100,000 STEPS OF GRIT & MY LESSONS IN PURPOSE.
100,000 Steps, 34 Hours Awake, One Broken Body — And The Hard Truth About Grit
There’s a point in every founder’s journey where you look at your life, your legs, your bank balance, your sanity, and you genuinely think:
“I’m finished. There’s no way back from this.”
I hit that point at about 9:30 in the morning, halfway through a 100,000-step walk for charity, soaked to the bone, limping, cold, and carrying a 20-kilogram rucksack that had doubled in weight with rainwater. I had been awake for more than a day already. My knee was gone. My foot felt like someone had replaced the bones with a handful of glass. Every step sent an electric shock up my left leg.
But the truth is, this isn’t a story about walking.
It’s a story about grit, purpose, and the uncomfortable reality that none of us does anything worthwhile entirely alone.
It’s also a story about a 4-year-old boy who, without knowing it, handed me the last piece of fuel I needed to finish something I had no business finishing.
Because this challenge — as brutal as it was — wasn’t just about raising £1,250 for Cash for Kids NI.
It was a test.
A question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to.
Do I still have the grit?
Do I still have the fire?
Or have the last few years broken something in me?
Turns out, grit doesn’t disappear.
It gets buried.
And sometimes you have to go and dig it out with your bare hands.
Why I Did This to Myself
I’ll be honest: this wasn’t a noble, enlightened mission. I wanted to do something good, primarily, especially at this time of year. But I also wanted to push myself as hard as I could.
It was ego, purpose, and self-interrogation all rolled into one questionable decision.
I needed to know if I still had it — the grind, the determination, the ability to hurt and keep moving. Running businesses, writing a book, building a community… they’re all different versions of the same question:
“Can you keep going when every part of you is begging to stop?”
I could talk about discipline.
I could talk about mindset.
I could talk about resilience frameworks and founder psychology.
Or I could tell you the truth:
Sometimes you need to break yourself a little to remember what you’re capable of.
Night, Rain, Misery, Repeat
Midnight to 4am was carnage.
The rain didn’t fall. It attacked.
The rucksack drank most of it.
Every piece of clothing I wore held the rest.
My dear friend Matt walked stretches with me in that window. Quiet encouragement. No drama. Just calm, steady company in the pitch dark when I needed it most.
If you’ve ever built a business, you’ll know that feeling.
Those rare moments when someone stands beside you, no speeches, no motivational nonsense — just presence. Just being there.
Founders don’t need cheerleaders.
We need witnesses.
People who see the pain and don’t flinch.
The 9:30 Collapse
By the time 9:30am hit, the wheels were coming off.
My body was shutting down.
Slowly. Quietly. Deliberately.
It wasn’t dramatic.
No fanfare.
Just that creeping realisation that your engine is overheating but the finish line is still miles away.
Jonny and Amanda joined me for an hour.
They didn’t know how bad I was.
But their company, their chat, their energy — it lifted me just enough to keep the wheels turning.
Then Andrew arrived. He was there at multiple key moments.
Solid. Supportive. The kind of person you want on your flank when everything hurts.
There were hot chocolates, surprise snacks, texts flooding in.
None of these things finished the steps for me.
But every one of them kept me from quitting.
Grit is not a solo sport.
Grit is a team event disguised as personal strength.
34 Hours Awake: The Moment I Nearly Quit for Good
At 3:30pm I finally stopped.
Collapsed might be a better word.
I had been awake for 34 hours.
My knee was finished.
My foot was a crime scene.
I had 32,000 steps left.
I lay down, fully convinced that when I woke up it was over.
I slept for three hours.
Woke up to my wife standing over me with the most loving threat imaginable:
“I know you will be a nightmare if you don’t finish this. So get up, finish it, and never do this again.”
That’s love.
Not gentle, soft, “there there” love.
Real, sharp, practical love.
The kind founders need.
The kind leaders need.
The kind humans need.
But the knockout punch came from my son — four years old, tiny, bright as a button.
Before I left for the final stretch, after asking me why I was doing this he said:
“I want to be like my daddy when I grow up.”
That sentence woke me up more than sleep ever could.
I turned to my wife and said:
“How can I not finish now?”
Purpose is a funny thing.
You don’t always feel it.
But when it arrives, it carries you further than motivation ever will.
Back On My Feet, Limping Toward the Finish
I stood up.
Took painkillers.
Strapped my foot.
Dragged myself back outside.
Andrew met me again, then Matt, dozens more texts from far and wide.
We finished it together.
By the last few thousand steps, my body was a negotiation.
Every joint was bargaining for mercy.
And I was just stubborn enough to say no.
At the end, when I finally stopped, something strange happened.
The pain wasn’t the thing that got me.
The emotion did.
I sat down and cried.
Quietly.
Not out of suffering — but out of relief.
Because I had proven something to myself that I didn’t realise I needed to prove:
You’re not done.
You’re not finished.
You still have fight in you.
The next day I could barely move.
Walking 50 metres took 10 minutes.
Every blister made itself known.
My knee refused to cooperate.
But inside, I felt unstoppable.
Grit changes you.
Not in theory.
Not in a podcast-quote way.
In your DNA.
The Lessons That Matter (In Life, In Business, In Everything)
When you strip everything back — the weather, the pain, the sleep deprivation, the huge rucksack, the emotional mess — the lessons are painfully simple.
1. Purpose beats motivation every time
Motivation disappears the second things get hard.
Purpose sticks around even when you don’t want it to.
2. Grit is built in tiny, ugly moments
Not highlight reels.
Not big wins.
Just those small “one more step” choices.
3. You will not finish anything big alone
You might think you’re self-made.
Nobody is.
Not a single person.
4. Rest is not giving up
Rest is essential fuel.
Without that 3-hour sleep, I wouldn’t have finished.
5. Your environment determines your endurance
Your people matter.
Your mindset matters.
Your purpose matters.
6. You are stronger than you think
But rarely as strong as you pretend
And there’s power in closing that gap.
Why This Matters to Founders and Professionals
The founder journey is a 100,000-step walk disguised as a business plan.
There are early wins.
Moments of clarity.
Bursts of adrenaline.
Then there are long, miserable stretches of darkness where progress feels invisible.
Where you question your competence.
Where you question your choices.
Where you question whether you should have just taken a job in Accounts Payable and lived a quieter life.
But the truth is:
Grit is the currency of every meaningful success.
Not talent.
Not intelligence.
Not brilliant ideas.
Not charisma.
Grit.
Purpose.
And the people around you.
I didn’t finish that walk because I’m physically elite.
Far from it.
I finished because I had purpose, support, and the stubborn refusal to give up in front of my son.
And the same applies to every business you will ever build.
To Everyone Reading This
You’re stronger than you think.
You have more support than you realise.
And you have a responsibility — to your future self, to your kids, to your community — to keep moving forward.
Not perfectly.
Not quickly.
Just forward.
If this resonates, and if you want more of this kind of hard truth, inspiration, grit, and founder honesty — the Unfounded book is waiting for you.
Next year better watch out for you too.
