I had a very relaxing Easter. From my twitter feed, you’d have noticed, I spent most of the time eating, drinking… and more eating.
I also, managed to watch some TV. And on TV, there were some re-runs…. of some old sitcoms, like Keeping up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine and Only Fools and Horses.
For those outside of the UK… and wondering, Bal… what are you talking about, the latter of these sitcoms was… and is, a classic! (Mind you, all of them are – but the latter being more popular)
It was based around 2 brothers… Del and Rodney, who’s only goal in life was to become rich. Their famous saying… “this time next year, we’ll be millionaires’.
They tried their hand to everything… and I mean everything. Every opportunity they were given, they took it and tried it… to make some money.
So, over Easter… the episode called, ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ was on.
For those who remember Only Fools and Horses… it’s the time when they hit big with ‘Peckham Springs’.
Yep – you’ll indeed be laughing… with the memories of that episode.
For those unsure, I’ll run through the story line – then I thoroughly recommend you find the episode online (YouTube, Vimeo, etc…) and watch it.
In this episode, Del Boy becomes a land owner. I say land owner, he… owns an allotment. Now, Del Boy… who’s always looking for an ‘opportunity’ has an idea.
One of Rodney’s friends, has a shop – that sells all naturally sourced products. And is very well connected. Del Boy makes friends with him, and invites him to the allotment, to give advice on what he can do with it.
Rodney’s friend does indeed come down to the allotment, and has a look around – but also notices a fresh spring… which Del, let’s him know.. has been there for ages and is called Peckham Springs.
Uncle Albert provides a sample of it to Rodney’s friend – for analysis.
Cut the long story short – the ‘spring’ was made by Del Boy. It’s not been there for years, but was an idea that Del had, when he saw people paying a lot of money for water in a bottle, he thought if he could have it endorsed by Rodney’s friend, there’ll be money to be made!
As Uncle Albert… (who didn’t ‘really’ take a sample, just poured some water into a sample kit for Rodney’s friend to test) was part of the plan – it all went quite smoothly.
Before you knew it, it’d been endorsed, orders had come in… and Del Boy was filling bottles of water… with water!
The episode was absolutely brilliant!
As my nephew and I watched it… I mentioned to him, there’s a few lessons that can be had from this episode for young entrepreneurs and business minded folk today…
1. Look for Opportunities – Del Boy, was always looking for opportunities. The allotment in this episode, was an opportunity – not to grow vegetables and have organic foods – but to see what he could do, with what he has, to make money.
2. Understand Trends – What’s the latest? What are people looking into purchasing? What can make you money? Understand the latest trends, and be quick to react and make it work for you.
3. Look at your network – It was Rodney’s friend who was able to help, I say help…, in the loosest meaning. Del knew Rodney’s friend could help him test, certify and allow the opportunity to sell water in a bottle.
Nephew, I hope you take these learnings onboard and keep watching Only Fools and Horses…