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.Not even the largest British magazine publishers, conglomerates like IPCthought to risk it.Perhaps they had too much to lose?But the corollary of thinking big is to act small.Just because you have asuccess or two under your belt doesn't mean you have it made.'Success isnever permanent; failure is never fatal.The only thing that really counts is tonever, never, never give up.' That's that old windbag Winston Churchillagain.But he was bang on the money there.Once you begin to believe that you are infallible, that success will auto-matically lead to more success, and that you have 'got it made', reality will besure to give you a rude wake-up call.Believing your own bullshit is always aperilous activity, but never more fatal than for the owner of a start-upventure.By acting small, I mean remaining in touch.Remaining flexible.Constantly examining how your company could do better.Keeping a senseof proportion and humility.Not throwing your weight around playing thegreat 'I Am'.Remembering that much of your success so far has beenachieved by dumb luck.Acting small in the early days of your business sets an example to thosearound you.If staff see you indulging in long lunch hours and purchasingyourself a fancy company car, then they are either going to resent it or theyare going to emulate you.This is not a good thing.You can do all that stufflater, when you've made your first fifty million.Most of the worst errors I have made in my life came from forgetting toact small.It's hard to do when you're rolling around in coin and everythingis going your way.But acting big leads to complacency, and complacency isthe reason that many successful start-ups falter.Every day you have to hit the ground running, putting in more hoursthan even your most dedicated member of staff.You have to stay flexible.Youhave to be willing to listen and to learn and to emulate success elsewhere.Ifyou don't, if you think you have already made the cut, if you're thinking'game over: time to party', then bad stuff begins to happen very quickly.I know all this because in the late 1980s and early 1990s I forgot to remember to act small.I spent millions of dollars on drinking, taking drugsand running around with whores.I lost all respect for money and for theblood, sweat and treasure I had expended to acquire it.I was acting big.In a single decade I got through more than a hundred million dollarsliving high on the hog.At one time, there were no less than fourteen'mistresses' depending on a regular stipend from my personal bank account.A single evening's entertainment could come to thirty or forty thousand inthe Big Apple, London or Hong Kong.There was nothing I could not do -I was king of the world.Acting big.Even though I was not so foolish as to use company money for thisidiocy, my business still suffered and my health suffered.Some goodpeopleI trusted stopped working with me.It was absolutely the stupidest thing Ihave ever done.And it very nearly killed me.Eventually, I was hospitalised.When the doctors there heard how muchcocaine and booze I had been imbibing over the past few years, they wentballistic.In brutal words of one syllable at a time, they warned me thateitherI was through with drugs and booze or they were through with me.One ofthem, a young doctor with a stutter, summed it all up: 'M-M-Mr Dennis,you are ac-ac-acting as if you ha-ha-have a one-way ticket to ga-ga-gaol orthe mo-mor-morgue.Wh-wh-which do you wa-wa-want it to be?'He'd got that right.Acting big.Eventually I wised up and began to straighten out my life.I escaped bythe skin of my teeth from the consequences of acting big.Almost as if bymagic, the business began to make progress again.I hurled myself back intothe fray, gave up all narcotics (probably the hardest thing I have ever done),stuck to wine as far as the booze went and told the whores to take a hike.And I have been a far, far happier man ever since.And probably a nicerman.The scars are still there and the damage is done, no getting away fromthat.But with every passing year it all feels like it happened to someone else.Think big, act small.It's a recipe that never goes out of style
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