Why I’m Hiring Ex-Convicts and Ex-Servicepeople

I just got off a call with my buddy Max Newton and we discussed hiring in general and where to find people with an abundance of grit, resilience and perseverance.

Where is it that you can find people that have been through hardship?

That will savour and cherish the opportunity you will give them to succeed?

To give them a chance to show themselves in their best light?

That have discipline, determination, and a willingness to apply themselves?

Technical skills can always be taught and developed.

This isn’t (at least in non-technical fields like those I operate in) what will become the divider between failure and massive success.

Rather — it is?these characteristics. These character attributes.

This is why I’ve decided?I want to start looking at ex-military programmes and ex-convict programmes in both the UK and the USA?to bring people onboard.

In those, with their experiences of war and imprisonment and the routines of the systems they went into or found themselves in…you’ll find resilience.

For me — with the entrepreneurial nature of?Pearl Lemon?and the work ethic and adaptability and speed of work and perseverance it requires…

It feels like people that have come from such backgrounds would be ideal to work alongside.

In fact?I would feel privileged to work alongside those who have served their country. Those who are?looking to reform themselves and build a life for themselves.

Those who can get STUCK into something and that SOMEWHERE can become a home for them.

I realise more and more at the Pearl Lemon Group what?I’m trying to do is build a movement, what I’m trying to do is grow something special.?Grow something unique to us.

That contains part ultimately of my DNA, that is my blueprint.

I’ve not even come from hardship. I come from?a stable family environment.?I’ve had?happy parents growing up. I went to good schools, a solid university?and?was afforded all the opportunities that life could give me.

What has surrounded me though, looking at some of my family, have seen them be homeless, become alcoholics, murders, deaths and destruction that have made me thankful for everything I have.

Furthermore, I’ve seen some of these people totally turn their life around and go and do amazing things.

Just writing this lights up a fire inside of me.

The idea of?giving someone a chance — of making a dream come true for them….

It’s interesting that as the ‘success’ in our own small way grows as a company — that the things I wish to do with the powers this company has given me relate more and more to in my own way trying to give back.

We already?hire from developing economies (Philippines, India, Uganda, Pakistan). We already?hire people that have difficult personal situations (single mothers, government housing, supported housing).

We already?hire those who are prepared to work on a commission only basis because of their self determination to succeed.?We already?actively hire ethnic minorities into the company.

And all of the above has led us to great success.

So why not take this even further?

Why not push the boat out even further?

Why not hire those who have had all of the above and have gone to war or gone to prison?

I recorded a podcast about this just this morning and?I want to continue to use my words, whether written or spoken, as an opportunity to put thoughts into actions?and to make bold proclamations about the things I wish to do with Pearl Lemon.

I want Pearl Lemon to be an extremely profitable business that helps change the trajectories of the clients who hire us AS WELL as the people that come and join us.

It’s interesting when I think about it — it’s almost spiritual perhaps.

My father?— a man who‘s’ the biggest source of inspiration in my life —?sacrificed everything so he could see us be happy and see us succeed.

I see that his lifetime sacrifice of working 100 hour weeks to ensure his family could have everything.

That his lack of formal education in English, that coming to the UK, having had an arranged marriage to my mum at 13 years old wouldn’t stop him seeing us grow here and have all the opportunities he didn’t.

Perhaps that’s where this flame I have that burns inside me comes from. Perhaps that is what drives me to wish to do these things.

To look into the eyes of those who have embraced the struggle. Who have climbed their way out of the gutter. Who wish to see themselves to success.

In those people I realise I see family.

In those struggles I understand because it’s what I grew up with.

So how can I put platitudes into practice?

By making proclamations like this into writing and saying by March?2022?I would like to have hired 2–4 ex-military or prison folk.

Let’s do this.