bella row forbes 30 under 30

Lessons from the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit

In Team News by Rose Boex

bella row forbes 30 under 30

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.

Bella Forbes 30 under 30
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.