No not a reference to the seminal work by Daniel Kahnemen: the author that came to mind was Frederick Forsyth, as I drove Saffron to school this morning.
Frederick who died earlier this year was an author, fluent in four foreign languages (French, German, Spanish and Russian), and a former journalist. He could tell a good story, based on his life experiences.
He learned to fly, in a Tiger Moth, whilst he was still at school, but it was fast jets, that he yearned for, which he later achieved, in his time serving in the RAF.
He also loved his sports car and driving it with rapidity: too much so, at one stage, destroying his car in the process, very nearly himself and if it hadn't been for a retired surgeon who lived near to the hospital, then his destroyed hand would have been amputated.
Our journey to school goes past RAF Shawbury. So long the home of helicopter training in the UK. However, it seems that the latest intake: should the correct collective noun be “flock”? are aspirational fighter pilots.
Or perhaps even given the adjacency of this morning’s Skoda driver, training for close format flying so that they can join the Red Arrows?
Thankfully not all of the garage mechanics drive in that way. And it is not just them that do so.
At the start of the week I drove to see a client in Telford. These days I typically travel before or after the rush hour Having seen, the typical speed taken around Telford’s many roundabouts I don't think that I'm cut out for it anymore… I don't seem to be able to spot the correct racing lines, as I get older.
Speed is in life too. There are times when things seem to go or have gone quickly.
Our own business CBSL Accountants, reached drinking age in the US, yesterday when it became 21 years old. I can remember the day when we had just one client, no staff no office but a lot of ambition. Incidentally that first client is still with us.
Saffron is now in her final term of primary school. To me 11 years have gone quickly.
For her this year at school has been her most tedious: the frantic clamouring of the importance of SATs. The wrath of a headteacher scorned by a father for having the temerity to suggest that SATs have no value for the poor child that has to sit them. The slowly ticking clock in the background whilst she and her classmates have to copy what they have written previously but now in their best handwriting so that it can be passed on to the senior schools they move to.
Oliver and Berta have completed their final semesters in Australia and are now enjoying travelling before coming back to England and Spain respectively. For them I would imagine time will pass in a heartbeat.
For me the time that he has been away has passed so slowly - I can't wait to see them both in August.
Whilst there is a lot of variation of speed in my life it seems, I was minded as I sat with my Telford client trying to get my heartbeat down after the drive there, that there is a time when we need to think slowly.
We are helping them acquire a company that has been in business for 160 years. Our client has been in business for five generations with more to follow. How things must have evolved over that time. Although, based on the speed of the accountant who is supporting the vendor, perhaps their evolution has been somewhat slower.
When you have owned a multi-generational business for so long it is a big decision to let it go, but sometimes that is the best thing to do, for the next generation. Giving them the freedom to do what they want to, could be a better gift than providing them, with what might be for them, a millstone.
Big decisions need careful thinking, and support from someone who has done it before.
In this example the acquirer needs to make sure that the company they buy benefits the wider business and that it is an asset for the current and future generations. An unwise acquisition can damage the best-run of companies.
Further slow thinking has been needed, by a client that we met with last week. We helped them sell their business for a life changing sum last year. The generation that we met with last week worked very hard but also entrepreneurially to generate wealth for many generations to come. The work was the culmination of several months of thinking but helps them secure the future and offer the choices, that financial freedom gives. It is secured now and is lives changing not just life changing.
There is a time and a place, to channel your inner Tom Cruise, as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and go for speed. I love the silver Porsche 911 in the sequel film.
But the time to buy or sell, might need you to think more of an old Jag – still good, can be fleet of foot if needs be, but refined and not rushed. Just leave your pipe in the car please. Oh and your hat on the parcel shelf – no need for formality.
