As a young boy, I always have had a passion for enterprise, business and the idea that we as humans have the capability to create something out of thin air and an idea that could impact the lives of millions in a positive way. (A bit more in-depth look into my experience here can be found here; https://www.linkedin.com/in/leythhampshire/).
As I now approach my 22nd birthday, what a journey it has been. I have now finished my undergraduate studies where I was a part of the Team Entrepreneurship (BA) Course (which is a very unique style of learning you can find out more about here; https://tebristol.com/) at Bristol UWE.
This course truly changed my life and mentality around business and also university as I was moments away from not going to university and jus travelling the world (luckily I've been able to do both!).
A core part of this course is starting a running an enterprise, where I ran one of the most successful student-led ventures called Pelico. (You can find out more here; http://365bristol.com/story/2017/06/08/the-first-taste-of-pelico-%E2%80%93-a-new-bristol-business/4788/ & http://www.bristolfoodnetwork.org/blog/newsletter-8-17-pelico-eat-well-pollute-less/ ) We went from a team of 3 to a team of 18 running, operating and delivery fresh healthy meals to students 100's of the students on campus every week.
This endeavour taught me so much about my self, my life and what I truly wanted from life and business. After 3 years of running the business, I resigned and sold my shares as Director. In all honesty, the company wasn’t in the best place at the time, we were unable to raise more funding and model was truly difficult to scale!
I also really fell out of love of what we were doing, I was no longer passionate about the change we were making. (I'm a bit of an emotional sob sometimes, I only love to do what excites me!)
During my exit, I really started to think about where I wanted to go in life and what I wanted to do. Naturally, not a great academic yet I really loved doing work in the field of entrepreneurship at university, I loved researching new theories, topics and then putting it into action! Truly amazing.
This then inspired me to apply for a masters course in global entrepreneurial management, which is a global course based across 3 continents. It would take me to Barcelona, Taiwan and then San Francisco, an absolute dream as a boy who spent so much of his time researching the start-up world and truly getting to know the space, going to San Francisco was something I dreamt about when I first started getting into the StartUp space!
In February 2018, I received the email to say I had been selected as one of the 45 places on this course and beyond joy I was! So excited and grateful for what would start in Sept 2018. Later that year I finished university and wanted to make the most of the summer months and ensure I stayed at my best game possible.
I have always been really interested in the sustainability and climate change space, once I was the sustainability officer for a whole year at my university and spent the year lobbying the university to integrate more sustainability into the curriculum and also ran various sustainability-related projects for the local and student community. I have always had this love for the planet engrained in me, being a vegan, environmentalist and a bit of a hippy at heart this is somewhere I felt I could really help and make a change in.
I found out about a CLIMATE KIC programme, which is funded by the EU and a summer programme called "The Journey" would take a group of students across 3 European countries to ideate, develop and talk about entrepreneurial solutions to climate change.
I was astonished and blown away at such an amazing opportunity to do something so awesome. Once again, I applied in a 5 stage application process (which was rather intense, I was adamant it was never going to happen) but hey in life, if you don't try.. you don’t get ey?
April 2018, I got the email being accepted onto the Climate Change programme as one of the 40 students to be accepted into a programme where we would travel from Paris to Zurich to Austria over 5 weeks during the summer months, something I am extremely looking forward to. In all honesty, I am going to really be out my comfort zone, It will be a lot of work, constantly moving from place to place but wow, I am fired up!
Finally, where am I now? Cyprus. Why? Great question. As you may have realised I like to grasp opportunities by the neck and make the most of what I can find. I was told by a team coach on my course about a programme called the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneur Programme (find out more here; https://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/).
A programme where you could get funding to go and spend time in a euro country an learn from an expert entrepreneur in a certain field...a knowledge exchange as they call it. I saw this as a great chance to get some of my skills upgraded by an expert and applied for a place at the School of Digital Entrepreneurship (https://www.riccomortensen.org/internship/) in Larnaca, Cyprus....guess what?
After a lot of documents, business plans and funding regulations I got accepted and have spent the last month in Larnaca learning about Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship and real raw to the core technical skills around digital marketing and media.
The idea that in life we have to stay constrained to the decisions we make is a myth, every moment I realise I can be and learn whatever I want to. I was never an academic yet I have now been accepted onto one of the top 50 Masters course in Global Entrepreneurial Management because of my grades and track record...I never thought I could truly make a change in the sustainability sector as just a young boy with no real experience and now I have been accepted onto the CLIMATE KIC programme with industry experts and incredibly well-educated people.
Finally, I was the head of operations in my start-up business who managed the staff, community, team morale and daily operations, not the ‘creative marketing guy’ but I have now just completed 1 month intense programme in digital marketing from an expert who said “Leyth, you’re one of the quickest learners I have ever taught”.
We are whatever we want to be in life, we are the creation of our beliefs and the ideas we tell ourselves.
We are the generation of humans who can grasp life by the hand and make a change today to the life we want to live.
My IQ may not be the highest, but my tenacity to learn, grow, and put the work in is beyond exceptional.
I am so grateful for everything so far and the love and support from my family and close friends have made this all possible.
Surrounding myself with a tribe who believe in the same visions in life and being able to meet incredible people to always align with a greater purpose fuels me with energy to continue to do what I do and become what I believe I can become.
My journey has just begun, I am so excited to be able to share it with you all as things progress in the... life of leyth.
Stay tuned, you can see more regular updates at https://www.instagram.com/lifeofleyth/?hl=en.
Fin x
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