What I've Learned As A Christian Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur and charity guru Matt Bird is all about relationships.We spoke to him to quiz him on faith outside the church walls.

Tell us about your own working life. What has been your career path so far?

My career has not been straightforward; there have been many twists and turns including lots of failures. I started a management consultancy called Autopoesies which is Greek for ‘self-becoming’, all very clever! But it failed because no one could spell the name so found it impossible to find on the Internet let alone spell it when you telephoned an office and left a message.

A few years ago I was on track for delivering a £1m-plus contract. However, the client was promoted out of his role within weeks of the work beginning. His successor wasn’t interested in the work and so it was lost. On one occasion (and once only) I actually applied for a traditional job. It was as the CEO of a media agency and I was excited to be one of two shortlisted candidates but I lost the opportunity because I had less experience.

Failure at work is hard at whatever stage of life we are; however, I have always been encouraged by the words of Winston Churchill who said, “The difference between success and failure is the ability to get up and start again.” All successful entrepreneurs faced failure before their day finally arrived, so I’ve just kept keeping on and I would encourage you to do the same.

A few years ago I was invited to speak at a business conference on ‘networking’. Now whenever I hear the word ‘networking’ my insides cringe and crawl because I hate networking. I spoke to the conference organiser and thanked them for their kind invitation but explained that I couldn’t accept and why. They went very quiet, so I jumped in to explain that I do believe that quality relationships drive business growth. I was immediately invited to speak on that subject instead. So I agreed.