There is something rather wonderful about this blog - and so I copy and pasted it.
It is all about being on your own - or thinking you are - or perhaps more importantly acting like you are.
It's a stark tale about how you can change the game but if you only do it for yourself in the end the people you came to change will forget you.
The phrase ‘on your tod’ comes from the Cockney rhyming slang, Tod Sloan – alone. While the saying has stuck the person who helped coin the phrase, James Forman (Tod) Sloan, has long since faded from memory.
The more I read about Sloan’s life the more I was struck by how his outlook and the challenges he faced were very similar to those faced by companies and entrepreneurs who, not content with business as usual, have gone on to create some seriously sticky brands.
Born in Indiana in 1874 James Forman (Tod) Sloan’s life didn’t get off to a promising start. Rejected by his parents and left to fend for himself Sloan overcame almost impossible odds to become one of the world’s best-known sportsmen and the greatest jockey of the late 20th century. The song I’m a Yankee Doodle dandy, was based on Sloan’s life. *
Undoubtedly Sloan was a gifted rider but it was his unconventional approach to riding that was to set him, quite literally, head and shoulders over his competitors. While other jockeys used long stirrups Sloan used short stirrups. By positioning himself over the animals centre of gravity he enabled the horse to achieve its maximum speed. Sloan was not the first to use this style of riding but he was the first to adopt and adapt it for professional horse racing.
Having won every race there was to win in his native North America he travelled to England – the epicentre of the horse racing world. In 1897 the Prince of Wales engaged Sloan as his principle jockey. At the age of 23 Tod Sloan was the undisputed king of the horse racing world.
While the America press were far from complimentary about his unorthodox style of riding the British press were, true to form, positively caustic, referring to Sloan as the ‘monkey jockey.’ Far from being praised for his winning ways Sloan was mocked.
The Jockey Club, a stalwart of convention, did not approve of Sloan’s maverick behavior and in 1900 the club’s steward, Lord Durham, stepped up pressure on the Prince of Wales to have Sloan fired. In 1901 Sloan, no longer in the employ of the Prince of Wales, was informed by The Jockey Club that he need not re-apply for a license.
Sloan never raced again. The Cockney rhyming slang that was to far out last his fame proved to be an all too prophetic one. Sloan died in 1933 impoverished and alone or as the Cockney rhyming slang would have it ‘on his tod’.
The phrase may well be slipping from everyday use – my son who is 15 has never heard of it – but Sloan’s unorthodox style of riding which is the one used by every jockey in the world today looks like it’s here to stay. Unless of course….
Like most entrepreneurs who go on to create sticky brands, Sloan cared less about what others thought and more about what he did. An attitude that allowed him to look outside the confines of his profession and change the way things were done. When the going got tough, and you can bet your bottom dollar it will, Sloan’s disadvantaged background gave him the drive to keep on going. Like many entrepreneurs before him and since Sloan was a born maverick. A little like many of my clients, especially goAugmented - as they are doing some very out there stuff but with very little money!
But I can’t help thinking that there is one big difference between Sloan and the Apples, Body Shops, Howies and Innocents of this world. And that difference is Vision. While Sloan shared their passion, talent, and ambition there is nothing in his story to suggest that he wanted to change anything other than his own world.
Sloan, like so many driven men and women and the companies they have created wasn’t moving toward something but simply trying to escape from it. Ultimately those entrepreneurs and companies that are driven purely by fear and the need to grow ever richer and larger with the sole aim of putting as much distance between themselves and their fear are, sooner or later, bound to come a cropper.
Perhaps if Sloan had had a vision of how horse racing ‘could be’ he would have changed more than just the way jockeys ride and in the course of doing so a small part of the English language.
A wonderful thought for the day, so we said so to the guy who wrote it Owen from Brand Orienteering.
Worth thinking about as we start work again with goAugmented. As our mobile technology of augmented reality might well change the world (or at least our part of it) and maybe that's the problem :)What are we at goAugmented moving toward? What's our vision?
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