The story behind my shattered Celtic dream

USUALLY, my column contains my musings and trenchant opinions, but today, it’s about my story, or more specifically, that of Celtic Bookmakers.

For those who are disinterested and unaware of the betting fraternity, this is our family business, which has traded as a retail/telephone bookmaker since St Stephen’s Day, 1987. Over 23 years, Celtic Bookmakers developed into one of the larger independent betting chains, with, at one point, 63 shops.

It started out as an entrepreneurial dream and hobby. Business guru, Mark McCormack, wrote in the last chapter of his best-selling book, What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School, about entrepreneurship: “How do you know you are an entrepreneur? It’s not that you’re great at selling or making money, rather it is the passion that if you were on your death bed and hadn’t set up this enterprise in your lifetime — you would never forgive yourself.”