We were the paperboys.

We were the paper boys, the car washers, we went that extra mile to make money so we could be independent as there were no free handouts!

I was taught at a very early age, if you want something go out there and get it, make it happen. my career started when I was 11 years old rubbing down backs of rusty old washing machines for the stepdad, hated doing that ,my first proper job was a paper round, getting up at 5.30am to bike down to the local newsagents, I took over the paper round from a friend, he taught me how to mark the papers up, we would have a pile of the sun, mirror, daily star, Guardian newspapers and we had to make the roundup for our customers.

Rain or shine I would be delivering the papers, I remember one of the customers use to have corona cherryade  delivered by the milkman and this was towards the end of my round and I was so thirsty that one morning okay a few mornings I would take a nip out of the bottle, so funny I am sure they would have known. 

I wanted money for a motorbike as a couple of my friends had one, so I went out at weekends on my push bike and a bucket and sponge and I would knock on doors to ask if anyone wanted their car washing 50p per car.

some weekends i would make £10, we lived on a smallholding with Goats, Pigs, calfs, chickens so the one thing we were not short of was Shit!

So I had an idea one day to sell the shit [MANURE} We sold Goats milk and eggs. I put up a sign outside my house saying bags of manure 50p and I would deliver it around the village riding my push bike trailing a sack cart.

I went to all the local farms in the summer holidays asking for work, I always found something, I remember saying to my mum, I will not be back until I have found some work.

One particular summer holiday  I plucked up the courage asked the farmer I was doing some part-time work for if I could live on his farm and work for the whole summer holiday which was 6 weeks as I was still saving for a motorbike, I didn’t have the support from my parents, my stepdad was a strict and tight as arse holes. My mother didn’t have much.

Happy days the farmer his name was John said ok great I could do with an extra pair of hands ,I was 13 years old. It was exciting to be away from my home it felt like an adventure, John lived with his disabled son David and his brother Patrick

It was an old fashion farm with old tractors the ones with seats on a long spring, no cabs, I had my first real sense of freedom. Summertime on a farm was a hectic time, rounding sheep up, i was the sheepdog lol dagging the sheep from infection, dipping the sheep in deep tanks of disinfectant. but we were mostly hay bailing, I would walk behind the hay bailing machine and stack the bails up into piles, then we would drive with tractor and trailer and load the bails up, all by hand and pitch folk my hands and arms were red raw.

That's where I learnt to drive ,at every opportunity I would be on the seat of the tractor, loved it. What I had noticed is I didn’t think about what money I was going to earn, I was loving the freedom and independence and thinking I can,t wait to leave home.

We would all go to the local pub on a summers evening and have a cold glass of cider.

Those six weeks flew by and it was back to school, I had saved £200 I bought my first off-road motorbike.

Although at the time I thought I was hard done by, actually I  learned some great lessons if you want something you have to earn it, go out there and make it happen from an idea a thought a desire.Not worrying about the how, at first, as that unfolds on the way this attitude has helped me have my own businesses. 

To find out more, check our website http://designnewlife.com/

Dean