This blogpost was written at the request of the Channel4 News Team for a guest blog from someone pro-Thatcher

My admiration for Margaret Thatcher must be put in the context of Britain in the 1970’s before she came to power.

As a young teenager I remember huddling around a small battery operated black and white TV by candlelight through yet another electricity strike watching news reports of rats collecting around piles of uncollected rubbish in the streets.

Everyone lived at the mercy of the Trade Unions, employers could not remove lazy workers and British manufactured goods, famous for their poor quality, were a worldwide joke.

It would take a strong and fearless leader to take Britain out of the mess it was in – and that was what we got in Margaret Thatcher.

When I left school I got a job as a lowly office junior in a local firm of accountants, but through diligent hard work and always doing more than I was asked to, I worked my way up the career ladder, eventually landing a job in the City of London and ending up by the mid 1980’s working at the No1 accountancy firm in the world.

It was the ‘Yuppie’ era – we worked hard, we played hard, we made lots of money, we drank lots of champagne.

There was no room for slackers, moaners, shirkers or victims in this world. It was dog eat dog. If you didn’t perform you were out. But there was a real sense of infinite possibility for anyone willing to work hard enough for it. Success was down to you and you alone.

The Thatcher era created a new breed of energized, ambitious wealth creators willing to take their destiny in their own hands. She made Britain great again.

There is still much anger from mining communities – even now, some 30 years on – for the devastation Thatcher allegedly wreaked on them. But put into today’s context, do we have any sympathy for the photocopier, fax and CD manufacturers swept away by the digital revolution? Or by retailers whose goods no longer hold consumer appeal and which go into liquidation?

The truth is, the coal industry simply could not compete on a global scale and Thatcher saw that there was no future in that sector.

But, as in mythology where the serpent eventually eats its own tail, we eventually saw the dark side of Capitalism, where money greed and power became more important than anything else. The eventual collapse of the banking system was the inevitable result of an economy reliant on money which did not actually exist.

Once again the world has moved on, and it is now time for a new era of a more sustainable, harmonious way of doing business where the masculine values of winning at all costs are balanced by the feminine values of nurturing and caring for others.

But Thatcher was the perfect leader for her time back in the 1970′s and 1980′s – to take Britain out of the economic doldrums caused by a ‘the-government-owes -me-a-living’ mentality, and to show people that if they were willing to take responsibility for their lives, they could be the masters of their own prosperity.

Her legacy is the wave of enterprising young talent that I now see creating great wealth for Britain – not just to make money for themselves but as part of a bigger desire to make a positive contribution to the world.

I had a wonderfully powerful one to one ‘HeadTrash’ session with Alexia Leachman last week – plus was interviewed by her for her B.TheChange radio show, here’s the recording for you…

Alexia is definitely ‘one to watch’ !

Rachel x

Four years ago those very nice people at the Institute of Directors gave me some complimentary tickets to their Annual Conference at the Royal Albert Hall. We listened to a lot of awfully clever businessmen – including the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Stuart Rose (then Chief Exec of M&S) – talking about the economy and ‘serious’ business themes, along with our very own pinstripe Dragon Peter Jones making jokes about buying a Ferrari…

And then Tim Smit came on stage, wearing jeans and a denim shirt, took off his navy pinstripe jacket, left it on the side of the stage and proceeded to blow the entire audience away with his story about how he created Cornwall’s ‘The Eden Project’.

A social enterprise created from nothing more than a vision and a disused quarry, which has since become one of the UK’s biggest tourist attractions creating much wealth for the Cornish people and many local enterprises.

In business terms it was the equivalent of seeing Elvis perform for the very first time – and I KNEW in my heart what we were seeing was the possibility of a fresh new future for business.

A future where business success is not measured by stock market value or interim profits or how flashy your car is. A future of business based on working from passion and out of desire to serve others, business which creates value for every single person it touches.

A future of ‘we-first’ not ‘me-first’ – where collaboration is more important than competition.

It’s taken me three years of begging, cajoling and generally being like a fly-round-a-cow’s-arsehole to finally get Tim to speak – now of course ‘Sir Tim’ – and I am delighted and very proud to let you know that he is our keynote speaker at the ‘Prosperity 2013’ event on Tuesday 23 April at The Tate Modern.

I do hope that you will join me, along with over 200 other ‘Conscious Entrepreneurs’, as we paint a vision for a bright new future of business which can emerge from the current breakdown of the old order.

All the details are waiting over for you at www.rachelelnaugh.com/prosperity2013

Regards,

Rachel

Every time I write an eshot or blogpost about ‘esoteric’ topics it is always in the knowledge that it will get its fair share of negative – and sometimes even abusive – responses from the cynics out there.  [With this in mind, many thanks to the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday for publishing a piece about this blog on Sunday 3 February without any of the mockery one can often get with journalists...]

