Born or Made? Part 1

Part 1

Every entrepreneur's story seems to start in a similar way. They start businesses early, selling sweets at school or something like that and they go from there. They all seem born that way. It’s actually quite annoying to see these people born with such gifts. The ones selling two Kit Kats for a quid to some sugar addict in year 7, who then went from there to become multi millionaires with relative ease.?

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I wasn’t like that at all. I was fairly average at school and pretty lazy. I wasn’t hustling from the age of 12. My entrepreneur story really started when I was 21 ???

The foundation: Small town and struggles

When I was younger, all I knew that I wanted to do was leave my small hometown ASAP. The mindset isn’t good in places like that. I had zero expectations of me from my family, but we weren’t well off at all so money was a constant worry. Small towns have a weird vibe, I felt like the world was having a party and I was missing out.

On top of this, my dad was unfortunately diagnosed with MS when I was 5. So I was brought up in an environment where tomorrow was going to be worse than today - I like to see the positives in this as much as possible but I’m not going to sugar-coat it, life wasn't easy for my family and it still isn’t. Perhaps it started here I don’t know.?

All I know is that there’s two things that have stuck with me since then but I only believe these laid some hefty foundations, they didn't create an entrepreneur.?

Aged 7: “You’re a Cope and you’ll never amount to anything” - Mr Cope

Aged 12 “I need you to be the man of the house for a bit” - Mrs Cope

Of course what my dad meant to say was that he never amounted to anything and what my mum meant to say was “Times are rough and I could do with you not losing it kid”

The first one could have easily turned inwards but instead it’s turned into a f*ck you I will. Luckily my nan verbally destroyed my dad for it and that was the only thing I can actually remember.?

The second meant I was an adult since I was 12. It gave me a perspective that meant I was always a few years ahead of others growing up.?

These were both good things to have happened.?

The ignition: A kick up the arse

University seemed like a sensible option so my first move was to just leave.?

I was average and pretty lazy at University too and just got by in the first two years. At 21, I went on student placement to Canada, an amazing place. I was poorly advised and I got the wrong visa and a 12 month student placement cleaning dishes. I had to leave and come back almost immediately.?You don't quit jobs where I've come from, you just work and accept it. So this wasn't an easy decision and it wasn't popular.

Too late for another placement I decided to have a year out and get some experience myself.?

How hard could that be? I got a house to rent for the year and started applying for jobs. This was in the middle of a recession. I realised I couldn’t get a job anywhere, nowhere would take a student who was going back to University the following year and I had zero experience, no connections and no references.

Money soon started to disappear, I’d maxed out my overdraft and I couldn’t afford rent, travel or even food. I was living off one meal a day and Weetabix. I was getting by on odd factory jobs, call centre work and I had signed on.?

This was it. The moment. This was when I realised I have absolutely no safety net - nobody could help me. My future, if I didn’t get every move right from here, would be a poor one. One of struggle and I’d be in the same scenario I dreaded being in when I was younger.?

I knew then that I’m going to have to work twice as hard as anyone else I know and be twice as clever with my decisions. There was going to be no room for error. I never want to be in a position where I can’t afford food again. The shame and embarrassment of skipping meals out with friends, coming later and having a few leftovers (True story) was the kick up the arse I needed.

Funny story - I had ￡40 left in my bank account and I went to the shop and bought a Meerkat Manor and a Wrestlemania 17 DVD. So I was hardly Steve Jobs at this point. I was still a bit of a moron.?

The first steps: Learn and apply

I survived that year and after that I barely left my laptop. I started learning basic Wordpress web design, editing themes. I had started writing a blog. I got a 1st in my final year at Uni (Which evened out to a 2:1)

After graduating, I went freelance almost straight away. I traded under the name Social Marvels. I worked as an intern at my University and noticed that small companies were struggling to adapt to social. The idea was a franchise, every small company could get a ‘Social Marvel’ trained by the parent company. This never grew past myself but that was the idea.?

The site and branding was pretty terrible but the logic behind the idea was sound.

I’d started writing for a big online publication called Sabotage Times for free. This got me paid gigs at Topman and Siemens. I had 4-5 clients of my own, managing their social profiles. This was the first time I realised I could get paid for something I could do off my own back and I wasn’t turning back. My first payment was ￡120 and it was in a cheque. That is still one of my proudest moments I’ve ever had - however small it was, it validated why I was doing what I was doing.

I’d also set up a news site of my own called Speed Bump City, a TV, Film and sports site and I had 5 writers writing for me at the time. I’d write lists like the top 10 best shows on Netflix right now (This was like 2013, Netflix was pretty new) and @Netflix in the social posts to get retweets, those retweets would drive thousands to my site.?

I didn't know it but I was teaching myself SEO, social, influencer marketing and how to report. I'd taught myself Wordpress, paid and organic social and Google Analytics.

Funny story - I had scraped and built up ￡1,500 to my name and Getty Images sent a letter attempting to sue for ￡1,500 (The exact amount of money I had) me for accidentally using an image on my staging site. I learnt nearly the hard way that there are companies that make money off trying to scare other companies. I ignored them for 6 years.

At this time I was also working for an agency called Quba, developing a content marketing offering and working on big clients like SKINS and The Priory.

I was working 24/7, soaking up everything like a sponge.?

This was my learning and applying phase and after the kick up the arse phase it was the most important parts of my development to get to where I am now.?

The next phase is important for a whole different reason.

Born or made part 2: Taking the leap, and the set back - next week.?