Baring your soul

When you’re in the thick of the hard graft of getting a business idea off the ground, it’s not always clear whether you have a bold vision or a delusional obsession.

So inviting some of my Goldman Sachs 10KSB cohort to The Bioasis to be guinea pigs in our new business ‘Regeneration Retreat’ programme, felt a bit like baring my soul to some of the UK’s best and brightest entrepreneurs.

From engineers, architects and IT specialists; to restaurateurs, nursery owners and art curators – this was a group from right across the business spectrum.

Yes, they are friends. But they are also super high achieving business people who know their customer value propositions from their liquidity ratios. 

And I was more than a little nervous about what they would think. 

Is the Bioasis business programme a harebrained hallucination or bio-diverse and brilliant?

This weekend was a chance to find out.

A group of entrepreneurs on our Business ReGeneration Retreat

We pitch our Bioasis business programmes as a chance to step away from the office and use nature, adventure and hands-on conservation work as the catalyst to provide perspective and reflection on the future of business. It's an opportunity for ideas to flourish. For teams to collaborate. For change to take root.

There was challenging conversation, thought provoking sustainability sessions, meditation and stories of inspirational personal journeys - all wrapped up in incredible natural beauty, far from the madding crowd. We saw bats, raptors and even glow worms. We wondered at the stars. 

Was it a success? There is lots to learn, there always is; but we're definitely on the right path. 

For a group of entrepreneurs who have been through the UK’s most ambitious business growth course, the following reflections from a morning meditation in the woods were unexpectedly beautiful, yet for me, hugely significant as an insight into the impact The Bioasis can have:

“There is beauty in simplicity”

“There is wisdom in wanting less”

“Nature is patient”

“There is always time to smell the roses”

My thanks to our amazing team on the ground for delivering a masterclass in nature based inspiration. 

In doing so, you’ve reaffirmed my own commitment to lead this ambitious project. It turns out I needed our ReGen Retreat as much as the rest of my 10ksb cohort.

Adrian