5 key Reasons to stay positive even if your grades aren’t quite there
At PaperShaker we love to think positive. It is what makes our company tick. There are people within our organisation from many different backgrounds and who have fought hard to get where they are today.
Not all of them went to their Uni of choice and not all of them finished Uni.
1. "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." C. S. Lewis
That doesn’t mean abandon ship, it means that your path might be different from others. We are all different and those that don’t fit the mold can often be the special people who find their feet and really hit the road when its time. You are still young; believe us you are, and there are still many options that are education orientated that can get you to where you need to be.
2. “Don’t conform. Both the education world and business world encourage people to conform. But it’s a straitjacket which stops you realising what you’re good at.”
It was Dr Charbonnier, German boss at a privatisation agency. And who was he speaking to?
None other than a young Stan Laurent, owner of Photobox, Moongpig, and you guessed it! PaperShaker!
Stan decided upon a career in business after a military service on a submarine in the French navy!
How cool is that; you will look back one day and see that at 18 you have the world at your feet and can spend the next 2-3 years doing something amazing, even if you decide to reapply for uni at a later date.
An apprenticeship can be a great way to get straight into work and gaining what uni graduates will not have one day of.
An office still runs on basic principles. Making coffee and taking out the trash. It is part of daily life that is present at all companies; just because you have a masters degree in (insert fabulous degree here) doesn’t mean that when your boss wants a top up that its not up to you to play barista and get the espresso fired up.
Climb the ladder and you will be surprised how many have come into an advantageous position above you and throw it all away because they want to jump the queue.
If if one truly applies themselves you earn a wealth of real life experience. You can view apprenticeships in your area here.
Apprenticeships offer a real qualification and take approx 1 -1/2 years to complete. In that time you will have 1 – ½ years work experience and be earning a wage too. If you are under 18 you will earn £3.72 minimum wage; an apprenticeship wage will be £2.68. Both amounts are small in reality. See it as pocket money whilst you bide your time, complete the apprenticeship, gain that qualification and then get taken on in a permanent position.
4. Inspirational people who did not finish Uni.
I’m sure you have heard it before, but there are real business people and people of status all around that did not finish Uni. The brightest minds are ones that can think outside the box and have a gift that simply cannot be taught. Here is a list of famous people who did not finish Uni.
Alan Johnson, who is now in charge of “Work & Pensions” and formally the Home Office started his career with no GCSES and getting fired from Tescos. He became a postman at 18 with a wife and two children behind him. He would spend the next 19 years as a postman (Take your time Alan). When he kickstarted his career in politics it was 1993, he was appointed general secretary of a union before stepping into Parliament. A truly unconventional route shows that even in the world of politics, where you would think everyone has a degree, there are people who used to be the village postie.
Simon left with two GCSE’s and knocked about for abit before starting at the mail room in EMI. Another person who started in a mail room is Johnathan Ross at the BBC, but that’s another story. Simon worked his way up and was soon signing bands such as Five and Westlife. The rest is history.
Bristol born novelist Julie Burchill ditched her A-levels shortly after starting them, most of her classmates got work in the local biscuit factory and life seemed bleak. Julie put her efforts into building up a portfolio and began writing for NME. She went on to write for The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Express. Her novel “Sugar Rush“ was made into a Channel 4 drama and won an International Emmy.
Lord Alan Sugar
He would tell you himself, he’s a grafter. Growing up in a poor Jewish family in the East end he earned his first few pennies helping the local greengrocer and selling photographic film to his friends.
He left school at 16 to sell car aerials and electrical goods from a van before building up his empire. He founded Amstrad (Alan Michael Sugar Trading) in 1968 at 19 years old by selling home computers made from discounted parts. At its peak Amstrad floated at £1.2 billion. He spent his later years firing and admonishing posh people on TV in the award winning “Apprentice”.
Heston Blumenthal
An F in GCSE science would not stop him from cooking up liquid nitrogen as a Michelin starred celebrity chef. Heston summed up his time in education as “could do better” and saying that he was very distracted by the temptations of youth!
Heston claims to be self-taught although it is certain that a long spell working his way up was an education in itself. He now owns three Michelin starred restaurants and is the inventor of snail porridge and bacon ice cream.
5. Talk to your parents, talk to your 6th form, talk to the Uni.
Don’t bury your head in the sand and don’t stop moving. Momentum is direction; life has a way of getting you to your destination, even if it’s not where you thought it would be. I know people who I went to Uni with who have only just finished, lord knows how much debt they are in and they haven’t even begun to consider the 9-5 that most of the world revolves around. A degree at any cost is not worth it, paying back a student loan till you are 40 makes no sense.
As long as you are happy it doesn’t matter where your friends may go, make new friends and explore new environments. Go traveling and find what you really want to be. Some people never discover what they want to be.
Take a year or two to truly find out what kind of being you are. When life gives you lemons, when life throws a curveball at you, turn it into something beautiful.
Don’t give up; if today is a good day, throw a party!