Stephen Newton: Find resilience through failure


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Authored by Hiscox Experts.
1 min read
 
Read Stephen Newton's unskippable advice

My advice to someone who’s starting now is you have to have the resilience to follow through. If you are going to give up before the dawn, you’ll never see the sun rise.

Hi, I’m Stephen Newton, and this is my unskippable minute.

I’m the founder and CEO of a company called Elixirr. I was 30 when I tried my first business, my son was 6 months old and I re-mortgaged my house.

I mean I remember when I started Elixirr, people said to me, you’re mad, no one needs another consulting firm.

Real lessons in life only come from when you try something and don’t succeed. And I think it’s a mindset thing, I think it’s having the willingness to say ‘I will fail’ and I’ll have to. It’s a basic human characteristic of resilience.

If you get things right actually, you don’t really learn much. Failure is the way you learn.

It’s also the failures I had in the past that help me know that I’m on the right track, or that there are things that I should avoid doing.

Successful entrepreneurship requires a real commitment, and the world doesn’t owe you any favours.

I think in actual fact more entrepreneurialism happens by virtue of swimming in the opposite direction regardless.

Take failure in your stride. Analyse it, and learn from it. Be honest with yourself, and know that you can take knocks and that you're ok to deal with those knocks when everyone's telling you you're wrong.

Disclaimer:
At Hiscox, we want to help your small business thrive. Our blog has many articles you may find relevant and useful as your business grows. But these articles aren’t professional advice. So, to find out more on a subject we cover here, please seek professional assistance.


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Hiscox Experts

The Hiscox Experts are leaders valued for their experience within the insurance industry. Their specialisms include areas such as professional indemnity and public liability, across industries including media, technology, and broader professional services. All content authored by the Hiscox Experts is in line with our editorial guidelines.