"Just flick to kick" – the beginning of my accidental disruption.

A childhood story that influenced my life and career as a disruptor – and some tips (for those who like them).

The Christmas present...

When I was a young boy, I played Subbuteo table football at my friends house. During a trip to the local toy store, I noticed the box sets, teams and accessories on the shelves behind the counter. Over time, my desire to have my own grew and, as Christmas drew close, it was at the top of my wish list. On Christmas morning, I was excited to see a present wrapped under the tree that was the size of the Subbuteo Club Edition. I hurriedly unwrapped the present to find my dream had come true – I had my own game of Subbuteo. I opened the box to find two teams, a pitch, goals, a couple of balls, a rule book and a catalogue. I set the game up immediately and began playing.

After a while, I began looking at the catalogue to see what teams and accessories I could save my pocket money for and buy. I was thoroughly deflated by what I found.

I knew there were lots of teams and accessories as I’d seen them in the toy store, but there was little information and only a few black and white photographs. I told my father that the catalogue didn’t really excite me and I could not see the teams and accessories I could buy. I even told him some ideas on how it should be. He simply replied, “write them a letter and tell them”.

The letter…

A few days later, I decided to do just that and sat down and started to write a letter explaining how delighted I was with the game and how much I enjoyed playing it with my friends – but my disappointment at the quality of the catalogue and made suggestions on how it could be improved with a wall chart of the teams and colour photographs of the accessories etc. I put it in an envelope, licked a stamp and mailed it to Tunbridge Wells – home of Subbuteo. A few weeks later, I was delighted to get a letter of thanks for my ideas and a button badge from Subbuteo. I duly wrote back and thanked them for the letter and gift. About a month passed and another letter arrived from Tunbridge Wells asking me to re-write extracts from the original letter in my best handwriting on plain paper for ‘promotional purposes’. In return, they’d send me £15s worth of Subbuteo products. Now, at that time (the early 1970’s) £15 went a very long way. In Subbuteo terms, I could purchase the Munich Edition which had three teams (including Brazil), floodlights, fencing, a scoreboard, film crew, referee and linesman and more – and, I still had money left over for the Rugby Club Edition and some teams!

I duly sat down that evening and re-write my letter as asked and mailed it back to Subbuteo. A few weeks later (when I was off school with measles) a package that was about the same size as me arrived. All my Subbuteo dreams had come true and, over the coming weeks and months, my friends and I enjoyed playing the game at every opportunity.

The catalogue...

One Saturday morning later that year, there was a knock on the front door – it was a very excited Subbuteo playing friend of mine who had just got off the bus after a trip to the town to buy a new Subbuteo team. He said, “have you seen the new catalogue?”. “No”, I replied. “You’re on the front cover!!!” handing me a copy. I was amazed to see that my letter – including my name and address – was placed at a jaunty angle on the front cover of the catalogue.

Not only that, some of the ideas that I had suggested were incorporated – the wall chart, colour photography etc. were included. A few months later, I received a letter with some unusual lettering style and a German stamp. Upon opening it and reading it, it was from a fellow Subbuteo fan from Munich. He wrote to me because my letter was on the front of the catalogue and was intrigued to know if I really existed; what my favourite team was; if I was a fan of his favourite English football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers; if I could write back. I did write back and we became pen-pals for a while. I even got some programmes, merchandise and player autographs for him after writing to Wolves and explaining who I was and who my pen-pal was. Shortly after this, I received another letter from someone in Sierra Leone. Not knowing where that was, I got an atlas out and was amazed to see that it had come so far. A letter from a toy shop in San Francisco followed. In the letter was an order for products which I duly forwarded to Tunbridge Wells. The reason for this was, the only address on the catalogue was mine. Letters from Denmark, Canada and New Zealand followed. It then became a bit of a blur as mail started arriving with increasing regularity from all over the world. So much so, it was being delivered in a post office mail bag every Tuesday and Friday. It became quite challenging to write back to everyone and thank them – but I did my best.

The wall chart...

Whilst staying with family in Selsey Bill that summer, my uncle took me to the local toy store for an early birthday present. When we were at the counter near where the Subbuteo was kept, I noticed the wall chart. The shop owner asked me if I’d like to take a closer look to choose a team.

