How failing my first internship became the secret to my success
Ambition A.M. meets Max Ottignon, founder of London-based branding agency Ragged Edge, to chat about what it takes to learn from your mistakes, and why it’s crucial to establish a growth mindset from the start.
Entrepreneur Max Ottignon can still remember the embarrassment he felt the day his line manager told him things were no longer working out.
He had just landed himself an internship at a prominent advertising agency in London, a role that he believed finally put him on track to achieving his dream job.
Turns out, the now-proud co-founder and chief executive of London-based branding agency Ragged Edge had some reflection to do, because his then-24-year-old self let his ego get the best of him.
Ragged Edge, which was founded in 2007, has worked with several big-name brands such as Monzo, Wise, East London Liquor Co and Papier. Its work can also be found on the shelves of stores worldwide, including Liberty, Selfridges, Target and Anthropologie.
The globally-recognised independent branding agency recently achieved B-corp status just last year – a certification awarded to purpose-led companies meeting high standards of social and environmental performance – and now works across 175 countries.
Ottignon, now 43, credits his entrepreneurial success to the day he realised his mindset needed to change – because if there’s anything you learn from being told you aren’t as good as you thought you were, it’s the importance of being self aware.
Establishing a growth mindset
“You’re not really supposed to admit weakness,” Ottignon says, attempting to outline his view on the flaws of traditional leadership.
From his experience, however, good leadership comes when you learn to embrace your weaknesses.
Especially if you find yourself like him, an ambitious budding entrepreneur once blind to the fact that nobody is ‘perfect’.
“I needed my mindset to shift and I don’t think it would have changed if it had just been a nice smooth journey.”
Max Ottignon
“I needed my mindset to shift and I don’t think it would have changed if it had just been a nice smooth journey,” he says.
“What I wasn’t aware of enough was that I was making quite a few mistakes, not intentionally, but the standards I had weren’t the standards that this agency had and I was too swept up in the whole thing to really realise,” he adds.
Resilience
Rather than assuming the industry wasn’t for him, Ottignon instead went on to launch Ragged Edge – with a mission to “champion ideas, not egos” – just a few years later.
His secret to persevering? Learning to learn.
“What I have learned to do is to really try and understand that I’ll always be learning,” he says.
He adds: “Throughout my career, when I’ve been at my best is because I’ve been a sponge for information.
“I’ve learned from the people that I’m around, and I’ve been sensitive to the things that they’re telling me… and really open to getting better.”
It’s a lesson others should hold closely, he says, because when you remain open to opportunity it becomes what he likes to call an entrepreneurial “superpower”.
The definition of success
An entrepreneur’s definition of success is rarely ever the same.
For Ottignon, it all comes down to accepting that there will never be a one-size-fits-all journey.
“What got you here won’t take you there is something I really believe in.”
Max Ottignon
“It’s easy to – especially when you’ve had some success – to believe that if you keep doing the same things, you’ll keep having the same success, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
Taking risks is something he puts at the forefront of his mission with Ragged Edge, he says, as it’s one of the most important building blocks to have when it comes to forming a growth mindset in the first place.
“From an early age we saw branding as a bit of a magic trick,” Ottignon says.
He adds: “You can use the idea of branding to fundamentally change how people feel about things and can fundamentally change how they act.
“But you need to do it differently in order to do that… you need to think about branding differently, you need to make different choices, you might need to make bold choices that are often quite uncomfortable, that feel risky.”
Now, with a 35-person team following his lead, he plans to do just that as he looks to stay ahead of the ever-changing curve of the $43.4bn brand design industry.
CV
Name: Max Ottignon
Company: Ragged Edge
Founded: 2007
Staff: 35
Title: Co-Founder
Age: 43
Lives: London
Studied: University of Nottingham
Talents: Seeing potential in others, spotting typos at 1000m
Motto: What got you here won’t take you there
Most known for: Being the tall one
First ambition: Design Lego sets for a living
Favourite book: “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals”, by Oliver Burkeman
Best piece of advice: Have the confidence to hire people better than you