Living the dream
I GET up between 3am and 6am. I sleep very well - about six hours. I have breakfast by about 8am: fruit juices in the summer and, in the winter, cereals and herbal teas. Before I got married and had children I was a smoker, ate everything, enjoyed alcohol and got tipsy. I rarely drink alcohol now. It was living through the recession and looking for direction, in my business and my life, that opened the door for self-improvement.
Before going to the office I spend time with myself preparing myself for the day. I like jogging, so I go out in the mornings when it's dark - in Highgate, on the heath. I sometimes cycle to work, jog, or use the Underground. If I've got a pressing schedule, I'll use a minicab. I don't drive during the week, because it's so frustrating to be driving in traffic when I could be thinking through what I'm doing.
My initial concept for myhotel came about in 1989-90. Its vision - "where East meets West" - came from a brainstorming day with the Henley Centre and Imagination. In essence, it means where cultures cross, where the best of one meets the best of another.
Mondays are devoted to going on site and meetings. Right now, the meetings revolve around the project team and the delivery team. About 17 of us meet in our project manager Cyril Sweet's office. We listen to everyone's concerns and check if anybody is behind schedule. If somebody has got a weakness, we support them - we're one team.
On Tuesdays we have operational meetings. We were very lucky to be able to attract Bob Collier, the ex-chief executive of Inter-Continental Hotels, into becoming a non-executive director of our company. I'll sit down with him and Mark Goodman, our director of operations, and invite key members of our team, such as sales and marketing manager Helen Byrne, to discuss who's doing what and what we can achieve in the time we have.
Sometimes I miss lunch and won't eat until I get home at about 8pm. Or I may pop into a sandwich bar between noon and 1pm. If I am going to eat a sandwich I sit down and make the time for five minutes and eat it properly rather than eating it on the move.
I'm basically a vegetarian, although I eat fish sometimes. The hotel will have a restaurant called "my chi". Chi means energy, as in t'ai chi. It will serve Mediterranean-style food with a hint of the Orient.
People say, "Where do you live?" and I say, "Do you mean, where do I sleep?" The minimum I work is 12 hours. When I go home I spend quality time with my family, but when the children are asleep, if I've got time to spare, I'll prepare for the next morning. I spend most of my time thinking and breathing the business.
My wife Vasso is very involved in the hotel - on the food and drinks side and housekeeping. Our children are very excited about the project. But there are times when we've both been very stretched and the children will say, "Mummy, you're bringing too much work home," and we'll say, "Shall we open the hotel later?" and they say, "Oh no, no… "
On Sundays I get up early, jog to the office, do some work, and cycle back. I spend Sundays preparing the following two weeks: planning my appointments and making sure that I allow space for the "unforeseens" that inevitably crop up. One such unforeseen moment came when I went back to my bank manager to tell him that the budget had shifted to £4m. He went pale. I thought he'd welcome it because it showed a better return. But we had to find an alternative bank.
Another unforeseen problem to hit us came when we opened up the site and found that most of the vaulting in the basement was corroded. Having punched through the infrastructure, water came in and flooded the basement. All the sewerage and plumbing had to be redirected, adding another £1.5m to the project.
When I feel frustration, anger or whatever, nine times out of 10 I find that it helps tremendously if I sit down quietly for 10-15 minutes, close my eyes and meditate. One of my best coaches, somebody who's been pushing my buttons all of my life, is my father. He's very strong. It's a loving relationship, but one where I feel I've got to stretch myself all the time.
Before we venture into Europe - we may invest in hotels in Berlin and Athens - we'd like to build a solid base here, and the next plan is to identify a second site in London. Our preference is Notting Hill - a creative, interesting area.
I like to be upstairs by 9pm and finish my paperwork by 10pm. By about then I'm switching off. I can't read very much in bed because I just fall asleep. I know I've had a good night's sleep when I remember my dreams. ncounts
