Simon Squibb on Finding Your Dream

I’ve never forgotten what it was like to be fifteen running my first business – a gardening business – and asking a local entrepreneur for help. He wanted money, and I didn’t have it. I pleaded with him to help me anyway. And he smiled, shook his head, and said the words I have carried with me ever since. ‘If you don’t pay, you don’t pay attention.’ I’ve always known this isn’t true, but it’s taken me thirty-five years to prove him wrong. It’s been the driving force behind my business ventures over the past few years, my adventures on social media, and now my book What’s Your Dream?

I wanted to create spaces where people feel empowered to help others, to offer the advice, support, expertise or mentorship they need to pursue their dreams. That’s my dream: a world in which we all feel liberated to help each other for free and with no strings attached – giving without the expectation of anything in return. If you know me for anything, it is probably as the guy on TikTok who approaches people on the street to ask if they have a dream, and sometimes offers them money to quit their job and pursue it. The more I did this, the more convinced I became that so many of us already have that dream. We just don’t know how to go after it. We’re afraid about taking the plunge, not confident in our ability, or unsure what the first steps should be.

There are millions of dreams out there living in people’s heads, waiting for the spark to light them. Ideas that have so much potential to change people’s lives for the better. They just need a bit of help. One person to believe in them. I know that because when I approach people working in supermarkets, fast food joints, train stations and building sites, so many of them can’t wait to tell me, a complete stranger, about the brand they want to build, the countries they want to visit, the difference they want to make in the world. About their dream to help people out of homelessness, support those suffering with cancer, or make clothes for people who have just been through traumatic surgery. That doesn’t mean they hate their job, just that they believe there is something more they want to do with their lives.

All that potential is out there. Imagine what could happen if we unlocked it? I feel excited just writing about it, and that is why dreams are such a powerful force.

I started my first business aged fifteen and homeless in Cambridgeshire and went on to build Fluid, a digital creative agency in Hong Kong that was eventually sold to PricewaterhouseCoopers – something my wife Helen and I built from an idea on the back of a beer mat into a company that was acquired by one of the largest consulting firms in the world. But it didn’t require any innate skills or special powers. Just a solid foundation of belief – a dream – and the support of the brilliant people around me. The skills you need to set up a business can be taught and learned by anyone (I’ve done it more times than I can list), and I believe that each of us with that knowledge has the duty to share that with the generation that follows us. People need clarity in how they think about their dream, discipline in how they define it and the perseverance to achieve it. It’s not about buying a fancy new car or a silly day-dream, it’s something to build your life around. Once you do, you’ll never want to go back to life as it was.  It’s a powerful thing, and the rewards are endless. 

I said before that my work ethic is all about ‘giving without the expectation of anything in return’. While I believe that wholeheartedly, the truth is I get something out of every new encounter. Listening to a young person telling you about their business dreams is one of the most inspiring things you can do with your day and giving them the tools to make those ideas come to life – whether that’s knowledge, money, or simply encouragement – is more fulfilling than I could ever imagine. I’ve been in the business world for decades, but each new person I speak to on the street opens my eyes to a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things. All you need to do is ask.