Yahoo Finance Prodigy frontman Maxim on his first job as a carpet salesman
The people who helped shape business leaders
The more I think about it, my first boss really was like David Brent from The Office. He thought he was No.1 at everything, that being a carpet salesman was the best thing in the world and nothing was going to get better than this.
It was almost like he was saying to me, ‘Keith, if you do really well, you could be like me’.
One of the things that niggled me was when he invited me to the company’s golf day. I had never played but I was trying to be positive, move in different circles and experience different things, so I took up the offer.
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The day cost around £230 which was probably the equivalent of a month’s wages back then and he told me it would be good for me to come along.
He picked me up in his car but it soon transpired that I was to be his caddie for the day. I didn’t touch a golf club and all I did was pull his trolley as he and these forty-something area managers enjoyed themselves. He had used me to make himself look good. It was definitely a learning curve as a 17-year-old.
I was working for a carpet store chain near Peterborough. We had an area manager who also came down who looked like Boycie from Only Fools and Horses with his sheepskin jacket and my manager thought he was the best thing ever.
People say that I’m in The Prodigy and love being on stage in front of 30,000 people — yet I hate public speaking. I am a showman but would fall to pieces if I was made to do a speech. The sales environment did make me speak to people though.
Selling carpets also instilled confidence in myself. I had never worn a suit or blazer before the job but I had always been smart in appearance as a kid, as my parents had taught me to polish my shoes every Sunday evening.
I went for the job not expecting to get it and ended up staying there for two years. In some respects I was out of my comfort zone, but my boss must have seen something in me to give me the job in the first place.
There was an old guy in his sixties called Phil and I probably learned more on the business and life from him than my boss.
At first I didn't think he liked me with this young guy coming in. After a while we became friends and he used to tell me about his days growing up during the War. As a teen getting to know someone 40 years older than me, it was inspiring. He was a kind man and sadly he passed away when I was working in the store.
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One of the business lessons I learned was that if you are manipulated by outside forces it can sometimes take away your dreams.
I missed opportunities as I listened to other people when I was growing up. A school teacher once told me I could make the football team, but I was swayed by my friends who always wanted me to go out with them.
I would get sidetracked, just as I did with the golf day, and didn’t believe in my ability to do my own thing. Now I never get sidetracked and I don’t shy from challenges.
For the last two months we have been building up for the tour and I have been doing some artwork for my exhibition on the side. If you do enjoy doing something you just get on with it.
I pick up a lot of inspiration when I’m touring. The people you meet can change your life, and the places and objects you see can inspire you to move things on and I am always working on the next idea for my art. It turns out that many Prodigy fans are also passionate about art and appreciate the crossover.
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The Nineties was a unique time in music. It was the last big movement in the UK; there were so many styles of music and so many things came out of the decade. It was pre internet and social media and you had to be creative.
Technology makes it easier to write music today, but it’s harder to write good music. Bands like ours, Chemical Brothers or Underworld were original and have their sound. If you have that and your own movement you’ll never die, you will always continue. There won’t be another Prodigy, I’m sorry to say. But that’s the beauty of it. Set your own trend, and you will never die.
Maxim’s new show on 15 November will open at Clarendon’s Covent Garden gallery on the eve of The Prodigy’s major European tour ‘Army of the Ants’, and will present a brand new collection of original paintings, sculptures and limited editions.
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