One percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration

After all the excitement of the Olympics earlier in the summer, the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have begun this week, with more than 4,000 athletes set to compete in 549 events. Whatever the nationality of those athletes, or their chosen sport, there is one thing that connects both Olympians and Paralympians – they all achieved success by showing up and working hard.

I was fortunate enough to be in the Stade de France for the Men’s 100m Olympic final earlier this month, watching the best sprinters in the world deliver the most important 10 seconds of their lives. But that moment wasn’t really about those 10 seconds; it was about the years of dedication and hours of hard work they had invested to secure the opportunity, earn their place on the starting blocks, and fight for a medal.

Going for gold

I’m unlikely to hear my national anthem as I stand on the Olympic podium, but I have applied the same principle to my own life and career. The athletes we admire have natural talent that most of us can only aspire to, but hard work is the superpower that supercharges their success, and it’s a superpower that all of us can use, as long as we’re willing to embrace it.

Every day when I look at what I have achieved (so far!), along with the rest of the Catapult Print team, I feel like I have won gold. And, like the athletes we’ve all been watching, I’m still pushing myself towards the next challenge and another win. When I look back on what's created success in my life, it's the ability to work hard and a commitment to turning up and putting the work in, day-in-day-out, year-on-year, that have got me to where I wanted to be.

It's not just about being driven; it’s about having a passion for achieving your goals through your own blood, sweat and tears. And the rewards for that are exponential. Hard work and commitment gains the respect of others and helps you stand out from the crowd. Putting in the hours and saying yes to opportunities generates more opportunities and shots at success because others have confidence that you will do whatever it takes to make good things happen.

On the starter’s block

So, what set me on a path to achieving success through hard work? To an extent, it’s a natural talent that I’ve nurtured and leveraged – just like the 100m sprinters’ talent for running – for as long as I can remember.

I was always an early riser, up and ready for the day by 6 or 7am, even as a kid…even?on the weekends! But the fact that I carried those habits into adulthood and built on them with a focus on hard work also stems from being determined never to let anyone down. And the more you deliver, the more praise and confidence you earn from others. Praise is a great motivator. It feeds that impulse to work hard, achieve more and be the best at what you do. It doesn’t have to come in the form of a medal – but it does have to come from within.

My early career as a soccer player taught me that the value hard work can surpass the advantages of natural talent. Or at least, that talent alone is no match for hard work and making the most of your abilities. I wanted to be the best player on the pitch, probably because I wanted to be admired as the star of the team, so a I worked hard at it. I trained relentlessly. I took risks on the pitch. I made sure my contribution to the team’s success mattered.

Injury ended my sporting career, but I took those principles into the workplace. I have made no secret of the fact that I started my packaging industry career packing boxes. There are lessons to be learned about the value of hard work by starting at the bottom of the ladder. I knew from day one that I wanted to progress. I also knew that I would need to map a route to achieve that progression, with a move to the rewind department as my next step, then onto the printing presses, and on into sales. No-one had ever achieved that trajectory at the company, but the fact that no-one had, didn’t mean that no-one could – it simply meant that no-one had ever been hungry enough for success to put the work in to make it happen.

Now, I can see that I was ambitious, but at the time, I didn’t see it as ambition; I saw it as a natural way to achieve more. And I knew that the way to progress was to show that I could do a great job, gain recognition, and be given more opportunities to move on to my next goals.

Necessity is a great motivator too, and making money by making a success of my career was definitely a necessity. My older son, Lewis, was born when I was 18 years old, and Ashley followed when I was 21, so dabbling in work was not an option – if I wanted a comfortable life for my family and a great start for my kids, I had to put the work in. And I did.

Continuing goals

Hard work still sits at the heart of our family dynamic and work culture today. As my sons grew up, I was constantly looking forward and mapping out new routes to success. Since we began Catapult together six years ago as a family business, we’ve been setting new goals and working hard to achieve them each year, with a plan of where we want to be and how we’ll get there.

There’s always a strategy, always a plan, but it’s hard work that gets things done, continually moves the business forward, and underpins our success. I was confident when I began my career that I could be successful, but I never expected success to land in my lap. I knew I would need to earn the right to progress and that I’d have to work hard to rise to the top.

That experience of starting at the bottom, and the work ethic I’ve needed to build my career have been vital ingredients in my recipe for success. They are the foundation stones of building a business where success – including sales, customer relationships, reputation – is never taken for granted. Where hard work takes you from milestone to milestone, enabling you to attract and embrace opportunities as you take on the world.

With Catapult we’ve aimed higher than success. We set our sights on being the best in our sector, and we’ve disrupted our industry with a totally unique approach and phenomenal year-on-year growth, powered by hard work and determination.

As a young soccer player, I never expected to be where I am now. I didn’t plan my life, but I did set goals. Like the athletes I saw in Paris, I’ve had to make sacrifices to get to where I wanted to be, but hard work has brought opportunities my way. It can do the same for anyone who is prepared to knuckle down and get the job done.