I will never forget the moment when in year 12 at Ivanhoe Grammar School that my English teacher called me dumb. Not that it mattered too much as I had already given up on school by that time after constant reinforcement that I wasn’t smart and school wasn’t for me.
I’m sure a few of you out there, at times, might have had something similar. Felt less than appreciated. Told you couldn’t do something or felt like you were not enough.
A few years later I was working on a building site scraping wallpaper off a rich personal house in Kew, 8 hours a day, drinking every night and basically drifting through life when an intervention from my mum changed my life.
She always wanted the best for me and saw me going off course so sent me to a psychologist. I rocked up late and hungover, but this man didn’t judge. Over the next 6 hours he tested my intelligence, both IQ and EQ, plus my personality.
This was in the times before the internet so he sent the tests off to America and a few weeks later I am sitting in front of him hearing, for the first time, that I was actually quite smart. That I have an IQ of 129, in the top 5% of the population. That my EQ was even higher and that my personality suited leadership. Shockingly he said I could be a CEO, a judge or a Doctor.
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. But it sired something in me, a belief in myself I had forgotten.
Looking back from my role as CEO of my own business, author of a book, with three business degrees and 10 years of teaching at University, I hardly recognise that dumb boy. But he is still there, I still feel a bit like that at times. It drives me to improve constantly.
That’s why I teach and coach. I don’t want anyone to feel dumb, not good enough or hindered to reach their full and true potential.
I fully believe that EVERYONE has genius inside of them. If might not be in a scholastic manner like me. It could be in art, music, people, IT or any other niche area that makes the world go around.
But unfortunately many are not supported and have a mum smart and caring enough to create an intervention to change a life.
That’s why I am on a quest to change the world, by changing one life at a time.
CampusLife is more than a social media app for students to find friends when arriving from overseas. More than an app to gain useful and fair paying employment. More than a way to learn about services in their local community.
It is all those things, but the essence is to help lift the belief of all students that they can be more. That they can reach their full potential with an intervention by us if they have no one else.
With 1.6 million students joining University each year, $40 billion impact to our economy and all of the multicultural benefits of more smart and diverse people into our community. It’s a big challenge and a significant business opportunity.
Imagine if the youth of today, who will be the future leaders of our country and the people looking after us when we are old, reached their full potential. What challenges we could overcome, what a great country to live in, what a better world we could achieve.
I feel blessed to have been given the challenges of my past so that I can stand in front of you today with an almost perfect set of experiences, skills, passion, contacts and team to make this vision a reality.
I believe everyone has genius inside of them ready to be released if they just have some support to do so. CampusLife is that support. I just wish my mum was here to see it come to fruition.
Thank you for listening, my name is Andrew Ford and I am the founder of CampusLife.
