#038 The Reinvention Pause | Mike Stopforth

Mike Stopforth, guest · [01:36]I think it was largely an instinctive decision. I Had had such a great journey running Cerebra and I'd learned so many lessons through the process and like many people I think I'd fantasized about what I might do with my time if it was unencumbered by the responsibilities of the job or profession or whatever it is that we become used to you know kind of in our day to day lives and towards the latter part of my tenure at Cerebra I started thinking about going back to business school as it were to get a degree. I had failed to get my undergrad degree I'd actually dropped out of university before starting a business I dropped out of university twice much to the eternal chagrin of my parents and I'd be lying if I if I said that that didn't bug me a little bit that I hadn't actually got that Piece of paper that said that I was, qualified in inverted commas. I was legitimized by some tertiary institution. And so, I did some homework as to executive masters programs that looked like a good fit for me. I'd had several friends go through the MBA process, and that was obviously an exciting and challenging prospect. And then I found a, a program at the London School of Economics that was focused around entrepreneurship in the social impact realm. And I was actually really intrigued by that. I think partly because I've always been left-leaning in my politics and partly because I grew up in a country and ran a business in a country that has significant social, inequalities and social challenges to overcome. And also because I think business is a really interesting way to look at solving some problems in the, in the social sphere. So yes, I signed up for their program. That was what happened. There wasn't a hell of a lot of thought or planning in it though, Petro. I think most people, yourself included, do a much better job of planning things. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants a little bit. So yeah.

Mike Stopforth, guest · [07:28]It became a little bit harder. When things didn't go according to plan. And when I say things didn't go according to plan, I had earmarked 2019 to do the master's degree. I completed that degree at the end of 2019. I had some amazing ideas of things I wanted to do in the world. And I was looking at office space in Santon and I had lease agreements in front of me in January 2020. And then these whispers of a, you know, a concerning trend around the world started to appear. And so I kind of put everything on hold for a little bit. And before I knew it, there we were in lockdown and the whole world had changed around me. And that year I turned 40 and I had to come to terms with the fact that I couldn't, or I felt didn't feel comfortable trading on being the ex-CEO of Cerebra anymore. I felt like there was a statute of limitations and how long I could take credit for my legacy. And all of a sudden I was kind of identityless. I didn't have That moniker to go by anymore. And I was getting really tired of going to social events once we were out of lockdown and back to a level of normality and people asking me, well, you know, what are you doing now? And me not being able to answer that with any real, really interesting or compelling answer. I'm working on stuff, you know, which felt terrible. I hated saying that. I just wanted to be able to tell them I've created this new thing and it's amazing and you've read about it in the press and blah, blah, blah. and I suppose, you know, the lesson in that was that I was framing all of my experiences through other people's opinions of me rather than what I wanted and what was important to me and what I really cared about. And, and, I'd gotten so hung up on creating a next chapter that was amazing and incredible in the minds of everybody else that I'd lost touch with what was really important and true for me. And it, yeah, took some really hard work and some proper Therapy and, some, yeah, painful experiences, I think, to come around to that. So yeah, it went according to plan initially, and then over the next kind of two or three years went much less according to plan.

Mike Stopforth, guest · [11:43]I learned I can be flippant and arrogant in the assessment of my own capability. I think the biggest lesson I learned, Petro, was that I spent an overwhelming amount of time being really, really hard on myself about the version of things That existed through the lens of everybody else's opinions. I was at the ripe old age of 40, way too concerned with what my fellow entrepreneurs thought I was, or thought of what I was doing, what my mentors and teachers thought of what I was doing. And yeah, I got, I think I got way too, too preoccupied with that. And so I got so obsessed with trying to come up with a perfect version or idea of my next chapter that I landed up just not doing anything. And the longer I didn't do anything, the worse the anxiety became. And so this kind of negative cycle perpetuated on itself. The moment I started doing things, whether it was writing or coming up with, with new concepts or starting a little business, then, then things started happening around that. So I think my most valuable lesson was a A really bad version of something in reality is always going to be better than a perfect idea that is, you know, never executed or lives only in, in, in concept. And so getting a lot of bad ideas or bad execution into the world, very quickly helped me realize where I was confident, capable, and, and, and happy versus all of the highfaluted ideas that didn't necessarily have any value or meaning to them.

