My work with iconic businessman Michael Gerber
When one dreamer meets another, incredible things happen.
It was June 2008 and I was building my 400+ independent accountancy firm network. I wanted to push the boundaries and help these accountants really visualise their potential and deliver maximum disruption in their industry. To this end, I planned to get them together for the day to focus on the evolving role of the UK accountant.
To really ensure success, I invited acclaimed business author and guru Michael Gerber to work with me. For many years he’d been achieving astonishing results with his inspirational work: encouraging every business person to ‘bring back the dream’; to re-awaken the entrepreneur within them and discover all the opportunities there for the taking. To harness their innate creativity and give themselves permission to build the best business, and the fullest life, they could imagine.
Together we devised a ‘Dreaming Room’ session in London. Gerber had already coached thousands of businesses, in 140 countries around the world, but never a room of just accountants. I was incredibly excited. I knew, from his reputation, that he could garner extraordinary results as participants ‘came awake’, as he put it, in a way they’d never felt before. I knew he was the perfect person to help me awaken the hundreds of accountants with whom I worked on a day to day basis. Together we could realise my dream: to motivate these accountants to unleash all the extra opportunities for income generation which were currently untapped. Gerber’s unique workshop, ‘The Dreaming Room’, offered a chance for them to transform their attitude towards their business and their work with clients. To approach their practice in a spirit of creativity and innovation. I was hugely excited to be sharing the stage with Gerber, as I knew great things would happen.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
In fact, the results were greater than I’d ever imagined. I watched as the accountants before me were filled with a joy, energy and delight at what they were discovering within themselves. They were charged with a new vitality as they began to see their work as not just a job, determined to free themselves from the tyranny of routine. A light switched on as they realised this same vitality and creativity could be passed on to their clients, thus bringing about a transformation in the business landscape of England.
The whole experience was phenomenal. And, what truly gladdened my heart, was the energy and excitement that went on to build and build, as the attendees put their learnings into practice. It was as if they were filled with an unstoppable force of innovation and self-belief; the possibilities were endless. Many accountancy practices were so galvanised that, within weeks, their businesses were unrecognisable. They were soaring into a new world, with stratospheric income predictions. I felt incredibly proud.
That’s not all, though. For a dream was brought back for me, too. For years I’d been applying a highly creative mindset to my own business plans, indeed to my whole life. Relishing the challenge of disrupting the norm and blazing a trail uniquely my own. I’d enjoyed great success in encouraging accountancy firms to do the same – culminating in this astonishing Dreaming Room workshop. And yet I realised, as I stood on stage with Michael, that I, too, needed to dream a little bigger. To step further out of my comfort zone and imagine a different way of doing things. Hearing Michael echo my own sentiments, and swept up by the incredible energy in the room, I felt the force of imagination awaken within me. I had the germ of an idea, something truly radical, which I then explored and allowed to take shape and grow.
A decade on in 2018, this became my completely new corporate model of the ‘overnight multiple merger’. Its first execution was the consolidation of 122 independent accountancy firms overnight, to form Xeinadin. It was a world-first, hailed as a ‘corporate miracle’ and it was born of a dream.
Upon first connecting with Michael, it was clear I was in the presence of a genius. No wonder he was named the ‘World’s No. 1 Small Business Guru’ by Inc. Magazine and is the recipient of many business and literary awards. But he’s so much more than that. He’s a fellow dreamer. As I know through my Overnight Multiple Merger models, dreams can change the business landscape, communities and the world. I dare you to dream, too.
For details of my upcoming inspirational events, go to https://www.feisal.co.uk/events/
To contact me for speaking events, please email: news@feisal.co.uk
