Monday 24 May 2021

New Dragon

When Steven Bartlett was 12 he would pause the TV while watching Dragons' Den, deciding whether or not to invest in the idea he'd just heard. Then he'd deliver an answer as if he was the sixth Dragon. At 23, when his social media company Social Chain was making waves, he told his team over WhatsApp that one day he would be a Dragon. And last week, at 28, Steven was confirmed as the youngest ever Dragon on the long-running BBC show - making reality of a childhood dream. Being kicked out of school for poor attendance and dropping out of uni after one seminar might not seem like routes to success. But Steven knew he had what it took to succeed in business from a young age. "I approach the biggest challenges in my life - whether it's Dragon's Den, starting a business or a podcast - with this video game mindset where I'm holding the controller, I am not in the game. And that means the character can die. "At the end of the day if I fail at anything I'm doing, I'm going to be fine. I'm just holding the controller here, I'm not in the game."