Have fun while you’re at work

Owners of the Anchorage Guest House, Sylvia and Emi Barzotto tell JACQUI O’LEARY why their business in Rockingham is so rewarding and how their work has become an engaging game in life.

Q: What does leadership mean to you?

A: Leadership means having an idea or vision and the ability to convince others, especially the sceptics and nay-sayers, and then seeing it through and making it happen with their help.

Q: How has your leadership style changed over time?

A: With time and age comes confidence and a total belief in yourself and your abilities, to see and recognise opportunities that get bigger and more complex.

Q: Which business leader do you most admire?

A: Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest — a man of vision, confidence and compassion who is prepared to take on challenges and speak his mind.

Q: What’s the best advice you were ever given?

A: Life is not a sprint but a marathon and it’s not where you start but where you finish.

Q: What do you wish someone had told you when you first started out?

A: Have fun, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. Work should be like an engaging game, if it’s not engaging and it’s never any fun, don’t do it.

Q: Tell me the biggest business challenge you’ve ever faced.

A: The biggest challenge we have ever faced is dealing with financial institutions, particularly banks. Because without money and financial assistance you can do very little, if anything, but the banking bureaucracy and red tape makes governments look like novices and can make weaker people give up their dreams.

Q: What’s the most important moment in your career so far?

A: Emi: Being able to live and work in London. Sylvia: Realising while you are alive and healthy your important career can change dramatically and one career moment is no more important than the last or the next, as long as you enjoy it.

Q: Which technology can you not live without?

A: Emi: My mobile phone is my office away from the office, it’s a phone, computer, email and internet facility. Sylvia: My computer and iPad. They provide communication, a business tool, teaching aid, ideas and inspiration and my escape to around the world via the internet.