“We [entrepreneurs] are different: we are a tribe, and tribes must come together, it’s what we do … the reason the BNI Tara (Business Network International) was set up is because of our desire to come together as a group, because in groups we gain support,” explained Mr Gallagher.
“The thing about networking that I love is … I network like a lunatic but I do it quietly, slowly and gradually, and I build networks everywhere, because your power of success is your ability to leverage your network … It is all about the network, particularly in Ireland … the real value of tonight’s event is on that side of the podium.”
Mr Gallagher said that entrepreneurs usually work in isolation, so there is great value to be gained from joining a group such as BNI. He continued by saying that, for every problem each business-person in the room might be facing, there was definitely someone else in the same room who could help them with it - they just had to be able to ask for help.
Three fundamentals of good business
Sean Gallagher believes that the three fundamentals in business are quality, customer service and value for money. “If I look back at the last ten years, you and I know what we sacrificed and compromised on quality. We were selling over-inflated and poorly-built houses to one another, at over-inflated prices.
“What was compromised was quality, and why? Because there was a line of customers coming after you ... if one did not want to buy it, then ‘step out of the way - we have loads of customers’ … if you are not providing quality now in terms of product you will not survive, because the consumer is now in charge.”
Mr Gallagher used the example of when he walks into a bar, hotel, coffee shop or petrol station and is waiting to get served, to express his point. “I feel that I am interrupting someone behind the counter.” The employer is also to blame - they need to teach their staff like his mentors taught him.
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One such mentor told him once: “When a customer comes through that door, acknowledge them: a customer acknowledged is a customer half served.”
I spoke to Mr Gallagher after his presentation to find out more about his life to date. He’s a popular speaker, and I estimate that almost everyone in the room (numbering over three hundred people) shook hands and exchanged business cards with him.
From an early age, Sean Gallagher showed ambition: he set himself five key goals that he wished to achieve in life, and he tells me that he has already achieved them. He explained how he made the transitions from one goal to the next, and that in some cases it looked like destiny was helping him along his path.
Living in the countryside in Cavan, his first goal of becoming a farmer was achieved by the age of 21. However, a car accident cut short that career choice. He then set about achieving his second goal of becoming a youth worker.
It was while working in this field and giving a speech to youngsters about training and facilities needed to help teenagers with alcohol and drug abuse that a former government minister for that area invited him to write a programme for the youth service. Which, he says, he did, for two years. “Out of that I became a political secretary and moved into politics … when that cabinet had some issues and the new Taoiseach came in, I moved on to the next phase, which was to be an entrepreneur.”
“Sometimes you set the goals and you never know when they are going to happen; it’s a little bit like when you decide to get a new car, all the ones you see are like that.”
Sean Gallagher says having mentors is very important. He says he has multiple mentors for different areas in his life. “I have mentors in everything: I have mentors in business, I had mentors in how to get up and talk to a crowd, mentors in sport … they are all around us, and they are not always dressed in suits and they don’t always have PhD’s.”
Overcoming setbacks
“I think I have had lots of setbacks, but everyone has setbacks. My analogy is, it’s like running a one hundred metres hurdles race: if you focus on the next hurdle you will trip. If you focus on the winning line of the goal, then hurdles are just obstacles that you get by, you either get over them or you knock them out of the way, but you keep going to the next one. Your focus should be on the winning line all the time.”
Dragons Den
Speaking about how the Dragons Den TV show came about, Mr Gallagher told me that the idea came from a chapter in a book called “That'll never work”, a story about a dozen entrepreneurs in Ireland who people had not heard much about. ShinAwiL productions got a hold of it and ran with the idea.
Mr Gallagher believes that he was invited to get involved because of his interest in helping entrepreneurs from an earlier stage in his life.
“I wasn’t going to be the wealthiest dragon - I was one who was hugely passionate about the role that entrepreneurs need to play, and the importance of us identifying them really young and growing them.”
Mr Gallagher believes that one can debate forever on whether an entrepreneur can be created or if they are just born, and on what impact the environment has. “The truth of it is there is a whole mix,” he says, explaining that some grow up in an entrepreneurial environment, while others develop the skills out of necessity because they become redundant and they have to provide for their families.
“Sometimes the conditions dictate - for others it is a desire we have. They are usually problem solvers and doers, they are risk takers … entrepreneurship is about finding solutions to make things better.”
Having grown up in a small town, Mr Gallagher said that his environment was full of people with entrepreneurial spirit, from the local farmers to the shop keepers, and he noted that the key trait exhibited by each one was ‘hard work’.
The demise of the ‘Customer is King’ attitude in Ireland
Mr Gallagher believes that during the Celtic Tiger era, we lost our focus and mantra (which he credited to Fergal Quinn - ‘The Customer is King’) because we had too many customers.
“There are now fewer customers, and they are now re-crowning the King. I think we should do a book called that,” joked Mr Gallagher.
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