Lisa Tamati, multiple-business owner

Herald on Sunday

17 Oct, 2015 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Lisa Tamati, an ultra distance runner and owner of multiple businesses. Photo / NZH

Tell me about your background and your businesses.

Years ago I was training to become an accountant, but in my third year I fell in love and ran off overseas. This year I'm finally hoping to tick that box, although in a slightly different direction, completing a bachelor of applied management.

I'm a jeweller by trade. I did a goldsmith apprenticeship in Austria, so I have been in jewellery for a good 15 years. I own a jewellery shop with my mum, but I sell most of my work through a native arts gallery in Vancouver. I also co-own an events company with Tom Pinckney, which runs the Northburn 100 race in the South Island, and a PR company for my speaking engagements, my books and media work I do. And I have a production company that has produced a lot of documentaries.

My newest business is a coaching company. My partner is Neil Wagstaff. We have developed an online platform to coach international athletes. We are seven months into that venture, so we're still finding our feet.

How do you balance business commitments with training?

Life is very, very busy. My background in sport helps me in business in so many ways and one of them is having the discipline to work really hard day after day. The business world is changing so fast, and if you're not flexible in your approach you're not going to survive in many industries.

Are you training for a running event now?

I am. I had the last year out because trying to do the world's highest marathon in the Himalayas went pear-shaped. There's no money in our sport, so you have to train for the Olympics and build the stadium at the same time - organising sponsors and film crews and so on. I spent a year preparing for that, then got a chest infection and had to pull out six hours before. The consequences were devastating, so I had a break to reassess. In March I'm doing a 300km run along the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail with a guy called Samuel Gibson. He has brittle bone disease and is in a wheelchair, but never lets that get in the way of achieving anything. He'll be alongside us for five days raising money for Hospice.

What skills or insights have you transferred to business?

You have to take risks in the kind of sport I do, but you also have to be able to calculate and minimise risks and that's something you have to do in business as well. If you're completely risk-averse you're probably better off in a waged job.

Goal-setting is also huge. If you wait until everything is perfect you won't get there but once you're committed, things start to happen.

That doesn't mean you'll always succeed, so you have to be able to cope with failure. And if you're pushing the limits in sport or business you will fail at times. Resilience and persistence are two key skills in business or sport.