Back in the recesses of the last century when I was a teenager there was no mention of ‘apprenticeships’, ‘mentoring’ and possibly not even of ‘role models’.  We grew up in the best way we could. In south London, some of us fared better than others. My brother did well – head boy, straight A’s. Me – not so much. A very waywardly adolescence led me to the brink of a disastrous path which luckily fate (and my family) rescued me from.

Not everyone has been so fortunate. Through work I’ve done with The Prince’s Trust and Business in the Community, I come across so many young people with no expectation or hope of what life will bring their way. They’re not even programmed for failure as that would involve a goal that wasn’t going to be achieved. On our streets and in our schools are a new generation of drifters and no-hopers.

There are also amongst them sparks of real talent and energy who get little or no inspiration from their peers, their teachers or often from their families. I met a group this week who ranged in age between 17 and 20 who had won a kind of competition to take part in a mentoring session with me (what did the losers get??). They told me of their hopes, ambitions and plans but had little idea of how to make them come to life.

One by one I gave them all a bit of advice, suggested some people who might provide more elaborate mentoring and told them bits of how I started in business. Hopefully they will now pursue their goals more rigorously and in turn become role models of the future. It’s not just a rewarding experience to do this but also an encouraging one in seeing that we have the ability to still create home-spun entrepreneurial talent.

I noticed that one of them had put on his application form to take part in the session that his ambition was “to be as successful as Iqbal Wahhab”. I said to him: “you should aim to be more successful than me – just make sure you don’t go into the restaurant business, OK?”

Thanks for doing this to the young community in general! It is essential, everywhere you look at you will find that a lack of leadership is a huge problem for the young People! Hope you can continue to this more frequently!