When I was in school, I was messing around, always getting myself into trouble. I got into a lot of fights as well. I was 13 when I first joined ThinkForward and I built a good relationship with my coach. He’s someone who has always shown me support, always helped me out. You need someone who believes in you and really pushes you a lot to do things better. I never really had that kind of support before.

My coach always brought me new opportunities to see if they were things I might be good at or could learn from. He found me a traineeship in personal training. I started to like it and thought that working in the fitness industry was something I wanted to do. That was the first time I had a focus for my career.

Now I’m involved in a private equity start-up to do with cryptocurrency and blockchain. I’m learning a lot, it’s a whole new world. It was an opportunity that was given to me and I grabbed it, and I’m not letting go.

ThinkForward is important because it gives opportunities to young people who are not doing well in school, not engaging or on the verge of being kicked out. They give people like me a new way of thinking and an exposure to places they’ve never been before. The foundation of ThinkForward is building relationships and support because that leads to everything else. By getting someone’s trust you win them over and from there you can change their life.