Aodan Enright, Founder Smarter Egg
I founded Smarter Egg in 2008 as I felt frustrated that too many people were underachieving in their careers and businesses. I was one of them. Maybe it was pretentious and egotistical on my part, but I felt I could do something to help them.
I wasn’t one of those people who seem to be destined to start their own business. For my most of my life, I was ‘conventional’. I was fortunate to have a reasonably privileged up-bringing, doing well in school and other areas. I’ve been lucky to have extraordinary opportunities and some phenomenal learning as my career has evolved.
My initial qualification was in electrical engineering, leading into some interesting years in the world of microelectronics. While at the National Microelectronics Research Centre (now Tyndall Institute), I learned a lot about research and spent some time working at the European Space Agency. This paved the way to a career in both the US and Ireland, working with a large electronics multinational. In supplier management roles there, I was fortunate to get a unique insight into some of the world’s biggest electronics companies. Over time, I graduated into managerial and leadership roles, culminating in heading up the ‘Operational Excellence’ activities in a large manufacturing facility, specialising in Lean & Six Sigma.
In the final years of my corporate career, I began to find that I was getting the greatest reward from mentoring and training other people, rather than ‘running the business’. It seemed perfectly sensible to me to start my own business in this area even though many (to this day) think it a brave, and perhaps crazy, thing to do.
I’m fascinated by how people perform in their various roles in their businesses or careers. About ten years ago, I started to really get into the emerging area of personal productivity. The more I learned, the more I began to notice the habits and practices that other people had. This developed into an interest in the psychology of performance. Over time, I’ve consumed voraciously so many books, articles and other materials in this area. Yet, I still consider myself more of a student than an expert. There’s always more to learn.
I knew I had to knock some edges off my corporate persona so spent a year studying Executive Coaching at the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School. I found this very challenging but it transformed the way I looked at business challenges, and opened up a whole new way for me to help others. I’ve worked hard on getting other qualifications in the area of business mentoring, facilitation, training etc. I’ve done a lot of pro bono work along the way, contributing to entities like Plato and other agencies in support of emerging businesses.
I’m a big believer in learning through experimentation. So much of what works successfully now for Smarter Egg began as a simple pilot. I’m constantly looking for new ways to enhance the work I do. Just because people tell me the work is great doesn’t mean it can’t get better. I’ve learned that we can’t compartmentalise our work stuff away from the rest of our lives, often our physical and emotional beings are as influential as our rational perspectives. I’ve also learned that we can all uniquely define what success means for us. Too many lose out because they allow others to do this for them.
I try not to focus on the things that annoy me but I don’t always succeed! I tend to dislike ‘quick fix’ solutions or people/organisations who offer short cuts. I tend to want to collaborate rather than compete. I’ve formed the belief that you don’t need to be an asshole to succeed.
I love meeting, and learning about, new people. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, but make sure you send a personalised introduction! I tweet regularly as @SmarterEgg.
I live in Cork, Ireland with my wife and young son.