Most Founders Are the Biggest Risk to Their Own Business

Eugene Amo-Dadzie has been fast his whole life. He knew it. His teachers knew it. His parents knew it.He just never actually tried.From the age of nine, Eugene was the fastest kid in the school. He grew up watching Usain Bolt and dreamed of the track. But running was always just a hobby — something to enjoy, never something to pursue. His parents pushed academics. His culture valued qualifications. And somewhere along the way, Eugene made a quiet peace with never finding out how good he actually was.For years he was the guy who said: if I had tried, I could have done it.Then, at 26, standing beside an athletics track in Woodford, his best friend turned to him and said: think you could put a pair of spikes on and beat these guys?In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Eugene tells the story of what happened when he finally said yes. A debut season that ended with a torn hamstring. A British Championship silver medal. A sub-10-second 100 metres. And a semi-final at the World Athletics Championships — where he lined up against the Olympic champion, the World champion, and the Commonwealth champion in the same race.All of it starting at 26. All of it built around a full-time accounting career, a wife, a daughter, and a job he loves.Key Takeaways- Why Eugene spent years believing in his talent without ever testing it — and what finally changed- What the Parable of the Talents taught him about buried potential- How to handle a setback that arrives before you have even properly started- What it takes to balance elite sport with a full-time career, a family, and faith🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Caryl Meyers was a professional West End dancer. An injury ended her career with no plan B.That same no-plan-B mentality drove her from Apple business specialist to digital course builder to one of the most practical voices on AI implementation for founders in the UK.In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with Caryl to talk about why most founders are getting AI completely wrong, why tools without infrastructure create more problems than they solve, and how her Simplify, Automate, Amplify framework helps founders compete at scale without a large team.We get into speed to lead, the opportunity quadrant, and why the founders who do not adapt now will find themselves looking up at competitors they did not even know existed.Key Takeaways• Why choosing tools over infrastructure is the number one AI mistake founders make• The Simplify, Automate, Amplify framework explained step by step• How AI levels the playing field for a team of one• What happens to founders who wait🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up.As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

If you're buying or selling internationally, there's a good chance you're losing money - without realising it.In this episode, Lawrence Bennett (UK Country Manager of WorldFirst) breaks down the hidden costs most founders overlook when scaling globally.We cover:- Why "convenience" is costing you margin- The double conversion trap- How FX impacts your bottom line- What founders should actually be doing insteadIf you're scaling internationally, this is something you need to understand early.NOTE:The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and are provided for general informational purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes financial advice, investment advice, tax advice, or a recommendation to enter into any financial transaction.Foreign exchange (FX) products, including forward contracts, involve risk. You should seek independent professional advice before entering into any FX transaction.World First UK Limited is a UK registered limited company with company number 05022388 and is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") as an Electronic Money Institution under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 with FCA Firm Reference number 900508.WORLDFIRST WEBSITE 👉 https://www.worldfirst.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=screw_it_just_do_it&utm_content=lawrence_interview🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Kirk Miller spent five years as a plumber who hated every day of it.He was in shape. He had the body. He looked like he had it together. Internally, he was miserable.In 2010, he won the Men's Health cover model competition and used that moment as the proof he needed to jump. He quit with five hours of personal training booked, no car, and a borrowed work van to get around Coventry. As long as he could pay his bills, eat, and keep a roof over his head, he was going.Twenty years later, Kirk runs Built To Last, a six-pillar performance coaching system used by founders, CEOs, and high-net-worth entrepreneurs who want to stop treating their health as an afterthought and start building it as a competitive advantage.In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Kirk and Alex unpack why the systems that worked in your twenties will not carry you through building a business, why willpower is not a strategy, and what two decades of coaching high performers has taught Kirk about the real cost of founders ignoring their health.Key Takeaways:- Why most founders are using outdated health systems built for a life they no longer live- The three non-negotiables to schedule every week before anything else- Why your state drives your decisions and what that costs you in business- The difference between emotional confidence and the confidence tied to your bank balance- What the most emotionally content and consistently wealthy entrepreneurs Kirk coaches all have in common🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Thousands of people were already building their own version.No brand. No product. No one selling to them.She saw it… and decided to build anyway.In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Laura Fullerton talks about the Screw It Just DO It moment that led her to build a hardware and software business from scratch, why fundraising nearly broke her last year, and the one thing she believes every founder gets wrong before they get it right.We also get into what it actually costs to build a company, why quitting is not even an option for a certain type of founder, and why your network is the only asset that compounds in the same way as your ambition.Key Takeaways:Why markets often exist before businesses doThe importance of noticing behaviour, not ideasWhat early-stage building actually demands mentallyWhy network becomes leverage under pressure🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up.As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Don’t miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Dr Guy Sandleowsky spent six years becoming a vet. He was seeing 20 to 30 pets a day. He was heading toward a specialist surgery career. And he chose to walk away.Not because it was not working. Because it was not enough. He wanted to help hundreds of thousands of animals, not dozens. And he believed a business could get him there.In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Guy explains how he left a clinical career everyone around him supported to do an MBA no one thought he needed, how he co-founded Omni using novel proteins to address a dog health crisis most owners do not know exists, and what happened when he and his co-founder walked into Dragons' Den with a dog that immediately ate six portions and was sick on camera.Key Takeaways:- Why the moment that almost stopped him was not failure but fear of wasted sacrifice- How 91% approval from raw-meat-feeding dog owners proved the product before a single ad was spent- What Stephen Bartlett and Deborah Meaden actually said when the cameras stopped rolling- Why Guy has refused to hide who he is despite losing investment deals because of it- The practical advice for anyone sitting on a business idea while still in a job🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.🔥 If you're serious about growing your business, join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3-4 November 2026 at the NEC Birmingham.👉 Subscribe now and be part of the movement.

