How to see the world

In a world where you're keen to build a business, it's important to develop a sense of curiosity and intrigue into the world around you, to gain tips and hints and ideas for how to make it better.

We build a business over months and years and decades, not over minutes and days, and we get the opportunity to look to see what other people do, both inside our industry and outside our industry and take ideas to build that jigsaw to be a better picture.

This is the approach we've taken on the business course that we run, and we try to provoke people into thinking differently about how they see their work and how they see their business.

Classically, dentists go into dentistry because they have a particular type of personality and that personality is not always suited to the adaptability and agility that's needed to run a business. For those of us who find that challenging, we have to work hard to modify how we see the world in order to create a successful business.

On one of the business courses that we ran about 3 years ago,  I had been travelling with Louis at the European Triathlon Championships in Bilbao, wandering around that beautiful city. We ended up on a cliff top,  and there was a disused building there.

It was in the middle of the online business course, and I was looking at this disused building and wondering what we could do with it in terms of a business opportunity, not that I would ever take that opportunity, but just as part of the hobby of looking at things from that angle.

The photograph here is of the building itself. I wonder if you could look at it in the same way?

If someone were to offer you that building rent-free for 5 years, how could you leverage that and make it into something that was valuable, that made a difference to the people around, created something that people wanted to be, and also created an advantage for you?

That's how I see the world, that's how I like to see the world, because I find it more interesting.

In a blog I wrote a couple of weeks ago, called Cascade.  I briefly mentioned the place that I was when I was watching the covers and tribute band, in the week before Christmas.

Nottingham has a set of pubs that are owned by a group now, you might call it a ‘mini corporate’, what they've done is they've picked up pubs that fit their bill of live sport, live events, and camaraderie and people coming together, and they've developed an interconnected brand while keeping the original brands of the pubs, there was a sign on the wall of the place we were watching the concert, which listed all the pubs that they have in their portfolio and I could pick out places and why I would go to those based on the culture and the brand that they're building.

But on this evening, we were at a place called the Trent Navigation, which is a pub that sits close to Notts County and Notts Forest stadiums and is completely set up for sports and events (in a really good way).

As the pub and the Trent Navigation got more and more successful (this is one of their original pubs), they must have realised that there was a large space beside the pub, like a warehouse space, and they've clearly taken this over and created the ‘Big Shed’.

The Big Shed is exactly what it says it is, it's just a big shed with a stage and a huge screen at one end and a big proper bar set up at the other.

But what's happening with the big shed is that it's becoming a venue, it's becoming a scene.

It's probably where I would go to watch Scotland football games in the World Cup next year if I weren't in America, it's where I would go to watch bands like this, and tribute acts, and tribute nights, of which they have many (coming up soon is David Bowie, Pulp and Stereophonics tributes). I love it, I love the entrepreneurship in this.

What they have managed to do is develop a brand around a space which was entirely useless and industrial, which would have created no revenue and no benefit to society of any kind.

They deserve everything that they get.

Firstly, for the idea and the vision, and secondly, for the bravery to carry it forward. I reckon they're making a s**t ton of money.

The promotion is brilliant, the branding is brilliant, and the hosts for the evening were brilliant.

The toilets need to be a little bit better, but they'll get there in a second.

They serve food as well, and the pub right next door runs like a fair the rest of the time.

Hospitality is difficult; it's a really hard business to make work, but not if you're brilliant.

Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid, and this extraordinary challenge,  please click here.

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