It’s funny – I get asked this all of the time. My job is to motivate students and yet, what is that motivates me?

Days gone by…
A few years ago (4 years ago to be precise), I ended up being divorced and depressed. It was a very dark time and one that I found hard to come to terms with.

However, whilst my life was seemingly out of control, I recognised that my fate was something that only I could control.

For the first time in my life I recognised what was truly important, it didn’t take me long to work out…

1. Seeing my kids
2. Paying for my kids
3. Anything else afterwards

Why?
It was simple really, I realised that my wife, house, material possessions, car and half an acre of land counted for very little. What I thought I ‘owned’ – I didn’t… I was merely in charge of them for NOW.
Q. If I did OWN them, then how come they got taken away from me in such a short space of time?
It dawned on me that I can’t own any of these things; the only thing I truly own is ME and my MEMORIES !! I also realised that maybe I didn’t really know who ME was.

When I’m older
Furthermore…. I also recognised that when I died – I’ll only leave behind three things of any value – That’s ‘Jack, Archie and Millie’ – my three kids.

I Needed to Change
So, I set about trying to spend more time with my kids and as a consequence I gave up my job and focused on the things that I truly valued – my kids !!

New Career – NEW Me !!
Within 2 years I was training and speaking with corporate organisation across the country. This was a great experience for me, but this was only the start of my learning curve.

I was a big kid in an adults body…
Being depressed was a horrible time for me but it taught me a lot. My vulnerabilities and my problems led me to recognise that what had happened to me was something I could have done with learning when I was much younger… ‘NOT at 37 years old !!’.
I also recognised that I wanted to reach out and touch more than just the corporate organisations of the world. I wanted to engage with young people and students – these were the people I could relate to.

Starting in Schools
I ran my first ‘Big Picture’ event to 85 student boys at Kings Grammar School in 2007 in a cold school gymnasium. It totally changed my life and also theirs…

This was the precursor to ‘The Big Picture’ that you see today.
So you can see that what truly motivates me is…

1. Personally – Seeing my children and being ME
2. Professionally – Changing the lives of students across the UK

“All I want to do is make a difference”

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Big Pic News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.