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Born in Liverpool, England, I went to school in Bootle; and a tough old school it was too - some of the teachers were bordering on psycho and my outstanding achievement of this period was surviving it. I was a member of the 25th B.B. (Boys Brigade) which was associated with St Leonard's Church and I remember everyone connected with the church with great affection.

The Church Youth Group was called Spectrum - this was the rather groovy name we gave to the after-church meeting for young people on Sunday evenings. It had previously been called The Youth Rally which always reminded me of the Hitler Youth, so I am glad we changed the name. By the way, if you happen to have attended the Spectrum meetings, please register with Friends Reunited; Spectrum is listed there as a Club. It would be great to get in touch with everyone again & maybe sometime arrange a reunion.

When I got to the age of twenty, I thought I might be a pop-star (everyone's doing it now - I must have been ahead of my time) so I decided to become a Blue-Coat at Pontins and that's where I met my first wife. Pontins was great - you just played and got thin on the bad food. Generally, food at Pontins is ok, but the food we had to eat in the staff dining room, was awful.

That brings me to the period of my life when I had my kids, Fay & Mark, who are both adult now and I am very proud of them both. But my marriage fell apart and for a period of about ten years, dealing with all the trials of them growing up, it was very difficult. It was during that time that I met my wife Ellie who is quite simply, the light of my life. Someone once said that a second marriage represents the triumph of hope over experience - and I think that is true.

Finding my Calling ...

One day, I was driving along listening to a tape; and, although I had heard the basic message many times before, on this occasion, it really struck home. I remember hearing the words, " ... how can you achieve a goal you have not even set?"

And for once those words found real resonance within me. I thought to myself, if I were to set some really big goals, and if those goals did not come to pass, only I would know; and so there would be no reason to not give the process a try. It was the little push I needed at the time.

So I took myself off to Clevedon and sat at the end of the pier with a flask of soup, a notebook - the old-fashioned paper-type - and pen. I was there for about three or four hours asking myself those deep questions about what my own life is about and what is most important to me. At the end of the session, I had quantified four really big goals; the first of which was to become a Personal Development consultant within three years.

Now my career had, up until that time, been in IT; and I had no idea how to change not just my job, but my career, but this is what happened ...

The company I was working for at the time was taken over by a larger organization and I felt the new company did not really understand my role; which was in pre-sales support; so I started looking around for another opportunity. I saw a company advertising for a Technical Author; and I thought it might help me to hone my writing skills - which would be an important aspect of achieving my goal - so I applied and I got invited for an interview.

There I was sitting in the interview being interviewed by two people and one of them asked me a pretty standard interview question,

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Now I don't know how I would have answered prior to doing all that thinking, but what I said was,

"Well ... I see myself as a writer (still trying to get the job) and by that time I would like to think I will have written a successful book."

He asked what subject I would be writing about; and I had no hesitation in explaining all about my passion for Personal Development.

"That's very interesting he replied!"

He left the room; returning a few minutes later with three course outline documents which he showed me.

"We are just diversifying into that field ourselves - could you teach these courses?", he asked.

Well I nearly fell off my chair! Here he was offering me the opportunity to do exactly what I wanted and had imagined back there in Clevedon only a few months earlier.

To cut a long story short: I got the job. I started immediately after working out my notice and so began my new career as a Personal Development Consultant. It still amazes me today to think about how it all happened - but it did!

My own belief is that opportunity surrounds us every day of our lives but we tend to miss most of it simply because of what our minds are focused on. That is the power of creating your vision and imagining it as fulfilled.

Founding White Dove Books ...

Around Christmas 2003, I decided to start White Dove Books just as an outlet for my own writing. I run Personal and Professional Development courses in the UK and I thought I could provide my delegates with an additional useful resource.

Within its first three years, the site became recognised as one of the internet's leading Personal Development sites; breaking into the top 100,000 sites on the internet for the first time, according to Alexa's rankings at the end of 2005.

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The Inspiration Newsletter was started in 2005 as a way of providing useful information including tips and techniques for living life to the full, interesting articles and free inspirational ebooks to our members.

In 2006, we were granted permission by the talented artist Rameer Tawasil to use his design as the logo for our website. Although we now have a new dove logo, we continue to support Rameer's campaign for world peace.

Today White Dove Books works in partnership with many authors and on-line publishers of inspirational material to provide a quality on-line service that serves thousands of people in dozens of countries across the world.

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