A New LifeBefore setting up his own business, Philip McNamara sailed and skied his way around Europe, writes Brian O'Connell
If things had worked out differently, Philip McNamara would be on his bike for a living. While many of his classmates sat snugly on the school bus, McNamara cycled 10 miles to and from school every day dreaming of life as a professional cyclist. So much so, in fact, that once he finished school, his academic selections were driven by athletic as opposed to academic concerns.
"My school life was spent pursuing outdoor sports, especially cycling. When it came to choosing university, I decided to go to France, and studied marketing in a town called Montlucon. It was a good cycling town, with lots of races there. From there I went to Belgium, another good cycling place, and did a masters in marketing."
McNamara began to realise that the demands of professional cycling were not for him and became disillusioned with the sport. Friends advised him against joining the professional ranks, where he could easily find himself in his mid-20s without any career to fall back on.
After finishing his masters, McNamara heeded the advice and headed for the US and a slice of the dotcom cake.
"I was reading Wired magazine in 1999 and the whole dotcom thing was becoming really huge so I went to San Francisco and started working in a small company.
"I had this idea that I was going to make a fortune and become the next dotcom millionaire, but in hindsight I came into it a little bit too late."
Eventually McNamara settled in Portland, a city, incidentally, with the highest percentage of cyclists in the US, and began working for another small start-up in various project management roles. Looking back, the work was exciting and engaging, if a little arbitrary.
"We started with 10 employees, and that number eventually rose to about 200. The hours were long, from seven in the morning until eight or nine at night, yet a lot of the stuff we were doing was pointless.
"Basically, the main work was based on an idea that if you were out on the street and wanted to get a taxi, then you could take out your palm pilot and be directed to a call centre that would organise it.
"The company spent millions on these special phones when really, in New York anyway, if you want a taxi you just go out on the street and put your hand up. It was really pointless."
Although the writing may have been on the wall, when the end did come, it was still something of a surprise.
"I remember it was a Thursday and I was working as normal. I had lots to do and I remember strange goings on, such as people shaking my hand and walking out.
"I got a call to come into the office. I was handed two weeks' wages as well as holiday money, told to sign a document saying I wouldn't take anything and I had to have my desk cleared by lunch.
"I had moved cities and countries for this role. It was a huge blow, yet I wasn't alone - 60 per cent of the workforce were laid off."
Devastated and downbeat, McNamara decided that his employment woes wouldn't overshadow his personal life.
Sitting on a bench in downtown Portland, he made a list of all the things he had wanted out of life before his career got in the way.
"I was feeling pretty dejected, here I was stuck in the States, with no job, no savings and no future. I wrote a list of stuff I wanted to achieve, such as sail around world, become a ski instructor, speak Spanish and start my own business."
Some weeks later, while out with a group of friends, someone mentioned that a relative was sailing around the world and had room for one more. McNamara's list was suddenly shortened.
Halfway through the voyage he jumped ship in Gibraltar and headed for white-capped hills. With skis in one hand and a Spanish dictionary in the other, over the course of the next year, he fulfilled two other ambitions.
Having sailed and skied his way through Europe, McNamara was itching for a new professional challenge and began to consider his career options.
While deciding what to do he took up some consultancy work in his sister's company in Manchester and began taking notice of Ireland's thriving economy.
And then one day, an idea struck a chord with him: what if he could organise tours from business leaders around the world to witness first hand Celtic Tiger Ireland? Would anyone be interested?
With the help of his sister, he began putting some structure to his idea. He put together an itinerary for a three-day business tour and organised brochures to be made up and sent to business and government leaders around the world.
He then managed to persuade influential Irish people such as Mary Harney and Denis O'Brien to meet prospective groups. Gradually he began to attract interest.
"I got quite a few replies, and before we knew it we were in Dublin learning how the Irish economy worked, with people from the UK, Europe and Dubai. It worked really well and was my first realisation that this could be both useful and profitable."
Calling his new company Inspire Nation, McNamara realised he was onto something and began planning other trips both within Ireland and abroad.
Since its formation three years ago, the business has grown strongly, he says.
"From then on I began to create custom study tours for governments around Europe who wanted to look at economic policy in other countries. They were interested in what best practices were happening in other places, and who was doing innovative new work.
"We have done study tours on lots of subjects, for many different clients, and all have been very interesting. We've looked at urban policy in Vancouver, waterfront development in the Basque country, social cohesion in Barcelona and cultural regeneration in Manchester.
"Clients now include the World Bank, Forfás, Virgin Atlantic Airlines and government departments from Ireland, the UK, Sweden and Dubai while last week I went on a trip with TD Frank Fahey to observe public transports methods in Britain."
Now based back in his native Galway, McNamara runs the business on his own, having bought out his sister's share some years back. He relies on five subcontractors for any work he can't do himself, such as graphics and web design. Being self-employed, he sometimes finds himself working seven days a week, yet is buoyed by the success of his venture. It's a long way from a dejected park bench in Portland.
"I haven't looked back really, it's been fantastic so far. My role is to try to find the best people to talk to around the world for whatever my clients need to find out about.
"For example, if they say to me, we need to find out about how companies are becoming more innovative, I will then look at companies within an area and interview chief executives employing truly innovative techniques, and then organise the visit from there.
"The hours can be seven in the morning until seven in the evening, six days a week. But since moving back to Ireland, my quality of life has improved. The pace of life, thankfully, is much slower."
While professionally, life has panned out for McNamara, on the personal side of things he hasn't entirely given up the dream of cycling glory.
At the moment he is preparing for two major amateur races in France at the end of the year, and manages to fit training sessions into his busy work life.
"Of course, I'm still cycling. The next race is in France in September and it's one of the world's biggest mountain races with 5,000 riders.
"Then in October, I will tackle the famed Alpe D'Huez mountain bike race, which is a downhill off-road race, quite dangerous and crazy.
"When you compare it to tackling something like that, changing career isn't that big a deal really."