Dorset Chamber Wrote About Me — Here's What I'd Add

Dorset Chamber ran a piece on me this month. Three books, a new office in Poundbury, and now a seat at the Chamber table — eighteen months, apparently, of "busy." Caroline Sharp wrote it up under the headline "Business Books for Growth in Every Business."

Here's the line that actually made me pause: the piece describes me as someone still working out what he wants to be when he grows up. Fair enough — I said it myself, so I can hardly complain about it being quoted back at me. But it's also, funnily enough, exactly the point of the second book in my Six Pillars series — Identity.

Most business owners think identity is something you sort out once, early, and then carry around like a laminated card. Job done. In my experience it's the opposite. The moment you think you've nailed down who you are as a business owner, the business changes shape underneath you, the market moves, or you simply grow past the version of yourself that built the thing in the first place. Three books, a new office, joining the Chamber — none of that tells you who you are. It's just evidence of what you did while you were figuring it out.

That's why the Chamber news matters less to me than it might look like it should. Don't get me wrong — I'm genuinely pleased about it. Ian Girling runs a proper organisation, and the Chamber is where Dorset business actually happens, not where it gets talked about from a distance. Being part of that properly, rather than watching from the car park, was an easy decision.

But press coverage is a marker, not a mirror. It tells you where you've been seen, not who you are. The owners I coach fall into exactly the same trap with their businesses — they chase the award, the write-up, the LinkedIn post with the most likes, and mistake the applause for the answer. It isn't. The answer was always in the work done before anyone was watching.

So here's what I'd add to the Chamber's piece, since they were kind enough not to make me sound like a finished product: I don't think you ever fully answer who the hell you are anyway. I think you just keep getting better questions. Three books in, six planned, thirty years of coaching behind me, and I'm still adjusting the answer.

Go read the full piece on Dorset Chamber's site — Caroline's a better writer than the quotes she pulled from me suggest. And if the identity question is one you're sitting with in your own business right now, that's exactly the kind of thing we unpack in a diagnostic conversation.

Book a free 20-minute Scale & Exit Diagnostic at simonellson.com or call 01305 566150.