Simon is an experienced Executive and Entrepreneur in the consumer sector, most recently as co-founder of The Healing Company, a New York-based Consumer Health aggregator he built with Dr Deepak Chopra and Steven Bartlett. Previously, has 20 years experience building and running consumer tech, ecomm and retail businesses across the UK and US, including Jet.com (as part of Walmart), Tesco.com, Not on the High Street (exited to PE), Ocado and Equinox Media, the fitness-tech platform within SoulCycle / Equinox Group.
1. What values are most important to you as a leader?
Trust – whatever role Technology plays, business is really about people and relationships. And relationships ultimately rely on a lot of trust. You can’t write a legal contract for everything to happen! Trust is also earned and spent and it’s important to consider this bank balance all the time.
Integrity – we are constantly confronted with different options and paths we can take. Often it’s a choice between the easy way or the right way – they don’t always align! Its critical that as leaders we choose the right way and so for a leader, having a good moral compass is critical
Humility – business and entrepreneurialism often is about learning by doing. After all, the definition of entrepreneurialism is doing something new and taking risks. Which means that we will often get things wrong. Being willing to admit mistakes, ask for help, learn from others and change direction if needed – particularly in an early stage company – is critical. Having a growth mindset requires us to be humble
Resilience – it’s incredible how many obstacles you have to overcome to get something off the ground. It sounds cliché but you will get 99 nos for every yes. Small things will trip you up. Cash will be a stretch. Family will be hard to balance. The definition of resilience is about the ability to bounce back from whatever puts you down, which is tremendously hard. But as leaders its our job to be resilient, to be realistic about today but optimistic about tomorrow
2. Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with some great entrepreneurs and leaders who have been mentors to me and taught me so much about leadership and entrepreneurship, from Sir Terry Leahy, Doug McMillon, Tim Steiner, Steve Bartlett, Marc Lore among them (even Elon Musk – another story!). But inspiration wise, these days it has to be my two boys. My perspective changed becoming a parent 2 years ago, and as an older dad, managing my energy and health so that I can be present for my family and full on in my work, is an inspiration (and challenge) every day.
3. Best piece of advice you have been given?
Everything compounds. One of the most powerful laws in the Universe! Small choices, actions taken daily, done consistently, build up to big changes over time.
Getting 1% better every day means by the end of a year you will be 37x better than the start of the year
Equally, bad habits can take you in the other direction too, so be deliberate about the small things and try to make sure everything you do is in the direction you want to take your business, health, wealth, relationships. As I’ve got older this is what I’ve learned manifesting to be too. Manifesting isn’t about magical thinking, but it’s about consciously setting your mind to a goal and incrementally doing things that move you in that direction. If we do that consistently, over time we can achieve incredible things.
4. What would you tell your younger self?
Be patient! We are all on our own timeline, so don’t compare yourself to others. Comparison really is the thief of joy and the grass is not always greener! I’ve chased “shiny objects” – things that seem more more attractive in the moment – many times in my life, only to look back and realise the better option would have been to stick things out. The best things in life are very often on the other side of difficult and hard situations and a big part of the richness of life is about learning to work through those.
5. What has been your most important or profound lesson as a leader?
So so many!! Wow. Life is a collection of good and hard lessons. If I had to name one its probably best summarised by the Victor Frankl quote –
“In between the stimulus, and the response, there is space, and in that space is the power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom”
Taking a second, a minute, an hour to choose how we respond to any situation is often the difference between a good outcome and a bad one. Especially important as the world speeds up and technology enables us to react almost instantly. Learning to breathe, listen to our gut, and consciously choose a direction (rather than letting our monkey brains control things!) is something I’ve constantly worked on as a leader.
