Everyone is a genius. But are you working in yours?

Why this matters to me personally

I spent 20 years being successful at something I was completely wrong for

My career in banking started at 14. Not because I wanted to be a banker, but because a teacher told me I was good at maths - so banking seemed like the obvious path. I still remember my first day: new suit, new shirt, new tie. And I hated it. I went home and told my mum. Her response was “I knew you would”. She’d known since I was 14 and never said a word.

Once I got past that initial dislike, I started doing well. Promotions, bigger teams, multi-million pound projects, a six-figure salary. By every conventional measure, I was successful. But the higher I got, the unhappier I became. And I was stuck - since 14 I’d only ever wanted to be a bank manager, so what else was there?

Then my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given a year to live. He died 12 months later at 68, still working, never making it to retirement. That was when it really hit me. I could die in the same situation - never having done anything that genuinely mattered to me.

I spent the next 18 months figuring out who I actually was and what I was naturally good at. That journey led me to Wealth Dynamics - a framework that identifies not just your personality, but your specific genius: the mode in which you naturally create the most value.

My result was Creator. The profile of someone who thrives on ideas, strategy, and building new things. The moment I read it, 20 years of confusion fell into place. Banking is the opposite of creating - it is about maintaining the status quo, compliance, risk avoidance. I had spent two decades trying to write with my wrong hand.

Armed with this, I took a redundancy package from the bank and launched my own coffee brand. The first year was extraordinary. I was building the brand, creating the product, designing the packaging, developing the website - pure creation. It genuinely did not feel like work. I was the happiest I had been in years.

Then I launched. 1 September 2017. I had a spare room full of coffee and a live website. And nothing happened. No sales. Not a single order that first day. Because while I had been doing everything I was brilliant at - creating - I had not done any of the things I was terrible at: reaching out to customers, following up, building the systems that would actually generate sales.

Wealth Dynamics had an answer for that too. For every weakness, there is someone else for whom that same thing is their greatest strength. The solution is not to push through your weaknesses - it is to find the people whose genius is your blind spot and build around them. I found Zak, my marketing manager, who was extraordinary at exactly the things I struggled with: execution, follow-up, systems. Together we made a team that worked. I eventually sold the business.

Since then I have coached over 300 founders, and I see the same pattern constantly. They started their businesses doing what they love - and then found themselves buried in the tasks that are the opposite of their natural genius. They procrastinate, feel overwhelmed, make slow progress. Not because they lack ability, but because they are using the wrong hand.

Knowing your Wealth Dynamics profile does not fix everything. But it does give you a map. And having a map is the difference between wandering and walking with purpose.