I meet a lot of entrepreneurs. As you can see from this list, they run all sorts of companies, and they’re all different. There is no ‘founder’ personality type. Some are quiet, others are bombastic, some methodical, others fixed on the big picture, each with their own outlook and priorities.

What founders do have in common, along with professional ‘growth CEOs’, is the pairing of ambition with the mentality of just getting on with things. It breeds resilience of the kind that saw many companies through the convulsions of the 2020s. For those founders and CEOs that survived and emerged stronger, I have huge admiration. For those that didn’t, at least you tried.

It’s easy for Government to take the resilience of business leaders for granted, assuming that entrepreneurs will keep trying, keep accepting 26 27 difficult conditions, and keep creating the growth that will ultimately benefit everyone. But this isn’t automatic. Mental and physical health crises, family breakdown and bankruptcy are all potential unintended outcomes for those who take the chance.

Founders may be alternately lionised or demonised in the press, but the other thing we all have in common is that we’re human. We don’t talk about it often, but it can be a battle to keep pushing ahead, day after day, and not look like it’s grinding you down. It is one thing having Kipling’s ‘If’ pinned to your cork board, it is quite another living it.

I’m always interested in finding out what growth leaders do to find the drive to keep going. In candid moments, many will talk about the support of their partner, family and friends, who keep them grounded, or a mentor (sometimes a good chair) who listens. Others light up when talking about the camaraderie in their team; all supporting each other, all in it together, even if sometimes it seems like us against the world.

Purpose helps too: I refuse to write the words ‘North Star’ without quotation marks these days, but a cause gets you up in the morning when you know you’re doing work that makes some kind of difference, whether to your customers or in some way to the wider world. I can’t help but notice that even though each year’s Growth Index cohort brings many new faces, there is always a disproportionate number of fellow B Corps in the mix.

My favourite answers are when people talk about their heroes. We may not use the word that often, but we all need someone who inspires us through their example. Many entrepreneurs still speak wide-eyed about the likes of Steve Jobs, but it could just as easily be Mother Theresa or Nelson Mandela, or indeed the everyday heroes that they’ve known but the world doesn’t.

I think of my dad. He didn’t dream of being an entrepreneur. He was made redundant from a director-level position in a bank, and didn’t have a plan B. So he made one: creating a boutique hotel out of our family home at a time when his mortgage interest rate was running at 19%.

It wasn’t easy for him – or for my mother, who was forced to go on the entrepreneurial journey with him. But then again, heroes are human too. I saw that spirit of ‘needs-must’ that many founders – and all parents – have. They didn’t make a million, but they did keep us together and made me believe that if they could do it, so could I.

Entrepreneurship is often multi-generational, maybe because resilience is built as a young passenger to the trials and tribulations of a previous generation. This is why long-term tax strategies are required to ensure our Mittelstand is not decimated and to prevent the lack of incentive turning people off the idea of entrepreneurship altogether.

Whether it’s a big name or an everyday hero, we all need people who inspire us to stay optimistic and keep pushing, not just because of their extraordinary deeds, but because of their character.

So, here’s to the optimists, who came from different places and followed different paths, but always kept going.

My earnest hope is that aspiring growth leaders will read Growth Index and find inspiration from the many remarkable people in these pages – all of whom receive my congratulations and unabashed admiration.

I also hope that the leaders of rapidly scaling businesses themselves will learn from and support each other in a Growth Index community where independent thinking thrives.

Lastly, I hope that Government will heed the warning not to take its entrepreneurs for granted. They may not give up if the tax, trade, regulation and policy environment gets too tough, but they may get going. Having already seen high-calibre graduates leave for more favourable climes, let’s not create an entrepreneur drain, too.

Long viewed as more pro-ambition than the UK, the US has historically benefited from strivers arriving to pursue the American Dream. Today, there are good reasons that this drain could stop or even flow the other way. That could create a unique opportunity here, but only if we celebrate, support and incentivise growing businesses the way they deserve. It is a choice. Let’s make the right one.

Orlando Martins

CEO Growth Index & ORESA