Pret & Itsu Founder: How I Built TWO Billion Dollar Brands At The Same Time!: Julian Metcalfe | E173

I love failure. (instrumental music) I fail every day. I don't care about it, just get on with it. (instrumental music) You had Pret, and now you've got itsu. You are absolutely an entrepreneur at heart. As all the fish are going in one way, you suddenly look round and you think, "Damn it, I'm gonna go the other way."

When you look back at Pret, a business you ended up selling for two billion.

I have no idea what I was doing. It wasn't planned. Endless moments of magic, moments of bizarre creativity and confidence.

What was motivating you then?

I wanted to make a difference. I suddenly found myself with this responsibility to open a restaurant. From that start, we built 76 of them. We started developing it so it could become the future.

The absence of both parents.

He was quite distant, my father. My mother committed suicide when I was seven, that created a loneliness. To create something new, you've gotta put yourself in slightly unchartered territory.

Business isn't just business to you, is it? It's not just about the money.

No, and it shouldn't be to anyone. I'm far more interested in the relationships with the customer and the staff and the product. I was obsessed by that. Obsessed. It's incredible what people can do if people don't trust them, people don't nurture them, 'cause they're too busy being selfish, nurturing themselves.

What's the worst crisis you've ever had in your business?

I daren't even wanna go into it.

I wanna hear it. So, without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. Julian?

Yeah.

"I was exposed to a number of hardships as a child." You said that. What did you mean?

I love the way you start off with a real killer. Um, I can't remember who I said that to. Um, and I was expe-... Well, listen, I- I'm not, I'm not alone, by the way. Other, a great many people watching this or listening to this were exposed to hardships far greater than mine. But the death of my mother when I was seven, she, my mother committed suicide on Boxing Day, uh, so I was left... And my parents were divorced. So we, we lived, uh, the three of us, my brother, sister, and I, lived with our mum, but that was a difficult thing, that was, uh, uh, uh, that created a loneliness.

Did you, did you realize that at the time? Did you realize the impact that incident ha- had had on you growing up?

Probably not. No, I think I, that, you don't, when you're lonely, you don't really, aged eight or nine or 12, you don't really know you're lonely, you just, you don't feel whole, I suppose. You don't feel completely whole. Other people seemed to be jollier than I was at that age, that's for sure.