I took some education with a company called Inside Track, who were good with their basic education, promising to show you how you did below-market deals, which, let's face it, is the holy grail for us all. Then, couldn't find any deals, so joined their sister company, which was called Instant Access, where you paid to join them. They would source these deals for you, all BMV, and then you made loads of money in the end. Of course, that didn't quite work out. They were a bit dodgy, to say the least. On the back of that, I lost money, other people lost money, people end up in jail. I kind of became a cynic of property investing and thought, no, I've learnt enough. I'll go about this on my own, but actually struggled. I didn't find the deals and for the next six years, didn't buy a property. Just kind of turned away from property in total, back into the corporate career, climbing the corporate ladder.

I guess what changed, because for all of us, I could have ... I had that comfortable lifestyle that I think somebody touched on earlier. It was easy to go to work, and it was easy to have that comfortable lifestyle. Good mates at work and really a good family life, but three things happened to me that made me think again.

So that kind of made me think what is life about? Then, when I had my first boy, Harrison, he kind of galvanized it for me. It is about family. It is about friends. I mean, I loved it so much, I've had another two since, which they also have the challenge. I think you can see the timeline. From 2008 to 2009, I didn't exactly take massive prompt action to do anything different, did I? The third thing, really, the catalyst for me was when Kraft took over Cadbury. Despite the headlines, they are a very good company to work for, but it kind of meant my career prospects lay abroad rather than in this country. When I've got old parents and three young children, it was never going to fit for my value sets to move them around the country.

I made a decision then I'd get out. The Kraft restructure gave me the opportunity, through restructuring my team and being involved with the biggest restructure, to kind of get out with a package, so I had a comfort blanket. I could go out there, try , and if I failed, well, I'll just get another job, won't I? I was determined not to fail. I think the difference being I needed to understand what had gone wrong last time I couldn't source these properties and what I needed to do differently this time. Clearly, I needed to go back to school. I read Property Magic in April 2011. I recognized the bloke, Simon Zutshi, because I used to work with him at Cadbury. I thought I could probably trust him. He won't be like the others. I can genuinely say he isn't. He's a one-off, but he's also very ethical about what he does, so I could work with that, and that kind of resonated with my values.

Then, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which is all about understanding how your assets work for you. The combination of those two things gave me enough of an appetite to think I could probably do this, but let's go and sample it. Went on a Quick Start in April 2013, quickly followed by the Accelerator, where Julie Barlow bullied me, I mean really coerced me, at the end of the day, to sign up with my wife, who was eight months pregnant by then. She was saying, "The two of you can do it. Come on, you'll love it." I was lucky enough to get away with that, but I'm really grateful to Julie for doing it, because I was determined not to get into Quick Start, so thank you for that. I knew all the strategies under Accelerator, but I know I kind of wanted the support. Given that I'd now gotten myself into a position to leave Cadbury, I thought I'd really need to replace my cashflow quickly, so I signed up for Mastermind, because I thought with this bunch around me, how can I fail? I'm glad I didn't see your faces when I made that decision, by the way.

My reason why and my goals, it's very simple, really. Quality time with family and friends. No different to most people in this room. Richard touched on being selfish, as well as the family and friends bit, I want to do things. I want my freedom. I want to choose what I do with my life and to go around the world looking at sporting events with my kids. I'm not going to leave them behind, by the way, and my wife. To take my family around the world to see World Cups, to see golf. If we get any better, to watch cricket. That's what I want, and that's important to me.

Now, here was the first deal I did.

I managed to talk to them and really generally put their needs first. That's the other important thing I learned on Mastermind. It isn't about you negotiating, it's about you really listening, really understanding. If you can help those people, then you will feel better about life, but also, you will really be able to serve them the right way. It was a great deal for us both. I could give them the money they needed to avoid laying people off and folding. It was a big house, already set up for a charity. It was a seven-bed HMO. Really, it was a straightforward opportunity to buy it from them and lease it back to them so they could carry on delivering the great care that they were doing. They chose not to choose that option in the end, but it kind of opened my eyes to opportunities which I'll go on to later.

I've raised over £600,000 with the JV finance that would never have happened without me educating myself, knowing what I'm talking about, and going out and talking to people and sounding like an expert. You know what? You become that when you do this process. Every day, I spent quality time with my family, taking the kids to school, going to various events with them, spending time with my parents, which is important for me because they're not in the greatest shape at the moment. Also, I'm doing a lot of stuff now, presenting at PIN meetings and going to various events where, as an investor, you can kind of add value.

One of the things I've been able to do, and I've been invited onto the board of trusts for a local business that offers care packages. I'm about to take this position, because I've got a business sense and I know about property. What they're great at is care and provision but not particularly business savvy, so I've got the time to do that for nothing, but it's something I really enjoy doing. Really excitingly for me, this is kind of the next step, I've set up a company with two of the Masterminds, Dave Morris and Dan Norman, who are also experts with complementary skill sets to mine that mean that the thing I love doing, we can do and scale up incredibly. For the properties I buy, I lease them out long-term. There are no costs to me other than the actual provision of a roof and some insurance. It costs us very little money to do that.

Working with those two guys, we've really accelerated our progress, and we can actually provide something for the most needy in our community now. This is our logo. This is a plug. Look out for that. It is about quality accommodation for supported living, and we're very proud of what we're doing. I think not only has this process given me the skills, but also, we've got a partnership with that charity now to supply 80 to 100 units a year for the next four or five years, which is a pretty sustainable model and, again, would never have happened without the people in this environment.