Local Hero

Do you recall the movie, Local Hero. It centered on a small west of Scotland coastal village and the desire of an American oil company to purchase its beach as a site for its processing facilities. A high powered acquisition lawyer was dispatched to woo the villagers and to make the purchase. At one crucial moment the lawyer was chatting with the actual owner of the beach, an old timer beachcomber and that chap offered the American the beach for a dollar for every grain sand in his hand. Of course the lawyer didn't know his beach sand stats and passed--up on his opportunity to buy the required land for some hundreds of thousands of dollars in contrast to the millions the oil company was prepared to pay. I recalled this story in a somewhat philosophical mood today whilst sitting on Port Beach watching the children play in the sand and viewing the dredging vessel deepening the shipping channel. The Local Hero story (reminiscent of a recent post) was a story of price versus value but where the value was in the community of the village not in the resources offshore or the development potential. Grains of sand come from somewhere and perhaps began life as mountains and may again, so too do companies start with a germ of an idea perhaps creating wealth and then being worn away possibly back to nothing and so the cycle goes on. Careers can be similar, waxing and waning through the vagaries of circumstance, good and bad. The real joy of all of this is that nothing remains the same except for the certainty of change. Whilst 2009 was a killer for many people, it was also a foundation year for others and whenever endeavour is invested, great things can and will happen. Where Local Hero was particularly instructive was in the realization, particularly for the viewer, that the value was not necessarily the price they could get. Similarly and to my own amusement a client recently asked the the "value" of his outstanding invoices to me, I replied paraphrasing that beautiful MasterCard advert, the outstandings are $x but the value has been priceless. Stoney silence was the not-unexpected-response but I hope, he says with a wry smile, that the point was made. All the best, Jonathan.