Half-blind, dyslexic, told by teachers you’re useless, eight Ds at GCSE – in those circumstances, it would be easy to give up on any hopes of making it.
But Stratford’s Dean Williams, 33, experienced all of the above and yet has gone on to achieve many of his dreams regardless, including self-publishing a guidebook for making and keeping money.
That book, The Path to Financial Peace, has been praised by entrepreneur Brad Burton and already been bought by hundreds of people before its publication on Thursday last week.
“It’s been amazing,” Dean said.
“I now want to sell 10,000 copies in five years – I want to help 10.000 people to change their lives and take control of their finances.”
Dean said his view of the world changed dramatically when, after being repeatedly told he was “slow” at school and would only ever be a “grocery worker”, a friend offered some positive advice.
“Everything was going against me,” he said. “I’d just screwed up my GCSEs, I had all these problems, I was from an Afro-Caribbean background – you can imagine how hard it was.
“Then I was told, ‘You can do so much better’.”
Dean then “did what he wanted with life” – first becoming a chef, and then working at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
“This was in 2006, remember – when it was cool to be a banker,” he said. “I ended up earning £2,000 a month and I didn’t know what to do with it – I just spent it all.”
Dean was then given financial advice and, nine months later, saved £10,000.
“What I want to do now is pass on this knowledge,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter how much you have or earn – you always have to start somewhere”
Dean advises that people on low incomes attack their financial affairs by saving 10 per cent of “everything that passes through their hands” while learning from people who have made fortunes.
“You need to read, you need to educate yourself – Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, all of them,” he said, adding that British entrepreneurs “do it in a more subdued way”.
“You don’t have to be like an American – you can do it in a British way.”
But within that sphere of Britishness, Dean has his own favourite area.
“I love Newham,” he said. “There’s just something about the people – they are beautiful.
“I felt so proud after the Olympics – I want the people to succeed.”
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