It’s very easy to become a passenger on a project or plan, and a common mistake that’s made is to include as many cooks as possible to spread bet, get the widest view and comfort yourself from being insulated in a group. But you ultimately find that when building a team, less is definitely more. You form a small team and keep its skills and experience in concentration whenever you can.

The chances are that I won’t tick all the boxes for your project or business. I may be totally unsuitable for what you are planning. That’s for you to judge. Everyone in your team needs to contribute something valuable – more than money, more than years, more than reputation and more than lip service and turning up.

I bring a unique set of talents, skills and experience to the table, and below are just some of them.

Name, reputation & public profile
Over the last few years I have become a well-known and highly respected figure in my industry and beyond. I’m regularly featured in the press (as well as being widely published in it) and am revered by many as some of genius (I’m clearly not, by the way). I am a young upstart with credibility despite my apparent insolence and bloodymindedness. My name on your project will convey comprehensive vision, passion and intelligence.

Technical expertise
I have nearly a decade’s experience as a highly technical engineer, so understand complex systems and their documentation. I’ve worked across many different sectors in IT, including wed application development, system and database design, administration/support, 3G mobile multimedia, interactive TV, real-time communications and even some very bizarre niche products and services. I get technology, I can build it myself, I know the mistakes that can be made and I know when people aren’t delivering.

Rock N’ Roll Attitude
Forget Richard Branson. I am a rather skilled self-publicist and attention-seeker extraordinaire who genuinely doesn’t give a fuck about anything. I bring in a little healthy chaos and rebellion, and revel in upsetting and surprising conservative types who worry about things like the variety of biscuits available at the start of a meeting. I do things differently and can shake things up so the team looks a little more alive. I don’t care for politics. When I’m on the team, expect a generous amount of swearing, debating and arm-waving.

Massive business network
I am a prolific networker (10,000+ contacts in my database in a little over 2 years) and business contact whore. I’m often described as a “super-connector” as despite my youth, I know almost all the most powerful people in media, telecoms and IT on a personal basis when anyone else gets the brush-off or the door slammed politely in their face. These people know me, respect me and trust me. I can introduce you to a lot of people, and always know someone who knows someone.

Youth & Energy
You’d think being young would be a major disadvantage and associated with a lack of maturity of foresight. My youth gives me the element of surprise as no-one expects my competency or vision. It also gives me energy that those with the wise grey hair lost a long time ago. 20-hour days are usual for me and I take them in my stride. I’m from the next-generation your business will be appealing to and am in the most desired Acorn bracket (affluent ABC1 late-20s male), being an early adopter of new products and technology.

Deal-making flair
I have an intuitive ability to bring people together through my understanding of them as people and their businesses. I didn’t know I had deal-making talent until it was brought out in me after spending time with great deal-makers. You either have it or you don’t, and it doesn’t mean you have to be some kind of loudmouth wide-boy. Deals are the lifeblood of business, and I’m a very accomplished middleman that has seen hundreds of deals through to contracts being signed and later re-signed. I’ve taught a lot of people how to pitch, market and sell.

Commercial edge
I have a natural hard nose and a well-developed commercial understanding that compliments my instincts. I was a techie first, businessman second, so have the unique and most desirable skillset for the industries I work in. I’ll never stop learning and maturing, but I understand how to talk to senior figures like directors, investors and regulators in their own language. I am a cash-flow Nazi and obsessive about cost-cutting, profitability and exploiting opportunity. I can help bridge the gap between leadership and specialist departments, like engineering.

Mentoring capacity
I’ve mentored dozens of people in many aspects of business and life. This site is a classic example – it receives thousands of views a day from people reading up on my articles and learning how to be what they want to be. But I spend a lot of my free time helping friends develop their commercial skills and getting into the right mindset to be successful in business. I’m someone who can learn the equivalent of a university degree in 10% of normal time, and am good at nurturing others in the same disciplines.

Cold-blooded ruthlessness
I might appear amiable, but don’t confuse that with being soft or a walkover. Sometimes you need to kick ass to get things done, and I will absolutely do what is necessary without hesitation. I will fire or bankrupt someone as their hungry child cries in the background or undermine competitors covertly if my interests demand it. I have no barriers in my mind to what I won’t do to succeed or further my own, or my team’s interests. Business is business, and I am as deadly, evil and vicious as they come.

Unique cultural attitude
I own nearly 1000 books, a lot of which are self-development works or materials about how to be better. I have a very specific way I believe businesses should be run and offices operated. I’ve written about it many times, but I have the ability to put the right people in the right places and create a dynamic atmosphere of encouragement and energy that means big things happen in a very small time. There are few people who have read as widely, think the same way or who have achieved the same.

FSA-registered back-up
I have special personal partnerships with a number of different companies to provide services an individual wouldn’t normally be able to. To do financial deals in the UK, you need to be FSA-registered. I can bring that capacity to the table at a very low rate if the business needs to explore the ideas of selling out, funding, acquiring or merging. The alternative is to pay a lot of money to an intermediary who has no interest or concern for you or your company. My partner tends to deal in the mid-tier range, around £50-200M.

Crisis management
Being calm and effective in the midst of total chaos is a very difficult skill to learn, but my track record stands out from the rest when it comes to saving the day. Its something I’ve had to do since I was small so it comes very naturally to me, which is a hell of a lot smoother than with stuffy suit types who like their morning coffee at exactly 8.47am every day. I’m agile, forceful and know how to get in front of a deadline when the whole world looks like its falling apart.

