I sent out a Tweet & a Facebook Message this morning and I was overwhelmed by the honest heartfelt responses which I received from some people. In case you missed my message it was simple and from the heart – “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something just because you don’t have the experience or qualifications’. I didn’t.
Now for some of you reading this it might strike a chord. It did for the people who replied to the message on Facebook and those who retweeted it on Twitter. For me, if I’m totally honest this message relates to a time when I was at High School. Like a lot of kids, fitting in was sometimes hard to do. Always being one of the last to be picked at PE for a sports team is not something which is good for a persons self confidence. Nevertheless I pressed on, going from my first year to my final year in the lower band of classes referred to back then as L5 – giving up back then was just second nature.
What seemed like an eternity passed, and before I knew it I was leaving High School with little to no qualifications to my name. At least none I can remember, and an experience, which could have been so much better. Perhaps though, it was because I may have not applied myself. There were opportunities when the staff & teachers at the school could have made more effort to engage with students just like me, but perhaps their focus was on those students who showed at that time, much more potential than I did.
These are questions I guess many of us have and questions, which we will never know the answers to. But what I do know is that I felt at that point in my life more could have been done. It was as if at that point many of the people who could have had more of an influence in my life had already determined the path which I was going to take, a path of failure.
Leaving school at 16 with little to no formal qualifications is a daunting experience for anyone and after bouncing around from course to course lasting all of 3-4 months, falling in with the wrong crowd, turning to alcohol and just overall being in a downhill spiral all at the age of just 18 years old.
Now this is only a snapshot of my story. And many others like me. The game for me did change. It changed in such a way that I believe that at any point before that, if I had had a few caring adults in my circle who believed in me as a young person, things may have been different back then. Yes I may not of have been good at GAA Sports or indeed sports in general and may have been lacking academically – but don’t rule me out.
You see I believe it’s not truly til as a young person we learn to trust and develop our relationships with teachers and mentors that we begin to flourish. If we set out to achieve something – we can. It’s just that we need those key people in our lives to inspire us, people who engage us, people who challenge us and make us open up. To bring out the best in us. I was fortunate to have a few such people in my life and you know what, I still come across such people – people who have no personal gain or motive but to try to help you succeed in your chosen path. The trick is to recognise them. And to begin to see what they see.
So my message is simple.
‘Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Just because you don’t have the experience or qualifications’
Learn to recognise those people who genuinely believe in you and have no other gain but to help you. Trust your own judgment and believe in them and yourself. These individuals will help you on your path to successfully achieving your goals by providing experience and guidance. So seek them out, soak up their wisdom and take their advice. Then pay it forward.
Remember to share it with your family & friends.
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