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There is nothing like what life can teach you for personal development. I think life is the greatest university, available for everyone, with the highest rewards, but which requires continual studying and where you never graduate. Life continually throws surprise tests at you, but the more you’ve learned from previous lessons, the less they catch you by surprise and the better you deal with them.

What made me reflect on this was a visit to Dania’s blog. Dania wrote a guest blogger article for me a while ago, for which I am grateful, about blogging and bloggers blockages. Dania started her blog more or less at the same time as myself, so I always enjoy visiting and seeing what she’s learned and written about, but recently she’d been a bit quiet with her postings. Today, I was reading why she’d been quiet, as she’d been going through her own “Bloggade” as she calls it, and also has come to a crossroads in her career.

This made me think about Life’s University, and how I’ve advanced myself. So I decided to write a small resume of the different courses I’ve attended and in some cases the surprise exams that have been sprung.

I started my working life back when I was 12 as a newspaper delivery boy. Getting up at 5 am to deliver newspapers to people letter boxes before school was a fine apprenticeship. When I tell my son about this he just doesn’t believe it, I’m not sure whether kids can still take these part time jobs back in the UK, but here in Spain it isn’t allowed. It sounds really tough, but for me it was a really useful experience learning to value work, money and commitments.

A couple of years later I was able to get a job on saturday’s working in a butchers in the central market in my hometown. This required getting up early on a saturday, and starting in the shop at 6am. It was very cold in summer and unbareable in winter, but I really enjoyed it. This really developed me on a personal level, as up until then I was quite withdrawn, but I had to stand and attend customers not just selling what they asked for but offering other meats. In the end I was so open and confident I would stand by the counter in the afternoon and start shouting offering the remaining products to clear out, grabbing and pulling the old ladies to the counter with special offers. What a change from that quiet reserved school boy.

This was all great experience that I would later be able to use in life once I left schooling.

After my schooling, I started working in the computer industry, way before internet, or personal computers were everyday topics. I became a computer operator/programmer for a small commercial software company and when the computer crashed you had to grab a spanner and screwdriver open a cabinet door and actually climb inside to fix thngs. But I soon realised that I couldnt’ imagine life sat in front of a screen typing code, punching cards and loading tapes. I enjoyed people/people realtionships too much.

It was time to go walk about.I left my job, sold my car and off I went. First to Sweden where I stayed close to a year living in a School which was dedicated to helping the marginalised such as drug addicts, people with alcohol problems, etc. It was a fantastic experience, being able to help the less fortunate, those who had trouble with lifes surprise exams and often took the wrong route to the answers. From Sweden I moved to Spain where I stayed for just over a year, learned spanish and quickly felt at home.

The money finally run out. So it was time to head back to the UK and get a job. I think my parents breathed a sigh of relief when I returned to work. I didnt know what to do, but what I did know, was that I wanted a job where I could relate with people. From that quiet little school boy I was now an out and out people junkie. I ended up selling life insurance which was a perfect solution. Quickly I realised that there was a lot more than just signing policies and soon I was enjoying not only the commercial side but also the technical aspects. Soon I was working directly for one of the UK’s largest Insurance groups in personal finance and investments.

I’ll continue with “The University of Life” part 2 tomorrow…. it get’s harder, I learn more, and the results get better.

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