The Forbes 30 Under 30 List is editorial that I have read year after year and, to be honest, hadn’t really aspired to be featured on as it felt so out of my league. And then one day I got an email from a journalist. I’d been nominated. I thought it was spam at first and didn’t respond immediately. However, curiosity led me to do a bit of research into said journalist and turns out he was legit. At this point, I bragged to a few trusted friends and family as I didn’t think it would go any further and I felt honored to even be nominated. And then it got better, I made the final list – I was in the 30 Under 30 for Sports and Games in Europe! Cue tears and a little hysteria!

To celebrate this nomination, Forbes organise global events for the “listers” to get together and network, with the aim “to bring together the next generation of change-makers and leaders”. So off to Israel I went for the EMEA event, feeling slightly daunted by the height of intelligence that lay ahead (I even bought The Week magazine to read on the plane to make sure I was up to date on today’s politics and culture!).

Over the four-day trip, we had talks from the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, and the Co-Founder of Waze, Uri Levine, to fellow listers and successful investors. We had conversations with the founders of inspiring start-ups, people who have set up admirable charities, and luxury fashion designers changing the face of the industry. What did I learn? Here are 3 key lessons that have stayed with me…

1. The Power in Passion and Determination

I know the start of this blog is a little self-deprecating but it’s genuinely how I felt! However, after 5 nights with nearly 300 people from over 30 countries, I met the most wonderful, humble and enthusiastic people, many of who I would now call friends. And while, yes, everyone there was incredibly clever, it also made to realise that to be a founder, a change-maker or leader, you don’t need a degree, a high IQ or unlimited amounts of self-confidence. You just need passion and determination in your purpose. With this you can achieve your dreams, challenge the status-quo and run a successful business.

2. Embrace Failure

Failure was mentioned a few times, especially from Uri Levine, the Co-Founder of Waze, who now consults start-ups. His point being; if you don’t ever fail, you’re not trying something new. So, you have to breed a culture in your company where failure is not only ok, but is also encouraged. In Uri’s words, “a start-up is a series of failures”. I couldn’t agree more, as long as you take time to understand and learn from those mistakes. We also heard from a successful investor who talked about the key qualities of a founder, one being the way that a person reacts to failure, who takes the knock but pushes forward regardless with positivity and a growth mindset. I think this can be applied to anyone that works within a startup, not just the founders. Your team have to have the ability to learn quickly and do whatever it takes to push the company forward.

3. Be Real & Listen to Your Audience

One talk named “Europe’s Creative Renaissance” saw a panel of Forbes 30 Under Listers, including Ben Silverton, Founder of Instagram-challenger app Lapse, and Krystal Lake, influencer and Founder of Cut By Krystal. Both of them were really pushing the message to listen to what your audience wants; people can read through posts that are unauthentic. We hear this all the time as marketeers, but we often forget it. I returned home thinking how much more we can do at Flexi-Hex to engage our stakeholders, especially as we grow, to ensure they are still on the journey with us, that they are a part of our story and continue supporting us to drive the vital word of mouth that has played a huge part to get us to where we are today.