John Wall (part 1) on growing up, attention to safety and 4 key interview tips! - EP026

In this two parter, I talk with John Wall. John describes himself as a moderately successful entrepreneur but he’s being quite modest. He's had very interesting career and we go into this during the course of our conversation. This was one of the first shows I recorded and still one of the most captivating conversations I’ve done. I’ve know John for a few years and asked him to speak at a PMI event about his career last year. That night, I had to cut him short (to the audience and my own misfortune). I didn’t think about a year later I’d be recording his story for a podcast but he was one of the first people on my list when I started out on this journey and he didn’t disappoint, as you’ll hear.While my other podcasts so far have been about shorter, this one was so broad ranging and we went down some many interesting rabbit holes, I couldn’t resist keeping the recorder running. Rather than edit out so much great learning and stories, I’ve decided to break it into two episodes for your enjoyment. It’s one not to be missed for those that like a long form podcast.We touch on so many great stories during John’s life to-date and some brilliant takeaways from each phase that you can use. After listening to it back (a couple of times), I keep finding new nuggets. If you’re in business, starting your own company, or finding times tough in either, I think you should invest time in to listening to this podcast.In this first part, we discuss:John’s early years, interests growing up, influences and fixing hooversGeeking out at university LifeStrawberry Fields and learnings from the first jobStudying in London in the 1980s and trips to White Hart Lane2 Years in Kuwait - Cultural and personal learnings and Scoring PenaltiesReturn to European Life, the world of automation, process and safety learnings3 Key learnings from time at Dupont in LuxembourgAttention to Safety as a core principle and whyLearning not to react or not, hiring lessons and aiming for the 95%A real 1% better tip to apply in your day — 4 things you should know for an interview / meeting / anything you want to doI hope you enjoy and come back for part 2.Thanks,Rob