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How To Bootstrap £500 into £350 Million – Oliver Cookson Founder of MyProtein

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“With patience water can erode rocks, so with patience and perseverance you can do anything.” – Oliver Cookson

In this weeks episode of Deep Dive Ali sits down with award-winning British entrepreneur, Oliver Cookson. Oliver left school aged 16 with just one GCSE and went on to become one of the UK’s leading self-made millionaires after founding the sports nutrition business Myprotein and later selling it to The Hut Group in 2011.

Earlier this year Oliver released his book Bootstrap Your Life where he writes about his experiences launching MyProtein with a £500 overdraft and scaling the company into the number one sports nutrition brand in Europe. In the conversation Oliver and Ali discuss the story of MyProtein from the early days, right up until the sale covering the challenges that come with being an entrepreneur, mindset and how we sometimes have to roll with the punches.

✨ Words of Wisdom

“The only way to be successful today is to take game by game, set by set moment by moment” – Oliver Cookson [21:06]

“The mental health of an entrepreneur is something that gets overlooked” – Oliver Cookson [29:11]

“With patience water can erode rocks, so with patience and perseverance you can do anything…” – Oliver Cookson [1:02:46]

“Be reasonably unreasonable with yourself” – Oliver Cookson [01:04:18]

“We should be so grateful to all our ancestors who have laid the tracks for where we are today” – Oliver Cookson [01:10:05]

“We should try and leave the world in a better way than we’re in today” – Oliver Cookson

“Fear is a liar” – Oliver Cookson [01:31:27]

“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” – Oliver Cookson [01:35:12]

Deep Dive

With Ali Abdaal

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Deep Dive

with Ali Abdaal

The podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover the philosophies, strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives.