Lego, ITAM & Entrepreneurship – quite a heady mix! I recently wrote a post for our sister website (ITAM Accelerate) about my experience of putting together a Lego Mercedes Formula 1 model. The blog can be found here, and it provided me with an opportunity to thank a selection of companies that have helped Kylie and I establish the ITAM Accelerate Process Kit as the de-facto ITAM process publication in the ITAM industry.
However, many more companies have also helped SAM Charter along the way, and so this is my opportunity to thank them for their continued goodwill and friendship over the years:
Thank you’s go to:
SAM Beast Consulting – David Foxen
Licenseware – Alex Cojocaru, Chris Allen & Team
ITAM Intelligence – Kylie Fowler
Brillio – Roger Bennett, Victoria Page & Team
Synyega – Tony Crawley & team
Trustmarque – Damien Masterson & Team
Blackhill Solutions – Adele Goncalves & Team
Metrix Data 360 – Mike Austin & Team
SCC – Tanya Williams, Louise Green, Kris Lester & Team
Flexera – Matt Marnell, Natalie Lias, Steve Bryant & Team
ITAM Review – Martin Thompson & Team
Ultimate Collector Stickers – Will Johnson
No man is an island (unless he is very fat and surrounded by water!) and seeing as I am not typing this blog in the bath, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all the characters that have made the last 13 years such fun.
The ITAM Accelerate blog gave me the chance to align my Lego experience to ITAM. I think for this blog though, I will look for five comparisons of Lego-building to entrepreneurship.
Those five points:
- Start: Retirement homes are full of people rocking backwards and forwards in their chairs wondering “What if I had….?!” Don’t be one of those people!
- You’ll never do it on your own: There was a time when the proposition of someone coming along to co-author a process kit with me, would have filled me with a sense of utter dread. So thank you Kylie! The ITAM Accelerate Process Kit is a world above the kit I had done on my own. As for the Lego element, I would never have the custom stickers you see in the photos if it wasn’t for Will Johnson
- Vision & Strategy: As you start, you will have to be all things to all men – try to remember that tasks that you would pay someone £15 per hour to complete, should not be dominating your day-to-day working life. If paying someone to do those tasks frees you up to make more money, then out-source those tasks. Thankfully, my vision and strategy came in the form of a mahoosive manual guiding me to a perfect end state: unfortunately, building your own company isn’t like that from day one.
Lego, ITAM & Entrepreneurship – One lap to go…..
- Planning: In that aforementioned head-rush of being all things to all men, have a plan to elevate yourself to just doing the stuff you really like doing! Start at the end and work your way backwards. That way, you should have a clear path of how to arrive at your ultimate goal from where you are today. This, and point 3 (above) I have to thank Nick James (Expert Empires) and Matt Elwell (ECA) for spelling this out to me in their excellent coaching experiences. The manual that was mentioned above, broke down the building of the car into 12 manageable chapters – I didn’t put all 1,643 pieces on my desk in a big heap and try to complete it in one go.
- Engage your adrenaline: When you start, everything will feel edgy, raw and new. You’ll arrive at a point where whatever company/ machine you have created, there will be things you just don’t like doing. For me, it is selling! I am always happy to have conversations with people about the merits and joys of ITAM, but tag on a “When are we doing business” paragraph to that conversation and my brain goes to jelly! Or at least I was. I suspect in 2026, I will just have to say f*ck it and get stuck in! I hadn’t done anything with Lego in over 40 years(!) but the prospect of my car actually looking anything like the one on the box did make me a little nervous.
Lego, ITAM & Entrepreneurship:
Last but not least, I would like to thank Eugene Everson of Trustmarque. I had planned to call upon a relative to take the photos, but Eugene volunteered like an absolute trooper when circumstances meant I had to create a plan B at such short notice.
Some companies missed out on this first build – but fear not(!) A Lego F1 Ferrari model with your name on it will spawn another blog in due course
             |