There’s been three defining areas in my life that have effect my thinking and being I have become a product of my environment.
Awakening of Consciousness
Born into a family of underachievers life was difficult moving from town to town even having to learn new languages, living in slums and at one point 7 of us in one room, yeah life was difficult but fun in them days. 1976 I was 13 years old life had moved on we had settled in a town I was still sharing a bedroom with 3 older brothers but we had a 3 bedroom house, my dad was working and mum ran a bakery which we owned. I had just moved to grammar school and started listening to music and BAM! The Sex Pistols arrived, the while punk rock scene had a massive effect of my life and thinking, question everything, do it yourself, don’t be told you cant do something.
The Arrival of the Man
I had just come back from King Road (London) which was a good 120 miles away and I was having a drink with a few friends, not knowing that later that night I was about to get one hell of a kick in, and my friends what friends? They were nowhere to be found.
This one act was what launched me on to a journey that was to span many decades. At this time I was working with a guy that was a black belt in karate we were good friends so he and another friend also a black belt in a different style of karate took me under their wing and taught me the basics of kicking and punching with a bit of contact sparing thrown in. I was completely hooked what had started as a way to defend myself conjured up memories of the old TV program Kung Fu and I started to search out a teacher. Over the years I did OK I ran a gym for a number of years, managed to meet an train with some very big names in the world of martial arts, became number 2 (may have been 3) in blind folder sparing in the UK, and was trailed for the British team to go to China but lost out to inter club politics, but somehow something was missing. That was the turning point where I went East, Hong Kong to be exact I had a very good friend out there working as a stuntman and he found me somewhere to stay and I settled in, in about 10 mins, I was home well that’s how it felt. In Hong Kong I meet and trained with some of the most amazing people you could ever want to meet, we trained, ate and lived Kung Fu not just the martial art but the philosophy, and healing arts. More than any other experience in my life this was to shape my thinking for the years ahead, calmness, strategy, humility, self confidence but also lateral thinking and a motivation.
The Forging of a Blade
“The forging of a blade in made strong by the intensity of the flames” On returning to the UK I had a number of things to do, I stopped teaching as I would not dilute my knowledge to pander to the masses that had a misguided perception of what they expected, I wrote for a number of magazines freelance but most importantly I had made the decision to go back to school.
Having left school, well the phrase should probably read having been expelled from school I had little to show for my years there, other than contempt. So where to begin I had spent most of my working live within engineering and so that seemed like a good place to start and it laid a good foundation because you basically study maths and physics, the years passed and life was difficult mainly relationships and so my stated to spiral out of control a bit drinking and fighting for fun, eventually walking out of my life, my wife and my job but still studying, it was then I was in between terms and the mentioned I would like to learn a bit more accounting and marketing so I could start a business ( I had ran business’s on small scales for years at this point), and so I ended up studying for and Masters in Business Administration MBA. Crazy year we were funded by the Government enterprise Scheme so we got paid and didn’t have to pay the £5k tuition fees but in one year we had to do an Post Graduate Certificate, a Post Graduate Diploma and then and MBA. By the time we got to MBA stage I had been accepted to do the only philosophical these on the course and it was relating to the “I Ching” and emerging Western theories on chaos theory relating to business, the lecturers just couldn’t grasp what I was saying, I had giving a verbal presentation and they loved it the main question of the day was from one professor to another who asked “did you understand that”, “yes in parts” was his reply but once I started to write they struggled and at one point said I was speaking a foreign language which looking back I probably was. Anyway it was at that point I made the decision that I didn’t really need them to understand me and my time there was done I had learnt what I had wanted and it was time to move on rather than gain bits of paper.
Here and Now
Now I’m doing what I love, involved in fashion and mixing with cutting edge artists both visual and music and pretty much pleasing myself what I do and when which is how this magazine has come about, my love for sharing, growing and spreading the underground of-course has soon has it become mainsteam I’ll be bored with it and have moved on.