Behind the scenes with Steven Bartlett and the Full Metal GM-B2100
Who is the face behind the latest Full Metal GM-B2100?
Steven Bartlett is the 29-year-old Founder of the social media marketing agency Social Chain. From a bedroom in Manchester, this university drop-out built what would become one of the world’s most influential social media companies at just 21 years old, before taking his company public at age 27 with a current market value of over $600M. He is widely considered one of Europe’s most talented and accomplished young entrepreneurs and philosophical thinkers.
With a Never Give Up Story of his very own, we explore what motivates & inspires Steven, his relationship with time & connection to G-SHOCK.
NEVER GIVE UP – What’s motivating you?
“Having more of a sort of deeper, intrinsically meaningful reason as to why you’re doing what you’re doing allows you to persevere even in the hardest moments and so whether that’s in my business where there was a lot at stake and there was a lot of rewards on offer or whether was in my personal life, when it comes to training or other hard tasks, I just have to make sure that the fundamental reason why I decided to start that journey it is true and it is deep and it is meaningful and motivation seems to follow.”
“Part of the reason I don’t give up in difficult situations is because I feel like I’m rewriting my own story”
What is your relationship with time?
“I feel like I don’t have enough time every day, but that’s also what makes time so special. It’s what makes life so special – the fact that everything is finite and every decision we make comes at the expense of something else,”
“I use the analogy of time and gaming chips. I get these 24 chips in a day, by the time I’ve woken up, I’ve spent eight of them on sleep so, I’ve got 16 left to play with and how I place these chips on the roulette table of life, determines the outcome. I might put one on walking my dog and two on hanging out with my family. The wheel spins and shows me the return that I get on the placement of those chips.”
“I think about my journey – a university dropout in Manchester, my parents weren’t speaking to me, I had the worst credit rating you’ve ever seen. I allocated my time – sending emails to this person, begging this person to give me a meeting – and it is ultimately the reason I’m sat here today.”
What G-SHOCK represent to you as a brand?
“ The biggest thing for me – well, it’s a few things the first is obviously the reliability. Then there’s the durability of this particular piece, I’ve heard the story about the origin of G-SHOCK”
An ICON – Almost 40 years in the making
In 1983, CASIO engineer Kikuo Ibe won the battle against the laws of nature. He designed a watch that would resist centrifugal and impact forces, as well as high water pressure. Since then, the name G-SHOCK has become a byword for independence and pushing the limits. Heartbroken by a broken pocket watch given to him by his father, Mr. Ibe set about creating ‘the unbreakable watch based upon a triple 10 philosophy. The team created over 200 prototypes one after another over a period of about two years. They finally arrived at a shock-resistant structure. G-SHOCK was born.
“This is a watch that you can really rely on, especially if you’re living a bit more of an active life and, like me, you are susceptible to breaking things.”
“The stage I’m at in my life, I’m looking for pieces that will last me a long time, that I can wear every day and not have to worry about too much in terms of ‘is it going to fit with this outfit?’ or ‘Is it going to break someday?’ I don’t want to have to be conscious and scared all the time that it might get a scratch.”
‘I find it to be really fashionable”
“I can see the construction of it. I can see inside. And there’s something about that rawness of the material and the design that makes it resonate with me.”
“I listen to a certain type of music. I like hip-hop, I like R&B, I like street music and I don’t know why, but I get a lot of those flavours from this.
The Full Metal GM-B2100
