Would you like Profits with that?

ERIC J. GREGORY is a business owner, coach/consultant and guest speaker who specializes in helping owners of small to medium-sized businesses achieve growth, improvement and increased profits.

He says

My story: from Bases to Business

At the age of fourteen I was addicted! I would sit in my room in Munich, Germany playing my electric bass for literally six hours at a time. I would practice 'until my fingers were almost bleeding' as Ted Nugent used to say. I couldn't get enough of it. There was something about the magic of music that mesmerised me. I can remember it like it was yesterday- sitting in my room, playing my bass while watching the snow gently fall outside. There are times in your life that are truly magical, and those times definitely were for me. The feeling of anticipation of what might lie ahead, what the future might hold for my bass, and me fed my soul. I grew up on military bases all around the world; My dad was a career Air Force man and we were a military family. We moved quite regularly; on average; once every eighteen months in fact, up until I was eighteen.

For someone who might not be used to that kind of upheaval, it may seem a bit extreme looking in from the outside, but when that's what you've grown up with, you don't know any different and somehow our family seemed to be made for it – we enjoyed it. We lived in England, about six different places in Germany, Kansas, Florida and Michigan. My dad wanted me to follow in his footsteps and join the Air Force and I almost did. I was set to become a pilot; I had the grades and my old man had the connections. But something inside me told me to be true to my real dream – music. So, despite all of the uncertainties, I decided to follow my dreams and I dove in head first, without a net. Next thing I knew I was on a plane headed for Hollywood, California, just me and my bass (half of me was scared senseless and the other half was so excited I felt like I was ready to explode). In those days, if you wanted to make it in music and were serious about it, you had to be in Hollywood. End of story. Over the next five years I lived my dream.

Within two years of arriving in Hollywood my band signed its first record contract (an independent deal, but a deal nonetheless). Soon after, we were being courted by some of the biggest names in the industry; guys like Ahmet Ertegun (one of the original founders of the classic Atlantic Records) were flying in their private jets from New York to LA just to watch us perform live. The big dream was almost a reality! Long story short, the whole courting process began to drag out and before we knew it two years had passed and we still had no ink on paper. We felt hamstrung and hampered. Those couple of years felt like the longest of our lives! It began to feel like I was in Spinal Tap (if you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it – very funny). We lost our original drummer and then proceeded to go through drummers like changes of underwear. Eventually we had a permanent 'fill in' drummer. He was the only guy who could play the songs, but he wasn't 'one of us'. It was frustrating to say the least. An even longer story made shorter; the band slowly started to disintegrate (I think we felt the ship had sailed after the two year saga). Despite the band eventually breaking up, I'm happy to report that one of us eventually 'made it'. He has gone on to sell millions of records worldwide.

I had met an Aussie girl and before we could blink, we had a beautiful baby boy, Josh (who is now almost the same age as I was when I first hopped on that plane to Hollywood). Next thing I knew I found myself in sunny Sydney. Now, if you would have asked me when I was eighteen if I would be living in Sydney, Australia five and a half years later, I would have looked at you like you had gone mad. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined I would be living in Australia. Despite my love of music, it didn't feel the same to me. Maybe it was the different country or the old memories, but I decided to keep music as a very passionate hobby. I still loved music, so I found myself a job in the radio industry. Somehow I ended up in sales, which had nothing whatsoever to do with music. The strange thing was that I seemed to be quite good at it. So good in fact that I started setting company records for sales, which was good, because by now Josh had a beautiful little sister; Ella, and another little sister, Morgan, on the way.

I found myself becoming immersed in the in-and-outs of business. This turned out to be my second big passion. I could not stop thinking about business. I ate business books for breakfast (some easier to digest than others!). I attended seminars. I studied anything I could get my hands on that had to do with business; it was intoxicating. As much as I loved the radio industry, I had to venture out into business on my own. Along the way, I've had the privilege of both mentoring and being mentored by some of the kindest and most decent people you could ever hope to meet. They shared similar goals and aspirations which has made the journey so much more enjoyable. Business, like my music, feeds my soul. There is something about it that keeps me engaged and enthralled. I think it's the creation aspect, the uncertainty and that feeling of 'anything's possible'. But most of all it's the people I've met and helped and those who have helped me that has been the most rewarding. I hope you enjoy this book and whatever you do, make sure you keep chasing your dream; it's a lot closer than you think!