Learning from the Dragons: James Caan

In my fifth report about what I learned by reading the Dragons' Den book 'Success from Pitch to Profit' , I will share the ideas of James Caan and how they have relevance in education.

James Caan

• James writes, 'I've learnt that if I want my child to do something, I need to make her feel that it was her idea. For me, this is the same when you are building a business.' I believe that it's so important to empower people by taking on board the ideas of all stakeholders, and especially the children's.
• His tips for success are:
• Observe the masses and do the opposite - Whilst I don't know if this is always the right advice, one message I took from this is that as a leader you should be creative and be brave enough to stand by what you believe in.
• Presentation and preparation matter - We all know this is true. take the time to put yourself into the shoes of other stakeholders and see what they expect from your school.
• It's the people who make a business successful, not the products - To be successful you must have the right staff.
• You can - and must - learn from failure - Good advice which we often give to children, but at times in our profession we are so desperate for things to be perfect first time that we are hard on ourselves when things go wrong. Learn from such experiences

The book Dragons' Den: Success from Pitch to Profit can be purchased here: Dragons' Den: Success, From Pitch to Profit