True Business Success – Personal Purpose & Freedom Security
Whilst true success in this life remains distinctly unique to each one of us, the two ingredients that have driven me I believe are worth sharing.
The two factors which led me to practice law were (1) achieve justice – my family had suffered a tragic death in the family from a crime overseas; and (2) obtain wealth security – my desire to be free from financial stress.
Sophie with Grandma Vera, Mauritius, 1981
As I got closer to solicitor qualification in my mid-20s, I was not only being told by experienced lawyers that justice does not exist but also my debt was starting to grow. My dream for justice and wealth security were literally disappearing right before me, but what could I do? I had to qualify and see this legal thing through, but it certainly was not offering me the life that I had originally bought into.
I started on £16k per annum in 2006 as a trainee solicitor in an Essex high street law firm. It was tough. I was already 26 years old. I qualified, but even then, my salary could not afford me to pay off my debts and think about a brighter future.
One year into qualification, I knew that this job was not for me. I was good with the clients and delivering results, but I had lost my purpose and could not see a future. I was fantasising about entrepreneurialism and starting a business in the credit crunch, but the thought of resigning was too frightening. I was trapped.
Becoming pregnant with my first son in 2009, gave me a lifeline out of the non-purposeful 9 to 5 hours I was existing, but not truly living, for. Maternity leave for the whole of 2010 blessed me with a whole new energy, freedom and choice. I felt liberated being introduced into my local community that I had missed whilst working, and from there I started my very own first business in childcare, Happy Feet.
I resigned from the law firm and had a go at running the business which gave me the experience of customer service, employment, operations, taxation and finance, marketing and sales, health and safety, data protection.
Happy Feet ran for a year before I dissolved it after my second son arrived and my family desperately needed more money. I had underestimated the stress in winding down a business, not having the experience or coaching for planning something like that.
Fortunately, I quickly got hired by Essex County Council as a projects lawyer and was thrilled when they started to give me the Council’s large technology projects. I felt this was my chance to shine supporting high performance teams. It was a great experience, and little did I know then my time at Essex was to become my career changing platform over the next 8-10 years as my work developed across government major projects and related software development.
My sense of justice had returned, but this time distinctively more focussed to achieve much better value for the taxpayer in complex public contracts and get more cash to frontline public services.
The software development to support the ease at which complex contracts can be read and understood is now the baby driving my sense of justice to new levels. Software has allowed me to think big, scale and cross international boundaries. This is a future. This is freedom. Even if I do not make a penny out of my current ventures, it is the fight for hope, justice, peace and security that has made my life so much more fulfilling having left my first law firm back in 2010.
I have failed many times, and I am still in debt. But life is only worth living if I have something to live for and give back. Whilst money is important no amounts of cash can fill my heart with passion to live life meaningfully.
Driving value and stopping waste in the public sector, freeing up cash for better frontline staff pay gives me goose bumps if my team and our legal, software and service support help the UK get there.
People in desperate need of help, for food, for water, for shelter, from addiction, from fear, across the UK and the rest of the world deserve better.
There are so many of us trying to bring the ingredients for a more hopeful future for everyone. Sharing the right messages of support and taking care of our children, the elderly, our patients, our loved ones, our neighbours, and ourselves has never been so important.
What I have learned so far is that freedom security is not money. Purpose for living is not money. Above everything, it is our collective heart-set that will change this world for good, for justice, for peace. Not the law, not the tech, not the money. Those things follow if directed properly with the right sense of purpose. It is our love for one another, a well society, that will give us all everything we need. It really is that simple, but it takes a hard and courageous fight to get there.