Thomas Shelby. The mere mention of his very name sends shivers up people’s spine. Why wouldn’t it, considering that the man is the revered leader of a criminal gang while also being a decorated World War I hero?
If you haven’t caught on yet, Thomas Shelby is the character around which the crime drama Peaky Blinders is created. Played brilliantly by Cillian Murphy, Shelby is as tough a bloke as they can get, and his war experiences left him with the need to raise his family’s status. Being their patriarch, you could argue that he only wants the best for them.
How he goes about it, however, is what most people would have an issue with. Throughout the show’s five seasons, audiences have been treated to aggressive tendencies and violence on Shelby’s part, with these being fueled by the fact that he suffers from PTSD.
Witty and Incredibly Smart
All the same, the one thing that all fans of the show can agree on is that the man is witty, call it cunning if you will, and incredibly smart. When it comes to business ventures, no one does it better than Thomas Shelby in the Peaky Blinders world.
So good is he that we can actually pick up a few things from him and incorporate them into the real world. Some of Shelby’s one liners will live on long after his show is off our screens, and if you’re able to build a successful business from his quotes, won’t that mean that they’ll have perpetual existence?
In series one, episode three, Shelby said that “lies travel faster than the truth.” You have to agree that this is spot on – don’t fake news spread like bushfire?
Businessmen have been known to tell white lies, push boundaries, pull a potential partner’s leg during negotiations and so forth. While this is sometimes a necessary evil, you have to know that lying may come back to haunt you.
You can also look at it in the sense of how you market your products and services. If you overhype them with false advertising, customers will definitely flock your store. But what happens after they notice what you advertised is nowhere near what you are delivering? And that’s how you tank your own business.
No Resting
In series four, in the episode titled The Company, Shelby says that there’s no time for him to rest in this world, and that he would probably rest in the next one. If you run a business, you should also live by this mantra.
Your venture may have limited liability, but you have to know that you are the business and the business is you. If you slack off, you won’t see your startup shooting for the stars now, will you?
Another memorable Tommy Shelby quote is the one where he says that those who’ve been last will be first, and the downtrodden will soon rise. Is your business not doing as well as you’d have liked? Worry not.
Keep putting in the work, and before you know it, you’ll be bringing in an enviable revenue package with profits to boot. Shelby is candid proof of this – no matter what brings him down, he always finds a way to get back up.