Why Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO is all you need to know about the Great Resignation
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Why the cult-like success of Steven Bartlett's 'Diary of a CEO' is all you need to know about the Great Resignation
 Entrepreneurialism is the new rock 'n' roll so is it any wonder that being on the corporate conveyor belt has lost its appeal?
 Review of 'Diary of a CEO Live', London Palladium, 22.02.2022Â
The London Palladium’s corridors are filled with mementos of yesterday’s headliners, from Frank Sinatra to Lloyd Webber musicals, but the audience this evening are not here for distraction from their daily lives, but for inspiration; an altogether different kind of stardust. It is probably the most diverse audience that the Palladium has ever seen, all eagerly awaiting rockstar entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, founder of a multi-million-pound listed company, now host of the UK’s No.1 podcast, Diary of a CEO. He’s also the youngest ever dragon on BBC1’s Dragon’s Den.
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Bartlett walks onto the stage, dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt, and takes a seat with his infamous diary in hand. He deliberately projects an everyman image, and in many ways is a poster boy for our times. Forget Love Island insta-famous and airbrushed perfectibility, Bartlett is a new type of influencer; a teacher, a sage, an accessible big brother that inspires action not envy. As the young crowd claps, roars and leaps to their feet, swaying to the gospel choir that accompanies his life story, this audience are followers in the truest sense of the word.Â
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Bartlett’s story as a working class bi-racial kid from a predominantly white town is one of struggle and structural racism, but also of self-discovery. His journey from college drop-out to social media millionaire is a modern Pilgrim’s Progress full of temptation, sacrifice and eventual enlightenment. Bartlett’s yet another college quitter who scaled the heights of unimaginable success; a fact that undoubtedly resonated with the young audience for whom tertiary education is no longer a guaranteed path to social mobility, only guaranteed debt.Â
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Bartlett’s allure lies not just in his story but his ability to quit. In 2019, he took his company, Social Chain, public on the Dusseldorf Stock Exchange- the pinnacle for any founder - but left a year later.  ‘Quitting is for winners’ he once tweeted in one of his many bitesize philosophical musings, ‘knowing when to quit, change direction….demand more from life, give up on something….is a very important skill that people who win at life all seem to have’. A tweet that would have spoken to anyone who has just endured two years on Zoom in a job they hated.
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Steven Bartlett’s precise appeal however lies in his 21st century definition of success. Happy Sexy Millionaire is the title of his best-selling autobiography. And it is meant to be ironic. For Bartlett, happiness is found not in hot girls, Lamborghinis and dollar signs, but in sincerity and humility. And his stage show is a re-telling of this story packaged so that it applies to us all. He says little about how he built his business or led his team, instead we hear how he discovered true empathy and conquered his ego. He’s the Dalai Lama crossed with Tony Robbins. His message is a deliberate antidote to 1980s materialism of our childhood, the Tech-bro culture of yesteryear and flies in the face of today’s one click-consumption. And yet, this is an overwhelmingly individualistic philosophy; forget structural obstacles, the only obstacle to your happiness is yourself, Bartlett preaches. He struts around the stage urging us all to appreciate that ‘validation is an inside job’ and our goal is to ‘follow our passion’.Â
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Why is this important? Well, because Bartlett’s message, whether intentionally or not, is one that captures the post-pandemic burnout mood, and one that is fuelling the Great Resignation. Put simply, it is a philosophy that all companies should be terrified of. There are many of course who dispute whether the Great Resignation exists, but ask anyone hiring right now; recruitment and retention has never been harder. Legal firms are reportedly offering £150k starting salaries. And on anecdotal level, I spoke to one financial services company which is struggling to even train their 1st class grads who are completely disengaged with their jobs. I've heard of agencies extending the search for talent to South Africa because there is no time difference. Another HR director told me (only partly in jest): ‘you wouldn’t believe how many people have left us to start cupcake businesses’.
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Anyone hiring these days should start with Reddit’s #antiwork thread or #greatresignation on TikTok to get a sense of how young people are talking and being educated about work. Grad schemes are no longer the golden ticket but now a prison from which many feel they need to escape. Who can blame them? Many of those in corporate jobs have spent the last two years staring at a green dot working not from the comfort of a home office, but their bedroom, quite often from their bed. And staying in the same job with flexible working as a sweetener is not the answer. In between Zooms (or maybe during), your young recruits are scrolling their Insta stories and up will pop Steven Bartlett, this generation’s John Lennon, telling them, ‘All you Need is You’ and to imagine a life that is better.Â
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We are living in the age of hyper individualism, a force whose origins date back to the 1960s, but one that has reached its zenith today. It’s recent surge has been fuelled by over-parenting, an individualistic and high-pressured education system, comparison culture and personalised technology. It is an insurmountable force. Put bluntly, your well-intentioned and well-thought out corporate values on your website are competing with the individualistic identities of kids who have been building their brand and ‘net-rep’ since they were in their early teens. And this is why maverick entrepreneurs, like Bartlett, are today’s sages; for the way they embody (unlike any organisation) that need for autonomy, building something that reflects their values, and the quest and excitement of embarking on a journey of self-fulfilment.Â
So what can companies do to counter the Bartlett philosophy? They can’t, so they need to embrace it. By creating workplaces that allow the individual to thrive through creative self-expression, personalised learning and allowing their full identities to be realised in an environment that actually offers them the security and support they wouldn't have if they chanced it alone. That’s easier said than done of course, but in an age of automation, it has never been more possible and more economical to allow humans to do what they do best, and let machines do the rest.Â
Stuff I've read....
1. Brilliant read on how the internet is covering the Ukrainian invasionÂ
2. How the rich wipe themselves from Google
3. Spotify has a Gen Z problem...
4. All your kids are learning to code in schools; here's why it's pointless (by a coder)
Feast for the Senses....
1.READING: The Nowhere Office by Julia Hobsbawn. Vital reading for anyone who cares about the future of work.Â
2. LISTENING: Mostly Cocomelon on my Spotify right now to appease my 18-month old. (Don't judge, it is the second-most viewed channel on YouTube).
3. WATCHING: Mostly TikTok because it is the funniest, most creative place on-line right now. But for how much longer?
4. VISITING: On a 'UK tour' of all the Mission agencies as I am now formally a Non-Exec on their board. Â