“You’re not supposed to feel f**king safe,” Succession star Brian Cox said to a room full of small business owners and budding entrepreneurs.
The 78-year-old Dundonian actor, who was speaking on what it means to take risks within your career at an event dedicated to ‘sparking connections’, might just have a point.
“The only guarantees are the things that you make along the way and the decisions you make and the positivity that you have towards your own life,” he continued.
Cox’s career on stage and screen dates back to the 1960s, however, it wasn’t until his most recent high-profile role as media mogul Logan Roy in the hit series Succession that he became a worldwide household name.
He’s known to have played the foul-mouthed family patriarch role fairly well, given that most would be surprised to read an interview with the actor that doesn’t include the f-word.
But isn’t that what a room full of ambitious entrepreneurs needs? An authentic, well-connected, humorous icon to share the behind-the-scenes moments of furthering a successful career, whether in theatre or business?
Much of the evening’s conversation, which was hosted by Santander, was dominated by his view on taking new roles and projects and learning from pivotal career moments and failures. And, of course, the occasional few laughs about his time spent growing up in Dundee, Scotland.
My favourite key takeaway from the evening, however, was that it doesn’t matter who you meet – or when or where you meet them – because you never know what life-changing opportunity will come from it.
Personally, I now plan to embrace the art of failure, because after meeting the outgoing actor myself, he told me why I should.
Following through with a new opportunity or project, Cox said, might just be what brings you compounding success.
“It was always a learning experience for me, it still is actually, any job is a learning experience,” he said.
“The great thing about what we do is every new project is a learning experience and that fulfils you and helps you practise and it helps you make yourself better as well.”
As an actor – and in my view, as an entrepreneur – Cox said you’ll often find yourself “surprised” with whatever’s to come next.
He added: “You do get surprised about certain things, you do learn things.
“You also learn about yourself. You learn about your own biases, you know, and your own biases get in the way, and you cannot be biased as an actor, you have to be endlessly open.
“That can be exhausting and tiring, but it’s part of what you have to do to actually do the job properly. You mustn’t have any phony opinions about things, you must be open to it.”
Cox’s most recent worldwide success is a great example of how it’s never too late to reach a pivotal moment in any career, and a lesson entrepreneurs should hold closely – is there ever really a time limit on possibilities?