In the ‘Hot seat’ with Adrian Lloyd
This week I have been grilling one of of Episode 1’s founding partners Adrian Lloyd. The self proclaimed adventurous family man and genuinely bloody good guy!
Find out what makes him tick here…
What is your name and where are you from?
Adrian Eyre Lloyd. My grandfather was General Richard Eyre Lloyd, a solider. I’m glad to share his middle name. I’m from London, born to a Swiss (Zurich) mum and English dad, though she grew up in Cuba and he in Cyprus when not at boarding school in England
Three words to describe yourself?
An adventurous, reliable, family-man
What has been your biggest success in your life so far?
My family aside, establishing Episode 1 with Simon and Damien as the original founders. I was extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time to get into that situation. I’m proud to have been a part of building the awesome team we have today.
What’s your biggest failure?
I don’t really think along those lines. At least not today. I do my best in everything I do, most things go more or less to plan, and some don’t. But I don’t think about things going wrong as failure, but, if they go wrong principally because of me, as my not being ready to manage that situation — needing to learn from experience, basically. Companies I am Director of don’t always have a smooth path. Could I have foreseen the bumps — sometimes. Is it just down to me that the path wasn’t smooth. Never. It’s a group effort almost all the time. I’m learning all the time — getting better all the time — smoothing my and others’ paths all the time…
If you weren’t doing your job you do today, what would you do?
Probably make furniture out of walnut. Love walnut. Love making furniture, what little I’ve done. And print-making — I really enjoy lino-cut and wood-cut printing and others seem to like them too– I sold prints when I was younger and had the time to make them! I used to think about diplomacy as a career but my work experience in the space made it look like business but
without the execution. Nowadays it looks rather more exciting and challenging. So perhaps I’d reconsider my views.
Who would be your mystery dinner guest (dead or alive) & why?
Perhaps Winston Churchill. If he would suffer a fool, you know you’d be laughing and learning and of course enjoying a very large and quite liquid dinner. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Alternatively, I love the art of Anselm Kiefer and my experience of dining with great artists to date have always been eye-opening and thought-provoking. So maybe we’d have dinner-a-trois?
If you were to win the lottery what would be the FIRST thing you’d do?
Absolutely nothing. I’d worry that if I was impulsive I’d regret it. I’d probably force myself to do nothing for a week and then work out what to do. I’ve always wanted to take my kids to the Galapagos, but if you want a funner answer, I’d rent a private boat to take the family around the Galapagos and fly us all out there in business class. 4 kids under 7 wouldn’t be popular on the
plane, but I’d exercise my diplomatic skills to smooth ruffled feathers!
What’s your favourite book/blog/website to read?
The Weekend FT is a massive luxury when I get to read it cover to cover. I try hard to read fiction and non-fiction one after another after my god-father, a writer and director, persuaded me that one learns as much if not more from fiction as one does from non-fiction. And it’s fun. Right now my non-fiction is How To Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb and my fiction is The Incendiaries by a friend who was at Stanford with me. It’s an amazing and quite dark novel. Beautiful word-crafting.
What is the silliest thing you have ever done?
Dived into the Greek Mediterranean at 2am blindly following the guy in front of me and then knocking a tooth out. Silly and very very lucky that nothing worse happened. That and getting arrested in China for travelling into a restricted area in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert during my gap year. Turned out to be a militarily sensitive area. I never found out why, but I
had an interesting night in a cell with my friends Hugh and Jack. The police were very nice to us, perhaps because two of us spoke Chinese passably well.
What was the biggest ‘EUREKA’ moment in your life so far?
When my wife taught me that peoples’ feelings and emotional reactions to me have very little to do with me, the person who triggers them, but are almost entirely down to that person’s own emotional history, typically their childhood. So very clever and helpful. Especially with the four kids!
If you were to die tomorrow, what advice would you leave to the world?
The only way to be successful is to do things you enjoy doing. No matter how smart you are, you’ll be competing with someone just as smart but who really enjoys their work. They will win. Do what you love. You’ll be happier and more successful. And a better partner and parent. And buy less stuff, an nothing made out of plastic (and give money to the charity- Client Earth)
Who would you like to nominate next and why?
Carina, because she’s our newest Partner and I’m sure she’ll have some interesting answers!
By Leah Martin
