GUEST COLUMN:
Darren Campbell MBE
I’ve lived a couple of lifetimes, it feels like at times. Growing up in Manchester in a single-parent family, moving to Wales at 19, building an athletics career, working in media and business – none of it came with a map.
If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: there is no sat nav for your dreams and goals. If you want to get where you’re going, you will need people around you. It’s all about relationships and respect.
When I was young, people saw talent in me before I saw it in myself. My mum always told me I could achieve anything I set my mind to. We lived on a council estate, I never really knew my father, and the environment around me wasn’t always positive. But that belief from my mum gave me something to hold on to.
I was 12 when I watched the Olympics and told everyone at school that one day I would go. They laughed. I started practising my autograph anyway. That belief mattered, and what mattered just as much was the support. My mum worked two or three jobs to take me to competitions. A lady at social services helped us at a crucial time when we couldn’t afford my sister’s school fees. Those moments, those people, made the difference. You can have ambition, but without support it’s almost impossible to realise it.
As a teenager I was living in two worlds. I had success in athletics – I was European junior champion at 17 – but I was also a product of my environment. When one of my friends was murdered, my mum asked me to leave Manchester. British athletics supported me with coaching options and I chose to move to South Wales. Looking back now, at 52, I see those as sliding door moments. A coach gave me a place to stay.
Others gave me guidance and structure. Each relationship shaped what came next.
In 2000, I won Olympic silver over 200 metres in Sydney. In 2004, alongside Mark Lewis-Francis, Marlon Devonish and Jason Gardener, I won relay gold in Athens. Even that gold medal proves the point. I could run my leg of the race, but I could not win it alone. Success at that level is shared.
After athletics, I wanted to prove something to myself. I’d been labelled in certain ways growing up and I was determined to show that I could be successful in business too. I co-founded and invested in a sports nutrition company with a nutritionist who had supported me throughout my career. I invested around £25,000 and we built it step by step. There were sleepless nights, bank loans, risks against the house, and all the pressures business owners understand – worrying about cashflow, about staff, about whether the next deal will land.
The company now turns over more than £1 million and whilst I didn’t make life-changing money, I achieved what I set out to achieve: to build something credible and sustainable. And again, it came down to relationships – the trust between business partners, the introductions from friends, the mentors who gave their time.
I’ve never been afraid to ask for help. Mentors have been crucial to me. When you ask someone for their time, you are asking for something valuable. If you respect that, most people are willing to give it. In business, as in sport, you cannot micromanage everything. A good leader supports, trusts and allows others to play their part.
A few years ago, just before the pandemic, I had a bleed on the brain which affected my pituitary gland. I lost my memory. I was depressed and at rock bottom. I stopped media work and the punditry I’d been doing for a decade, and stepped away from almost everything. No medal, no business success, no public recognition could fix that. Only my family could bring me back.
When the opportunity came to join UK Athletics as Head of Sprints, Hurdles and Relays, I didn’t feel ready. My confidence had gone. My wife and son helped me with my CV and presentation and I realised that I had to climb the mountain again. I got the job, and in the Olympic Games in Paris our relay teams won five medals – something no other nation has done. I was honoured to be voted British Olympic Association Coach of the Year for Paris 2024. Winning the award was fantastic, and alongside it came the recognition that, even at my lowest, my support network had carried me until I could stand on my own again.
Today I’m also working with a start-up designing sensored tracks. The skills I learned building a business from scratch – doing everything from delivery driving to bookkeeping – are second nature now. Different environment, same principles.
If I could leave one message for business leaders, it would be this. Believe in yourself, absolutely. Set big goals. But understand that you cannot do it alone. Invest in relationships. Treat people with respect. Be willing to ask for help and to give it in return.
And keep some balance. Because when things go wrong – and they will at some point – it won’t be the deal you closed or the title you hold that steadies you. It will be the people who believe in you, sometimes before you believe in yourself.
Darren Campbell MBE will be speaking about his journey at the Cornerstone Finance Group Expo at the ICC Wales in Newport on Thursday, March 19th. The Expo is open to members of the Cornerstone Network and invited guests. To find out more about the Expo and to enquire about attending email Jonathan Needham at j.needham@cornerstonefinance.co.uk or Philip Emanuel at p.emanuel@cornerstonefinance.co.uk
