Everything Can Be Rebuilt

I learned that the hard way. Before I came to America, I had a nice house and a growing business. I had built an electrical firm that is still the second biggest in London. Then, almost overnight, I lost it all and had to leave the firm I'd built.

It wasn't the first time I'd been poor. I grew up very poor. But losing everything as an adult taught me something I couldn't have learned any other way: everything can be rebuilt.

This guide is about what that looks like in practice.

Start before you feel ready

I think a lot of people waste years of their lives trying to make the perfect decision, build the perfect plan, or wait until they know exactly what they're doing.

There is no perfect situation. There's just not. My move to America was far from perfect.

Here's the truth I keep coming back to: I've never been ready for any of the bad that's come my way. But I've never been ready for any of the good either. Most of the good things I've done, I wasn't ready for.

So my approach is simple. Get close enough, make the move, and fix it as you go. No one has it all figured out. Everyone is making it up as they go along.

Make the best decision you can, then adjust

You make the best decision you can with the information you have. Then you move, and you adjust.

The important thing isn't being right the first time. It's being able to recognize, with humility, when something isn't working and change direction.

I've had to do this recently in my own business. Up until now, all of our clients have come through word of mouth. I had to lean on my own advice and admit that it isn't sustainable. So I've started putting money into ads. That's how it goes. You notice what isn't working, and you change it.

Failure teaches what nothing else can

After I lost everything, I started three businesses. Most of them flopped. One did okay, paid our bills, and I eventually sold it. Then I found what I'm genuinely good at, which is marketing, and that's what I do now at Fix Scale Grow.

I wouldn't have found that without the failures first.

There's a certain humility in failing that you don't get any other way. It's the college of hard knocks. You really don't get the opportunity to learn the hard lessons anywhere else.

Build a life you can rebuild

Today, I build myself out so that if something were to happen, I could rebuild within three months.

That's the shift. Losing everything didn't make me afraid of losing again. It made me prepared for it. When you know you can rebuild, the fear of failing loses a lot of its grip, and it becomes much easier to take the jump.

Don't waste the years

We're here and gone so quickly. We only really get thirty to forty years of usable life with that youthful energy.

Before that runs out, I want to make sure I have the finances and a business that runs without me, so I can do the things I want to do later on. I can't wait to sit in my chair with a nice cigar, telling the grandkids about everything I went through.

That only happens if you stop waiting and start moving.

Lean on something when it gets hard

There's a line from Tom Hanks I think of every time things go wrong: it will be okay in the end, and if it's not okay, it's not the end.

That mantra has stuck with my wife and me throughout our relationship. We've been through some really hard times together, and every time, we lean on that understanding.

Find your version of that line. You'll need it.

Pitfalls to avoid

The following is general guidance for applying this idea in a firm.

• Waiting for perfect conditions: A new service, a pricing change, or a new marketing channel will never feel fully ready. Set a "close enough" bar and commit to it.
• Confusing commitment with stubbornness: Moving fast only works if you're willing to check your results and change course when something isn't working.
• Having no safety net: Taking the jump is easier when you've thought about what rebuilding would look like. Without that, every risk feels bigger than it is.
• Treating failure as final: A service that doesn't land or a channel that doesn't perform is information, not a verdict on you or your firm.
• Relying on one source of anything: One referral source, one major client, or one way of doing things can leave you exposed if it changes.

You'll never feel completely ready, for the good or the bad. But everything can be rebuilt, and nothing is ever the end.