The Life of Someone Extraordinary
Ben Cooley: What Happens When A Successful Leader Loses Everything?
British born, American residing entrepreneur, leader, and former opera singer Ben Cooley joins The Life of Someone Extraordinary for a conversation about leadership, success, failure, faith, identity, and what happens when the thing you built your life around suddenly disappears. Ben went from opera singing to co-founding Hope For Justice, an anti-trafficking organisation that grew to reach more than 100,000 people every year, work alongside governments, raise tens of millions, and help dismantle a trafficking gang responsible for 450 victims. But behind that extraordinary success was a deeper struggle. When Ben eventually lost the organisation he had spent years building, he was forced to confront a crisis of identity, leadership and faith. Without the constant pressure to achieve, he began uncovering wounds he had never dealt with and questioning the relationship he had developed with success itself. In this conversation, we explore the encounter that changed the direction of Ben's life, why success became his validator, the warning signs he missed in his own leadership, and what losing everything taught him about failure, vulnerability and self-leadership. We also explore how his understanding of faith changed from performance and achievement to grace, and how rebuilding his identity, family and work eventually led to Good Service Company. This is a conversation about what success can hide, what failure can reveal, and what becomes possible when you stop measuring your worth by what you have achieved.
