Simon Woodroffe talks about being badly abused at boarding school aged 7. How self-esteem, anger, and false bravado led to drink, drugs, and loneliness. Recovery via 12-step groups. Hope! Stage design, success, and resilience.
Listen on your favourite platform
Description
At seven, he was sent away to boarding school, where abuse, fear, and loneliness shaped his early years. By his thirties, Simon Woodroffe masked the pain with bravado, drink, drugs, and a fast life that landed him briefly behind bars. But his story doesn’t end there.
From rock-bottom to rock stages—designing for George Michael, Fleetwood Mac, and Rod Stewart—Simon turned his life around through 12-Step recovery, self-help, and a belief in pushing boundaries. He became a TV dragon on Dragon’s Den, launched the Yo! Sushi empire and is a relentless champion of stepping outside your comfort zone.
Generous, courageous, and always shooting straight from the hip—practical, fearless, and undeniably inspirational.
Life Jackets
Lifejackets in this podcast refer to the personal tools and rituals that keep us afloat in the waves of life. Whether it’s a film, tv show, music, a favourite book, a crossword puzzle, or the steady presence of a dog, these are the things that keep us afloat. Everyone needs their own lifejackets—small but essential things that help us stay sane in an insane world.
- Gardening – At home with Pim in the North of Thailand or at our hut in the jungle near Hua Hin
- Hobbies/Exercise – Climbing: Have a “thank God hold”, Sailing
- TV – Don’t watch much TV, other than on YouTube, and The Crown and Clarkson’s Farm
- Films – Sound of Music and Spinal Tap
- Book – Don’t read novels but read just about every pop biog, history biog and autobiog from business to entertainment and could answer MasterMind subjects on Mountaineering or adventure expeditions from the exploration of the south pole to John Hunt on the ascent of Everest and Chris Bonnington’s life, Joe Simpson’s Touching the Void
- Music – Free Solo, Dawn Wall, Know a lot of song lyrics from Ian Dury and Billericay Dicky, that I can recite, to much of the Beatles and Rock music of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
- Poems – How to get rich, a poem by Felix Dennis I never get tired of, or Stop the Clocks, W H Auden on life and death
- Other – Insight timer: an app that, for 20 years, I have used both for meditation and my own version of yoga at 6am for 50 minutes, usually.
- Other – Scottish Doctor declared you need three things to be happy: – Something to do – Someone or something to love – Something to hope for
- Other – If a young man aged 22, similar to yourself, knocked on your door, asking for directions, what would you say? Curiosity and ability not to give up/resilience