In the fifth instalment of Having a Crack, Simon Davies looks at why the hardest periods of running a business can be where the biggest growth happens — and how resilience, relationships, expertise and patience compound over time.
Here’s something nobody tells you about running your own business: you can’t actually quit.
An employee can walk out. Hand in their notice, clear their desk, and move on.
A founder can’t. Not really. You have loans. You have people depending on you. You have clients, leases, obligations, and years of your life tied up in the thing. Walking away isn’t a door you can just open. The stakes are too high. The responsibility is too real.
So when it gets dark — and it will get dark — you don’t have the luxury of stopping. You have to find another way.
I built Bastion Brands over fourteen years. And across those fourteen years there were three or four periods where everything was going wrong at once. Pitches lost for six months straight. Clients leaving. Revenue under pressure. Culture fraying.
There were moments where I felt like a boxer who had been beaten up — taking punch after punch, legs heavy, wondering how much more I could absorb.
But here’s what I learned every single time: those periods were where the real growth happened.
When you’re under that kind of pressure, you can’t coast. You can’t rely on momentum or relationships or the fact that things have always worked out before. You have to take massive action. You have to be smart and strategic. You have to look honestly at what isn’t working and fix it, fast.
And because you do all of that, you come out the other side stronger, sharper, and more capable than you were going in.
When things are easy, you don’t learn as much. Adversity teaches you things that success never can.
This is where resilience and improvement is actually found. Not in the good years — in the hard ones. Not when things are going right — when they’re going wrong and you have no choice but to find a way through.
It is always darkest before the dawn. I’ve lived it enough times to believe it completely. The difficult periods don’t just precede the breakthroughs — they create them.
What helps you hang in through those periods is having a clear, compelling vision and specific goals for what you want to achieve. Not vague aspiration — a real, written-down target that you come back to on the days when everything is telling you to stop. That vision is the anchor. Without it, the hard days win.
I also learned that over the ultra marathon, things compound — both good and bad. The relationships you build, the expertise you develop, the reputation you earn, the value of the business itself — all of it builds slowly and then, at some point, starts working for you all at once. But only if you’re still there. The bad stretches made us. Not the good ones.
Here are some of the key things that compounded over time and made us genuinely successful:
RELATIONSHIPS COMPOUND
In 2016 I brought on Chris Savage as my chairman. Ten years of honest conversations, hard questions, and someone in my corner who’d been where I wanted to go. That relationship didn’t exist in year one. It couldn’t have. It took time, trust, and enough shared experience to become something real. Having someone that can provide clear feedback, hold you accountable and help drive the direction of the business is critical. This relationship was a cornerstone for the success of the business and got better over the years.
EXPERTISE COMPOUNDS
In year one I was learning and getting things wrong. By year ten I understood our industry at a depth that simply cannot be faked or shortcut. That expertise made us better every year, harder to compete against, and more valuable to clients who needed someone who genuinely knew what they were doing.
None of that exists at year two or year three. It’s built slowly, invisibly, over time. And it only belongs to the people still standing when it matures.
VALUATION COMPOUNDS — ONLY IF YOU IMPROVE
I was approached to sell in 2018. Reasonable offer. I said no — because I could see the business hadn’t reached its potential. I kept going. By 2022 it was roughly three times more profitable. That’s what patience, anchored to a clear goal, is actually worth.
Too many founders take the first reasonable offer because they’re tired, or distracted, or just can’t see far enough ahead to understand what they’d be giving up. Don’t be that person. Know your number. Know your vision. Don’t leave before you’ve fulfilled both.
LOOK AFTER YOURSELF SO YOU CAN LAST
I ran too hot for too long and eventually my body said enough.
I had to slow down and make real changes — meditation, exercise, eating properly, eight months off alcohol to reset. None of it felt natural. All of it was necessary.
You are the engine of your business.
If you break down, everything stops. Managing your energy isn’t soft — it’s the most strategic thing you can do. The founders who play the long game successfully figure this out before it’s forced on them. I figured it out after. Either way, figure it out.
The ultra marathon isn’t won by the fastest runner. It’s won by the one who manages their energy intelligently, keeps moving when everything hurts, and crosses the finish line still on their feet while others have dropped out.
