NHEX Reframes the Value of “Bad” Business Experiences

NHEX Member Danny Roberts

For young professionals navigating the early years of their careers, a bad job, difficult customer, or failed strategy may feel like something to leave behind. Danny Roberts sees it differently.

“If you only value the good experience and the good points in your career, then that is what your expectations and everything are built on,” he said. “But if you learn to value the less enjoyable parts of it, the parts that you would never want to replicate, that’s when you really learn and grow.”

Roberts, manager of a large marina in the Lakes Region and a member of the New Hampshire Entrepreneurship Exchange (NHEX), believes professional failures and difficult experiences can be just as instructive as success.

At 28, Roberts has spent nearly 15 years in the marina industry, working his way from pumping gas and cleaning boats to managing a multi-million-dollar operation. Along the way, he has worked for some of the best-managed companies in the industry as well as some of the most mismanaged.

“I value both kinds of experiences in equal measure,” he said.

For him, the lesson is not simply to identify the people and organizations a young professional wants to emulate. It is also important to pay attention to what does not work.

“You might have had a terrible week, you might have had a difficult customer, your numbers might be in the ground right now, but that is value,” he said. “That is a data point on your career trajectory that someday you will be able to use.”

That philosophy is part of what he brings to NHEX, a Lakes Region mastermind group that brings together young professionals from different industries to work through real-world business challenges.

According to Roberts, younger professionals are often expected to take on responsibilities traditionally handled by people with decades of experience, without much guidance on how to make the transition.

“There is no lesson plan for that,” he said. “There is no SOP for that. There is no roadmap for that.”

At NHEX, Roberts said members have a place to discuss those challenges openly, including questions they might not feel comfortable asking within their own workplaces.

“I think NHEX is such a unique place where young professionals can come and ask the questions that they either do not know how to ask or do not feel comfortable asking,” he said.

He said he also sees a broader shift in how younger professionals think about growth. He described it as the difference between “growing versus grinding.”

“Growth in business has changed so much,” he said. “How do you define growth?”

Traditional measures such as revenue, market share, and expansion remain important, he said, but younger professionals may be less willing to accept growth that comes at the cost of constant burnout.

“I think what in the past has been deemed just straight-up growth, I think to the newer generation feels so much more like a grind,” Roberts said.

For him and many NHEX members, the goal is not to avoid difficult experiences but to extract something useful from them.

“That's one thing I try to remind myself of often,” he said. “To value the less valuable.”

NHEX invites interested professionals to attend a session to experience the collaborative environment firsthand. For more information, visit nhex603.com or contact Ethan Keslar at ethan@keslarinsurance.com.