The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett XX
[0] Did you know that the DariVosio now has its own channel exclusively on Samsung TV Plus?
[1] And I'm excited to say that we've partnered with Samsung TV to bring this to life, and the channel is available in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.
[2] Samsung TV Plus is a free streaming service available to all owners of Samsung Smart TVs and Galaxy mobiles and tablets.
[3] And along with the Dyeravisio channel, you'll find hundreds of more channels with entertainment for everyone all for free on Samsung TV plus.
[4] So if you own a Samsung TV, tune in now and watch the Dyer of a Cio channel, right now.
[5] You've got, you know, two businesses, two key businesses, and when you run a business, when you're young, irrespective of age, you undergo a couple of things, real like unexpected chaos at any given moment, then also a tremendous amount of sacrifice.
[6] I actually want to start on the sacrifice piece because I don't think people, as you said earlier, get to fully see the full picture of sacrifice and cost, both personal and professional and whatever.
[7] So talk to me about some of the sacrifice that even you didn't expect before you got into business and before your business grew?
[8] I think that at the same time as I kind of benefited hugely from the, you know, having money at university, for example, I also went to university expecting one thing and then actually spent it essentially getting up at X hour working on university stuff because I never, ever, ever wanted to give them an excuse to think that I wasn't concentrating fully on my university and then working all the way essentially way into the night to get the other stuff done and I also you know that comes with being high profile that comes with all of these things so I guess one of those things was very much like there was the time and the life experience and all of that that because things took off quickly at one stage even if it wasn't like it wasn't that the businesses took off you know the businesses have done much more over the past year and a half or whatever when I haven't been at uni.
[9] But at that point, you know, the the high profileness, all of that, that came with, I guess, different to what I was expecting.
[10] And, or not what I was expecting.
[11] I wasn't expecting it at all.
[12] And therefore, there was kind of, I guess, you know, something that I really did want for myself.
[13] I didn't get.
[14] But I also got, you know, a lot more in another way, I guess.
[15] What did you want for yourself?
[16] Well, I just wanted the university experience, really.
[17] And I think that I was so, once this took off, I'm a very determined person and I get a vision and I'll work for it day and night.
[18] And I think that I actually got to, I think in that instance, it's kind of like a fork in the road and you decide, okay, well, I'm taking this one and I'm going to concentrate on this, I'm going to grow the businesses, I'm going to all of that.
[19] And then I think as well, I saw the deadline for that as my end of university.
[20] Because if I had to, if it wasn't as big as I wanted it to be by that time or if it wasn't, you know, whatever it might be, I was going to choose, I was going to go into a normal career.
[21] And I think that so I was so dedicated to make that happen rather than, you know, I wanted to grow up too quickly essentially.
[22] I'm 23.
[23] Like I, you know, and I think that a lot of that has been, I guess, in terms of people's whether when it's people who meet you, their kind of perception of you or whatever it might be.
[24] be.
[25] And so I think that was something where it was a choice I'd make again and again, but it was, I guess, the sacrifice that I wasn't expecting to make.
[26] And I guess that comes with everything that comes with, you know, relationships, with friends, with time in general, with, you know, time to yourself, time to whatever.
[27] I think having a business in a way, and I'm sure some people will disagree, but having a business in a way is like having a baby.
[28] And you can't just, you can't just like up and do whatever you can't you can't say no when a crisis comes in at 1 a .m. You can't like that is what it is.
[29] You get all the other benefits with those conditions.
[30] And so I think that, you know, that's kind of a constant one.
[31] Like you can't you can't say, oh, I'm going to quit this and go and do this for two years.
[32] Because especially when you've got X amount of people working for you, you've got all of their salaries, you've got all of their pensions.
[33] You've got, you know, like it's a huge responsibility.
[34] And the buck stops with you, right?
[35] Yeah.
[36] And that's, you know, it's an important one.
[37] Do you, sometimes I reflect on the business journey and just how, like, obsessive it is and all consuming it is.
[38] And I think it's a bit of a disease.
[39] I'm like, why did I choose this to, like, consume my stuff?
[40] It's almost, like, masochistic.
[41] Yeah, it is, yeah.
[42] Because obviously it's got the most amazing benefits, but it is also, like, I remember what, I remember my friend, I can't remember, I think I really, we'd agree to just, just locked down things.
[43] We'd agreed to watch a movie on a Sunday night.
[44] And then the thing came up and I was just like, you know what?
