Archive

Name: Philip Collett.

Job: Managing director, Motivational Systems, provider of courses for unemployed and disadvantaged young people to improve their confidence and self-worth.

How long in the job? Since 1990.

Career highlight: An unemployed young man did well on a programme and become a trainer himself.

Career lowlight: I left school without confidence, became homeless and took a dead-end job in a mail room for six years.

Best training ever done: The Hoffman Process, an eight-day course focusing on letting go of the negative past.

I didn't get where I am today by: Blaming others and moaning. I tried it for 25 years of my life and it didn't work.

The best move I've ever made was: Going to America for two years to learn about peak performance psychology and find out why some people are successful and most are not.

I set up my company because: I wanted to share what I learned in the US that there are no secrets to success. It is all common sense, which isn't always common practice.

The single most inspiring person I've met during my career is: Steven Conway, a venture capitalist who funded a chain of estate agents I set up in 1979. He helps others to become successful and so becomes successful himself.

Me and my career: At Motivational Systems we work with young people with low esteem. We help them begin to take responsibility for their lives and understand they can achieve more. Our motivation courses aim to build independence and inner strength. Some young people come to us through Connexions, which funds their training. By the time they come to us these young people are not engaging with anything, and are not in education, employment or training. I do some training myself and know what it's like walking into a room and seeing resistant young people, with arms folded. But a lot of our trainers are talking from experience and have a way of getting through and sharing practical ways to improve lives. We also invite young people who have turned around their own lives to come in and tell their stories. My main role now is training the trainers, who can easily become burned out and cynical. They need support too.


Curriculum Vitae
1990-current: Set up Motivational Systems.
1987-9: Studied psychology in US.
1979-86: Went into business with chain of estate agents, Conway Collett.
1978-9: Estate agent.
1972-8: Worked in mail room, Barclays Bank, London.
1972: Homeless.
1971: Left school at 16, no qualifications.