# From school failure to shooting for Great Britain

- **Episode:** [133](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/133.md) (2024-10-03)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** trap-shooting, sport, failure-to-success
- **Time:** 8:04–11:52 (start 484s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/133?t=484](https://truthliesandwork.com/133?t=484)

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[8:04] Leanne Elliott: Trap shooting
[8:04] Jackie Stewart: Then I shot for Great Britain trap shooting. I shot all over Europe, um, shooting for Scotland or Great Britain or for myself. And I missed the Olympics by one target, my own fault. I made a mistake. I made a mistake, and it was a very important mistake for me later in life because I said, I'm never doing it lose that again because I would have loved to be in Rome at the Olympics. There were only 2 people on the, on the, on the team and I was the reserve, and being a reserve is not successful. So I got my shooting up even another level and won the European Mediterranean and the Scottish, English, Irish, Welsh, and European ones, traveling all over Europe for trap shooting. Big learning curve, because if you miss the target, you never get it back. As a racing driver, if I made a mistake, a little bit of a mistake, I can always gain it back. In shooting, it's going to be 99 out of 100, and it can't come back. So my shooting had an enormous amount to do with any success that I've achieved. And that applies to almost everything I've ever touched, whether it be in the business area, finding major multinational sponsors, whether it be in social areas, whatever that may be, whatever it may be, because you're— you then start to hang out with the most clever people, the most talented people. Hang on close to them, listen to them, feel out how they live and how they've achieved their success. I was— it was a little— I mean, I was driven to be able to be with those very successful people, whether it was my shooting people to begin with or later finding sponsors. And when I started motorsport, I, I had done everything I could in, in shooting. And when I was a mechanic in the garage, a very rich young man who was an only child was not allowed to race, but he could have fancy cars, the best cars. And I was the mechanic for him. And as a result of that, He gave me a drive because one of the guys had damaged the car badly and I had to repair it. I finished second, but the man who was first was top class. So he said, oh, you better have another wee try. And I won. And then it was like a rocket ship. My learning in another field, i.e., shooting, not to make mistakes, not Not to let myself get carried away with a bit of success. Learning how to match the best. And by so doing, you match and get to be with the best people. And when you're with the best people, as long as you don't be sycophantic with them, you can learn so much
[11:27] Leanne Elliott: Don't be sycophantic, don't be creepy, and treat VIPs as the normal people they are. This was the core message throughout the interview. But what happens when Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, and Steven Spielberg turn up at your event and get hugely starstruck by the King of Jordan? If you're Sir Jackie Stewart, then you just take it all in your stride