[45] I'm going to, like, I'm going to do this.
[46] I'm just going to work harder.
[47] So it's just going to be easier for this week.
[48] And it was like, tiny sacrifice.
[49] And my housemate turned around for me and she was like, what is the point of were you working this hard for this many years and you can't watch a movie on a Sunday night?
[50] And I was like, yeah, fair.
[51] Like, as in like, you're not wrong.
[52] Like, I'm still going to do it.
[53] But like, you know, you're not wrong.
[54] Like, it's.
[55] What is the answer?
[56] to that question, though.
[57] So say, because I've muddled over this as well, if I'm working obsessively every day, at what point is enough?
[58] Yeah.
[59] Well, I think that it all comes with what you want.
[60] And I think that, you know, I've listened to you before and I've listened to you kind of saying that, you know, there came a point that you realized that it wasn't about money.
[61] So, like, what was it about?
[62] And I think for me, there's the kind of aspect of it's for the businesses and I have these really clear dreams for the businesses that result in dreams for me as well.
[63] sure.
[64] But I think that that is, I think I'll come to a, you know, if I decide to sell a business or whatever, I'll come to that road there where I'm like, okay, what is it for now?
[65] And I think that knowing myself anyway, I know pre -business, post -business, I'm sure, I am like that.
[66] So whether it's this or whether it's something else or, you know, and I hope I can channel that into something else at some point that doesn't require every inch of your being.
[67] I know I'm like that.
[68] So it's kind of like, yeah, sure, it might be for nothing, but it's, I'm going to do it anyway.
[69] Like, there doesn't need to be reasoning behind the fact that this is how I am.
[70] I have always been, I've always been, yeah, I've always been like this.
[71] I've always been kind of like, I'm going to make this happen, like, whether that's kind of through like coordinating all the babysitting jobs that you got in one night and allocating them out to your friends and stuff or you know like taking essentially like any job ever that like that I could then you know that's all that's what I'm like so I kind of know that what did come from though I I think probably a few things I know that everyone in my family is a very hard worker and that is very it's kind of almost like an like an anxiety to do well, even though, like, my parents were not pushy at all.
[72] I think people assume, you know, especially if you go to Oxford or, like, whatever, but the least pushy people ever, I think that actually it all, I kind of was discussing this with my sister the other day, was like, where does it come from?
[73] Because it doesn't come from our parents.
[74] Like, it comes from them clearly because they had it in themselves.
[75] But, you know, like, they, both my parents had careers when I was growing up.
[76] I lived with my mom, just me, my mom, and we had a tenant who lived in my mom's house, and my mom was working pretty much all the time, incredibly.
[77] Like, I respect her so much for it because I also never grew up thinking, like, oh, it's weird for a woman to have a career and have four children and, like, whatever.
[78] She just, you know, she worked all the time.
[79] And she loved it.
[80] She loved it.
[81] And she gave her, like, everything to it.
[82] And so I think I spent a lot of, I spent a lot of time kind of in that situation, knowing that I also wanted to love what I do.
[83] And I think there is this misled, like, perception that, you know, like, if you love what you do, you'll have a work a day in your life, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[84] But I also think that there is this, like, it's a flow state, isn't it?
[85] Like, you have something that matches your challenge and your skill level and you get more fulfillment than you'll get from anything.
[86] And I think I was so, I used to say, I remember saying, like, I think it was like when I was like 15, 16, and I would take like work experience from anyone every single holiday and every single school holiday.
[87] And I remember my teacher saying, like, you should probably choose one of the avenues and then you can do like more within that or something.
[88] And I remember just saying to them like, I'm so terrified that I'll be stuck in something that I hate.
[89] And it was like a constant like, and I don't think it's necessarily good.
[90] I don't think it was necessarily healthy.
[91] I was constantly so terrified that, you know, the same was for university.
[92] The same was for whatever.
[93] Like, I didn't get into Oxford the first time.
[94] I applied.
[95] I, and I went again.
[96] Like, I literally, that same day, I went online and I found out what I could do for a year that would earn myself some money to be able to not be, I guess, studying that year and went to and applied for the IBM Future Scheme, which is the one they do for gap year students, that literal same day.
[97] and then applied again the next year and like as in I was I'm very like that it's very set on kind of one thing and if that thing then doesn't work I either want to do it again like it's really clear to me I either want to do it again or I'm like that wasn't right and then I move on but I know that I'm very straight out and very like I will not stop until like yeah you get it right what's the going back to the business and the chaos and the sacrament Is there one day in your business career over the last couple of years, which was your worst day?
