Jack’s Personal Journey 

The biggest challenge was always having the confidence. Having never been particularly bright at school, and being more interested in sports, and then working in a call centre, it took a long time to build up my confidence. Even just to speak in front of people – I remember not being able to speak in front of the CEO in my first finance job!

Building my confidence was slow progress, but CIMA was a huge help here, and obviously Kaplan giving me the skills to get through the exams. I passed all 15 exams, as it was then, in just 22 months. This was the catalyst for me. From here, I started noticing when I spoke, people listened, this manifested itself into having the confidence to lead teams, present to senior stakeholders and challenge the C-Suite. The C-Suite is a term used to describe the executives within a company, for example, the CEO, CFO etc. I doubt I would have even dared make eye contact with them before, but over time, confidence grew, and it is now something really enjoyable.

It was then a case of launching Lead the Disruption, which was inspired by the executives I met. I was interested in how executives got their C-Suite positions, lucky for me, they were all very forthcoming and although I did not realize the significance it at the time, they all give me a list of books to read! It was later I realized the correlation between books and executives, and soon after that, I realized a potential gap in the market.

What Jack Thinks Of Neil’s Teaching Style 

My favorite memory of Neil’s teaching was when he was teaching us deferred tax. The textbook had around 100 pages on deferred tax, the lecture notes had about 20 pages on deferred tax.

Neil came in after lunch, ginger beer in hand, and told us not to worry about the lecture notes. He then drew a single mind map that we needed to learn. One proforma and one page later – that was it! Neil was also noticeably confident – never was I in any doubt that he had not taught me what I needed to learn for the exam – and his confidence gave me confidence. This was especially useful during the ‘nervy’ period heading into the exam. I knew I was going to pass before going into the exam.

 

Jack’s Key Message To Students Who Hope To Be Successful Like Him

I used to run. And I always used to train better than I raced. This bemused the university enough to send me to a sports psychologist, and we found out, that I was scared of racing my best, in case my best was not good enough – more commonly referred to, as being scared to fail.

This was an eye-opener. And it took me a while a process. But once I embraced this, I was determined never to be scared of failing again. With this mindset, the approach in your mind changes and almost overnight – things you used to be scared of no longer seem scary.

When you are scared of failing, almost any sign that something will not work is enough to get you to stop, self-doubt gets in the way. When you are not scared of failing, you stop paying attention to these minor things and you start seeing solutions instead of problems.

Jack’s Tips and Takeaways

So, 4 things you need to take away are:

  1. Do not be afraid to fail (easier said than done)
  2. Start with the end in mind. You need to know where you are going.
  3. Build your network. By knowing people who can help you, you are more likely to be successful.
  4. Read lots and widely.

Model the success of other successful people. Subscribe to leadthedisruption.co.uk. 

As a special thank you , Jack is offering you a 10% discount if you use the discount code ‘NeilDaCosta’