Happy Father’s Day, Dad.

This is me and my Dad, at my graduation. 4 months later he’d died.

He was 57 and I was 22. I think the reason he looks so preoccupied in this picture, is because he was about to tell me he had terminal cancer.

“Proud of you Son, but I don’t think we’re going to make Christmas” or something like that I seem to remember.

Needless to say, we both got fairly drunk that day and tried to be positive for my Mum.

I’ve not really acknowledged this, but losing my Dad so young shaped who I am today, and for that I’m grateful.

I miss him dearly, and wish he’d been here to see me get married and have a decent career. I’d love to have seen his face when his three grandchildren were born. I’m kind of glad he wasn’t there for my stag do though.

However, he’s made me appreciate that life is short and very precious. I work hard(ish), but really do ensure family and a healthy balance come first.

Yes, we need to make money and be as successful as possible, but try not to neglect your family or loved ones. You don’t know how long you’ll have them for.

Time is the most precious gift we have, so please, use it wisely.

I’m posting this early, as tomorrow I’m taking the day off for my youngest’s sport’s day, rather than trying to make a few quid.

I know my Dad will be looking down on Harry as he competes in the egg & spoon race, and I hope he’s still proud of what’s happened with his own Son over the last 24 years.

Love you and miss you Dad xx

10 years ago this week, I took possibly the biggest gamble of my career.

I resigned from a well-paid, and very secure role. I had 3 children under the age of 5 and a hefty mortgage with £6,000 savings to my name. My lovely (trusting) Mum transferred her home into my name so I could take out some equity if needed (with hindsight.. Wow)! All because I was becoming bored and disillusioned with the company I’d worked for, but had enjoyed many great times with.

I wanted and needed a fresh challenge. Something to give me that buzz again. So I started Mint UK with zero clients, zero candidates and zero salary. I became an R2R. A Rec-to-Rec.

I had been involved in the hiring processes of hundreds of Recruiters into the global company I had worked for. So I knew what “good” looked like. So it made perfect sense to now use that experience to find Recruiters for lots of different recruitment companies.

So, while it made perfect sense, on paper, did it make perfect sense for my family? Was is all a bit reckless and even selfish, especially with all my responsibilities?  Again, with hindsight… Probably. But successful people can always find a reason to stay in their comfort zone, and you might argue that there’s NEVER an ideal time to change jobs.

There are ALWAYS risks involved.

But I believe that life’s too short, and actually ‘having a go’ is better than not. I didn’t want to look back with regret and think “What if…?”

But only YOU can make the change.

Anyway, fast forward 10 years and it’s gone alright. I love what I do, and I take pride in my contribution to the recruitment industry. And most importantly, thankfully, my Mum still has a roof over her head and the Wadsworth kids are fed and watered regularly.

No regrets from me.

This is me at 28.

I’d had my PB and billed $1,019,268, without any of the fancy tools available to the modern day Recruiter, and that includes LinkedIn.

Someone asked me recently how I did it. And this is what I told them.

Back then we weren’t at all reliant on good old Linkedin. In fact, I’d not even heard of it. We didn’t miss it, because we’d never had it!

Neither did I rely on fax machines or carrier pigeon. Phones and email had been invented thankfully.

Quite simply, I called people (clients and candidates), I met them, and grafted as hard as I could for them. (In that order!)

Salaries were a lot lower, and therefore so were fees. But at the end of that year, I’d personally invoiced $1,019,268

There was no magic formula. No secret sauce. No PSL’s or volume clients. No Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook or Instagram (which I now feature on heavily… Not!) Just a laser-focused determination to crack $1 million after $729k the previous year.

But what I did have (besides a graft ethic) was a great team…Dani Hewlett, Toni Doherty, Patrick March and Cyrus D’Cruz all helped significantly.

This is the point… If you’re working with good people – clients, candidates AND colleagues – you’ll do well and the sky’s the limit.

Unfortunately now though, I’m working with Pete Watson – R-to-R – R2R – Rec to Rec – Recruitment to Recruitment Watson, so I rely massively on LinkedIn to make up for the lack of great colleagues in my life.