Simon Squibb: Turn Your WANT Into a NEED | Founder Classics

0:00Alex Chisnall:What was the screw it just do it moment that you decided to take this idea that you had and actually do something about it? You can sit and take one hour's worth of risk then sit back for the rest of the day and probably be more lucky than someone that's taken no risk and just worked all day driving a bus. Second is knowing your destination. So many people don't. People need to be persistent if they want luck. So you need to take more risk, you need to know your destination and you need to be persistent. You do that, your luck will a hundredfold. You'll have so much more luck if you do those things.

0:27So a lot of people want something, but don't screw it and do it because they don't need it. And needing it is key. I wanted to get really fit. I wanted to get fit, but I didn't need to get fit. I told myself the next 18 months, if I didn't exercise, eat better, I would die. So I took my want to get fit and I made it a need.

0:46Alex Chisnall:What stops founders from building something meaningful isn't the lack of ideas. It's the fear of getting started. I'm Alex Chisnell, and this is Screw It, Just Do It. The podcast for people who are ready to stop waiting, take action and make things happen. What was the eureka moment, the aha moment, the screw it, just do it moment that you decided to take this idea that you had and actually do something about it rather than talk about it, which 99 % of people do? You know, I think a lot of the time people think that ideas like the Purposeful Project start as this massive idea that you just start doing.

1:23my experience has always been that you have a little idea and and you grow it so my first business was a gardening company and people would listen to this into the previous episode it wasn't a big idea it's just like someone's got a messy garden we we we sort it out i think initially i had actually sold my last company and had more money than i will ever need and actually lost my mojo for a bit and i spent a year and a half two years doing this kind of search thing what should I do next and you know once the money bit was removed the motivation bit somehow it also kind of drifted a bit and I learned something really important that made me go screw it let's do it and it is I wanted to do something again I wanted to not be retired and put my life into something

2:06Alex Chisnall:but I was missing the need to do it so a lot of people want something but don't screw it and do it because they don't need it and needing it is key so I had to retrain myself and I started off actually by fitness. I wanted to get really fit. I wanted to get fit, but I didn't need to get fit. And then I actually felt like my father died quite young of a heart attack. So I thought to myself, I don't want to go that way. I just had a baby and I want to be around. I want to see him grow up. I want to see him get married. I want to be a part of his life. So I told myself I was going to die if I didn't exercise in the next 18 months.

2:44If I didn't exercise, eat better, I would die.

2:47Alex Chisnall:I told my mind this. Did you? It wasn't true. Yeah, yeah. I told my mind this and then I acted like it was true. So I took my want to get fit and I made it a need. I think when people have too much choice, in a way, it can confuse them. And people don't screw it and do it because they've got too much choice or what they want in life isn't a need. So when I was younger and I had to start a company because I couldn't get a job and I needed to eat. I needed accommodation. It's not wanting things. I needed them. and I had no way of getting them unless I did what I did to start a company. So a lot of it is taking that want and making it a need.

3:23And that's what happened to me when I started the Purposeful Project. I was looking at, frankly, the fabric of society and how people have started being so self-centred, me included. We started just thinking about ourselves. The banks lend us money to buy a house and then we get that house and this is ours and we close the door and we're no longer tribal. We're no longer helping our neighbor or the person down the street that's homeless we're just closing the doors and we're all right and we've kind of separated from each other and I felt it I felt that feeling that I'm all right which I was very financially secure and had everything I need but I felt like actually there's something wrong with society and I had like a sense of fear that my son was going to grow up in this world where we're all so self-centered that no one helps anybody so I thought what can I do to change that and the one thing I know really well is entrepreneurship.

4:14And although entrepreneurship might not seem like the answer to everything, I have this deep down belief that entrepreneurs can save the world. Because let's face it, politicians aren't going to do it. So we put so much power in the hands of politicians to solve homelessness, for example, or fix the education system. They're not doing it. So I thought, what can we do? And I do believe empowering people to at least have the ability to start a business. If I gave people the tools to think about how to build a brand, how to raise money find your purpose in life these things I thought well if I can give that to people at least when they leave school they've got an option work for someone or work for themselves yeah right and it just dawned on me that this was actually not something I wanted to do help people in this way I needed to do it if I wanted to leave the planet in a better state than I found it for my son yeah and so I turned that want to help people into a need and the first thing I did was a podcast you know and actually I made it quite a selfish endeavor there was loads of people I wanted to interview about this problem that I perceived in the world with technology also entering the universe to take away people's jobs we'll end up if we're not careful with a lot of trumps in power promising to bring back coal and what we actually need is to help the people that were down coal mines retrain into perhaps starting something on their own whatever that may be maybe there's a coal miner out there that wants to start a flower business maybe the coal miner out there that wants to paint and make a living from it you know so my mind was like why don't we fix the education system from outside the education system and why don't we educate people about business and the first thing i did was a podcast and it was really simple i had a crappy mic which by the way is in this cover just here i kept it now i've got all this very expensive equipment but originally it's a crappy mic i put it in the middle of the table and then started interviewing people i know had made it with zero money and made it into a success and i wanted to take that knowledge and give it to other people so remember

