Back to School

How has October rolled around again already? As we’re heading towards Q4 in the business world, children have been back to school a few weeks and it isn’t always easy getting back into the swing of things after six weeks of summer. We sat down with Dr John who reminisced on his childhood and how this time of year has set him up for the successful career he’s proud of today.

Due to his dad’s job, John and his family moved around the country every few years, so he ended up attending seven different schools between the ages of 5-14. This means that this time of year has always been a scary time of year for him – exciting but scary. The anxiety of being the new kid on the block every few years is enough to make any child weary of the new school year. Most children will start a new school just two or three times in their life so only have to go through the rigmarole of making new friends and working out the rules a few times. John believes that having to do this so often, despite being challenging at times, introduced him to going out of his comfort zone and growing as a person.

As Kelly Clarkson famously sang, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and Dr John first realised that he was more resilient and adaptable than most when he started university. Due to frequently being the new kid, he had no issues being new to campus and having to find his own place within the university culture. He was also comforted by the fact that he was no longer the only new person around as everybody was new! Being able adapt well to new surroundings allowed him to delve straight into his studies and begin to learn and develop as a person. After completing his BSc in Chemistry, John returned to his studies throughout the years that followed which saw him gain an MBA in Business, an MSc in Information Systems before becoming a Doctor of Business Administration.

Dr John believes that the skills he learnt to deal with change as a child and through his formative years, set him up well for his future career. Over the years, he has jumped from one field to another with relative ease and taken on different challenges and job roles. All those scary but exciting Septembers gave John the confidence to know that he’d be okay when change occurred in his life. He now acknowledges that, although hard to learn as a child, learning to leap into the unknown has helped him build the successful career he has today. Without moving school so often, Dr John may never have kept taking on new challenges as an adult, eventually reaching the point where he now helps many other CEOs and organisations change and grow to achieve their own courageous goals.


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