The dreamers of the day are dangerous men: Luke Johnson

“All men dream, but not equally….the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible” - Lawrence of Arabia.

 

The theme to dream ran thick and fast through serial entrepreneur, Luke Johnson’s Brighton Summit keynote speech.

Invested in many Brighton businesses, including The Laine Pub Company, Small Batch and, most recently, Brighton Pier, Luke is an entrepreneur who believes in Brighton. This is a city, he said, that is young, extrovert, entrepreneurial and knows how to have fun.

 

Luke also believes in the importance of perseverance, of making mistakes, sometimes failing, but always pushing forward and learning. It was this persistence and the “mad belief that we were right” that has made Strada, another business Luke invested in, a success. It was also the understanding of the importance of weighing up positives and negatives and pushing on.

 

For Luke, success is about being vitally engaged in the hour and giving back, creating things and “remaining captain of your soul”. But equally, success is about accepting that shortcomings will happen and error is inevitable.

 

His advice for the businesses here today was to focus on differentiating your offer and doing it better than those that have come before, rather than focusing only on the branding and the design.

 

Luke acknowledged that there will likely be difficult times ahead as the economy stabilises post-Brexit. But Britain is becoming a dramatically more entrepreneurial country and if these businesses can ride out the downturn, they will be more likely to really flourish in the upturn.