Another Crossroads

Being successful at first may not be obvious to the eye as you may be doing what you have always been doing but you are not only enjoying it but making money as well. This was very true in my case as a Publican. In the space of just over two years I along with my wife had built a good reputation within the Cornish licensed trade.
Hours were long, holidays rare but that was part of the sacrifice on the road to success. I had a clear focus on where I was going and my ambitions and being a pub manager was but a stepping stone.

With the changes in Truro, the Daniell Arms was coming up against stiffer competition with breweries spending barrel loads of money on redeveloping many of their premises. The majority of the Daniell’s patrons stayed loyal but as you can expect some customers would be curious to what was new.

A business decision had to be made on how to move forward. Was it worth sticking it out and wait for the honeymoon period to die down and hope customers would return or be pro active and look into moving to the next level. Without pondering the latter was ‘the’ option to take.

The licensed trade was incestuous and promotion was normally achieved through being successful at running pubs and not through being good at interviews. On speaking with a couple of contacts soon we were to be approached by not one but FIVE different organisations. Never before had I the choice on which to take and now I was spoilt. Each offer had it’s merits and time was taken over weighing up the options. Eventually it was decided to leave Cornwall behind and chance our arm ‘up country’ with a small pub/restaurant chain. That as you can guess is a story for another day.

What I had learnt from this was to listen to my heart and did it make sense to my head. Life’s decisions at times can be difficult, however believe in what you do and commit to it, then suddenly things don’t seem as difficult as they may first appear.