Everyone has a story..

If we listen to the experts (they're usually based at least 40 miles from home), we would know that success is best obtained if a young person works really hard at school and even harder at university. They then get onto the career ladder and off they go, catapulting into the world of work.

No doubt, this well trodden route is a familiar story for so many, and it works well for the majority of people involved.

However, there are many people out there that this doesn't apply to, and they turn out to be every bit successful or more.

One thing I've realised the older I've got is that there are many roads that lead to a destination. The roads vary and people take different routes, but they still get there in the end.

It's also a fact that so much of early life is based on conditioning, often by those closest. It can be constant encouragement, or persistent discouragement and there are many instances of parents trying to live out their own dreams through their children.

I remember hearing the story of a guy who as a child ran over the fields home from school excited to tell his father that he'd came second in a regional music exam. The father looked at him and said, 'do you never come first in anything?' The guy went on to say, 'I'm now 55 years old and I run a company where 600 people report to me each day, yet I'm still trying to prove myself to my own father.'

Acknowledging that we are all different is a good thing. The fact that our experience is unique to us, is a good thing. The more we come to understand that each one of us has different gifts and talents, the more we will appreciate that society is made up by a wide variety of people. We are all different, each of us with a unique background, and all capable of making an equal contribution to business, relationships and life.