E49: Dame Stephanie Shirley - Escaping Nazi Germany and Making £2.3bn

Feb 27, 2020 1h 27 insights
Dame Stephanie Shirley, a refugee who founded a multi-billion dollar female-first software company in the 1960s, shares her extraordinary journey. She discusses pioneering remote work, battling gender discrimination, the true nature of wealth and happiness, and her transition to venture philanthropy.
Actionable Insights

1. Fuel Work with Deep Purpose

Connect your work to a profound personal purpose, such as making your life “worth saving” or addressing past traumas, to drive dedication and passion beyond mere obligation.

2. Cultivate Guts and Resilience

Prioritize developing sheer guts, determination, and resilience over confidence, learning to pick yourself up, compose yourself, and continue forward even after setbacks.

3. Master Field, Take Risks

Become deeply trained and continuously retrained to stay at the leading edge of your chosen field, then be prepared to take calculated risks, as most new projects may fail but you can always start another.

4. Prioritize Social Business Mission

Focus on solving a social problem or creating opportunities for a specific group, rather than solely on making money, as this provides powerful initial motivation.

5. Design Holistic Company Culture

Focus on building a company culture that you would personally want to work and live in, creating an organization that is holistically right for its people.

6. Pioneer Progressive Work Practices

Adopt innovative workplace models like job shares, co-ownership, flexible benefits, and team-based remote work, as these practices can be ahead of their time and foster a strong culture.

7. Embed Staff Share Ownership

Integrate share ownership into your organization, allowing staff to own a significant portion of the company, which fosters a collegiate way of working and shared success.

8. Practice Healthy Selfishness

Learn to be “healthily selfish” by prioritizing your own well-being, including mental health, and not letting business challenges or external pressures get you down.

9. Prioritize Family, Say No

Actively learn to say “no” to demands to protect time for yourself and dedicate care and attention to your family and nearest and dearest, rather than giving everything to the business.

10. Practice Letting Go of Rancor

Adopt the principle of “letting go” of past rancor and grievances, whether from childhood or business, to start each day afresh and prevent the past from spoiling the present.

11. Practice Forgiveness, Release Pain

Embrace the Buddhist principle of “letting go” and practice genuine forgiveness to prevent past rancor from spoiling the present and to release personal pain.

12. See Wealth as Choice, Not Happiness

Understand that wealth primarily offers choice in how to live, rather than guaranteeing happiness, which helps keep your feet on the ground and prevents endless pursuit of more.

13. Engage in Venture Philanthropy

Approach philanthropy with an entrepreneurial mindset, actively starting and nurturing charities or projects to sustainability, rather than just donating money, to maximize impact.

14. Adopt Scientific Business Approach

Treat business like a scientist: if a strategy or project works, do more of it; if it doesn’t, pivot and try something else, remaining opportunistic.

15. Seek Terrifying Growth Opportunities

Actively pursue opportunities that evoke a “frisson of fear” because they are risky and will stretch you, ensuring you remain engaged and never bored.

16. Cultivate Solitary Innovation Time

Recognize that true innovation often stems from solitary thought and individual effort, so dedicate alone time at your desk for deep thinking, even if execution is teamwork.

17. Develop Ideas with Small Teams

After an initial idea, develop it rapidly by pulling together very small teams of three or four people, as larger teams can hinder progress and innovation.

18. Avoid Consensus for Innovation

Understand that innovation rarely comes from consensus; instead, it often originates from a single individual or a small group, which then needs to be developed by a team.

19. Leave Despised Job

If you despise your job, actively seek a way out, even with practical obligations, as the younger you are with fewer responsibilities, the easier it is to make a free choice for your well-being.

20. Contemplate Mortality for Clarity

Reflect on the inevitability of loss, such as the death of parents, by imagining a worst-case scenario; this can either prompt a change in life’s direction or strengthen your resolve on your current path.

21. Maintain Evolving Life Purpose

Ensure you always have a clear purpose in life, understanding that this purpose can and should evolve over time, as it provides motivation and direction.

22. Do Your Best, Accept Outcomes

Always perform to the best of your ability, ensuring you are trained and dedicate sufficient time, then accept the outcome without regret, knowing you couldn’t have done more.

23. Retain Majority Ownership Control

Strive to maintain at least 51% ownership in your company, as this prevents vulnerability to external pressures and ensures you retain control over key decisions.

24. Self-Finance with Personal Labor

In the early stages of a business, be prepared to finance it through your own labor and personal sacrifice, even foregoing expenses for years, allowing for a “slow burn” growth.

25. Embrace Rejection as Fuel

Cultivate a “cussed” and driven mindset where rejection or being told “no” intensifies your desire to achieve your goals, turning obstacles into motivation.

26. Motivate Through Collective Impact

When facing tough times, remember that your success can open doors for others, using this broader impact as a powerful motivator to persist where others might give up.

27. Use Male Name for Appointments

In eras of severe gender discrimination, using a male name for business correspondence can help secure appointments and overcome initial bias.