Failure is Great with Gary Lavin

“I failed every day for 10 years till we made a profit. Failure is great, its what helps us learn what not to do. I think of failure as an extra step in a long ladder to success.”

Gary is the founder and chairman of the fast-growing vitamin drink, VITHIT. The low-calorie and low-sugar drink that seems to be in every shop. He started the business following a serious knee injury that stopped him from continuing his career as a professional rugby player.

Gary created VITHIT because he used to see people on treadmills for 30 minutes in hopes to burn loads of calories then replenishing themselves with a sports drink that contains 180 calories in sugar and salts (which is not exactly ideal for weight loss). His first mission was to ensure the company’s drinks tasted as good or better than his sugary competitors. His second was to add as many nutrients as he could without compromising the taste"

Gary contributes most of the success he’s had to a list of failures that he has learned from. When Gary set up the business he had no prior history of working for any large companies in the sports drink industry. Also, there was no internet when he started so It took him about two/three years to find the right producer and create the exact product he wanted.

After the few years process was over, Gary produced his first sports drink and it failed miserably due to the brand name. Then after much thought, Gary created the brand name of ‘VITHIT’. He registered the company straight away and slowly, sales began to rise.

His first step in growing the business was to expand in Ireland by driving around the country and personal selling the drink to stores. Eventually, the company was noticed by a large distributor that gave Gary the ability to expand internationally.

Gary moved back to the UK and went to local stores to increase the awareness and sales of the product. Following this, Gary approached the larger supermarkets, who ended up ignoring him for the first year and a half. Eventually, one larger supermarket chain stocked product but Gary's determination and persistence paid dividends when he would go to supermarkets around London in his motorbike, selling to 55 stores.

Gary used the revenue from his personal selling the product to fund market research. He discovered VITHIT was a top-selling product in London and beating most of the competition. Gary’s story is truly unique and his persistence, determination, and initiative have finally paid off.

VITHIT is now available in over 18 international markets and has some of the worlds best retail partners including Walmart, Sainsburys, Coles, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, BOOTS, El Corte Ingles, Spar international, Musgraves, Dunnes stores, WH Smith, Carrefour, Aramark, Sedexo, SSP, Baxter Storey, plus many more.

1. What was your first job?

Working for my Dad in a pub.

My wages were one club orange (sugary drink) and one club milk (chocolate biscuit). Clearly, we weren’t big on nutrition in the 70’s.

2. What was the worst job you've ever had?

Working in a PR company. I couldn’t take direction and the people were really competitive with me and everyone else, I lasted four weeks. I swore I would never work for anyone again.

3. What was your favourite subject in school and why?

Rugby - not really a subject, but I was good at it.

I never really understood learning repetitive sentences for the national quiz (exams). I think everyone is good at something. The exam system only tests memory and misses many other skills that kids can be good at.

4. What’s the first career you dreamed of having as a kid and why?

An Olympic 100m sprinter, then I realised that I wasn’t actually that fast.

5. What is your favourite phrase?

Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe.

6. In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?

I stopped doing anything that I didn’t want to do, I mean anything!

I stopped opening letters (always bad news), I stopped going to meetings that I didn’t want to do and I stopped dealing with people I didn’t want to deal with. I have more time for me and my family by cutting out the fluff.

7. What advice should a college student entering the ‘real world’ ignore?

'Go to college', oh that's a bit late you’ve already wasted those 4 years ;)

Rather than ignoring advice, I would say try everything once. If you don’t like it, find something you do like and repeat regularly.

8. What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

Go raise money!

It really confounds me that people set up companies which make no profits, they go for funding, give something away, lose more money, get more funding etc. then they are left with nothing. What's wrong with making a profit?

9. When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?

I don't get overwhelmed anymore because I did all that years ago.

When you are young and climbing a ladder you should be overwhelmed, that's how you perform better. If you are not overwhelmed you are not trying hard enough and need to panic a bit more.

10. You can trade places with someone for one day. Who would it be?

Absolutely nobody.

Seriously, I have the best life of anyone I know. But it took over 20 years of working to get to this stage.

11. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Stop worrying about the other guy. He's more worried about you.

12. If you could invite three people, dead or alive, to a dinner party, who would they be?

Nelson Mandela, just a great man.

David Niven, great character.

13. What is something about life that people don’t appreciate as much as they should?

Downtime.

Nobody ever said on their deathbed that ‘I wish I worked harder’.

14. What qualities do you value in the people with whom you spend time?

Honesty and fun to be around, that's about the only thing that matters to me.

15. If you could abolish one piece of modern technology, What would it be?

Selfies on phones.

If I see one more dope thinking they are an insta-star, I think I'll lose my lunch.

16. What's one thing about you that surprises people?

That I actually work.

People think I don't do much because I enjoy myself most of the time.

17. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

Travel

18. Eliminate one thing from your daily schedule. What would it be?

I eliminated them all already.

I believe in spending the time to design the life you want, then go live it. I honestly don’t do anything that I don’t enjoy.

19. If you had to choose only three adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?

Happy, competitive, and easy going (yes you can be competitive in business and easy going too :).

20. What’s top one to three books that greatly influenced your life?

I'm not a great one for reading books, however…

The Moons a balloon by David Niven

Stories I only tell my friends by Rob Lowe

Open by Andre Agassi

21. If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?

Kitesurfing, I’m not bad, but too lazy to put in the hard yards….

22. What energises you and brings you excitement?

Getting our drinks into new territories and traveling to those places and enjoying new cities and cultures.

23. Do you have a favourite failure, that set you up for later success?

I failed every day for 10 years till we made a profit. Failure is great, it's what helps us learn what not to do. I think of failure as an extra step in a long ladder to success.

Gary can best be found on Linkedin. If you are interested in connecting with Gary then don’t be afraid to reach out via Linkedin.

If you enjoyed reading this or learned something new, I’d appreciate your feedback, either a simple Emoji or by writing your thoughts in a response below. Thanks! Ryan