That’s it.
You have to just try, otherwise you don’t know.
And you know, people always say, oh I’m not ready, I’m not ready.
You’re never ready.
You’re never ready for these things.
You just have to jump and go.
I guess it’s like, you know, how have you got to where you are now yourself?
How have you… you know, how have you got… quite a million times.
Yeah, that’s it, right?
Yeah, that’s it.
That’s just how it works.
And my path was really random.
I started off at medical school.
Like I didn’t have, you know, I didn’t expect to do this, and I kind of stumbled into it.
But like you said, you have to do what you love.
And mine always came back down to, you know, the design, the marketing, all that kind of stuff.
It was always a part of me, and it was very much always there.
And I just followed that path, and it led me here.
And it’s been a rocky road, trust me.
Like there’s been…
But the thing is, when it’s your own business, the highs are really high, but the lows are really low.
And you just have to ride those waves.
And I just think, like, if you really, really love what you do, it is just the journey.
It isn’t just like, oh my God, I can’t believe I’m here.
I mean, I’d just quit.
If you ever feel like that… and don’t get me wrong, I feel like, you know, at some point, why am I doing this kind of thing?
But then when you sit back and you think… because I’ve actually done that when things were rock bottom.
I’ve sat there and reflected and thought, what do I really, really, really want to do with my life?
And every little path I took was like, this is actually what I really want to do in my life.
I am doing it.
And so I just need to find a way.
There was nothing that I want to do more than this, so I just have to find a way to get through it.
I have, and you know, you bounce back, and you get through it, and it’s great.
And I think that if I didn’t have the passion and love for what I do, I would never have been able to get through those tough times.
I think that’s super important.
So for me, you have to love what you do.
And if you don’t, go do something else.
There are so many opportunities out there now.
Like you’re saying, everyone’s got a degree, but you don’t even need a degree.
Like you said, you don’t look at CVs.
I don’t look at CVs.
Most people don’t look at CVs.
No one cares if you’ve got a degree.
My criteria is, you know, turn up to work, be honest, do a good job, be respectful.
Just don’t be a general idiot.
You’re on the money.
And it’s just like, I don’t care if you, you know, trained at NASA or whatever, like you’re a super genius.
I honestly don’t care.
Or, you know, you’ve only worked at McDonald’s.
You’re undiscovered talent probably if you’re working at McDonald’s and I decided I want to hire you.
I don’t actually care.
So that’s the thing.
And I think that’s really important.
I think people often end up in jobs because their parents pushed them into it, or they were told this is what they were meant to do.
But it’s not really there.
If you don’t have that real passion, then you know it’s not right for you.
I completely agree.
Something else I heard is obviously your dad again, the wisest guy in the world by the sound of it.
Like, you know, listening to that, he’s obviously been a big influence on you and where you are today.
How important do you think it is to have a mentor, like someone like that you could look up to and, you know, to support?
Yeah, I think it’s a different relationship, isn’t it, family though?
Because you are also emotionally attached to that person.
A mentor is very different because it can be quite unemotional.
I’ve had a mentor before, so I’ve kind of been around that a little bit.
Again, going from my dad, it’s, you know, it’s a much more personal experience.
They genuinely, genuinely want you to do the best.
A mentor, you never really know that because sometimes you’ll be paying them a bit of cash or a charge, an hourly rate for their time.
And it’s kind of like, cool, I get that, but how emotionally invested are you in my journey and my growth?
There was a person, I won’t say his name here, but he was really helpful, and it was completely free of his time, and he just wanted me to do well.
And I think that person helped a lot because it comes from a place of generosity.
They’ve been there themselves.
They want to help educate the next generation of business owners, and I really appreciated that.
It did get me quite far.
But just having somebody else to bounce off, I think is really important.
Even if that’s maybe not necessarily in business, but even if that’s counsellors or, you know, a mentor or a family member or a friend that is genuinely there, I think is really important.
Some people don’t have those, which is horrible.
But if you can find somebody, and that’s maybe where counselling or just a mentor that you can just buy time from is important, because they will just be completely cutthroat honest.
You know, really just, this is going to work, this isn’t going to work.
Because sometimes the problem with family is that, oh, every idea you have is a great idea, and you should just go and do everything because it’s amazing.
Your nan loves it, and she wants to be part of it as well.
And it’s kind of like, I don’t know how true that is now.
Is it just pushing me to go for it and see what happens?
But I think, Jack, you’re so brilliant.
All your ideas.
That’s exactly it.
That’s how it goes.
But sometimes you need people to be like, you’re actually really wrong.
You’re completely incorrect here.
You know, and I know this because XYZ.
I’ve done this myself.
Or, you know, this is why.
You back it up with a bit of fact there.
But yeah, it’s very important.
It’s so important to talk to other people.
Because business is very lonely.
I think a lot of times people don’t talk about that a lot as well.
On the authenticity trend, it is sometimes you’re sitting there, especially when you haven’t had a great month or something’s happened, and you’re kind of sitting there, the world is on top of you, and you don’t know what to do because you’ve never faced that particular challenge at that time.
It’s very stressful, and you kind of feel like you can’t talk to people because everyone else around you just isn’t at that level.
It’s very hard.
And I think we’ve all been there in business when it’s sort of like, how the hell am I going to solve this problem?
At that point, it is important to talk to people, as it is just in general life.
If you’re facing a problem yourself, go and talk to somebody.
You know, we are social creatures.
You’ve got to get that out.
You’ve got to chat with people.
So yeah, I’d say it’s been really helpful.
But my dad’s definitely been a bit of a mentor to lean on, I think, for the last couple of years.
And I still ask some questions now.
I’ll call him up every now and then and say, do you think this is a good idea?
You know, should I do this?
Sometimes I don’t agree.
Sometimes I do agree.
But yeah, it’s nice.
He’s helped me a lot.
That’s so nice to hear.
It’s so lovely, and especially like with his family and it’s all… yeah, it’s.