Yet the more I discover about the metaphysical world, the more I feel I should share my own experiences, especially for others who are waking up to the realisation that there is more to life than just the material realm.

This post is about an experience which happened to me this morning, but for it to be meaningful to you I need to tell you the ‘back-story’ first.

Several years ago in January 2008 ‘Director’ magazine did a cover story on me, essentially an interview asking what the ‘failed Dragon’ had been doing in the three years since my first business Red Letter Days had crashed.  During the interview I mentioned a Life Plan I wrote back in 2002, at the request of a friend who was training to be a life coach (before I understood about metaphysical principles or the Law of Attraction), where I had stated my intention: “By 2006 to have got rid of Red Letter Days so I can spend more time at home with my children, be creative and write.”

And of course the ‘Universe’ delivered that Cosmic Order to the very word, obligingly flushing my first business down the toilet on 1 August 2005 a week after the birth of my 4th son, creating in its wake a completely new business based from home – and then delivering both a publishing deal to write a book and another baby!

A Business Coach named Lucia Bardoul read the article and sent me an invitation to a weekend retreat designed for women business leaders being held at Windsor Castle that April called ‘Fire and the Feminine’ lead by contemporary shaman Judith Seelig.  It sounded bonkers, but intriguing, and an eclectic group of us ‘power women’ turned up at St George’s House within the Castle grounds to no agenda, no structure and no clue what we had let ourselves in for!  But the weekend was an incredibly powerful mix of yoga, chant and meditation in the presence of the amazing Judith (who many of you will have seen perform at our 12.12.12 One World event) plus two weirdly spooky experiences (more on those later) – which reduced me to tears.

After the event it was as if a channel had been opened and all sorts of magic started showing up in my life.  As you start to awaken to the metaphysical world it can all seem strangely bewildering unless someone is on hand to explain what on earth is going on.  That help came in the form of another coach – who I met randomly but synchronistically - Sue Bottomley  .  Sue suggested that I go on a ‘Journey’ meditation with her to meet my ‘Spirit Guide’.  Which again seemed completely bonkers to me – as I had no idea what a Spirit Guide was, let alone the fact that I had one!

For the benefit of the cynics amongst you, both Judith’s retreat and the help from Sue were offered to me at no charge.

It was on that ‘Journey’ meditation that I met my spirit guide – St George.

Now this was all completely weird – as I had no conscious awareness of any connection to St George – but the dots very quickly joined up…

My family name on my mother’s side was Knight, and she had given me a sovereign from just before I was born depicting St George slaying the Dragon.  I am a Dragon – both in the Chinese Astrology scheme of things, as well as via the TV show Dragons’ Den…  A ‘Red Letter Day’ is traditionally a Saint’s day on the calendar where the date is marked in red.  Our corporate colours were red on a white background.  I also realised I had been ‘called’ before – to see a new client in Barcelona, whose patron saint is St George, where it was St George’s Day when we arrived.  (I still had the red rose brooch pin, which was given to me as is the tradition there.)

And then looking back to the retreat at Windsor Castle, the first mystical experience happened in St George’s Chapel, home of the Knights of the Garter; the second during a yoga pose when the Scouts suddenly came marching round the corner to drums singing ‘Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord’.  Because of course St George is the Scouts’ patron saint – and the retreat was on St George’s Day weekend!

And not only is the road leading in to Windsor Castle called Castle Hill, that’s also the name of the hill where I live in Bakewell !!!

Just too many coincidences to mention (and lots of others besides the above), yet I had no awareness whatsoever that my Spirit Guide had been sending subtle clues of his presence to me all my life.

Even now, when I am a low point, or questioning things, or in need of guidance, moments later I will suddenly see a St George’s flag or a red rose and know it is a message from spirit that all is well, that I am on the right path.  And I have learned to pay attention to these signs when they show up as if they are saying ‘There’s something important for you to pay attention to here’.

Fast forward to 2012 which was both a year of amazing personal growth as well as challenges for me and I continued to go through the process of personal transformation.  You often have to go through a breakdown to get to a breakthrough.

