In every issue of our Aycliffe Business magazine, we take a break and sit down with a different employee or business owner/leader to ask them 20 questions about a variety of subjects.
In the latest issue, Paul Gordon is in the Aycliffe Business chair. Paul and his wife Penny own and run The Fish Tank on Aycliffe Business Park – winners of the Best Newcomer category in the 2022 Make Your Mark Awards…
1: What do you do?
A: My wife and I own and operate The Fish Tank and The Happy Swim Company.
2: Who have you worked for in the past?
A: There’s a long and diverse list including Ness Furniture, Geka Manufacturing, Thermodynamix, Pipeline Engineering, Tekmar Energy and up until 2019 our own successful business, Water Babies Durham & Darlington.
3: Best part of your job?
A: The freedom to determine the future of our business and work on plans that can positively impact a lot of people from employees to customers.
4: Is there anything about your job that you really don’t like?
A: Not a lot, apart from the difficulties in extracting both my wife and myself from the business long enough to take a family holiday; something we haven’t done in a number of years.
5: Favourite thing about working on Aycliffe Business Park?
A: The community spirit and the fact you can find most things you need within the business park, from coffee shops to accountants to HR support.
6: Which company/individual on the park do you do the most work with?
A: Jeff at Classic Signs is our go-to for interior and exterior signage. They made our building look great and their installation team is top quality.
7: Which Aycliffe business or individual do you tip for future success?
A: I think we’ll all benefit from the new Forest Park expansion and the extra attention that it will bring to the region. Anyone who is part of Aycliffe Business Park can only benefit from the increased footfall it will bring to the area.
8: Four famous people you’d love to have round for dinner and why?
A: Nikola Tesla. I’d love to understand more about his work, and hear about some of the technology he was developing. Mahatma Ghandi. I’d love to meet him and understand how he became so influential over so many people. Donald Trump. Just to meet someone who thinks in billions and to learn what made him so successful in business prior to his presidency. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A truly inspirational individual who knew the importance of dreaming big, and he’d be there to tell everyone to ‘get to the chopper’ when we were finished.
9: If you could do something else in business, what would it be?
A: Own a Superyacht Chartering business.
10: Who’s your favourite Tweeter?
A: I honestly have never looked at Twitter. A tweeter to me is part of my hi-fi system!
11: Have you ever done anything really daring?
A: Trained with a Muay Thai world champion in Thailand, jumped from a Crew Transfer Vessel to a dive control boat in the middle of the Irish Sea during rough seas, and stroked a tiger whilst travelling in Sri Lanka.
12: What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
A: Risk nothing, risk everything.
13: If money was no object, what would be your ideal car?
A: Ferrari GTC4Lusso, a four-seat supercar with a glorious V12. That is while cars like that are still legal.
14: Money no object, your dream holiday would be?
A: Three months in a villa somewhere hot, possibly the Maldives.
15: Do you have a favourite band or type of music?
A: Metallica, Pearl Jam, Guns n Roses.
16: What is your greatest achievement?
A: Completing The Fish Tank build while we had zero household income (that’s a long story for another time). And a our four children who make every bit of hard work worthwhile. And managing to hold on to a full head of hair whilst raising those children – maybe cut that last bit, that didn’t really work out!
17: How would you best describe yourself in four words?
A: ‘Creative, resourceful, visionary’, and my family would probably add ‘sarcastic’.
18: Where do you see yourself in five years?
A: On a road trip with my wife and I across Europe in my GTC4Lusso.
19: Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met?
A: I washed the car windscreen of Paul Gascoigne and Ian Botham on the same day while working at Washington Services, offering a free oil check and handing out promotional milkshake vouchers…
20: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
A: Action movies from the 80’s and 90’s. The Terminator, Predator, The Lost Boys, Top Gun, Aliens, Platoon, anything like that.
