Jul 9, 2026 · 47 min · 12 segments
Charlie Norton has bought, built and exited businesses since he was a teenager but nothing prepared him for the eight weeks he spent trying to turn around a haulage company he bought for £1. In this…
Charlie NortonGuest
Rachel MurphyHost
I was just really curious about where some of that driving force and motivation came from.
And then, you know, it's payday and coming up and you've got no way of paying because they've cleared out the account.
And, you know, a lot of my career has been, because I've never really done any training courses or had any non-execs or advisors on my team, other than my dad, has been very much through experience, learned the hard way.
And whilst we can talk about training courses later, I do feel like maybe I could have shortcutted a lot of my pain if I had some professional advice or a community or some training done, you know, officially.
Even if you are getting told not to do this, you still have to go learn it yourself.
You know, if I look back at my schooling record, do you know what I mean? I was noisy, I was lively, and I was very uninterested in having to sit down for hours, unless it was a subject I was up for.
I don't have quite that frame of reference for it, but I remember describing to somebody what it's like being an entrepreneur in a day, you know, and it's not normal because, you know, there are massive highs and lows during the course of a 12-hour period.
And I think people that like stability probably should avoid, you know, building companies.
If you like firefighting and, you know, the old heart race and then fuck how we're going to sort this out, then it's a calling for lots of us.
You know how to navigate certain difficulties because you've been there and done it.
You know, if I could look at the 20-year-old version of myself and just shake him and say it's going to be all right, you know, don't worry.
You know, you have to go through all this pain and hardship in order to be good at entrepreneurship and running businesses and managing people and getting customers and all these aspects that go into it.
I was just really curious about where some of that driving force and motivation came from.
And then, you know, it's payday and coming up and you've got no way of paying because they've cleared out the account.
And, you know, a lot of my career has been, because I've never really done any training courses or had any non-execs or advisors on my team, other than my dad, has been very much through experience, learned the hard way.
And whilst we can talk about training courses later, I do feel like maybe I could have shortcutted a lot of my pain if I had some professional advice or a community or some training done, you know, officially.
Even if you are getting told not to do this, you still have to go learn it yourself.
You know, if I look back at my schooling record, do you know what I mean? I was noisy, I was lively, and I was very uninterested in having to sit down for hours, unless it was a subject I was up for.
I don't have quite that frame of reference for it, but I remember describing to somebody what it's like being an entrepreneur in a day, you know, and it's not normal because, you know, there are massive highs and lows during the course of a 12-hour period.
And I think people that like stability probably should avoid, you know, building companies.
If you like firefighting and, you know, the old heart race and then fuck how we're going to sort this out, then it's a calling for lots of us.
You know how to navigate certain difficulties because you've been there and done it.
You know, if I could look at the 20-year-old version of myself and just shake him and say it's going to be all right, you know, don't worry.
You know, you have to go through all this pain and hardship in order to be good at entrepreneurship and running businesses and managing people and getting customers and all these aspects that go into it.
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