£30 an hour at 13 years old.

Expansion

It wasn’t long before the demand outweighed my supply and i found myself accompanying my parents on their weekly grocery shop. Its an interesting situation standing at the checkout and your sweets and soda bill exceeds your families weekly grocery bill. I think my parents felt obligated to explain to the cashier that i was selling the sweets and not consuming them.(Just to paint the picture — my weekly shop consisted of 120 cans of pepsi, 400 bars of chocolate and 60 bags of crisps)

Due to my limited storage space (rucksack, drawstring bag and any additional blazer pocket i could cram sweets into) my daily inventory consisted of 24 cans of pepsi (cheaper than coke), 20 x Kitkat chunkies, 20 x Rolos, 20 x fruit pastilles, 20 x cadbury bars and 12 packs of crisps.

Due to the large quantity of stock i was taking to school i was soon known by other pupils for selling and i would was able to clear out the majority of my stock before school even started. My peak times were on the school bus, before school and the end of first break following the intense 15 minutes of no rules football. Coming up to lunch all i had were pockets full of change, the odd melted chocolate bar and the warm can of soda. Yet people still wanted more, i just couldn’t keep up.

Long story short, i continued selling and making £150 profit a week, other pupils caught on and began selling too and teachers soon became aware and started confiscating stock from those who were caught. This often resulted in pupils being chased off by teachers as they scrambled all of their stock back into their bags and dashed through the sugar craving students. The new goal was to either sell quick or store overstock in other pupils lockers - in exchange for a couple of free chocolate bars or £1 or 2 of course. This was handy, however a locker that could be opened with a ruler wasn’t the safest place to keep £50 worth of stock.— My first experience negotiating and deal making.

Soon enough i became greedy and attempted to push for a £200 profit week but this required more stock, more than i could admittedly carry. I was already taking 3 bags to school and i wasn’t the most focused kid so it was clear it wasn’t books i was carrying around. This resulted in me getting caught by our school priest (I attended a roman catholic school). It seems he was displeased about the fact i was doing a better job of feeding the kids than the school was. In my eyes i was keeping the other students blood sugar levels up and prevented them from passing out after avoiding the distasteful dining options.

Following my meeting with the priest, the deputy head and my mother i was issued a daily suspension from school and was instructed never to sell again or i would face “A running with the police” for selling without a license. I didn’t see this a threat, just a challenge. The result — I sold the following day (My logic- “No one is that stupid to sell the next day, therefore i should do it”) and became more strategic with my operations and the locations i sold.

Clearing £150 profit a week for a couple of years during school allowed me to buy the things most pre pubescent boys would want. The flash trainers, nice clothes (bright blue Lacoste tracksuits were in), new mobile phones (when slide up mobiles where all the rage) and most importantly my custom Bmx. I Saved £1300 for nearly a year and had to wait till february until i could buy and enjoy my self gifted christmas present.

It was the best feeling in the world.

Schools Out

After i finished school i progressed onto college and realized the gig was up. Half decent tasting lunches and fully stocked vending machines, Shit.

I was 16 years old when i started my first real job at a UK retailer of car parts, maintenance and cycle products. How else would i fund all the new bikes are wanted? It was a harsh realization when i was expected to work 16 hours on the weekend at £5 an hour when i was used to making over £50 for less than 2 hours work. This didn’t make me quit however, in fact i worked at the company for over 4 years until my studies were finished and then every step from that moment on was focused towards the goal of never being average, never relying on just one income and constantly progressing.

I now live in Dubai and this isn’t a cliche image of “I’ve made it” or “look at how successful i am”. This image just stands as proof that i have been far better off jumping at these some what spontaneous opportunities and always giving things a go. I honestly believe that the riskiest thing to do is to just play it safe.