Reflections From A Simple Manm

I’ve recently read Richard Bransons’ autobiography,  Losing My Virginity, and was astounded to learn of the difficulties he had to overcome early in his life such as nearly drowning and being dyslexic. Like Richard Branson, it was surely my early difficulties which played an important role in making me into the person I am now. My journey always felt unique, like his.

 

Unlike Richard Branson, I do not sit at the top of a sprawling global business empire, I am no multimillionaire and I am not dyslexic. But, I was a kid who struggled all through school but have since had numerous successful business ventures. I have set about building a solid business which has provided my family with a good life and enabled us to buy a beautiful home on the Atlantic coast and travel the world.

 

When I was 8 years old, I started working weekends for my parents. At this time, they were running a fast-food restaurant which had a reception room for birthday parties and weddings. On a typical Saturday we would be at work by 8 AM and often would not get home until the early hours of the next morning. My responsibilities included cooking chips, serving ice cream, washing up, and DJ-ing in the evening. This was a tough routine for a young man but it was without doubt the most valuable experience of my life and where I got my first insights into business, which proved to be much more valuable than any career talk at school.

 

 

My first year at university was one big party. Not surprisingly, I flunked my first year exams and risked imminent expulsion. I remember thinking how the heck am I going to pass these exams when I didn’t even have the course notes to study. This is where friends come in and spades of determination. A good friend lent me his lecture notes, I buckled down, and later passed my first year exams in September.

 

I watched other more intellectually gifted students fall by the wayside as I came out with a respectable degree. The late 1980s was a very tough time to get a job in the UK, the economy was depressed and more companies were laying people off than taking them on. Again, through my diligence, I managed to get a job as a trainee accountant with a small accountancy practice.

 

The peculiarity of the professional accounting exams in the UK is that you study and work at the same time. You have a regular 9-to-5 job plus overtime when the audit season is on, and in the evenings when you get home, you have to open the study manuals to cover the material in preparation for exams.

 

I continued to work and study hard, but still failed the year end exams.  Not one to be beaten, I enrolled in a weekend college which focused almost exclusively on exam technique. I turned into an exam machine doing mock exam after mock exam every weekend. I learnt about things like motivation, positive mental attitude and mind mapping. I realized that success had little to do with personal aptitude and everything to do with hard work and determination. Within 2 years, I acquired my professional qualification from the chartered accountancy institute in London.

 

I was very proud; I had achieved what I set out to achieve, but as it turns out, I ended up hating accountancy. So when my long-term girlfriend and college sweetheart announced to me at the age of 27 that she wanted to move back home to France, I wasn’t exactly enthralled. Despite not speaking any French and having a qualification which did not open any doors on the other side of the Channel, I went into my bosses office and watched his face drop as I announced I was moving to France to live with my girlfriend.

 

Looking back this was the best decision I’ve made because it allowed me to do what I really enjoyed, starting and running my own business. Do I have any regrets? Not really. I couldn’t do what I do now if I hadn’t surmounted all these difficulties. It wasn’t easy, but what a motivator it is coming from humble beginnings.