In today’s conversation, I speak with entrepreneur Chris Gauld. Chris used to believe the secret to success was to push, strive and constantly have his business on his mind. For years he wore his “efforting” as a badge of honor, until he began to explore and appreciate state of mind. Chris shares why he no longer equates effort with quality and success in business, and what he’s seen in the direction of his own wellbeing.

Chris Gauld was co-founder of Spark, a business that would disrupt the heavily regulated utility industry, growing to £230m in revenue and a team of 450 people and featuring in Sunday Times Fast Track, Top Track, Profit Track and the FT1000 in consecutive years. In 2019 Chris launched D3 by Equator Assist – a private equity focused digital agency providing pre-deal Due Diligence and post transaction transformation services for portfolio businesses. Chris has also retained a role with Ovo and acts as NXD and advisor to scaling businesses. Chris was Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Emerging Entrepreneur winner in 2016 and went on to be named both regional and national EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016.