Like walking in fog: Yorkshire IT entrepreneur Andrew Mason on plotting his path to business success

He is now helping others in his business to get the same benefits he has seen from his extreme outdoor activities.

“Physically it's tough, but you can do a lot of prep for that.” says Mason, discussing his recent trip, “it's the mental side of it which is really hard.

“The first couple of days we were in a tropical rainforest, but after that you’re on a plateau in the clouds. When we were doing the ascent it wasnt really scary because you cant completely see where you are going, you can only see so far. It's like walking through fog, you can only see up to a certain point, but when you get there you can see a bit further.”

The idea of walking through the fog is something Mason has kept in mind throughout his entire career. He founded his first company, Mason Technologies, at the age of 23, and though he always knew he wanted to work in business, his path has been far from linear.

“I've always thought if I ever write a book, I'd call it Walking In Fog, because that's a lot of what we do in life,” he says, “you sort of know the direction you’re going in, but you can only plot one point to the next.

“You set up a business with an idea, but then obviously things change, you realise that idea isn’t going to pay the wages, you’ve got to do something else.”

Having first founded Mason Technologies in the early 1990s, Mason went on to found IT firm Boxing Orange, where he would stay for five years before resigning. He then went on to launch RandomStorm in 2007 with his business partner Robin Hill. The pair would sell the company seven years later for just under £10m.

After taking three days to relax and play golf, Mason went back to work, developing the idea for his next ventures.

“I was only 41 years old, I was just getting warmed up,” he says.

Mason would first launch new firm Data Protection People in 2016, before later going on to launch Pentest People a year later. The firm now employs around 100 staff, and specialises in penetration testing - a method of IT security testing.

As well as taking the lessons learned through his outdoor adventures into his own worklife, Mason also tries to give his staff the same experiences. Team members at Pentest People are often invited to join him on excursions into the countryside.

“It's hard and it's scary, because you can be freezing cold and you walk out in the dark in the middle of the night with head torches on, then take your clothes off and jump in a lake. It can be absolutely pitch black and you can’t see the bottom. But when you do something like that with your team, that's when you really bond. The team work and the bonding that comes from experiences like that is absolutely brilliant.

“We’ve had people who are petrified about going on these courses, but they are the ones who eventually get the most out of it. It helps people with mental health, with physiology and even the cardiovascular system.

“I think every single person who has been out with us has had a massive beneficial takeaway at the end of it.”

Mason was inspired to start undertaking challenges such as this during lockdown, after reading a book by Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete Wim Hof. He has since gone on to meet Hof, and even visited his home.

“It's the breath work side of it that blew me away,” says Mason, holding up a picture of himself in an ice bath with Hof and a San Francisco-based MMA fighter, “the benefits are incredible.”

Mason grew up in Leeds, with his mother and father working as a hairdresser and engineer respectively. He knew from an early age, however, that he wanted to work in business.

“I was quite entrepreneurial from being a child,” he says, “I remember being around 16 and studying computer studies at Park Lane College, and I was interviewed by someone working at a girls magazine called MIZZ.

“They stopped me outside Next for a feature they did about boys in Leeds where girls would send you letters afterwards, which was very good for the ego.

“But if you read what I said even then, I said I was going to have my own IT business, and that's exactly what I have done. I always knew what I wanted, and I was always very direct.”

Though he always knew the direction he wanted to travel, Mason’s plan of action remains now as it was back then, to move to the next visible point and take action accordingly. Or as he describes it - to walk through the fog.

“People always ask us if we have a three year plan, but we dont. A three year plan isn't worth the paper it's written on, you haven’t got a clue what's coming round the corner,” he says.

“It's just like walking in the Yorkshire Dales. You know the direction you’re walking in because you have your phone and a compass, so you know you’re going the right way, but you can only see the next wall or the next path.

“It has been a metaphor for my life and business planning - let me get to the next point and I’ll see where I’m going and what the next step looks like.

“Sometimes when you can see the end goal it can make things scarier. You approach it in fear, whereas if it's foggy, you won't be fearful at all.

“And you can take into life, it's a great feeling when you achieve that next wall and then the next one, and then you climb to the top before you even realise, and though it is scary, you take it one step at a time and you can overcome it.”