An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Everyone gets nervous when they speak in public — no one can hear your breathing so take great lungfuls and smile!
We are starting a new interview series about the world of entrepreneurship beyond the classroom — a realm where theory meets grit, and education meets real-world challenges. We want to hear about critical business wisdom that often goes unspoken in academic settings. I had the honor of interviewing Hugh Kingsmill Moore.
Hugh is a Partner, Co-Founder and Head of Capital Markets at boutique London merchant bank J Goodwin & Co, the third merchant bank he has co-founded. He has 27yrs experience in raising capital for technology led growth companies in public and private markets. He is a husband, father of three, and on 20th March, a published author with his debut novel ‘Selection’, being inspired by his life in finance.
Thanks for being part of this series. Let’s jump in and focus on your early years. Can you share who was your biggest influence when you were young and provide specific examples of what you learned from them that helped shape who you’ve become and how you live your life today?
My parents have been the principal guides to the way I have approached my professional and personal life. Both medical professionals, both seemingly unflappable on the big stuff, both imbuing wisdom that I can only aspire to. And honesty was the mantra. Honesty in all its facets. Beyond my parents, two others need an honorable mention.
My prep school headmaster who, after very nearly expelling me on my very last for escaping the dormitory for a midnight feast on the playing fields (I was Head Boy — bad form), asked me to grip his hand as hard as I could. I was an overdeveloped thirteen-year-old and felt I might crush his mid 60’s bones, but he just looked at me and smiled. ‘You have incredible strength. Channel it wisely.’ It was from such a good place it rather stunned me, and I have never forgotten it.
The other nod goes to my first ever boss. I hade just made a bad sales call and felt I had let my self down. He saw my puce faced and agitated and asked what the issue was. I told him about the bad call and his response was to grab the phone (a big old fashioned analog job) and dump it under my nose. ‘Call him back then.’ I didn’t want to call him back. I wanted to run away in fact. ‘What are you afraid of? Never be afraid of the phone.’ So I made the call, got the same bloke and said what I needed to say. I still got a ‘no’, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t die wondering. Today, more than ever given all the messaging tools used in business, people should never be afraid of the phone.
Staying on the topic of influence, who has been your biggest catalyst more recently and what can you share that you’ve learned from them that led you to making changes in your life?
Adversity. In a long career you will have big set backs that seems to be catastrophic in the moment. As long as you are still upright, they almost certainly won’t be, and more often than not lead to something better. My most miserable period in equity capital markets post the GFC generated enough pressure that I could have burst. But instead, I vented, and that venting was in the form of creativity. I bought a laptop and wrote ‘Chapter 1’. Thirteen years later my book is about to be published.
Mistakes are invaluable. Can you name one specific mistake that you made early on, and learned the most from, but wish you’d been forewarned about?
Very early in my career I was short with a secretary who was the gatekeeper to the decision maker. I was pushy and impatient, and entirely lacking in grace. I did, however, get put though to her boss, and after a few moments where I was channeling my full ‘Bud Fox’ persona, the boss picked up the line. ‘What’s your name and the name of your firm?’ I gave them. ‘OK. You have just been very rude to my secretary. I will never use you or your firm. Never call me again.’ That you never forget.
Is there a leadership myth you believed early on that you’ve since debunked through your real-world experience?
The idea that leaders have all the answers and have the ultimate wisdom in decision making is false. Leaders commonly have more of a share of voice that their peers, and more than enough confidence in their owns views to be able to sway decisions their way. This can be dangerous. Working on the assumption that you have hired good people, not giving their views the same weight as yours is a wasted resource. And changing your mind is a sign of strength, not weakness.
What’s the key operational insight you’ve gained since running your business that was never mentioned in any classroom?
Any company or organization needs a shared purpose. Everyone from the CEO to the newest grad needs to know why they are turning up. If employees know their individual purpose and how that impacts on the success of the business, they will pull for you and themselves. Everyone should feel bought into the mission and benefit from the success that their hard work will deliver.
Did college prepare you for scaling a business? What specifically was missing?
Nothing can prepare you from external market forces. From the tech boom/bust, the GFC to Brexit, Covid and war. You just have to hustle, and get used to picking yourself up and dusting yourself down ready to go again.
Any unexpected challenges in team dynamics that your academic experience didn’t prepare you for? How did you handle it?
Being promoted from within a team to running that team caused much more disruption that I could have foreseen at the time, perhaps aggravated by being the youngest team member. I was at pains to be as light touch as I could be in the first weeks in the position, and then just tried to lead by example. The first to arrive/last to leave cliché (can be misleading optics) is certainly a tool I used to demonstrate I was taking the role seriously. Things settled before long.
Have you had to unlearn any widely-accepted business ‘wisdom’ in your journey? What was it and how did it affect your strategy?
‘If at first you don’t succeed, try try and try again’. In equity capital markets, that no longer applies. Professional investors invest in defined corridors. Trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole just doesn’t work. So the adage should now read, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try again, then take stock and try something else.’
What’s your advice for new entrepreneurs? What are your “5 Things You Won’t Learn in College But Must Know to Succeed in Business”?
1. Almost no one knows what they want to do for a living, even after 25 years doing it.
2. Being rejected ninety-nine times out of a hundred is unmitigated success.
3. Everyone gets nervous when they speak in public — no one can hear your breathing so take great lungfuls and smile!
4.You will make loads of mistakes, but immediately owning them will define you.
5.Everyone can do their boss’s boss’s job — don’t limit your ambitions.
How do you ensure your team not just understands but embodies your business principles? Any techniques you wish you’d known earlier?
Stay close and lead by example. Get all team members exposed to decision making and stress the perils of dishonesty and the benefits of integrity. Honesty was drilled into me by my parents from birth so I have always been a stuck record on this basic principle.
If we were sitting together two years from now, looking back at the past 24 months, what specifically has to happen for you personally and professionally, for you to be happy with your results?
I have co-founded a new merchant bank and that is exciting and risky in equal measure. We have made a great start in a difficult market environment so I hope I look back on two years of sustained growth with a smorgasbord of interesting transactions executed over the period and the J Goodwin & Co name flying high.
As mentioned, my debut novel ‘Selection’ is being published on 20th March. I am very proud to have got it published but now want lots of people to buy it and enjoy it. The plan is that it is the first of a series of ‘Sebastian Faber’ books so if I look back on a successful second book and perhaps the dramatic rights sold to a movie studio or a streaming company, that would be pretty cool!
Looking back over the last two years, what key accomplishments make you satisfied with your progress?
I have ducked and weaving my way through a particularly bad capital markets environment to get into the position with the new business that gives my cause for optimism. I am surrounded by like-minded, talented individuals that share my goals so the next chapter will be a good one.
Getting my book out into the world is something I’m very proud of, and can’t be taken away from me.
As someone with significant influence, what’s the one change you’d like to inspire that would benefit the most people?
Be kind. It takes a second to smile, or to thank someone. Or more importantly, to listen. The impact it has is vastly disproportionate to the thought required to do it. So let’s all do a bit more of it in 2024.
How can our readers keep up with your work?
I can be found easily on LinkedIn as there are just a handful of Kingsmill Moores in the world and I’m the only Hugh!
Thank you so much for joining us! We wish you only success.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Hugh Kingsmill Moore Of J Goodwin & Co On 5 Things They Forgot To Mention In College was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.