Steven Bartlett spends his days interviewing some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs on his podcast, The Diary of a CEOand at 30, is the youngest “Dragon” on the hit TV show Dragons Den, so it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about success, ambition and restlessness.
Indeed, even Steven himself admits that until a few years ago he was a broke college dropout, living in one of the worst parts of the country, alone, with nothing but a “laptop and a dream”. With a little great courage and determination, Steven became CEO of one of Britain’s fastest growing companies, Social Chain, a social media marketing agency valued at 186 million euros (£160 million) in a public list in 2019. He has also become a social media sensation with 2.1 million followers (and counting) devouring his uplifting and inspirational daily mantras. Every week, without fail, one of my Whatsapp chats is lit up with comments about his latest podcast and how inspiring he is. Now, the finance guru is partnering with NatWest to help people take a smarter approach to managing their finances and motivating them to achieve their financial goals.
So how, as we enter one of the darkest times of austerity, can we emulate Steven’s entrepreneurial spirit? GLAMOR posed our most burning questions about dealing with the cost of living crisis while smashing our financial goals and business dreams to Steven and here are some valuable life lessons we learned:
My three infallible tips for achieving your goals
Make sure your goals are intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically
Intrinsic motivations come from within, while extrinsic motivations come from outside of us. When you are intrinsically motivated, you engage in an activity only because you enjoy it and derive personal satisfaction from it. When you are extrinsically motivated, you do something for the purpose of gaining an external reward, such as money, recognition, or to avoid trouble, such as losing a job. And science couldn’t be clearer on this, when our intrinsic desires lose, so do we. It’s clearly incredibly important to know what you really want, who you really are, and to be able to tell the difference between the person the outside world wants you to be and the person your inner world has taken years to become. The reason this is my first and most important goal setting tip is that if you set false goals, you will also struggle to find the motivation you need to achieve them and you will likely experience burnout.
Whatever your goal, you need to be religiously consistent
Time is everything, it is our most important motto. Starting as early as possible and being consistent is the magic to unlock the unseen but define the rewards of cumulative interest, effort and success.
You must be willing to fail if you want to succeed
And not only be willing, but embrace failure as the greatest learning opportunity. Personally, I owe much of my success to my failures. Failure always takes me to a greater destination, allows me to grow and understand the direction I was really meant to go.
As we enter the cost of living crisis and many people feel compelled to put their entrepreneurial dreams on hold, it’s time to take a risk.