Proven track record for incubating start-ups and small businesses
My own businesses are start-ups, and I understand the challenges newcomers face and the things they need to know to survive. Despite being a relative youngster, I have a solid history of helping people get businesses off the ground, bringing in revenue and shaping their immediate early stage growth. Only an entrepreneur can identify with, and help another person walking the same path. I’ve done it for them, and I can do for anyone.

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What I lack

To know thyself means you also have to know your limitations, and the process of discovering what they are can be very painful. I have many. I also have many faults. You enhance your strengths, and resolve your weaknesses, to evolve. Despite what I might claim (that I know everything and always right), there are occasional incidents where I’m not right for the situation, don’t have the answer or get it wrong.

That’s when you hire in people who are a lot smarter than you to help and plug the holes in the proverbial cheese grater.

MBA-style knowledge
I couldn’t give a shit about business academia as it means absolutely nothing in the real world – in fact, from all I’ve experience I would go so far to say that its actually a very serious hindrance as over-confidence can ruin the best of men. If you want to talk about business models, USPs, NPVs etc, please just keep it well away from me. If you can explain exactly how it directly affects the conversation with your bank manager about your monthly statement, I’d be amazed. I have a tonne of books on the subject, and it is important to speak the language so I am working to understand the top 30% of things I need to know for every day business operation.

Obsession with money
It probably won’t surprise anyone that I’m not a lover of money. The love of it and the greed, avarice and corruption it inspires makes me deep unsettled. I have an uneasy relationship with money as the emotional attachment it has for me makes it very difficult for me to manage. I’m certainly no accountant, and I’m no greasy City banker who counts his piles of gold coins every hour. My motivation is deeper than that, and money for me is simply a pleasant by-product. However, it is an important discipline to master so I am working with my accountant to structure a workflow program, reading books and talking with specific advisors how I can become better at it.

Management procedures
The idea of middle management makes my skin crawl. It’s almost entirely pointless and a boring bureaucracy that slows everything down rather than opening new doors to new things. I’ve never really held a job in management, and never intend to for the rest of my life. I’m not a manager. I’m a thinker and doer. I don’t “manage” people or things, I make money and realise great ideas through them on the way through my big adventure. I have several books which I’m again looking to learn the top 30% of the information I absolutely need.

Grey hair
By virtue of my youth, my own wisdom is only comparative to my peers. I am well respected for thinking and knowing beyond my age, but only a fool assumes confidence and intelligence is ever a match for experience. I don’t have grey hairs, but what I do have is a board of directors and a group of close advisors who I consult when I am on unfamiliar ground. I am also enrolled on a long-term executive coaching program, which aims to guide my personal gravitas and development in a structured way that will allow me to punch above my weight.

Any like or regard for corporate politics
My no1 pet hate. I have no time for politicking of any kind whatsoever. Politics wastes time and money, and its bad for business. Gossip, buzzwords, diplomacy, ass-kissing, posturing, promotion strategy, pecking order silliness and all their revolting half-brothers and cousins detract from the basic purpose of doing what you’re doing – to build something amazing and make a tonne of money in the process. It’s pathetic, pointless and makes me nauseous. I will leave any environment that is poisoned by it as I view it as a insidious cultural disease rather than a problem that can be resolved with P45s.

9-5 regime discipline
I am an owl – a nocturnal creature that works better at night than in the day. I’ve never slept properly, probably never will, and have worried many times that I suffer from DSPS (delayed sleep phase syndrome). 9 to 5 clockwatching, for me, is a symptom of corporate politics and middle management.that deserves contempt. Life doesn’t work 9 to 5, only jobsworths do. I don’t care what time people work, only that the job gets done, and done brilliantly. Don’t expect me to take 9am meetings when I can be sitting with a notepad in the park. Discipline is the key word – I can do it for a few days, but that’s about it.

Financial and accounting procedures
I’ve been forced to do these since I started running a company, but I’m no specialist at all. Nor do I have much time and/or excitement for paperwork. They are better left to professionals who have detailed knowledge of the area, as I like to be at the sharp end of things where the ideas and the adrenaline are. I know the essentials (Companies House, business plan documentation, shareholdings etc), but take advice for anything further. My accountant is attempting to teach me, but he’s going to give up soon.

Time management
I’m not great at organising my time, and a lot of people I know would say that’s an understatement. It’s another discipline I have difficulty with. My punctuality is dreadful and I work far more effectively in an environment where scheduling is autonomous and flexible. My life can be utter chaos and without a PA, it’s probably going to get worse. My biggest mistake is usually being too optimistic about how long something will take me, although I’m also aware that lateness can be an act of defiance. I’m constantly working through ways to be more effective in this one very important regard.

Meticulous detail
I’m very much a big picture guy, with my vision and analytical mind. Granular detail baffles and irritates me because it’s tedious and minor in comparison to the large stuff. It may be true that the big things are a combination of little things and effective management of large tasks usually involves sub-dividing them into smaller ones, but I’m not someone who goes over things with a microscope unless I absolutely have to. I’d rather have convenience, speed and delivery than faultless reports and pristine micro-managed excellence.

Investment Exits
I haven’t really done many of these in the true sense, so my own experience with running companies is helping conceive them, getting my hands dirty on the front lines and pushing them onto the map. Selling up, merging or IPOing is in my little book of expertise and should probably be filed with my lack of understanding of financial and accounting procedures. I can’t advise you on how best to cash out on your business or idea simply as I haven’t done it myself yet. I can give you the theory and put you in touch with people who do, but for me its best left to corporate rottweillers.