Before you get drunk, admit where you fcked up this year!

It’s Mad Friday.
You’re half in “wrap things up”, half in “where’s the mulled wine?”, inbox full of crap you don’t care about and your brain already on pigs in blankets.

I’ve just done a feature on this exact thing, why owning your fuck-ups builds more trust (and better businesses) than pretending you’ve sailed through the year without a dent.

So I’ll keep this very simple:

Before you disappear into beer and bad decisions…
be honest about where you’ve fucked up this year.

Not in a “beat yourself up” way.
In a “this is how I’m going to build better in 2026” way.

Because here’s what I’ve learned the hard way, over two bankruptcies, horrible deals, rebuilding from scratch and everything in between:

The mistake that nearly cost me everything

If I had to pick one mistake that shaped my whole career, it’s this:

I made money the number one goal.
I didn’t think hard enough about what else I was signing up for.

On paper, it looked great.
The businesses made very good money.

Underneath?

• No time

• No freedom

• Constant pressure

• Investors I didn’t respect

• Suppliers pushing me around

• Winning one thing and losing five others

It wasn’t an ambition problem.
It was an optimisation problem.

Everyone sets goals based on “What do I want?”
Almost nobody asks “What do I not want?”

I didn’t ask that early enough. I paid for it.

That’s why I now talk openly about defining success on your own terms, building businesses that make money and give you a life you actually want to live.

Why founders stay stuck

Here’s what I see over and over again, in the DMs, on calls, and in the No Bollocks community:

• The ones who stay stuck are still defending the old story.

• The ones who move forward are the ones who say:
  “Yes, I got that wrong – now what?”

Most founders are more scared of looking wrong than of repeating the same mistake for another year.

They polish the brand.
They protect the image.
They quietly drown behind the scenes.

And all it would take to get moving again is:

1. Own what actually happened

2. Decide what you’re no longer willing to tolerate

3. Change something real – not just your vision board

Money doesn’t remove pressure, by the way.
It often amplifies it. Different levels, different devils.

You don’t build real trust by pretending those pressures don’t exist.
You build it by showing you can navigate them without losing yourself.

Heading into 2026: don’t waste your mistakes

End of the year is when everyone posts their “biggest wins”.

By all means celebrate.
But if you want 2026 to look different to 2025, you also need to ask:

• Where did I genuinely f*ck up this year?

• What goal did I chase without thinking through the cost?

• What am I absolutely not willing to drag into next year?

That’s where the real leverage is.

I’ve just done a full piece on this, why owning your mistakes is one of the fastest ways to rebuild trust, regain momentum and move forward stronger, and how that’s shaped the way I build, invest and mentor now.

If this hits a nerve, here’s where to go next 👇

1. Read the full article

If you want the longer version of this story – the rise, the collapses, the rebuilds and the mindset shift behind it:

👉 Read the full feature here:
Matt Hacox on the Power of Owning Your Mistakes and Why it Builds Real Trust in Business - infinityelse

2. Plug into the No Bollocks community (free)

If you want more honest conversations about money, mistakes and building businesses that don’t ruin the rest of your life, get inside the No Bollocks ecosystem.

No fluff. No “10X guru” bollocks. Just real operators trying to build better.

👉 Join the No Bollocks HQ / community here:
No Bollocks Growth Community

3. Get practical this Christmas: fix the way you’re building

If you know you’re already scaling something that’s shaky, or you’re spinning 10 offers and none of them are really working…

Start there.

My Power of One eBook is built exactly for that, helping founders:

• Strip things back

• Focus on one offer, one audience, one clear path

• Build something that’s profitable and sustainable before they try to scale it

👉 Grab The Power of One for Christmas (£27):

Cheaper than the bar bill you’re about to rack up tonight, and it might actually change next year.

4. See what everyone else is saying (press hub)

If you’re new to my world and wondering who the hell I am and why you should listen to me at all…

Fair question.

You can see a lot of the recent coverage, interviews, features and press, here:

👉 Matt Haycox in the press:
https://matthaycoxpress.com/#press

Start there. If anything resonates, stick around.

Whatever you do over the next couple of weeks, don’t waste your mistakes.

Own them.
Learn from them.
And go into 2026 with a bit more clarity on what you’re building, and what you’re not willing to sacrifice this time.

Enjoy Mad Friday.
Try not to do anything you’ll regret, and if you do, at least have the balls to own it.