Dragons’ Den’s Steven Bartlett on why knowledge is power when it comes to money
The Diary of a CEO podcast host is encouraging us to take action on achieving our ambitions.
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Your support makes all the difference.Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett believes “knowledge is power” when it comes to managing money – and he’s gained his own financial know-how the hard way.
The Diary of a CEO podcast host has teamed up with NatWest to create a series of motivational videos, helping people to take action to reach their goals.
NatWest found that money management is one of the most common things we procrastinate about – something that may cause particular problems in the current tough financial climate.
“If there was ever a time to be talking about financial management and taking control of your money, it’s definitely now,” says Bartlett.
“Knowledge is power at the end of the day… but it’s not until you understand some of the practical steps you can take and you start thinking in slightly more astute ways that you realise how much of your spending and saving has been a bit of a passive exercise.
“That was certainly the case for me for much of my career, specifically my earlier career, before I understood the rules of money.”
The entrepreneur left home at 18 – and admits that he did not initially have a clue about managing or earning money.
Looking back on his younger days, he says he wishes he’d been told about savings, credit scores and tax.
He says that “there’s just too many people that don’t have knowledge” around money and he’s keen to help “level the playing field”. In fact, he has a particular interest in helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
For Bartlett, spending his days discussing investments and savings “has turned the lights on for my financial management”.
He highlights how “taking a birds eye view” to get an overall picture of spending and saving habits is something we can all benefit from.
“One of the things I’ve been able to realise with my money is that a lot of it leaked away on things that weren’t aligned with my goals, my future and my intentions.”
He’s also fascinated by the big impact that investing small amounts can have over time.”People think that investing your money is something for Dragons – They think it’s something for millionaires or billionaires,” he says.”That’s certainly not the case.”
So is it the person or the product that comes first when he makes his own investing decisions?
“It’s definitely the person first, because a great entrepreneur with a bad idea, there’s still some hope in that and the hope comes from the fact that the entrepreneur might pivot, they’ll listen to what the market’s saying, they’ll listen to customers, and they’ll change direction.
“I’ve almost never seen a business where the founding hypothesis of what this business was going to do and the problem it was going to solve in the world ended up being what the actual business became. Even with my businesses…
A great entrepreneur with a bad idea, there's still some hope in that...
“My point there is, a great entrepreneur with a bad idea, I’d still back, to some degree. But a bad entrepreneur with a great idea is a very bad idea.
“Someone’s character is the biggest single predictor of how they’ll behave in the future.
“I’m not going to be there every day… but if I understand your character I’ll have some indication of how you’ll make decisions and that’s the most important thing.
“Will you listen to the market? Will you be nice? Will you work hard? Will you be smart? That all comes from knowing the entrepreneur.”
NatWest found that nearly one in five (18%) of us put off managing our finances, while a quarter (25%) put off cleaning jobs around the home.
Bartlett says that what motivates him is “striving towards meaningful, challenging goals, surrounded by people I love”.
But there are some areas of life where even a highly successful entrepreneur like Bartlett has to push himself.
“I’m not naturally incredibly organised,” he admits, “that’s something I’ve had to learn over time and lean into, because I understand the importance of organisation, whether it relates to money, or businesses or teams or whatever else.”
He adds: “I probably take on way too many things.”
Ultimately, money is the fuel that enables all of our dreams
And if you’re still finding it hard to feel motivated about money management, Bartlett says: “Ultimately, money is the fuel that enables all of our dreams.
“So getting ahead of it, and getting a grasp of it, is really getting a grasp of your own future and your own goals.
“And I see that in entrepreneurs. It sometimes takes an entrepreneur to go bankrupt and for their business to fail. And then you see in their second business… they have complete and total focus on something that was ‘boring’ – which was money.
“Because it is the engine room of all of your dreams, it is the engine room of your business, your future and everything.”
Watch Steven Bartlett’s Money Motivation series with NatWest atnatwest.com/moneymotivation.