And so, when I was 16 years old of course the World was a different place, and yet so was I to some degree…well defo a deal younger lol!
In honesty, back then, being a teenager, even at 13 years, I felt I was ready for LIFE…ready for anything…and no I didn’t need advice from my parents. Yup I was an awkward child, I had issues, I bucked against the system, including the “family system”.
So, at 16 years of age, I ditched my further education, something that was always the plan for an ‘A streamer’, left home, under a cloud and found myself a one bed, bedsit (basically a nice cell with no private bathroom or it’s own running water…yup).
Would I do it again? Well actually yes, but perhaps with a deal less drama than I created leaving home at that time.
Now I am not going to bore you with a chronological list of the employment I have had to date, though suffice to say in my errrm….several decades of adulthood, I have had a quite broad range of careers. Included in this list is a historical position with Marks & Spencer Hull as their first MALE sales assistant and trainee supervisor, Quality Control Chemist at Smith and Nephews in Hull, Trainee Mental Nurse, Royal Air Force Police Officer, Head of Security for a House of Fraser store “Hammonds” and Operations Manager of a successful Security Services Provider….yada, yada, yada…
So, yes, I have “done a bit”….and what was next?
OK, so having had an interest in computers as soon as they were a “thing”, I immersed myself in how to use, harness and get results from computers, and yup I was a bit of a gamer in my time.
I did old-school HTML programming for some of the earliest websites back in the day. Building websites and creating online income streams both for myself and my friends became a side hustle. As time has gone by I have maintained my online business interests, built several online service provision websites and have ongoing clients for these digital outlets.
And here I am, the last 20 years self-employed in the online business world, not a mega-millionaire but happy with my lot.
Artificial Intelligence is now a part of our lives and is also seen as a threat to a lot of what I do, e.g. building websites, social media marketing services, SEO services, content creation and ghostwriting. But the way I look at it is, people who harness AI to carry out these services are doing it “blind”, ChatGPT and the like do not have the humanity of someone like me….I have been there and worn the T-shirt as the saying goes, in both online and offline business.
Yes, AI, can be a useful tool, it can cut down on tedious tasks, but it is also a red flag to such as Google, it kinda knows you’re taking shortcuts. Like everything in life, you need to balance it, for sure AI can give you good research data super quick, but you still have to fact-check it. AI can help brainstorm ideas and create frameworks for articles and books….but…it ain’t got the “human touch”…well, not yet anyway!
One thing I know for sure, AI has not had the life experiences I have had and nor does it know how that feels. Therefore how can AI emulate that in an article such as this? It can’t!
The creativity in the services I offer via my various businesses, gives me self-satisfaction, yes there is a monetary facet to the services, but I am not greedy and also truly want to see others succeed from my efforts on their behalf… old-fashioned? Rather than old-fashioned I think or hope people see me as a “real” person, someone with the experience and scars to prove it…for me, that is more valuable to my clients than a 3-minute ChatGPT output with no sense of reality.
What I do, is what I do, and if any of you are in need of help in starting out online or with something you are already doing online, give me a nudge…I do NOT charge a consultancy fee and am happy to point you in the right direction, whether I make a buck or not, yup!
If you follow the link here >LINK LOL< you will see some of my services and they all have free contact or consultation forms…and yes, it’s ME that responds to any enquiry, it may take 24hrs or so, but that’s because I am a human being, working, eating, sleeping…hmm well the latter not so much as I am an insomniac, yay lucky me eh?
Anyway, if you read so far, I appreciate your time and do feel free to comment, subscribe to one of my newsletters or drop me a line if you fancy a chat.
Kind regards
