David experienced various different jobs. He went from being on benefits, working at a petrol station, and being the self-confessed worst Sales Representative for Terry’s Chocolate Orange before becoming the CEO of Capital Radio and Founder of The Monday Revolution. He hadn’t got a strong education behind him and wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do with his career. David went on to tell our students it was because of his perseverance and confidence that he got to where he is today. During his time at Terry’s Chocolate Orange, David had a new manager. Rather than pulling him down for being the worst sales rep, he motivated him and became his mentor. His manager saw something in David that, at the time he hadn’t seen in himself. He saw the strong, successful entrepreneur he was going to be, all David needed was to believe in himself. With this, he then became the best sales representative at his company and then moved on to be the head of Global.

After a few years, he saw an advert for a Senior Marketing Executive who needed someone with a degree and experience- David had none of this. Instead of scrolling past and not applying, he wrote them a letter saying “I don’t have any of the entry requirements you are asking for, but many people are offering me a job and in two weeks, I won’t be available so if you want to interview me, you will need to interview me now”. He was told by his girlfriend at the time, you can’t send that, David sent it anyway and was offered an interview and later on landed himself the job. This was because David believed in himself, he knew he had enough skills and knowledge to be able to do the job and was not going to let qualifications get in the way of this role. Soon after accepting this role, David left and became the CEO Of Capital FM and built it up to what we know it as today. The moral of David’s story was that he “Pushed the boundaries”. Someone believed in him which made him believe in himself which is exactly what we all should have.  

 This was a great lesson for our students to learn, that sometimes all they really need is to believe in themselves to get to where they want to be. By putting in the hard work, staying persistent, and having the courage to be creative in our approaches the world really is our oyster. Thank you David for your excellent Insight!