Tony Holland

I attended St Johns school from 1978-1984. My results when I left were not great, in fact quite the opposite, however I have gone on to have modest success.

I currently run a number of companies including one called Caring 4 U, an award winning care agency that helps to care for people in their own homes. Caring 4 U employs over 100 people throughout Essex and is continuing to expand. www.caring4u.co.uk

Another company I have an interest in, The Business Learning Foundation, employs about 15 people in Nottingham & Reading, with associated consultants numbering over 400, and offers training and business coaching solutions to household names such as Orange, Virgin, Sky and Volkswagen. I was recently 'business coaching' the CEO of British Gypsum who has a turnover of over £30 billion pa. This was in my capacity as a Director of the BLF.  www.theblf.co

The variety of companies and industries that I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in, have led to interesting travel and development opportunities. For example, I helped to create a very specific personality profiling psychometric test, which I went to shanghai to develop, and this is now sold and used by companies such as Lufthansa and T-Mobile.

I have written and published a book called 'Walking in a coaching Wonderland' which was created to help people, this led me to explore further how peoples’ minds worked and I went on to gain a PhD in 'the psychology of clinical hypnotherapy' via a distance learning course with an American university. These areas opened up further opportunities to work with and help others who are having challenges in their life. I purely work on a referral basis now in this area and I receive a number of grateful notes, texts and cards thanking me for my services from individuals, which is very gratifying.

Although I feel that there is so much more to do, the success I've had so far has allowed me to enjoy some of the more material aspects that life has to offer. However, although these things seem important initially, the real lesson is about health, happiness and relationships. I truly believe that nice people can succeed and do well in business and help to build those around you.

St Johns School was a great learning environment for me. Every pupil is different and each person takes different life lessons from their school experience. These days, with the emphasis constantly on exam results and higher education, I was keen to highlight that for some individuals, if you have the right vision and take the right action, success can be achieved in a number of different ways - As Henry Ford once said “some people think they can, and some people think they can’t. And they’re probably both right”