Espresso: Soho House Founder Why You Must EMBRACE Failure

0:00Yes, yes, people. So the hungry reading list is here, right? If you listen to the podcast regularly, you know I love reading. I think books are the most beautiful thing in the world. As Stephen King said, they're teleportable magic or something like that. these books i whittled down my gargantuan bookshelf into 46 absolute 30 bangers the link is in the show notes to get the list whatever and it'll also make you a subscriber to our weekly newsletter which i think is sick so yeah get your fucking books buddy i'd much rather tried and fail than not tried yeah and i don't think fail is ever with a capital l i've read some my there's a my friend gave me the book and it's like she i think it's like they're called the creative entrepreneur and it's um you were featured in it and really gorgeous book um and they've got like loads of interesting entrepreneurs not just specifically in london but there was a bit i read in there when you talked about like the danger zone when you're making decisions and not letting negative almost like noticing and saying okay that's a negative thought like and almost almost like meditating on that and saying like don't let

1:16Soho House Founder:that not noting and saying that doesn't come in like talk about the the danger zone when when you've like having to make decisions under pressure like when you were early days so a house versus now with um saint clement like how's that kind of change or what have you learned about that Well, I mean, I learn every day. I'm 62 and I still learn something new every day. And I'm always trying to learn. And I'm always trying to learn off. It's not just people who are maybe older and wiser than me, but it might be a lot of people who are younger and wiser than me who you learn off. So I think when you talk about the danger zone and decision making.

2:01Soho House Founder:I think when I was running Sewer House, we were fast growing. We had to take risk. It was risky going into any country. I mean, it's risky enough opening a restaurant, bar, hotel in your own backyard. But if you're doing that in numerous cities around the world where there's a different set of laws, there's a different culture, everything's different. That is risky and you have to make bold decisions to go ahead with it. Because I think there's always about nine reasons not to do something and one reason to do something. And so going back to what difference that was with St Clement, the St Clement is in my backyard.

2:54Soho House Founder:I'm not having to get on an aeroplane to go and do it i i started with no new team you know i started it on my you know on my home with my partner mark and it's been fun getting back in the trenches again and and and you're not making you're not making the decisions aren't that risky because you saw no hotel restaurant or bar in London, I could tell myself that London certainly doesn't need another hotel. And I think I could easily convince myself that's probably right, because there has been a lot of new openings. There's continuously a lot of new openings happening in London. So there could have been a lot of reasons, well Nick, why do you need to do this?

3:48Soho House Founder:Why, why, why, why, why, why throw the dice again? why throw the dice again because i'm passionate about what i do i love it um so i'm 32 i'd love to know what like what was some of the hardest decisions and you were making when you were 32 and like any advice on on what a great age um i was i was like 30 when i started So I was taking a lot of risk. I was sort of figuring out, okay, is this going to be around for a year or hopefully lots of years? But I didn't know when I opened. and yeah it was it was it was it was it was nerve-wracking um but at the same time it was it was it was fun because it was exciting it was risky it was is this going to work or isn't it going to work and I would always encourage people who have have ambition or entrepreneurial spirit to go and try it because all I knew is I didn't want to sit in a rocking chair yeah yeah yeah one day Vicky if only I had tried to open a club in new york it might have worked and in a way i wanted to i'd much rather tried and failed than not tried yeah and i don't think failed is ever with a capital f i think it's with a small f and it's you you you learn and you move on and so i'd always encourage people to give it a go yes yes people we're trying to make hungry into the most valuable food and drink business podcast on planet earth but i really need your help i want to make this podcast so valuable for you to help you grow your business faster stronger better have way more fun we've got a super short customer feedback uh sorry consumer survey audience survey thing on google forms there's a link at the top of the show notes if you could fill that out it would be so helpful we make this podcast way better for you