In a business culture obsessed with projecting confidence, control and constant success, admitting mistakes can feel like an act of self-sabotage. Founders are encouraged to sell the vision, protect the perception and keep weaknesses out of sight.
Dubai-based British entrepreneur and podcaster Matt Haycox takes the opposite view. After building and rebuilding companies across finance, hospitality and media, navigating two public bankruptcies, and spending years under extreme commercial and legal pressure, he believes owning mistakes isn’t a liability, it’s one of the fastest ways to regain momentum, rebuild trust and move forward stronger.
“I’ve made so many mistakes it’s hard to pick just one,” Haycox says. “But if there’s a big one that shaped everything, it’s this: making money the number one goal without thinking about what else comes with it.”
Early in his career, that single-minded focus delivered results on paper, but at a cost he didn’t fully appreciate at the time. “I built businesses and a life that earned very good money,” he says, “but I got everything else wrong. No time. No freedom. Constant pressure. Being beholden to investors I didn’t respect. Letting suppliers push me around. You win one thing and lose five others.”
Looking back, Haycox sees it as a failure of optimisation rather than ambition. “When people set goals, they usually ask one question: what do I want? What they don’t ask, and it’s just as important, is what don’t I want? I didn’t factor that in enough early on, and I probably paid for it.”
That lesson now underpins how he approaches both business and life. Having rebuilt again, with a clearer sense of priorities, Haycox talks openly about redefining success on his own terms: sustainable, deliberate and aligned with the kind of life he actually wants to live. It’s a recalibration he regularly discusses with the entrepreneurs and investors who follow his work and tune into his long-running business podcast.
Yet despite how common mistakes are in entrepreneurship, Haycox believes most people still avoid owning them publicly. “People think admitting mistakes makes them look weak,” he says. “They want to appear invincible. They think that’s what everyone wants to see. But it’s not true.”
In his experience, the opposite is far more powerful. “People relate to someone who’s fallible. Someone who’s honest. Owning mistakes builds trust faster than any performance ever will.”
That belief has been reinforced repeatedly through his career, particularly during periods when scrutiny was highest. Haycox doesn’t romanticise those chapters, but he’s clear about what worked. “When things are bad, you’re already on the back foot,” he says. “The only way to get back on the front foot is to own what’s happened and move forward.”
Trying to hide, deflect or rewrite the past, he argues, only compounds the damage. “When you stop hiding and start taking responsibility, you actually get more of what you want. You grow faster. You learn quicker. You earn more, not just financially, but in respect and trust.”
That principle extends beyond reputation. Haycox believes the personal cost of not owning mistakes is often underestimated. “If you don’t own them, you stall. You carry stress internally. You live slightly out of alignment with the truth. And that slows everything down.”
It’s a perspective shaped by seeing how pressure behaves at different stages of success. “Money doesn’t remove stress,” he says. “It often amplifies it. Different levels, different devils. The stakes get higher, expectations increase, and the fear of losing what you’ve built can be intense.”
Over time, he’s learned that credibility isn’t built by pretending those pressures don’t exist, but by demonstrating the ability to navigate them. “The real test isn’t whether you avoid mistakes,” Haycox says. “It’s whether you can face them, learn from them, and keep going without losing yourself.”
That mindset now defines how he mentors founders and engages with his audience. Through his podcast and the private conversations that follow it, he regularly hears from business owners grappling with decisions they regret or paths they wish they’d chosen differently.
“The ones who get stuck are usually the ones still trying to defend the old story,” he says. “The ones who move forward are the ones who say: yes, I got that wrong – now what?”
Having come through the cycle of rise, collapse and rebuild more than once, Haycox is clear that owning mistakes doesn’t weaken authority, it strengthens it. “If you’ve never had to admit fault, you probably haven’t done anything difficult enough yet,” he says. Haycox has spoken previously about this process of rebuilding under pressure, and why resilience, rather than reputation, often becomes the real competitive advantage for entrepreneurs.
Today, with experience that spans extreme highs and lows, his focus is firmly forward. The difference this time, he says, is intention. “I’m building with clarity now. I know what I’m optimising for. And I know what I won’t trade away again.”
For Haycox, that clarity is the real dividend of accountability. “Mistakes don’t disqualify you,” he says. “They refine you, if you’re honest about them.”
In an era of over-polished success stories and carefully curated personal brands, his approach stands out for its simplicity. Own what happened. Learn the lesson. Adjust the course. Move on.
Because in business, as in life, progress doesn’t come from pretending you’re flawless. It comes from telling the truth, taking responsibility, and having the courage to build again.
That philosophy continues to shape how Haycox works with and advises business owners today. His broader approach centres on accountability, clarity and building businesses that can survive mistakes without losing momentum or integrity.
