Dare to be anything but normal with Doug Emslie

Global Partner Doug Emslie recently spoke about what he has learned from 30 years in the events industry. Here are his highlights.

I was recently interviewed about entrepreneurship, risk, technology and what I have learned from more than 30 years in the events industry. The title of the session was Dare to Be Anything But Normal. Reflecting afterwards, I realised that the biggest lesson from my career is actually very simple: business is about identifying great markets and great people - and then having the confidence to back both.

When I started out more than 30 years ago, entrepreneurs tended to understand their markets deeply, spot an opportunity, find talented people and go for it. There was less data, fewer consultants and certainly fewer committees. Today we have vastly more information available to us, yet I sometimes wonder whether we have become less willing to make decisions. We analyse more. We benchmark more. We consult more. But do we act enough?

Start with the market

I have always believed that the quality of the market matters enormously. The real skill is not simply understanding where customers are today; it is working out where people will spend their time, money and attention tomorrow.

That is why I remain so bullish about live: live news, live sport and live events. The more digital our lives become, the more valuable genuine live experiences become. Information is increasingly abundant. AI will make content even more abundant. But human connection, trust, emotion and serendipity remain scarce - and scarcity creates value.

Then find the people

Once you have identified the right market, the next question is simple: who are the people capable of winning in it? Strategy can be changed. Capital can be raised. Entrepreneurial energy, curiosity, resilience and judgement are much harder to manufacture.

Most experienced executives probably operate with 90% of what they need to know. The really good ones are obsessed with finding the other 10%. Experience gives you the 90%. Curiosity finds the 10%. Judgement tells you what to do with it - and pace determines whether it matters.

Disciplined optimism

Entrepreneurs have to be optimists. If you genuinely believed every idea was going to fail, you would never start anything. But optimism on its own can be dangerous. The best entrepreneurs practise what I would call disciplined optimism.

They believe in the opportunity, but test the market. They believe in people, but hold them accountable. They take risks, but understand the downside. They move quickly, but are willing to change course when the facts change. Optimism gets you into the arena. Discipline keeps you there.

Execute at pace

Once you have identified the market and the people, you have to act. Pace is a competitive advantage. Large organisations generally have more capital, more data and more resources than entrepreneurs. What they often lack is speed.

A good idea executed slowly is often simply an opportunity for someone else. You will never have perfect information. Make the best decision you can, move, learn and adjust. Knowing the playbook is not the same as playing the game. At some point you have to get on the field, make the decision and live with the result.

Less committee, more conviction

One of the biggest changes I have seen over the last 30 years is the move from entrepreneur-led businesses towards organisations increasingly run through processes, committees and data. All of those things have a role. The problem comes when they replace judgement.

Data should inform decisions, not make them. Data is very good at telling you what happened yesterday. Entrepreneurs have to imagine tomorrow. A committee naturally asks: where is the evidence? An entrepreneur sometimes has to answer: there is not any yet, because nobody has done it. We need a little less committee and a little more conviction.

Back yourself

Confidence is often underestimated. Great ideas disappear not because they were wrong, but because the person behind them never had the confidence to try. Nobody gives you a certificate saying you are ready to become an entrepreneur. At some point, you simply have to back your own judgement.

I also think we should do more to encourage talented women to back themselves. I have worked with many outstanding female leaders who are more than capable but sometimes wait until they feel completely ready before putting themselves forward. Plenty of men do not. You do not have to feel 100% ready before you deserve the opportunity. Confidence often comes after action, not before it.

Technology and timing

One mistake I have made repeatedly is getting the timing of technology wrong. We consistently overestimate the impact of technology in the short term and underestimate its impact in the long term.

We saw it with the internet, social media and virtual events, and we will see it again with AI. The first reaction is that everything is about to change overnight. It usually does not. Then people become dismissive. That is equally dangerous. The mistake is either chasing every piece of hype or dismissing technology when the first wave disappoints. Do not confuse hype with transformation.

Why Manta Media

This thinking is also behind what we are building with Manta Media. After more than 30 years building and investing in businesses, I have become increasingly convinced that entrepreneurs need more than capital. Capital is relatively easy to find. What is harder to find is experience, pattern recognition, networks, confidence and someone prepared to challenge you while still backing you.

Manta is designed to identify talented entrepreneurs in attractive markets and help them build faster and better. We want to provide capital where appropriate, but also confidence, connections, international perspective and challenge. Our job is not to hand founders a playbook. It is to help them play the game, make better decisions and execute at pace.

The formula

If I had to reduce 32 years of entrepreneurship to one framework, it would be: find the market; find the people; stay curious; apply disciplined optimism; execute at pace.

Use data, but trust judgement. Understand technology, but do not chase every piece of hype. Back yourself before you expect everyone else to. And remember that the biggest regrets are often the opportunities you did not pursue rather than the things that failed.

Do not go back to normal

So when you leave the conference and go back to your office, my challenge is simple: do not be normal.

Do not default to the way things have always been done. Do not wait for another committee. Do not let the data talk you out of something you instinctively know is worth pursuing.

Find the opportunity. Back the people. Stay curious. Move at pace.

And if everyone around you thinks your idea is a little bit crazy, that may not be a reason to stop. It may be the reason to start.