What should leaders understand about their own role and responsibility?

Your own time and energy is the most precious resource you have. Use it wisely, and learn what gives you energy, and what saps you. In the early years of building something, you need to throw a huge amount of time at it - and do many things you perhaps don’t like doing. But as you scale, it’s vital to take a step back and build a business that can grow rapidly beyond the time you put into it - allowing you to focus on what you are good at, and for others to flourish where you aren’t.

What personal habit or behavior helped you accelerate your personal growth?

I recognised quite early on that I love variety. This includes variety of perspectives, of locations, of working environments, and of tasks. It sounds trite, but knowing what brings me creativity and joy helps break through difficult tasks and heavy burdens. I go and meet someone new to learn from, or find a new cafe to work from.

What shift in perspective / mindset has allowed you to see things differently?

Having kids immediately reset the priorities in my life, and seeing them grow has reset it further. Now they are 12 and 10, realizing how little time we have left with them before they grow into adults and leave home makes me want to keep rebalancing my time to ensure I build great relationships with them, have adventures, and learn together with them. My work is really important to me, but having strong family and friends around me ensures that I don’t sacrifice everything on the altar of business progress. And actually, I’m better, more creative and more resilient at work, when those other relationships are strong and life-giving.

What do you do to maintain balance in your life?

I read novels because the physical pages get me away from a screen, and my imagination into a new world. And I am learning to play golf, because it's great to be awful at something and have to improve - plus I can’t keep thinking about more work stuff when I’m trying not to hit my drive in the lake. I spend time with my kids - outside and adventuring - because the way they see the world and the questions they ask help bring simplicity to my perspective.

What's a question you like asking — yourself or others?

I often ask myself “What’s the worst that can happen?” This isn’t a negative or defeatist question - but rather a positive and freeing one. So often it’s confusion or uncertainty that restricts us from taking big swings, but I learned early on to rationalize the potential downside of decisions. If you do this, and the downside impact is acceptable or you can mitigate it, you might as well leap into the opportunity. And most of my personal growth has come from seizing opportunities that others thought were too risky.

What’s a guiding principle that informs the way you build and run your business?

The highs and lows of start-up and scale-up life can be terrifying. One moment, it feels like nothing can stop you. The next it feels like it’s impossible to see another week. Firstly, I’ve found it helpful to always take a step down from the high mountains, and a step up from the valleys, and bring a bit more balance and stability to the journey - to not get too excited by either swing, knowing that it might rebalance fast. Secondly, I’ve had to learn, and try to teach my teams that dealing with the cognitive dissonance is vital for resilience. Some things will always be going wrong whilst others are going right. And that’s ok.