One Sunday morning for various reasons I was at a very low point of despair, and I asked God to send me help.  Within 2 minutes the nearby church bells started ringing!  I thought about going to Church (I am not particularly religious) but decided against it.  However, I knew that the bells were a sign that God was listening and that something magical was about to happen…

Next day I was due to speak at a Women’s Enterprise event in Rotherham.  When I arrived at the networking meeting the organiser asked me if I would mind doing my speech in the Minster (the central Church in Rotherham).  I asked to be shown the venue and what should be waiting for me but a huge statue of St George slaying the Dragon.  And of course it was 23 April! (St George’s Day)

The inspiration from the talk I did that day directly lead to my ‘Business Alchemy’ 28 day video programme – which I mind-mapped the next morning and then filmed over 4 days that week.  Each of the 28 videos delivered without a script, simply channelling content around the theme for each day.  And since it’s release in May 2012 Business Alchemy has become my most successful mentoring product ever.

Much other magic happened last year, not least the 12.12.12 One World experience – again delivered on the winds of Grace which has lead to much inspiration for new projects for 2013.

So back to today’s mystical experience…

Last week I was asked to do a telesummit interview where I had to offer a product to listeners to be broadcast in February.  I decided to create an 88 day version of Business Alchemy designed to help manifest a prosperity generating project (in response to demand from people who said they would like a longer Programme).  This morning I sat down to scope the mind-map of topics which had been bubbling through my head, basing the 88 Day Programme on a major new project which I had started to scope on Friday.

The first action I listed was to mark a cross on the 88 day programme end date on the calendar.

I took that action myself this morning and counted forward 88 days from Friday on the calendar.

You guessed it, the end date was none other than St George’s Day – 23 April 2013.

Coincidence, or Divine Guidance?

I continue to remain fascinated by the clues whispered to us by unseen realms and I would be fascinated to hear about your own Spirit Guide experiences!

Please use the comments box below to share your insights and stories as I know many would be intrigued to read them…

Rachel x

Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the cold & miserable January snowy weather, maybe it’s because everyone’s out of cash after an expensive Christmas…. but is anyone else noticing an overspill of ANGER seeping out from all sorts of places?

• Angry messages on Twitter declaring that so & so has been BLOCKED for x y z messages…
• Angry emails threatening physical abuse if the person is not removed from the mailing list IMMEDIATELY…
• Angry blog posts (like this one!) generally giving vent to frustration over this that or the other…

The Anger Gurus amongst you will know that 80% of anger actually goes unexpressed.

Instead it simmers under the surface, and often rears its ugly head in all sorts of forms of non-assertive aggression.

Not so for the ‘exploding fireworks’ (i.e. people like me) who tend to let people know exactly how they are feeling in any given moment!

Not nice, but people know exactly where they stand.

There are a few problems with the simmering, often unexpressed anger.  

Firstly, it is one of the lowest ‘vibrations’ – meaning it’s difficult to attract great things into your life (especially money) when you’re brooding.  Ultimately if sustained over a long period of time it can lead to ‘dis-ease’ i.e. serious health problems and chronic illness.

Secondly, at a collective level, pent up anger can lead to uprisings, riots, rebellions and revolutions within society when someone puts a match to the tinderbox (and I haven’t even been to see Les Mis yet!)

As a serial Mrs Angry the thing I have learned to do with my white hot anger (when it is activated) is to transmute it into nuclear action energy – the kind of laser beam focus that can blast through blocks and power projects through to successful completion.

As a business mentor the thing I would most recommend is to unlock, express and release the anger.  Even beating up a pillow or cushion with a rolling pin works…  It may not be a pretty sight – and we have all been taught that anger is ugly and to ‘keep a lid on it’ – but in my experience it is often the quickest fastest way to make massive progress.

*Rant Over*

I received an email from a very indignant man recently demanding to be removed from my mailing list on the basis I was ‘no longer a serious business player’.

(Why he couldn’t have just clicked on the ‘unsubscribe’ button and spared me his negativity is beyond me)

But I did have to pause and have a chuckle at just what a ‘serious business player’ actually is…

Maybe the Chief Execs of HMV, Jessops or Blockbuster considered themselves ‘serious business players’ – at least until recently.

And definitely the Chief Execs of all the banks were VERY serious business players – well, up until September 2008.

Then there was the head of BP.  Very definitely a serious business player at the helm of a very serious global business – until his company killed all the wildlife off the shores of the US, thanks to cost-cutting.

And now there’s Tesco – a very serious very big business player indeed – except they’ve screwed their suppliers so far to the floor on price with the result that horse meat is finding its way into Tesco own-burgers.

Truly folks, I believe we are at the end of the era of the so called ‘serious business player’ – because the world of SMEs I live in (which actually makes up 99% of the business community) is on the whole about collaboration, respect, valuing one another, transparency, honesty and ethical values.  Oh, yes, and ENJOYING creating great value – in a world where pinstripe dinosaurs are rapidly becoming extinct.

So, farewell from my tribe Mr ‘Serious Business Player’.

You never were much fun to have around anyway!