BlackMan Time

I had to write down the names of all the people I wanted to thank for helping me in my life for a BBC-organised comedy course I attended earlier this year. The list was long and contained the names of people who were actually quite negative towards me at the time I knew them.

But I put them down because their negative vibe actually influenced me to rise above their negativity. However, their negativity wasn’t their uncanny effort to motivate me: it was because they were actually quite negative!

Now, I know a few people who were traumatised by being singled out for this kind of treatment. All I knew was that regardless of what some teacher or other person said about me I was always going to proceed in the direction I felt comfortable with, God wanted me to go or was in my plans to visit. I reasoned that since I wasn’t responsible for what other people said or thought about me, I was going to take control, as much as I could, about the direction of my life.

The only problem with this is that I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go with my life, particularly immediately after finishing school! So I drifted for two years – well, actually I found work and that gave me a focus. Then I decided I was going to re-educate myself because I somehow felt I had been mis-educated at school!

I remember deliberately going out and buying a few key books, reading them on my own initiative and feeling a great sense of achievement because I had done that. In the process I discovered I liked photography so I enrolled on a full-time photography course, got a full maintenance grant and studied at a Yorkshire college for two years. It was a major turning point in my life because it introduced me to my future vocation: communicating with people on a grand scale!

I was taught to see photography as a way of communicating and to look at design as a way to solve problems. But as my interest and local notoriety in photography grew I realise I also liked film making and writing too! So, I added these elements as part of my communications tool.

For me, it seems, life gets really interesting when you make a conscious effort to do something and follow through with it regardless of the obstacles you may find. But I also still give thanks to those who have motivated me with their negativity!