Roxie Nafousi went from addiction, no purpose and rock bottom… to building a global brand and selling over 1 million books.In this episode, she shares the real turning point that changed everything — and why success isn’t always linear.We also talk about:What rock bottom really felt likeThe moment everything shiftedBuilding a brand that sells out in 48 hoursAnd why her latest launch didn’t go to planListen to the full episode and let us know your biggest takeaway.

He couldn’t read. Couldn’t write. And was told he had no chance of running a business.So he started one anyway.Decades later he runs a £30 million-plus portfolio: commercial property, a luxury wedding venue, a mastermind for business owners stuck at the two million pound mark, and a growing personal brand.In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with James Martin to unpack the full story. From cutting grass on a mower with a swapped-out engine to walk into contracts, to buying back his own tree surgery company from a receiver for fifty grand after a corporate buyer destroyed it, to building an entire business model around neurodiverse thinkers.We talk about growing up in a pub with a dyslexia diagnosis that felt like a life sentence, why he treats his teacher's words as fuel rather than scars, how he learned to run a business without being able to read a book, and what he now tells every founder who is stuck getting out of the van.If you are building something and feel like the system was not designed for you, this one is for you.Key TakeawaysWhy being underestimated can become leverageThe role of defiance in early entrepreneurshipWhy traditional paths don’t fit everyoneHow failure tolerance changes decision-making🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.🔥 If you're serious about growing your business, join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3-4 November 2026 at the NEC Birmingham.👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

It was meant to be a side project. Six months. No real risk.Two years later, he had quit his job, spent his life savings, and there was no way back.In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with Ben Branson, founder of Seedlip, to unpack how nine generations of farming, a dad in brand design, and one disgusting pink mocktail led to him creating the category of premium non-alcoholic spirits.We talk about how the business almost never existed, why naming is a horrible process, what standing at a Selfridges shelf for three weeks teaches you about customers, and the moment Ben realised he absolutely loves numbers.If you are building something and wondering whether to go all in or keep it as a side project, this one is for you.Key Takeaways- When a side project quietly becomes your main riskWhy most founders don’t notice the point of no returnThe difference between planning and commitmentWhy finishing something changes everything🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham. Two days of real conversations, practical insight, and founder-led growth.👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Gurthro Steenkamp won a Rugby World Cup. He coached at the highest level in European rugby. He had every reason to stay in that world.Then his daughter asked him why she could never see him like the other children saw their dads.That broke him.In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Coach G explains how he walked away from a full-time coaching role at La Rochelle at 44 and went all in on his own business, why he stopped chasing a vision and started chasing an identity, and what it actually means to be fulfilled versus just successful.We talk about the scrum of entrepreneurship, what rugby taught him that nothing else could, why authenticity is the only real growth strategy, and why vision without action just remains a dream.Key TakeawaysThe moment success stops feeling meaningfulWhy identity matters more than external achievementThe cost of staying in the wrong role too longWhy action creates clarity, not the other way around🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up.As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk