I had dinner with Peter Stringfellow the other evening – and what a guy! What really captured me about him was his genuine humility of a man, who has led the global nightclub scene since the sixties.
He didn’t consider himself a businessman – he’s just a nightclub owner, he says. This is the man who in 1962 had the foresight to book the Beatles for his church hall, investing more than he had ever spent before and risking the success of his previous 200 people capacity Black Cat Club, with a gamble on an unknown band and needing two thousand tickets to be sold. This is a guy who did his own marketing – advertising in the NME and getting postal orders flooding in from around the country.
This is a guy who negotiated with the owners of dance halls that would be besieged by fans that night. This is a guy who has repeated this success over and over, booking other great names like Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and so many more. A guy that served the British industry or the nightclub industry, and pivoted his business model time after time, and at 76 he is still pursuing the next big thing. And he says he’s not a businessman!
Well no, it’s not just a businessman he’s a great host, an awesome conversationalist, a great deal-maker and negotiator, a real gentleman – and he’s a businessman. So if you’re out there just like Mr. Stringfellow and you think you’re a plumber or a furniture upholster or an electrician or a nightclub promoter and you risk, invest, market, negotiate and occasionally pivot your business model and still your head spins with great ideas – I think you find you are a business person after all.
So lots to learn from him by listening and I’ll share more later in the year.
Bye for now