Nov 2, 2022
Warwick Fairfax is the Founder
of Crucible Leadership, a philosophical and practical approach for
turning business and personal failures into the fuel for living
life on purpose, in service to others. In this interview, Warwick
shares the wisdom gained from losing his 150 year-old family
business worth two-billion-dollars. He talks about how he became a
person of intention and reflection. He discusses how we need to
delve into our values and beliefs and live in alignment with them.
He shares why character means more than credentials. Listen in for
the ultimate lesson on working through adversity and the importance
of resilience.
https://bit.ly/TLP-331
Key Takeaways
[1:51] Warwick is a big cricket
fan. He looks forward to watching a big upcoming Australian cricket
tournament on an obscure cable channel in the U.S.
[3:24] Warwick grew up in
Australia in his family’s 150-year-old media business. It felt like
it was his duty to go into the company. He went to Oxford, as his
father had done. He worked on Wall Street, then got his MBA at
Harvard Business School. He was seen by his parents as the heir
apparent. He could not choose not to go into it.
[5:38] Warwick believed the
company wasn’t being well-run. In his youthful idealism, he
launched a $2.25 billion takeover in August 1987. Things went wrong
from the start. Other family members sold out and didn’t believe in
Warwick or his vision. The company had an unsustainable level of
debt. Warwick tried everything to keep it going. In 1990 they filed
for bankruptcy. The company was sold.
[7:20] Warwick’s wife is
American and the couple moved to America in the early ’90s; they
have been here ever since. Warwick’s crucible was devastating. In
Crucible Leadership, a crucible is defined as a devastating setback
or failure that fundamentally transforms your life. It was
excruciating. How could he have been so dumb with a Harvard MBA?
Warwick was in a bad pit of despair. He was at rock
bottom.
[9:40] Warwick was 26 years old
when he launched the takeover. Blue-chip merchant bankers advised
him not to do it. So he found less reputable bankers who told him,
sure they can do it. They just didn’t tell him that it wouldn’t be
sustainable. Warwick ignored the good advice and listened to the
bad advice.
[12:38] Warwick credits his
stability with his Christian faith which has always been the center
of his life. His crucible brought him closer to his beliefs.
Warwick believes God loves us all unconditionally. He doesn’t need
our stuff or our successes; we’re not our rank or position, we’re
valued as human beings, beautifully and wonderfully made. Warwick’s
faith is a cornerstone.
[13:32] Warwick’s wife loves him
unconditionally. Losing a couple of billion did not change that. In
the ’90s, Warwick and his wife started having children. Warwick
found meaningful work, such as doing finance at a local aviation
services company and business analysis. The love of his family
strengthened him. As he says on the podcast,
Beyond the
Crucible®, you’re not
defined by your worst day.
[14:40] You have to dig deeply
into your fundamental beliefs and values; are you going to be
defined by your biggest mistake or this biggest thing that’s
happened to you? When something bad happens to you, you can either
be angry and bitter at others or yourself for years, or you can
say, “This is awful; this is unconscionable; what I did was stupid;
OK, but I have a choice how I move on from here, how I
live.”
[15:51] Warwick’s essential
problem was that he was living somebody else’s life. You’ve got to
live your life and do what you were called to do, regardless of
what laudable professions your parents have followed. You love your
parents, but you don’t need to do what they did. You’ve got to be
you.
[16:52] Failure can be helpful
if it leads you to examine yourself. Often, vision comes out of the
ashes of your crucible. The key is you’ve got to live your own
life. You can’t inherit a vision. You’ve got to own it. You’ve got
to feel like it’s your vision. That’s at the core of leading with
uncompromised authenticity.
[19:57] When you grow up in
wealth, the crucibles are different but they’re there. Warwick
always felt extremely stressed by the sense of obligation to go
into the family business. Growing up, if Warwick got in legal
trouble, he knew it would be front-page news. He could not afford
to fail and embarrass his family. Life won’t always be perfect. You
don’t need to look for failure or crucibles.
[21:57] Crucible Leadership
surveyed around 5,000 people asking how many of them had
experienced crucibles of life-changing circumstances over their
lives. It was 71%. There’s a 70% chance that people you know have
gone through crucibles. Be forewarned before the battle. Have a
game plan.
[23:23] Over the years, Warwick
has asked executives what their values and beliefs are and to what
degree they are living in alignment with their values and beliefs.
If they are out of alignment, he asks, would they rather change
their values and beliefs, or change how they live? They always want
to get in alignment with their values and beliefs. Ask the
question. People often miss that they are not aligned.
[25:35] If coaches don’t ask
their executive clients about values and beliefs, nobody may ask
and the clients may never think about it. They may go through life
asking “Why is life so difficult? Why am I having all these
crucibles?” Well, it may be self-inflicted. Maybe living out of
alignment with their values and beliefs is part of the
reason.
[26:23] Warwick offers
“must-dos” to lead through a crisis. First, your team must feel
heard. That doesn’t mean you do everything they say. Show empathy,
appreciate their concern, and explain why you are going in a
different direction. If they feel heard, they are OK with a
different decision, as long as it is not a moral difference. Your
team should know you care about them as people.
[28:47] If you listen to a team,
and you’ve never taken input from any of them in 10 years, just
saying “I hear you,” is not going to fly. At some point, you’ve got
to take some input from your team, or listening is artificial. You
need to know your blind spots. If you’ve got bright people on your
team, you’ve got to trust them. If they all agree on something
else, there’s a good chance that they’re right. Be
humble.
[30:34] Ego stops us from doing
things that every business book advises. Every Executive coach will
say, “Trust your team.” Because of ego, we don’t do it, and it
leads to business failure or suboptimal performance.
