The Next Chapter with Sahar Hashemi - Learning keeps us alive
I wasn’t a bad lawyer – I was in the wrong place
I always wanted to be a lawyer. At the time, it seemed glamorous and wonderful, and I was determined to become one. I got into the firm I’d always wanted to join and loved my training. I loved show like LA Law, they were so glamorous and I wanted to be part of that. Once I qualified, I realised I wasn’t actually a very good lawyer – and, more importantly, it didn’t suit my personality. I could see other people thriving, but I wasn’t. And that taught me something important: sometimes you’re not mediocre. You’re simply in the wrong place.
Keep opening doors
A friend once told me that life is like a corridor, and we’re meant to open every single door. I love that idea. Rather than going through one door and deciding, “This is it,” keep opening doors and seeing what’s behind them. You never know which one might lead somewhere unexpected.
Sometimes your business idea is hiding in your own frustration
My coffee business started with a skinny latte. I was in America, having a coffee, thinking, “This is so great.” When I came back to London, I told my brother, “I can’t believe we haven’t got these. I wish we had coffee bars like this here.” I thought I was simply expressing a customer problem. My brother said, “Why don’t we do it?” And suddenly I realised I had to provide the solution to my own problem.
Follow your headlights
Someone once told me that life is like driving through a desert in the dark. Your car headlights are on, but you can only see a little way ahead. And that’s enough. You don’t need to know exactly where the road is going. You just need to follow what your headlights can see. I spent much of my youth looking for the grand plan. It was only when I turned 50 that I really started to understand that everything I needed might already be here. So instead of thinking, “If only I had that, everything would be fine,” I try to ask:
What is life asking of me now, given everything I’ve got?
Everything you have is a gift. The question is how you use it.
Don’t be afraid of being out of your depth
I don’t always see struggle as a bad thing. Sometimes you’re struggling because you’re simply not in the right place. You don’t wake up excited, you’re not learning and it doesn’t play to your strengths. But there’s another kind of struggle I love. It’s when you’re solving a problem. You’re learning. You’re out of your depth. You’re trying to prove yourself and you feel a little insecure. Some women call that imposter syndrome. I see it as stretching yourself. You’re out of your comfort zone, you’re scared – and that’s the bit I love. That’s when I feel most alive.
Learning keeps you alive
At any age, learning is exciting. I’m in my 50s now and I just love learning. There’s so much to discover and so much happening in the world. I genuinely don’t have enough hours in the day. For me, that’s what keeps me alive.
Start small
I meet so many talented people with brilliant business ideas who tell me, “I want to do it really big.”But sometimes the idea of doing something big is the very thing that stops you doing anything at all. Imagine if I had started by saying, “I’m going to open 110 coffee bars.” I couldn’t have done it. It would have been completely overwhelming. Instead, you open one coffee bar. You get that right. Then you open another. That’s how every story works.
You start small.
It’s great to have the big dream at the back of your mind, but you’ve got to do the little things every day with what you’ve got.
Prove it to yourself
I don’t think you can simply tell yourself you’re confident and expect to believe it. For me, it’s about self-credibility – proving to yourself that you can do something. Every time you want to do something and don’t do it, you’re sending your brain a message. But every time you take that little step, and then another one, you’re proving to yourself that you can. And ultimately, you’re the most important person you have to prove it to.
