Stephen Norris, from Ipswich, is the author of The Punk Rock Playbook for Business Misfits, a guide that blends memoir, manifesto and practical advice for those who feel out of place in the corporate world.
The playbook draws on his life from his upbringing in Essex, where he left school without qualifications, to his punk roots, to building and selling his own businesses.
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Stephen Norris’s book is called The Punk Rock Playbook for Business Misfits (Image: Stephen Norris)
“Most businesses don’t fail because they’re wrong – they fail because they’re forgettable,” says Stephen.
“Trying to appeal to everyone is the fastest way to disappear.
“You don’t need permission to lead. You need the courage to do it your way.”
Originally from Colchester, where he spent his first 25 years, Stephen moved to Norfolk and raised a family but came to Ipswich 10 years ago to be with his second wife, Kerry, in her home town.
As teenagers, he and his friends formed a punk rock called Special Duties which has produced three albums.
He started out as its bass player and after 30 years with the band he became lead singer – a role he has performed for the past 14 years. He also writes the lyrics.
Three of the four original band members – including Stephen – still go on tour and play at venues holding thousands of punk fans.
Stephen Norris’s book is called The Punk Rock Playbook for Business Misfits (Image: Cherry Beesley Simply C Photography)
“We are off to California in September – we’ve got a couple of gigs to play in LA,” he says. “We have been very lucky. We have played all over the world.”
They’ve performed in a ram-packed Steamboat Tavern in Ipswich for 100 people and in LA in front of an audience of 2,500.
“We are much bigger in America then we are in the UK. When we play in Berlin it’s a sell-out,” he says.
They will be at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool – which is celebrating its 30th anniversary – in August along with a host of other punk bands.
“I’m also being asked to be part of a panel talking about playing for that festival when I was 34 – now I’m 64. There are lots of new people interested in it – incredibly it’s just kept going.”
Today, he juggles his career as a punk performer with his business interests – a life which is lightyears away from his shaky start in life.
He grew up on a council estate with his single mum who had nine children in total. He was the second youngest and his childhood was difficult.
He was in and out of care and was “bullied mercilessly”, he says, then expelled from school at the age of 10. He was even detained by the authorities for 18 months.
“I never had the security and control over where I was,” he says.
Although a bright child, his education suffered. At one point he was destined for the Royal Grammar School in Colchester but it never came to pass and he left education with no qualifications. “So many things stood in my way,” he says.
Being part of the band was a “lifeline”. The band members set up an illegal gig in Colchester and that led to a conversation with the local council which in turn directed them towards their first record deal.
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He also worked “all the hours God sent me” in a garage.
He bought cars with good engines and clapped out bodywork and restored them then sold them on.
By the age of 21 he had amassed enough money to buy his first home.
“That entrepreneurial sprit just made me think there’s more to life than working in a garage,” he says.
At 23, he secured a sales job and worked his way up the ranks to become a manager before setting up his own company, Vehicle Security Products, riding the wave as immobilisers grew in popularity as an anti-theft device.
By then he was able to buy his late mum a home.
He found he had a real knack for business and turned his talents to helping others.
“I had this unique ability when someone told me they had a problem with their business and didn’t know why to examine it forensically and I could make it much more smooth and less clunky,” he says.
“I have started and sold my own companies for the last 30 years and other companies have brought me in to save their failing company.”
He recalls building up a Dutch firm from virtually nothing to a turnover of £29m. He also looks after businesses locally.
Punk has many negative connotations but for him it’s a place of warmth. “It’s the nicest community,” he says. “They are kind of the misfits of this world.”
But while marginalised, they are also some of the most intelligent people.
“I have learnt so much from that warmth of community. I felt like I belonged for the very first time – I felt seen, I felt heard.”
Ten years ago Stephen underwent counselling as a means of dealing with his considerable childhood trauma.
Entrepreneur and punk rocker Stephen Norris (Image: Cherry Beesley Simply C Photography)
He still dresses in black – his trademark punk look and the “uniform of anonymity” – even when he has to wear a suit, he says.
At one time he had a red Mohican. “I looked the part back then,” he says.
These days his punk life is “absolutely the best hobby in the world because I get to tour the world with my best friends – and we get well paid for doing it”.
Politics apart, he thinks new prime minister Andy Burnham is an interesting character and displays some of the traits he advocates in his book.
“He didn’t ask for any permission he just went off and built something,” he says. “I think he needs to be mindful that what he’s done in Manchester he’s done with a high degree of authenticity – 15% of his own salary to the homeless charity.
“I hope he leads with that same level of authenticity.”
In his book he talks about “hiring weirdos and firing bland” – and describes boardrooms as “being full of bored people”.
This has led to a “bland” business landscape, he argues, and a corporate culture which prioritises polish over truth and consensus over conviction.
He advocates for those who want to take “unconventional paths” and show authenticity, resilience and boldness.
His aim is to strip away corporate conditioning, cut through jargon, performance and inherited thinking to get back to what matters, he says.
It’s a philosophy inspired by his punk roots, which he sees as having honest, guts and heart.
“The people who go on to lead are often those who stop waiting for permission and focus instead on becoming impossible to ignore,” he says.
“If you want something in life you have to go and get it.”
The Punk Rock Playbook for Business Misfits is available to order at punkrockmedia.co.uk/shop.
It is published by Softwood Books in Stowmarket and is also available at high street stores and online retailers.