[31:39] It’s not just about
getting to know people but about caring. You can’t teach people to
care. If you don’t feel that people are worthwhile and deserve to
be cared for, Warwick advises you to step away; resign. Let some
other man or woman step into your job who can do a better job. If
you have people on your team who demonstrate they don’t care for
others, let them go and do damage somewhere else.
[35:20] Warwick states that
hiring people that don’t care is bad for long-term company
performance. If you don’t provide a caring, nurturing environment,
you will not hire good people. It’s as hard to hire good people as
it has been in the last hundred years. If you believe in your
company’s long-term performance, you’ll hire people who
care.
[36:33] Warwick would rather
hire someone who cares than someone with the highest academic
credentials. Their team will stick with that leader who cares. Hire
for character. It’s the right economic choice and business choice.
It’s the right ethical and values choice.
[38:44] Warwick reflects on what
he as an executive coach might have told his 26-year-old self, but
he says it wouldn’t have helped. He would not have been moved from
his plan at 26. Sometimes things happen and you have to go through
them to learn the lesson.
[39:56] In general, with young
people, Warwick would coach them to make sure they understand their
values, ethics, and beliefs. He would ask how what they are doing
serves their values, ethics, and beliefs. People following a
calling in line with their values and beliefs don’t stop at
roadblocks. If they need help, they ask for it.
[40:45] Warwick will sometimes
ask his team to reassure him before a presentation because he knows
the material, but his emotions tell him he might fail. A strong,
confident person is willing to admit their vulnerabilities and ask
for help, at an appropriate level of sharing. It doesn't make you
less of a leader, admitting you’re a little bit nervous.
[42:33] When you go through a
crucible, don’t waste it. Learn the lessons. Have After-Action
Reports. Learn to do what fits your values, beliefs, and wiring
better.
[45:39] Warwick shares his views
on business valuation. Executives often wrap their identity in what
they do. They wonder if they sell low if that makes them worth less
as a person. After they sell, at any price, what are they, since
they are not Joe Business-owner? Don’t let your business identity
stop you from making a rational business decision.
[47:48] Don’t just have an exit
strategy; have a life strategy after selling the business. There
are many worthwhile options, such as heading a non-profit, donating
your time, creating a new start-up, or becoming a mentor, advisor,
or angel investor. Close one chapter and start another chapter.
Know your why. You’ve sold your company, not your
identity.
[50:24] It’s hard not to see
your identity wrapped up in what you do. It’s easy to say; it’s
really hard. It’s normal to feel pain when you sell a business. Jan
cites Clayton Christensen, “How will you measure your
life?”
[51:26] Closing quote: Remember,
“If there is no struggle,
there is no progress.” —
Frederick Douglass
Quotable Quotes
- “It was my sacred duty to go into the family
business because we didn’t just produce widgets, we produced
something that was of service to the nation of Australia. … This
sense of duty was so hard-wired in me, I could not
not go into it.” — Warwick
- “I’m pretty good at giving grace to others;
pretty bad at giving grace to myself. … I have a tendency to think
if there's a problem in the world, it’s my fault. I tend not to
blame others.”
- “They said, ‘Warwick, the numbers don’t add up,
don’t do it.’ Well, that wasn’t what I wanted to
hear.”
- “When you go through a crucible, it either
draws you closer to your verities and beliefs or further
away.”
- “We say this all the time; we have our own
podcast, Beyond the
Crucible®, ‘You’re not defined by your worst
day.’”
- “You don’t always have a choice about what
happened to you but you can choose how you look at your life,
moving forward. That’s the essence of beginning to get out of the
pit of despair and beyond your crucible.”
- “My dad was sort of the intellectual guy that
would have been a better philosophy professor. He was not a
business guy at all. I mean, John Fairfax, my
great-great-grandfather was a business guy but those genes had long
since faded by the time it got to me, fifth
generation.”
- “The key
is you’ve got to live your own life. … It’s great to love your
parents but you can’t inherit a vision. You’ve got to own it.
You’ve got to feel like it’s your vision. So that’s probably at the
core of leading with uncompromised
authenticity.”
- “Unless you ask the question, they don’t even
realize they’re living out of alignment with their values and
beliefs because they don’t know what [they are]. We, as coaches,
can really help our clients by just asking those questions. If we
don’t ask, nobody may ask.”
- “Typically founders are not very good general
managers. They’re good entrepreneurs but they’re just different
skills, so be humble enough to trust your team. It sounds so simple
and so easy but ego gets in the way and that’s the
problem.”
- “Every executive coach will say, ‘Trust your
team.’ This is not new, what I’m saying. But because of ego, people
don’t do it. It’s so sad; frankly, it’s stupid. It will lead to
business failure or suboptimal performance.”
- “I believe that hiring people that don’t care
is bad for profitability and bad for long-term performance of the
company. Maybe not short-term earnings per share, but long-term,
because people like to work for people who care.”
- “Young people increasingly have choices and if
you don’t provide a caring, nurturing environment, you won’t hire
them. It’s as hard today to find good people as it’s ever been in
the last maybe 100 years. … If you believe in … your company, hire
people who care.”
- “If you’re following a calling that you’re
passionate about that’s in line with your values and beliefs when
you hit those roadblocks, you won’t stop. And when you do hit them,
… a brave man or woman asks for help.”
- “You’re more than just your title. You’re more
than just a nameplate on your door. If that’s who you think you
are, then that’s very tragic because you’re set up for misery and a
bit of a fall. So, there’s some soul work, in the broad sense of
the word, that you’ve got to do.”
Resources Mentioned