hot bankrupt country might sound idyllic. But when BOTH your computers play up suddenly my attempts to enjoy a stress free existence go up in smoke. And so it was, yesterday 29th June 2012. It was a day that was meant to be the end of one chapter for me and the start of another. For some reason both PCs now seem to be working again. Perhaps they just needed a day off. I feel rather exasperated by a day when my output was minimal but when a lot was happening.

I should start with AIM listed Athol Gold (AHG) where it was finally announced that had I stepped down as a non board Chief Operating Officer. The company had been attempting to complete a Reverse Takeover. It was frustrated in this by events outside its control. It was my strategy and someone should accept responsibility for the failure to deliver on it. I cannot write again and again about how folks running companies balls it up and fail to take responsibility and then refuse to drink my own medicine. It is right that someone should carry the can for the failure to deliver on a strategy and that person is me.

Athol’s capable directors have consulted with major shareholders on how to take the company forward. I understand that it will become a realisation vehicle and that a new investment manager will be appointed shortly. I know who it is and have faith in the ability of the team to deliver. Again it is correct that shareholders should guide the company – which was five days away from being delisted and had virtually no cash when I first rescued it – on the way forward. Shareholders own every company not the directors. As a small shareholder in Athol myself I am supportive of what is planned. Athol has cash and asset backing, it is in a far better place than many companies and in a better place than it was when I first encountered it and I look forward to the new team taking it forward. Now is the right time – on both sides – for a parting.

But I shall cheer it on from the sidelines. I hope that I have made it abundantly clear on this blog that as a 44 year old man I am closing out one 12 year chapter of my life and starting a new one. I am not wealthy, nearly all of my (paper) wealth has evaporated in the past year. And I have obligations which prevent me from pursuing a full time career herding goats were that my preferred option. For the avoidance of doubt, it is not. So yesterday saw me lose my last PLC connection and I would rather spend my declining years wiping Tony Blair’s posterior than being involved with a listed company again. The past near year since I stepped down as CEO of Rivington Street but sat on the board has been not unenjoyable but sheer hell. It has done little for my physical or mental well being and I have no intention of going through that again.

Going forward I remain involved in running one small private company (The Real Man Pizza Company) which runs a fabulous restaurant in Clerkenwell and which also offers my services as a writer out to others. Writing ( and organising investment shows) is what I enjoy most and it is what I think I am best at. And the offers of work keep coming in so I doubt that I shall be bored. I also doubt that I shall be terribly rich but that does not bother me as much as it might have done a few years ago. Yesterday also saw me shut off my last utility bills in the Isle of Man. Henceforth my base will be elsewhere. Where exactly I know not but my days in the Irish Sea are at an end.

This is my third full day away as I ponder exactly what lies ahead. I am already lighter than I was on arrival. I am not sure I shall shed 21 llbs this break but running, gym work, swimming and a meat free salad and cereals based diet are already having a clear effect. Many of my clothes are now starting to hang loose on me and at one level I am therefore feeling a clear sense of heading in the right direction with a sense of purpose. On the other hand I have yet to start the book for ADVFN. Fear not Clem, one I work out the first paragraph the words will flow but I am still thinking hard about those first few words.

You only enjoy one stab at existence. If you are fortunate enough to have choices about what you wish to do you must opt to do what you enjoy most and are best at. We often kid ourselves that we do not have choices. We accept the job that pays the bills, the place we live and the nature of our routine only because we are not brave enough to take on a financial risk or to disrupt an established pattern or because we do not wish to lose a perceived status in society. Many more of us do have more choice than we think.

Yes. I am re-reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead as I sit here pondering! The more folk who are prepared to accept that they do have a choice, take a risk and strive to excel at what they enjoy most the better society is. It will be a more diverse place and it will be a richer place economically. Those who argue for “making the best of what you have” argue against the spirit of entrepreneurship but also against the spirit of art and culture. In the end such a choice can only lead to unhappiness as dreams fade and die and one is left to ponder what might have been.

“Making the best” is intrinsically linked to our culture of dependency. When large elements of society exist on the back of the labours of others, they come to know the price of everything but the value of nothing. They come to accept what they are given, thanks to the toil of others, and fail to strive to achieve anything, let alone what they are best at. Society is all the weaker for that arrangement, both culturally and economically. Small companies, artists, and writers – indeed anyone will not prosper on the back of handouts but on the back of freedom. Those who strive to achieve the best will flourish so enriching their own lives but also society and those who do not will be forced into something more suited to their abilities.

You may fail in excelling at what you dream of. I think my chances of wearing the Ulster shirt I wear today, actually playing for Ulster are zero. That is not to stop me trying should I wish and should I not rely on others to support my dream.

As it happens, I have written that one off but there are other things I might excel at (a new pizza recipe or a new writing venture) which I can legitimately pursue with some hope of achieving that which I dream of, of enjoying myself while being challenged and of earning a decent crust while doing so. Success for me benefits society (a wider culinary and literary choice, perhaps job creation, taxes generated to support the British state) as well as myself. I cannot see any other way I would wish to live. Viva Ayn Rand!