I finished school at 15 and started a apprenticeship as a machinist at a company making floating gravel diggers. Soon after I qualified the company went bust and after a summer bumming around I got a job as a machinist at a tiny Formula 1 team called Rial Racing in 1988. I got the bug and after it folded at the end of 1989 I got a job at a German Touring Car Team fielding 3 BMW M3. I pretended to be a mechanic and it turned out I wasn't too bad at it. Had a spell at a rally team, then back to touring cars and eventually I wanted to go back to Formula 1. Packed my bags and emigrated to the UK to join the Lola Formula 1 team in 1997 which lasted all of 1 race. Another spell of touring cars in BTCC before eventually getting a Job at Williams. Couple of years later I joined the Jordan team and stayed there in its various guises and doing various jobs until 2012. As my wife is the clever one with the proper job I became full time Dad when our daughter came along. Been doing that job ever since.
Well I’ll be blowed. You came up with Bob the Builder. Well done Noods, I always thought you were a very creative guy. Just by your use of language. The trouble with creativity is it’s so easily ripped off. Believe me I’ve had it done to me repeatedly. Ideas/concepts are very difficult to hold onto. ‘ A good idea has many fathers. A bad idea’s a bastard’. But the way to deal with it is to think ‘Fuck ‘em’. They can’t take your creativity away and get on and create something else. Try it Noods. Personally I have to be creating something, doesn’t seem to matter what it is. That, exercise and riding bikes are the only things that keep me sane, well, besides my Mrs. Just do it. ... as I once noticed on the side of a running shoe.
i spiralled originally mate after that happened for it was a lot of hard work for me to get the manuscripts correct etc and the thought that i’d trusted a publisher ( Simon Schuster London) only for him/them to hand it to his mte Mr Chapman who had contacts with Jim Henson Corps and literally in a couple of days they had adapted it and published it.. While i had copy written my illustrations and scripts i hadn’t CW the idea.. I dreamt the idea up to entertain my then 3 year old son while we were out in the car and stuck in roadworks, he was bored so i made up a story about a magical yellow digger! which obv was part of the roadworks in front of us, they even stole a couple of my characters names... The way i look at it now is ... they know who they are and they know what they did, and most importantly, they have to look at theirselves in the mirror each day and live with their decisions along with who is looking right back at them ..
Studied pharmacy, became a pharmacist, carried on. Started working in hospital and then have been working in the commissioning side of the NHS - GP prescribing, introduction of new medicines, community pharmacy services, pretty much since 1993. Lots of reorganisations thanks to successive Governments but have been lucky to be able to stay put in terms of location. Last eight months have been interesting to say the least!
Worked in the postal industry for 39 years and retired nearly 3 years ago. Out on my bike as often as is feasible. European trip and a Scotland trip every year. Better than golf!!!
Had a paper round at 14. Joined the ATC with the intention that I would be following in dad's footsteps and join the RAF, but after twating a corporal and threatening to twat a sergeant even before I'd got my uniform I decided that career might not have suited me. I left school at 16 with not a lot of qualifications but enough to get an engineering apprenticeship at a glassworks. Dumped by my girlfriend who ran off with some posh guy from down south who was at Leeds uni and who went into the oil industry (he's now a multi millionaire) Made redundant a year out of my apprenticeship, I was offered another role in the mould turning /milling shop but at age 21 had already decided to cycle to Gibraltar, where my ex girlfriends sister lived with her now husband. Bought a pushbike to do that trip, but decided that was a bit too far to cycle from Yorkshire, so went in my car on a 6 week adventure getting there (Cortina 1600E) Worked in a outside bar at the swimming pool of the Rock Hotel for the summer serving lots of German women who'd never heard of a Brazilian wax. Came back to Yorkshire and got a job as fabrication welder in Leeds making metalwork displays for the clothing industry mostly. Did that a couple of years before another welding job in my home town of Pontefract. Got married, kids, blah blah blah, then got an engineering job at the Plastics factory where my Dad now worked. Stayed there 10 years as multi skilled shift fitter before my current role of manufacturing technician at Coca cola for the last 18 years. Divorced, and now back with my first love (thanks Facebook ) who decided very early on in her marriage that her very successful career orientated husband was a selfish knob head and divorced him after nearly 30yrs to come back to Yorkshire to be with pauper me
What I did for a living and my life has been a complete disaster....... .......if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope I can come back as me, so I can do what I originally wanted to do. Trouble is, that was so long ago, I can't remember what I wanted to do.....