I, politely, answered “no thanks. I have all the teams I want. I’m looking for some other accessories”. My uncle proudly pointed out that it was my letter on the front of the catalogue and that the wall poster was actually my idea. A couple of boys in the store came over upon hearing my uncle and were surprised to know I actually existed and that they had met the person who wrote the letter on the front of the catalogue. They also commented that they had a copy of the catalogue; the wall chart was on their bedroom wall and whenever there was a European club competition or friendly game on TV, they’d turn to the wall chart to see the colours of the foreign team. You have to remember this was at a time when most households only had a black and white TV and the wall chart was one of the earliest colour visualisations of football kits from around the world. Prior to the wall chart being given out with toys, it was difficult to find out that, for example, Palermo played in pink and black etc. This story has been re-told to me many times over the years by people of my age. It’s very rewarding to think that the wall chart was used in this way – as well as an aid to selling the Subbuteo teams.

The TV advert…

One Saturday morning, there was a knock on the door. A gentleman from the Birmingham Young FilmMakers Institute (BYFMI) introduced himself to my parents, produced a copy of the catalogue and asked the all too familiar question, “does he really exist”. After explaining that I did exist, discussions took place regarding me taking part in some filmmaking about Subbuteo. A few weeks later, I went to where the institute was based to meet a few other young filmmakers. After the introductory visit, every Monday evening thereafter I would walk into to town after school; buy a Wimpy (a burger bar chain before McDonalds was established in the UK); get the train to New Street Birmingham and learn how to ‘make films’ – scriptwriting, set building, story-boarding, lighting, sound recording, acting (wardrobe/make-up etc.), filming, developing, editing, production etc. The BYFMI was a great playground of creativity. As individuals or groups, we could have ideas about topics and seek approval to make a film about it from the people who ran the institute. Once we had approval we were encouraged and guided in good practice. Because of my association and popularity with Subbuteo, it was agreed that we make an advert for TV and send it to Subbuteo and I should play the acting role. Over the following weeks, we did all the preparation to be ready to do the filming – and I broke my wrist the day before and couldn’t perform the role. As a result, we decided that I took over as Director and we’d cut head and shoulders in later. The advert was completed and sent to Subbuteo and we heard no more about it – until a few months later when watching football on ITV, a more polished version appeared during the half-time advert slot.

The tips...

I can appreciate that some may consider that the comment my father made was flippant and to quieten an annoying child. But my father was seldom like that. It was said to me with a conviction to inspire confidence in me to voice my opinion and to make a difference – albeit for children of the same age who enjoyed Subbuteo. This encouraging behaviour has been intrinsic throughout my life. Whether it is my children, friends or work colleagues, I endeavour to encourage people to add positive contributions. No idea is a bad idea!

In this story, writing the letter that was later used as promotional material made me the focus of thousands of fellow players who shared the enjoyment around the world. It taught me to understand what was the key message needed to be told to inspire others. It gave me the opportunity to learn about filmmaking and TV advertising – all of this by the age of fourteen.

There are also spin-off stories – the details of which are not told here like the versions of the game I created and inspired for Snooker, Baseball, American Football, Basketball and Ice Hockey. I also suggested modifications to the rules that were adopted.

At a keynote address recently, I was asked to distill this story into the contemporary ‘top tips’ list – so here goes… here are my top five tips to being an accidental disruptor:

1. Be brave – have the courage of your convictions. You are not born afraid of anything. You learn to be afraid of things. Therefore, you can also learn not to be afraid too. If you believe you can make a difference – no matter how small – stand up and do it. Don’t be afraid to!

2. Start small – many of the get rich quick ideas never actually work. So it doesn’t have to be a big thing – but it has to be something. Probably something that you are passionate about.

3. Aim high – set your sights on the summit. You might not get there – and that’s OK. The view you will have will still probably be better than most will ever see.

4. Question everything – not in a pain in the ass way. But if you are just not sure about something or think if you can help do it better in some way, go ahead – ask and make a contribution.

5. Make mistakes – “the person who has never made a mistake has never done anything” someone once said – and told to me by my father. Making mistakes comes with the territory. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake – and when you do, acknowledge it; learn from it; brush it off (don’t dwell); move on quickly a little bit wiser.