Lessons on delegation and letting go
If I could sit down with the man I was back then, running those hotels, I know exactly what I’d tell him. Not slow down. Not stop dreaming. Something entirely different. This is about the one lesson I’d actually give him — and where it still shows up in my life today.
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Watch on YouTube
This episode is also available on YouTube if you prefer to watch there.
Who I Was Back Then
I’ve always been a doer. Always been in the service of others. I love helping people, loved putting on a great event, watching people enjoy something I’d put real effort into. That goes a long way back for me.
I mastered nearly every part of the hotel industry — waiting tables, cleaning, stocking bars. I taught myself to cook. I worked under great chefs until they said I was ready to go on my own.
I always believed — do your best, whatever it is, so you can go to bed at night knowing everything that was in your control, you did properly.
Does that sound familiar? I’d bet a few of you were exactly the same before all this. Good at everything, proud of it, never once questioning it.
The One Thing I’d Actually Tell Him
Here’s what I’d actually tell my younger self though.
Have the dreams. Work hard to make them real. But master the art of delegation.
That was my one real fault.
Get the right people around you. The right team. Trust them. Let them know how you work, so you don’t need to be looking over their shoulder. Employ them to do the job — and then actually let them get on and do it.
Are you trying to do absolutely everything yourself?
Where It Cost Me
I’ll give you an example. After a busy weekend at the hotels, doing the stock take, working out what we needed for the week ahead — I insisted on placing that order myself every single time. Didn’t trust anyone else enough, in case they missed something I thought was important.
Same with the kitchen shopping. I should have written the list and handed it to someone else. Instead I was out running round different shops myself. And that took time away from my actual craft. The prep. The cooking. The thing I was actually good at.
The British Heart Foundation and the NHS both highlight stress and overwork as risk factors worth taking seriously after a cardiac event, and the American Heart Association offers similar guidance for readers outside the UK on managing workload and stress during recovery.
When you’re doing things like that, it feels like you’re stuck in the weeds of the business. You’re not outside the pond at that point. You’re right down in the weeds.
If any of this sounds like where you’re at right now, the 7-Day Mind Reset Plan came from exactly that kind of period of running on empty.
Where It Shows Up Now
So where does it show up now? Forestry.
I love the job, love the forest, I’m hands-on with it every single day. I’ve got a small team of subcontractors. Trust is still hard. You leave instructions for the day, and sometimes you come back to find someone’s taken it upon themselves to do something completely different.
If you run your own thing, tell me you haven’t felt that exact frustration.
But here’s the honest bit. It has actually got easier. There’s not the same instant time pressure as the hotels had. If a job doesn’t get done today, it gets done tomorrow. That’s a lot easier to take on the chin than it ever was back then.
Listen and Watch
You can listen to this episode in the player above or watch on YouTube if you prefer.
If this connects with where you are, you might also find something in these:
👉 A Different Kind of Strong
👉 Learning to Respond, Not React
👉 Why Me?
Final Thought
Dream as big as you want. Work as hard as you need to. But stay out of the weeds long enough to actually do your craft — and trust the people around you enough to let them help you build it.
Genuinely — what would you tell your younger self? Not a lesson. Just the first thing that comes to mind.
If you’re doing everything yourself right now, running on empty, the way I was — the 7-Day Mind Reset Plan is free. It came from exactly that kind of period.