Im bored watching to footy and since everyone else has done essays I thought I would! Actually quite proud of what I’ve achieved and am achieving. RR was a technical apprenticeship which was a mistake as I couldn’t stand the office politics of a big company. I could have moved to the shop floor but with the recession at the time there were a lot of redundancies so I played it safe. Ended up as a Product Configuration Engineer (don’t ask me what it means) aced all of my apprenticeship and qualified in the shortest time they had ever known including extra quals. Because the wages weren’t enough I’d been labouring at weekends at my uncles joinery manufacturing firm and he offered me a full time job so in went my notice after 4ish years at RR. Everyone was horrified that I was leaving a job for life but I was really getting depressed about having no work to do and nothing to achieve. At my uncles I started running a 3axis cnc but quickly got good and very efficient so started getting involved with everything else. Because I was the bosses nephew no one really wanted to help me so I just cracked on and taught myself how to use all of the machinery, got my own set of customers and basically ran my own little offshoot business. We also put in a spray finishing shop so I ran that as well. It was great as I priced, site surveyed, designed, made, delivered, fitted and invoiced everything I did. From one off reception counters to anything feature joinery related, and also kept up with the cnc demands from the rest of the business. The plan quickly developed into me working to take over the business. The only problem was my uncle, so difficult to deal with and I think he was almost jealous of how well I was doing and what I was achieving. I kind of got promoted to run the whole place daily from the office side of things and handed my customers over to him, worked for a while but he let them all down and lost most of them which was a huge kick for me as I’d worked so hard doing 80+ hour weeks to build them up. All of a sudden everything was my fault and we had some fierce arguments. The depression started to creep in and I was back to dreading work. My dad hadn’t long died so I was struggling with that too. I then walked into my current company one day to collect some laser cut parts and after a few flippant comments about working there, as I left the boss followed me out and asked when would I like to start! Bit taken aback and half laughed it off. The following week I had a huge bust up with my uncle and that was it, I had to go. Rang the new boss up and said if he was serious then I’d do it so my notice went in. I’d taken nearly a 50% payout into an industry I didn’t know and a bit of a made up job, safe to say I was terrified! Took me about 6 months to start getting up to speed and things were going well, the boss was investing in the place and I seemed pretty key to that. He was taking a lot of my opinions on board and all worked like a dream really, I was only 25 so still pretty green. Fast forward 6.5 years and we have moved to a new site which I project managed the build with a huge investment, I have 2 project engineers and 14 fabricators to manage, with probably 80% of the work running through me. I do the majority from start to finish with my team and like to get hands on in the shop when time allows too. We’ve earned and maintained some great industry standards and have a real niche section of the markets we work in. We make bespoke fabrications for the Rail and Oil & Gas industries in a range of exotic materials. Very high standard of work and expertise for a small company that keeps the work coming in. Got a big couple of months trying to close a big deal over the next couple of years so that’ll be a huge milestone for the business if successful. Its a great place to work with some really good incentives, everyone gets on well and its quite fun most of the time. Very profitable which the boss shares and he wants people to enjoy working there so it’s a really nice environment. Not sure what the future holds and I’ve had a few wobbles about leaving when things have been tough but glad I’ve stuck it out and certainly happy for the time being.
I’ve played guitar and bass since I was a teenager in the 80s and have played in bands ever since. I also got into doing recordings for the bands I was in. It was always just a hobby, but after taking voluntary redundancy in 2002 and setting up my own home studio it became my job. In 2005 I started working part time at a local recording and rehearsal studio doing band recordings. In 2009 I became co-owner of the studios and since 2012 I’ve been running the business full time, playing bass in a few bands and doing live sound for bands. I currently play bass in a Queen tribute band called Monarchy. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of doing live sound for hundreds of bands including Laura Marling, Rhino’s Revenge, Jamie T, Enter Shikari, Right Said Fred, Noisettes, Guy Fletcher, John Otway, Martha Tilston, Rose Kemp. In the studio I’ve recorded voiceovers (for adverts and TV shows) by James Nesbitt, Caroline Quentin and Matt Lucas, amongst others. I’ve recorded loads of local bands, but nobody famous apart from Robbie Craig and Ben Volpelier-Pierrot, neither of whom are particularly famous. Since the middle of March I’ve had no work recording, playing or doing live sound. The studios reopened after lockdown, but with no live music happening things have been very quiet (who needs to rehearse if there are no gigs to play?) and we haven’t broken even since we reopened. As of Thursday we will have to close the studios again. I can’t afford to run my business at a loss until live music is allowed again - sometime next year, if we’re lucky. There will come a point soon when we will have to close the business for good. I currently live in France and have been here full time since the start of June. In mid March I got stuck in the U.K. for the first lockdown because I came back to play a gig. My original plan for this year was to live in France and return to the U.K. about 20 times a year for about a week at a time to work at the studio and play gigs, but if I don’t have a studio to work at it won’t be economically viable to come back from France just to play gigs. So I may have to rethink my future.
About time I added to this thread. Hats off to all you self made business people So, 32 years with the Met Police, (15 years traffic -Solos/cars/ HGVs ETC) got a Triple one, if anyone knows what that is! Then went back to college to get into an Accident Investigation Unit, reconstructing and investigating fatal accidents /vehicle examinations for the coroner. From there promotions and Public Order. Like most cops, seen a bit, my last tour of duty was taking a contingent of cops to Gleneagles for the G8 conference. Bush ran over one of my WPCs and broke her arm, when he was out cycling. Last I heard she was still getting Christmas cards from Barbara and George, but that was years ago! Finished a part time Masters degree in 2006 and stepped sideways into a Council role. Been a director of a National Institute, director of a (IMHO) successful CCTV company. Spent 10 years running services for various boroughs/ councils, but the public sector pyramid was so flattened that I’d had enough, my shoulders weren’t that broad - it was last one standing, as my peers left. There are too many politicians, and I hardly trust any of them. EDIT waffle deleted Instead of being fully retired, I work 2 days a week, a simple but technical role running Emergency Planning for another council, it’s cool. Finally, I’m able to actually complete something rather than failing to cover the different aspects of my job. As I said, maximum respect for the company guys n girls, I’m pretty confident in my own abilities, but would I have made it on my own in my own business?....I’ll never know. (Hmm... I wonder if I can delete this in the future )
Born into money so just fucked about trying to look busy/constructive where mummy and daddy just didn't want me spunking the lot on whores, coke and law suits. See post #118
