Success is a "lousy teacher"
The business news that matters
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Off to Lunch…
Success is a “lousy teacher” and suffering a failure teaches you the importance of embracing adversity and ego in business, according to the co-founder of New Covent Garden Soup and Little Dish, the food brands.
John Stapleton made the comments in the latest episode of our Business Leader podcast, which explores what business leaders can learn from failure.
Stapleton enjoyed success with New Covent Garden Soup and Little Dish. However, in-between those businesses he suffered a big failure when he tried to build a business that sold fresh soup in the US. He had to close the US venture when it ran out of money.
Before his business career, Stapleton was a promising athlete who competed for Ireland in the triple jump. However, he suffered another failure when his dream of reaching the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 (pictured above) was scuppered by injury. He eventually quit track-and-field.
“I think you can be very cocky when you've got a bit of success, whether it's in track-and-field or whether it's in business,” Stapleton says in the podcast episode. “You're kind of thinking, especially if it comes early - ‘This is how it works. I do this, this and this, and it's successful. Right, out of my way, I am going to do it again.’
“I think the failure to achieve the level in track-and-field that I thought I was capable of was a great lesson to me that life is unfair. But that's nothing to do with me. Nobody is singling me out, to say: ‘I'm going to screw you here’. Nobody's doing that. Life isn't like that. Life just goes on. Nobody cares.
“So it really brought home to me that bad things happen. But they're not your fault, and they're going to happen anyway. You can't undo them. All you can do is look forward.”
Stapleton says that after the failure of his US business - Glencoe Foods - he had a different approach to his third business, Little Dish, which produced healthy ready meals for young children. The failure of the business in the US was “very difficult to deal with” and a “huge emotional drag”, he said.
“One of the things I say [today] is about adversity - embrace adversity,” Stapleton adds. “If you have got anything worthwhile to do, you're going to get knockbacks, setbacks, and challenges. I would switch that around and say that if you're not encountering adversity you're not doing anything worthwhile. That means you're playing it safe. Who achieved anything worthwhile or exciting or successful by playing it safe? Adversity means that you’re getting knocked over all the time. So it's really tough. But it probably means you're on to a good thing.”
Ego is also a key attribute for entrepreneurs, according to Stapleton. “I’m a great believer that entrepreneurship equals ego,” he says. “You have to be able to take those things in your stride that knock you over time and time and time again. If you didn't, you would never get out of the blocks. Even if you did a little bit then your life will be miserable, because you're constantly thinking about how life is unfair and how everybody's out to get you. And they're not. They don't care.”
You can find out why Stapleton’s Olympics dream and Glencoe failed by listening to the podcast episode in full. It is available on Substack here, Apple here or Spotify here
Other stories that matter…
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The new Business Leader…
The new Business Leader website and magazine have now launched. We are building a new inspirational, aspirational and agenda-setting business publication for the UK. You can read our analysis, interviews and expert columnists on our website by clicking the image below. Our new magazine is on its way to shops and you can subscribe to your own print or digital version by clicking here
And finally…
For those looking for a TV show that offers some lighter viewing while also covering (and celebrating) the intricacies of a profession, I recommend The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. The show is based on books by Michael Connelly and follows a hot-shot defence lawyer in Los Angeles as he handles tricky cases. The first season was a hit during Covid lockdowns, the second was released last year, and a third has been announced and is on the way. You can find The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix here
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