Uptree

On Wednesday 5 February, Uptree are hosting FuturesUP in Birmingham for the first time!

Here we interviewed our inspirational speaker for the event, Herman Stewart and found out about his story.

Inspiration

Herman is inspired by people who do not give up and try their best to get things done, who have difficulties yet they do not make excuses and they keep on-going. He says,

In life, things are difficult, hard and trying so it takes a lot to actually achieve success, which is not always highlighted.

I am always inspired by my family, my vision to enable every child to experience mentoring and my life story.

Career history

Herman is the founder and CEO of Every Child Needs a Mentor which is the UK's leading specialist mentoring organisation.

In his early years, Herman was an under-15s footballer for Great Britain and even a successful recording artist, working with some of the biggest artists in the world on MTV and radio.

However, after the birth of his daughter he rethought his life and studied counselling and became a professional mentor in 2001.

In 2009 he started his own business which became Every Child Needs a Mentor. You can read more about this organisation here .

Motivation

We asked Herman how he stays motivated and his answer is linked to his family:

The fact that I have three daughters who I want to create a better life for. I want my children to be able to live the kind of life I was not able to live when I was growing up. I have a very kind and understanding wife who fully supports me to pursue my vision and mission in life.

Whilst it is important to be have a great dream, Herman's answer shows us how important it is to stay grounded with those whom we love and who love us.

Hurdles

Mentoring is a very competitive area and Herman has had to work hard to stand out from the crowd and rise above others within the mentoring field.

What made his business, Every Child Needs a Mentor, successful was his insistence that ALL children should be able to access mentoring, regardless of behaviour. Herman explained:

Most mentoring in education is not for the most well-behaved students which is a deficit which I felt was not fair. So I have worked hard to ensure all children can access mentoring and to change how people look at mentoring has been hard to do too. which has taken lots of energy, dedication, commitment, creativity and resilience.

Advice

With 3 daughters of his own, Herman's advice to young people is relevant and helpful.

1. Take the time to actually know what you personally think and feel about things in life as there are so many opportunities to just follow others and listen to the opinions of other people.

2. Be acutely aware that even though you have friends you are on your own in school and you must get your head down and not be distracted if you want to achieve the kind of life you want to have.

3. Be all that you can be, do not think small, dream, achieve and succeed.

4. You have so much talent, ability and opportunity so don't waste all of your time just being on Watsapp, Tik Tock or Insta!

We can't wait to hear more from Herman at FuturesUP on Wednesday! You can follow the day on Twitter and read more about the event on LinkedIn afterwards.