An ode to the entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are born, they are not created. They are a breed apart; willing to risk it all to pursue their dream; to greet each new setback as a learning opportunity and a chance to hone that vision. Their business is their baby; their life-blood. Assuming they’re not wracked with work-induced insomnia, they go to sleep at night thinking about their business; they wake the next morning thinking about their business. That business causes them to sacrifice time with family, the very people it was created to provide for.

To lose it all in an instant for circumstances beyond your own control must feel like a kick in the teeth whilst simultaneously having your heart and guts ripped out. Regardless of the reasons for the failure, the entrepreneur is always to blame. It is he (or she) that must explain the failure and its devastating implications to the family and to the friends and colleagues that will be effected, perhaps irrevocably.

It comes as little surprise to hear that Michael Corridan’s health has been impacted by the demise of his company Micor (and, out of respect for his health, we have been in no hurry to report his company's demise). Corridan lived and breathed his company. I have met him on sites at silly o’clock in the morning, received emails from him at equally silly o’clock at night. He was hands-on, visiting sites on a daily basis, mucking in when the need arose. I am not privy to the circumstances behind the company’s failure. But I would hazard a guess that the human cost will be far greater than the financial.

If Micor was a football team, it would have been West Ham. They were not the biggest and they were not - perhaps - the best. But they did things the right way, they were admired and respected by their peers and, on their day, they could give the big boys a run for their money as evidenced by the winning of a World Demolition Award in 2013 and being shortlisted in the following two years.

The demise of a demolition company has, unfortunately, become so common that the reporting upon it has become virtually a default reaction followed by a scanning of the horizon to see the phoenix-like return of the company principle in a new guise a month or two later. Sadly, that outcome seems unlikely for Michael Corridan who must first face the uphill struggle to regain his health. Even assuming that he (hopefully) makes a full and speedy recovery, his willingness to rejoin an industry that has chewed him up and spat him out must surely be in question.

Of course, our thoughts are with the former Micor workers and its creditors who will unquestionably feel the pain. But mostly, our thoughts are with Michael Corridan, a good demolition professional and a very good man.