John Stevenson's Linkedin Analytics

The most successful people I’ve ever met have this one thing in common: They handle setbacks and failures completely different to 90% of people. The truth is, success is the lousiest of teachers.  When everything is going well, you’re not really learning much, you’re just riding a wave. But you learn a lot more about yourself when things go sideways. Every great business I’ve seen over the last 30 years has been shaped more by what went wrong than by what went right. Because the failures force you to: – Look at what’s broken – Fix it – Put something in place so it doesn’t happen again. Failing forward is crucial for anyone looking to build something substantial. For example in my case, when I exited my last business (before Zero Procure), my entire pension literally disappeared overnight. One paragraph in an email. Gone. So what do you do there?  Cry into your beer? Feel sorry for yourself? Or do you use it as fuel? What I did was was took the hit and built Zero Procure to be even better than I originally envisioned. Ultimately, setbacks aren’t the end of the road, they’re just course corrections. The question isn’t if you’ll fail. It’s how you’ll respond when you do.

I’ve always loved the saying: “Eat the elephant in slices.” Big problems can feel overwhelming. The kind that make you want to put your head in your hands and think, Where do I even start? Truth is, you don’t have to do it all at once. You just have to do something. Whenever I’m faced with something massive like a tough decision, or a problem that seems too complex to untangle, I just break it down in small steps. Some questions I ask myself: What’s the first thing I can do right now? What’s the next logical step after that? What’s the smallest action that will create momentum? Because here’s what happens: Once you solve the first couple of small things, the bigger picture starts to make sense. You begin to see the connections, and suddenly, the problem doesn’t seem quite so impossible anymore. So I don’t waste time worrying about how to fix everything at once. I just start. Then I trust that experience, logic, and momentum will guide me through the rest. If you’ve got something big in front of you right now, don’t overthink. Take a bite. Then another. Before you know it, you’re halfway there. How do you make big tasks more manageable?

If you truly believe something will work, you’ll do whatever you can to make it happen. This isn’t blind optimism or wishful thinking.  It’s having an unshakable belief in what you’re doing (especially when things don’t go your way). At the end of the day, setbacks are part of the game. No business, no career, no big idea happens without hitting a few walls along the way. But every time something doesn’t go to plan, you’ve got two choices: 1️⃣ See it as a failure and let it shake your confidence. 2️⃣ Take the lesson, adjust, and keep moving. It’s always a good idea to go with option 2. I’m a huge believer in trusting my gut. Some of the best decisions I’ve ever made weren’t based on spreadsheets or endless analysis - they came from knowing, deep down, that something felt right. Now that doesn’t mean you ignore logic or the data in front of you. It means you learn to trust yourself. If you truly believe something will work, you’ll find a way. And if it doesn’t? You take the hit, learn from it, and go again.

Brilliant opportunity👏

What a wonderful dinner on Tuesday night at the superb Devonshire Soho with the guys who made the deal for Zero Procure to join the Foodbuy UK& I group of companies. Getting it in the diary took a while, but it was worth the wait! The future with this exceptional team looks brighter than ever Matt GoodwinKarl AtkinsClive SheppardLucy Flinter

Focus on what you can control, and let go of the rest. From my experience, there are two circles in life: 1️⃣ Your circle of influence (things you can control). 2️⃣ Your circle of concern (things you can’t control). Spend too much time worrying about the second one, and you’re wasting A LOT of your energy. The truth is: You can’t always control what happens, but you can control how you respond to it. You can choose to let a setback ruin your week.  Or you can decide to take it on the chin and move forward. You can stew over a decision someone else made. Or you can focus on making the next best move for yourself. One thing I’ve learned is that holding onto negative energy is never a good strategy. How many times have you been devastated over something (a business deal gone wrong, a relationship ending, a mistake you made), only to realise later… It didn’t matter as much as you thought it did? Time has a funny way of making everything feel less significant. So why not fast-track that process? If it won’t matter in a year, don’t let it control your day. What’s something you’ve learned to let go of?

Most of the advice you see on the internet is absolute rubbish. (Which I know sounds rich coming from me while posting this on the internet 🤣) But everyone’s an “expert” these days, handing out business wisdom like it’s gospel. But here’s something I was told by the chairman of my last company, and it’s stuck with me ever since: "You’ll usually find the answer you’re looking for when you’re shaving in the morning. Just look in the mirror." At first, I thought, What the hell does that mean? But then it clicked. Most of the time, you already know what you need to do. We have way more power in situations than we think. But instead of trusting ourselves, we go looking for validation, overcomplicating things, or waiting for someone else to tell us what to do. Here’s what I’ve learned: If you ignore your gut and you’re right? You’ll kick yourself for not listening. If you trust your gut and you’re wrong? At least you made the call for the right reasons. It’s completely okay to be wrong. But if you keep second-guessing yourself and waiting for permission, you’ll waste time and opportunities. So next time you’re overthinking a decision, do yourself a favour… Skip the online advice, look in the mirror, and back yourself.