[98] I mean...
[99] Or your toughest challenge?
[100] I think my toughest challenge in general was there was this stupid, stupid time that I'm constantly praised for that was the worst decision I've ever made in my life, which was that I was coming up to my university finals.
[101] I was launching a business to, I think it was a month before my university finals.
[102] Yeah, I was launching a business at the beginning of May. the 7th of May, if I might, and I started, I finished my finals on the 6th of June.
[103] Now that meant that 40 ,000 words were due and five, three -hour exams within the space of two weeks.
[104] And I also wanted to launch my business and I also wanted to do well at university.
[105] I'd been working with that for three years.
[106] But I'd persuaded people as well.
[107] I'd persuaded people to spend money on this launch.
[108] I'd persuaded people to, you know, so I was going to do it right.
[109] People were like, you're amazing.
[110] Like, this is so great.
[111] how can you do this?
[112] And I'm like, you were, like, it's not wise.
[113] It's not smart.
[114] Like, it's not, like, this isn't a competition for how many boxes you can tick within a small space of time.
[115] That is like a fast track towards burnout and either something going incredibly wrong or whatever.
[116] And I think that that, you know, like, as I've said, work was always a coping mechanism for me. So it's always kind of like, well, if we have to do it now or we like run out of money before launch and we're doing it now.
[117] And I don't care.
[118] Like I can work X, Y, and Z. And I actually have like a whole chapter in a book where I'm essentially talking about like that was the time that I felt most validated in being a hard worker and I felt like because I was I was in the library at 3am and I was also on the phone with the suppliers at you know 7 a .m the next morning and all of X, Y and Z and people could see it and I was living it.
[119] I was like hustling the hustle and that was when I was like wow like this is it like I am the hard worker like with capital H and W and like this is me and I think that that is like that kind of like sums it all up in the way that that was a huge challenge or some incredibly unwise challenge at the time and yet why did that feel like the time I was doing it right so that's actually that's a lot of what's spurred on essentially why I was writing the book because it was kind of like how can that be the epitome of hard work when that is also the epitome of not being productive like that's like completely unproductive and not useful for anyone.
[120] You're not going to be nice with the people you deal with at the time.
[121] You have a higher chance of actually like messing things up and all of that.
[122] And yet why was that the one time that I felt like truly validated for what I was doing?
[123] And you were broadcasting that.
[124] And I was broadcasting that.
[125] And there'll be people I'm sure who see me now who are like, but she, you know, did this and that.
[126] And like, yeah, sure, I work really hard.
[127] I really do.
[128] But there are some things that it's kind of like, I address that.
[129] And like, as I said to you, while I was writing the book, there were so many things that I noticed.
[130] So I was like, I'm the problem here as well.
[131] I perpetuate this.
[132] How can I criticize a culture, the hustle culture, that I benefit from at the same time?
[133] How can I do that?
[134] And I think that that's what made me, you know, that's why I say that this book was such like a soul searching process for me. Because I was like, you know, what is that?
[135] Why is that?
[136] Like, is that because I need the validation?
[137] Is that because we all need the validation now?
[138] Because hard work has become so unobtainable because it has to be doing this.
[139] job, that job, like everything in between, also being amazing at self -care, also doing like X, Y and Z. And I think that that's when I was kind of like, okay, this is a challenge, but it's not only a challenge.
[140] It was a silly thing to do.
[141] So it's not even like a, you know, there are things you have to do.
[142] There are crises you have to deal with and all of that that will be a challenge and will also be incredibly rewarding and all of that.
[143] And most of them are.
[144] But I think there are other things that you look at and you're like, yeah, this was a challenge.
[145] And it also didn't have to happen.
[146] It's not do that again.
[147] Did you know that the Dariovaccio now has its own channel exclusively on Samsung TV Plus?
[148] And I'm excited to say that we've partnered with Samsung TV to bring this to life and the channel is available in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.
[149] Samsung TV Plus is a free streaming service available to all owners of Samsung Smart TVs and Galaxy mobiles and tablets.
[150] And along with the Dari Vaseo channel, you'll find hundreds of more channels with entertainment for everyone all for free on Samsung TV Plus.
[151] So if you own a Samsung TV, tune in.
[152] now and watch the Dyer of a CEO channel right now.