Mike Stopforth, guest · [13:42]I think I would have written a lot more and, and not necessarily, cause what I did want to do is try and write something. I was, I kept trying to write a manuscript or come up with, again, come up with an idea, something meaningful and powerful and impactful. And actually just writing is my very best way of turning ideas into reality, figuring out ways of thinking and ways of solving problems. So I would have written a lot more. I should have written a lot more. I probably should have asked for help earlier. And I don't mean I'm down in the dumps. I need help. Just reflecting with friends, doing exactly what you're doing. You're, you're going through the exercise of refining your ideas through a sieve, through a, through the lens of other people's experiences and stories, which is extraordinarily powerful, and I think you should be credited for it. But that, just that exercise I think is very useful as a way of sort of articulating, defining one's next, steps. And then also, I suppose, asking for help when I really did need it. It took me a very long time to go, I'm not okay, and I need support, and actually I'm feeling pretty bewildered and uncoordinated here, and it would be great to have somebody. And the moment I did ask for help, it was abundant. And yeah, I probably took a little, little, little too long to do that. Yeah, those are some of the things I think I would do differently.

Mike Stopforth, guest · [20:18]Yeah, I, I think you're onto something really interesting there, Petro, because I think I was avoiding a lot of the things I associated with my professional experience thus far because I had conflated the worst parts of my kind of corporate experience with those parts of me that kind of enjoyed that kind of work, if that makes sense, right? The, the reality is if any of us have achieved any level of success in our, in our professional lives, it's because we're good at something. Or a set of things that we find a kind of a groove, either as an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur or as a corporate citizen or whatever it might be, or a public servant. We find a way to exercise those skills and gifts, and we very seldom take heed of how good we've gotten at them, how much progress we've actually made. You become a specialist. You do your 10,000, in some cases 30,000 hours of refining that work to a scalpel's edge of effectiveness. And then the downside is maybe we get to the end of a professional chapter and we go, I don't want to do that because that reminds me of the other stuff that wasn't great. But I think what I realized was I am good at those things. I'm really good at those things. And it was always surprising to me when I would speak to other people who are facing similar problems that I'd faced in the business, but at a different stage of their journey. And they would go, That makes so much sense. And I was like, yeah, but that makes, you know, that kind of, it was, it was a knee jerk thought for me. It was something that had been refined through years and years of, you know, kind of trials and tribulations in the industry. The, well, the point I'm getting to is that the things you're good at and what you did or what you experienced at work are two separate things because there's environment and then there's the skills in which you applied your trade. Sorry, there's the skills that you have in the environment in which you applied your trade. And those skills in the environment aren't always the same thing, right? Like you could have been a dental nurse, but in a very toxic environment and started hating what it is that you do. And then find that you go to a different practice, a different surgery, and all of a sudden you have an amazing experience because you're surrounded with good people who want to see you grow. And so I think trying to separate the skill set that you've acquired And the experience that you've acquired from the environment that you were expected to deliver it in is an important part of this journey because we are all incredibly skilled and we've gained wonderful experience and discounting that because maybe the environment didn't recognize it, it would be a shame, I think. There's something in that that I don't know how to articulate.

Mike Stopforth, guest · [25:40]Oh, yeah, I think tons, both on a personal and a professional level. I think, owing largely to the work that I did in the, in the middle on both levels. It's also a different environment. you know, I ran a business where essentially I could make decisions with impunity. The downside of that was I had ultimate accountability as well. If things went pear-shaped, it was, it was my fault. Whereas in the environment I'm in now, there, there are more stakeholders and, there are more partners, and I'm getting used to getting, being married again, being married to professional, stakeholders and partners, and that's been a wonderful learning curve. There's parts where I think I've added a lot of value, there's parts where I think I've been quite bad at it because of either a set of assumptions that I made or, you know, me having to get used to being more consultative. I think even if you take a pure sabbatical and you sit on a Beach, for three months and do absolutely nothing whatsoever, you're going to be able to bring lessons back into, into the environment. I think that, you know, most of us that have achieved some level of professional success are geared towards that kind of way of being. And, you know, like I said, we all fantasize about doing nothing. And yet I think it would drive ninety nine point nine percent of us mad. I, I can barely do nothing for a half an hour at home and I've got to suddenly like get busy with something. And, you know, taking time away, I think, as you said, to refocus, I think also places a different lens on what it is that you do professionally and, and just offers you a level of perspective and objectivity that you might not have had before. So yes, certainly.