Many have asked me why i choose to spend my life, helping others to overcoming the barriers they face. So, I thought i would let you know a little bit about why that i do..

1. My story
My earliest living memory is of me at about 4 years old, with a black torch chasing mice around the
bed-sit, that I and my single mother once shared. We slept in an old bunk bed with scratchy sheets
and shared a bathroom with four other families.
We left that bed-sit and moved into a council flat, in one of the most disadvantaged areas of
Birmingham. The lack of jobs, crime, poor education levels of both parents and young people and the
feeling of hopelessness, cast a black cloud in the lives of all within the community.
I was fortunate to know who my father was, but he was not around enough to be the father I wanted
him, needed him and would have loved him to be.
Mom did her best. Working three part-time jobs was not easy for her and the gourmet meals of egg,
beans and a back slice of bread, were appreciated! I remember we had a credit TV which meant that
you had to clock 50p pieces into a box, at the back of the TV, to receive 6 hours of viewing!
As a teenager, I suffered from low self-esteem, low confidence and a lack of self-belief in myself.
Mom sheltered me, but to be fair, she simply believed that no matter what, her son was not going to
justify the label that society wanted to give me, because of the situation we lived in.
At 16, I got a job in a factory peeling stickers of hangers and recycling them, for £2.40 per hour. That
was a humbling experience that I’m eternally grateful for because it helped me acknowledge that if I
wanted more from my life, I had to be the architect of what I wanted, I had to make the choices and I
have to put in the blood sweat and tears to make it happen.
I decided that I wanted to help other young people like me and had faith that such an opportunity
would arise. Fate took over, when I walked into a recruitment agency and the only vacancy they had
was as a volunteer mentor for the youth service – I took it!
By aged 21, I became the lead Mentoring Trainer in the region, providing mentoring training for staff
from local businesses and the community, who wanted to help young people find employment. I then
founded my own mentoring consultancy aged 24, training teachers and senior managers on how to
empower pupils and staff from wider communities – this business grew into one of the UK’s first ever
diversity recruitment services in the UK, helping ethnic minority university graduates find employment
within the professional services sector.
Now at aged 31, I’m a husband, father, an award-winning entrepreneur, public speaker, mentor and
the CEO of two companies - www.cultiv8solutions.com & www.entrepreneurmastermindnetwork.com
Life has taught me that if you live by the values you have as a person, have a selfless and genuine
passion to help others, be open to criticism by the right people, stay humble and thankful and have
faith in your own abilities even when you do not know what is coming around the corner, things will
be ok!
I never have and never will forget where I have come from, but I am very clear about where I am going
and hope to inspire others in my own little way, where I can.