6:00Alex Chisnall:some of your podcast episodes, some of those episodes like with Darling, Anne. Anne Bowden. Yeah, people like that. I had Tony Fidel who actually invented the iPod. People don't realise he invented the iPod. Yes, I saw that, I think, on your YouTube channel. Yeah, okay. And the Shazazz, Shazam, whatever you want to describe it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lots of really incredible people and nearly all of them started with nothing. And so I wanted to pick that apart and test my theory about two things. One is that in business you need a lot of luck. So how do you hack luck? What is luck? and then second is how do you take this want and make it a need am I right is that what's made everyone successful and it turns out I was right luck and people taking their want into a need nearly every single time the reason people were successful luck one's an interesting one um for me you know coming up to 500 episodes and that crops up a lot and what do you say with regards to that then you think they're that people need luck or you just think it's being being aware of the opportunity and seizing the opportunity and part of my podcast was research into luck so it turns out basically there's a formula for luck.

6:59So it's probably right to separate it. It turns out that 2 % of your life is total random luck, but only 2%. An example would be where you're born. You'll hear sayings like the harder I work, the luckier I get. Which is bullshit, by the way. That's just not true. Surprisingly, it really has nothing to do with success. This is what I think a lot of people will be shocked about. I actually became more successful when I started delegating to people that are better at things than me. You know, if I worked harder in my business and not delegated things to other people, my business would not have succeeded.

7:32So people think working hard is the answer. That's not true. Now, of course, there's working smart is a simple way of putting it. But 2 % of your life is total random luck, but only 2%. And what's really interesting, if the 2 % of your life is bad luck, ironically, you have a higher chance of the other 98 % being good luck. For example, if you're a boxer and you grew up on the streets of New York, street fighting and surviving, then you end up a pretty good boxer.

7:58Alex Chisnall:Yeah. Right. And you're fighting a boxer who perhaps went to a posh school, had a good life. You probably beat them. Right. So your 2 % bad luck or growing up in a difficult neighborhood ends up later in life being your good luck. Got it. Got it. And the 98 % of your life that is luck for sure is controllable. And there's three ways to control it. It's a very long story, but there's three ways. One is take more risk. So it turns out the more risk you take, the luckier you get. And people think that you can sit and take one hour's worth of risk, then sit back for the rest of the day and probably be more lucky than someone that's taken no risk and just worked all day driving a bus.

8:34So the more risk you take, the luckier you get. And that means you need to lean into fear, which a lot of people don't want to do. But if you learn that fear is actually an asset given to us to survive, like when a lion comes towards us, that's what it was originally designed to do, we can run faster, we think differently, we're like on a hyper mode. it's a superpower that people are now turning off instead of turning on yeah yeah i'm meant to feel fear if you're feeling fear you're growing right if you're not feeling fear you're not growing agreed so taking risk the second thing there's three things in in the formula of risk so fear risk is one of them loving fear the second is knowing your destination so many people don't yep so i've invested in 76 businesses and one of the things i always ask people is like where are you going with this business and the ones that don't get investment often say well we're I had this recently, I'm going to sell it to Uber for a billion dollars.

9:19That's not a destination, really. Money, actually, turns out is just a fuel for the car. And if you're focused on the money, you end up going around in circles because you don't know where you're going, right? And actually, ironically, you don't need as much money as you think. So once you know your destination, sometimes you can get there on a bike. Once you know your destination, you can get other people in the car with you to make the journey pleasurable. You know what to pack when you get there.

9:38Alex Chisnall:Yeah, yeah. So people don't know their destination. Once you know your destination, it's like a target. Once you know your target, you can hit it. If you don't, you target it. The third thing is persistence. Now you've got to know when to quit as well. A form of persistence is quitting and starting again. So you only fail if you stop. But that's not the same as not stopping something that's not working. So persistence is a whole thing that Harvard did on, for example, salespeople. They did this research study which was basically, they looked at the top 10 % of salespeople. These are the best salespeople.

10:07And the on average salesperson in the top 10%, so these are the best, contact them on five times before they give up. people need to be persistent if they want luck so you need to take more risk you need to lean into fear you need to know your destination and you need to be persistent you do that your luck will 100 fold you'll have so much more luck if you do this

10:24Alex Chisnall:if this conversation resonated with you don't just sit there act on it make sure you follow or subscribe for more game changing conversations and remember the only thing standing between you and your business breakthrough is the decision to screw it and just do it