One of the best ways to spend a Sunday, in my opinion, is at my local radio station, Bridge Radio 102.5 FM, which is run a by a great bunch of committed, if slightly mad enthusiasts and few Sundays ago, I was privileged to be part of Dr Paul’s Sunday show ‘Bridge Matters’.Paul invited along myself and a local young entrepeneur by the name of Louis Barnett, who at the tender age of 19 is a licensed chocolatier,and became the youngest supplier to both Sainsbury and Waitrose at the age f 14.
Born in the Staffordshire village of Kinver, he left school at 11 years due to learning difficulties to be home educated.He was later diagnosed with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.
He started making chocolates for friends and family and in 2005 he formed a company Chokolit Ltd.,to deal with the growing demand.He is now an ambassador for the British Dyslexia Association as well as a lobbyist against the destruction of the habitat of the Sumatran Orang-u tan through intensive palm oil production.He received the Lord Carte Award for excellence in the food industry and was nominated for a Young Entrepreneur Award in 2007.
Talking and listening to this erudite, intelligent young man (hear a clip of the show), talk with such ease, and charm, showing very few signs of the Dyslexic condition, his struggle with conventional approaches to learning,I sensed that he had found and utilised his strengths and indeed used to his advantage the ‘outside the box’ thinking skills, which are part of the natural strengths of most Dyslexics.It also became clear to me that this unconventional education has helped to set Louis on the road to his success.
We are only too aware of this need at LTS and so we have included a new series of workshops to be run at the centre, entitled ‘MIND OVER MATTER….’ open to anyone, but we particularly welcome teachers /parents/trainers/ HR managers.More details on a later blog.
Louis is a shining, yet typical example of how Dyslexics can become successful entrepreneurs despite their difficulties.Indeed Louis is very aware of this and is soon to be taking on a new role of business mentor.(See my blog on why Dyslexics make great entrepreneurs).
If you have been inspired by this story or would like to read more about Louis, go to www.chokolit.com or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
Inspirational thought ….People don’t only succeed through success;they often succeed through failures.
Success isn’t how far you’ve come,but how far you are from where you started…..