Entrepreneur - Al Gosling.

If there is one entrepreneur who is doing what I want to be doing is this guy. I ran across is profile on net this morning. One of the top 50 entrepreneurs of 2005 in the UK.

Kudos to you Al. Always an inspiration.

Here is a prolife of him.

Mr Alistair Gosling,CEO,Extreme Group"Al Gosling, CEO and founder of Extreme Group, developed a passion for extreme sports during his early teens and following a number of jobs went on to found a successful and growing international business and brand based upon that early passion. An entrepreneur from the very start Al’s first business venture included selling board shorts out of the back of his old battered red Renault 5 while studying for his exams!1995, Aged 24, having just return from travelling and unable to find a job, Al decided he wanted to establish a company that would mix his passion for Extreme Sports with business and so Extreme International was established, which specialised in the acquisition and distribution of extreme and adventure sports TV programmes to broadcasters all over the world, four years later this business was to grow into the Extreme Group of companies. On a shoestring budget with his office in a small converted barn more akin to a mountain hut or surf-shack than the headquarters of a growing media business, the company rapidly grew to become the worldwide market leader in Extreme Sports TV. In April 1998 Al came up with the idea to create and launch the world’s first TV channel dedicated to extreme sports. Unsurprisingly entitled The Extreme Sports Channel, its main influences were a mixture of MTV and traditional sports channel. The Channel started broadcasting from Amsterdam on 1st May 1999 to 400,000 viewers throughout Holland. Featuring events, movies and magazine shows about the sports such as surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX, skiing, Moto-X and the music, fashion and lifestyle that surrounds them. The channel’s coverage grew rapidly and it is now broadcasting to 55 countries in twelve languages.Today Al and the team are focused on taking Extreme into new areas driving all of the group companies forward and launching the channel into new countries and regions. The Extreme Group employs 247 people and is made up of Extreme Sports Channel, Extreme Retail which includes Extremepie.com Europe’s leading online extreme sports retailer, Ex Stores a chain of 22 surf skate and snow shops, Ex Gear the clothing range, Extreme Drinks, delivering a range of natural functional soft drinks to consumers world wide, the events business Ex Events and is on target to launch ExtremeMob Europe’s only youth focused (MVNO) Mobile operator during 2005 and Extreme Travel coming soon. Al is still completely passionate about the sports that give him his drive and passion for the business and when not in the office you will find him either windsurfing, kite surfing, flying, ice climbing or skiing somewhere in the world."