Leadership & Mindset · Guest Story & Episode Recap
Nathan Baws: Finding Opportunity and Choosing Where to Focus
Nathan Baws has tried businesses ranging from childhood paper airplanes to health shops, restaurants, property, and other ventures. In his conversation with Jet Bunditwong, he reflects on the successes, losses, and lessons behind a long entrepreneurial journey.
Learning business by doing it—and watching others
Nathan describes an early fascination with turning skills into a business. Not every attempt worked, and he is open about ventures that lost money as well as those that ended well. He presents entrepreneurship as an ongoing process of learning.
One important influence was the time he spent working with a pharmacist he regarded as an exceptional businessperson. Nathan describes those years as a form of paid mentorship, giving him experience that he later applied in his own companies.
The challenge is choosing between opportunities
Nathan enjoys the creativity of starting something new, but he also recognizes the cost of spreading himself across too many ideas. He now talks about asking more questions before committing to another venture.
Those questions include how a business could scale, what its destination might be, and how much time and energy it would require. His point is personal as well as practical: attention given to one opportunity is attention unavailable for another.
Partnerships and time to work on the business
The conversation explores collaborations that bring together complementary skills, relationships, and resources. Nathan emphasizes shared motivation as a foundation for a productive partnership.
He also discusses how owners can become absorbed in daily operations and lose time for business development. His examples include bringing capable people together and using regular conversations to identify growth opportunities. The episode returns to a central challenge: making room to guide the business as well as run it.
Business takeaways from the conversation
- Learn from experienced operators and apply what you observe.
- Evaluate an opportunity’s demands as well as its potential.
- Look for complementary strengths and shared motivation in partners.
- Make time to step back from daily work and consider the business’s direction.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Nathan Baws?
Nathan is an entrepreneur who discusses starting and developing more than 19 businesses across several industries.
What role did mentorship play in his story?
He credits years working alongside an experienced businessperson with helping him learn skills he later used in his own ventures.
What does Nathan consider before starting another business?
In the episode, he discusses scalability, growth potential, the intended outcome, and the amount of time and energy a venture would require.
Explore the full conversation
This page summarizes the episode. Listen or watch for the full story in Nathan Baws’s own words.
Learn more: Nathan Baws.
