HSBC recently made a short film (below) with Jamal Edwards MBE creator of SB.TV to promote the “Your Ambition #ispossible” campaign. It showed young people and adults that no matter what their dream, it is possible to achieve it.What I really liked is how HSBC see what they do as a bank as helping people achieve their ambitions. After seeing it I shared my ambition and as a result I was invited to meet Jamal. This was an amazing opportunity as Jamal’s success on YouTube is a real inspiration to me.
After seeing this short film on Twitter I shared my video telling the story of how I got to where I am today using the #ispossible hashtag just because I also wanted to show other young people that anything really is possible.
Three years ago I didn’t think I’d be racing cars today with quite a lot of sponsorship behind me. Not yet enough but still more than half of what I need to race. I didn’t think I would be appearing in national newspapers, talked about in the motorsport press, featured in gaming magazines, doing fashion photo shoots for top magazines like Tatler or being interviewed on Channel 4, Sky Sports and Motors TV.
By working hard, giving up a lot of what teenagers get to do, I have made it this far and I am getting to do what I love! I still have a long way to go and I am still learning what it takes to succeed but I’ve already learned how much you have to sacrifice.
After the campaign, I was one of three young people invited to meet with Jamal and HSBC to hear his story, tell mine and for him to offer mentoring on achieving your ambition. We all met at the SB.TV HQ in Central London.
While we were there we listened to Jamal’s story and how he struggled through all of the tough times to be where he is today. He worked in Top Man on the shop floor during the day for years while he made his videos during the evenings and on his days off. It took a long time before his YouTube channel was noticed and now it is huge and has launched the careers of many of today’s top artists. Ed Sheeran, JME and Jesse J have all been on SB.TV. His story is extremely inspiring and shows that with hard work and determination you can achieve your goals. I then told my story and asked for his advice.
Some of the advice that he gave me included keeping an eye on finances and how to minimise unnecessary spending. He also suggested that I should release new videos on a regular schedule on my Youtube Channel. He also gave me some ideas of companies to contact to generate sponsorship opportunities and good ways to get in contact with the right people within those companies.
It was really nice to see that a lot of the advice he was giving about social media, were things that I was doing already. For example, he said it was great to interact with people on social media with similar interests such as Top Gear and F1. This showed me that I was on the right track, and with his advice, I can continue and go even further by improving how often I put videos on my YouTube channel and the ways I reach out to people in the companies I hope to get sponsorship from.
The whole experience was a real eye opener on ways to rise through the ranks in your particular field and an inside look on what it takes to do it. It was an honour to meet Jamal and the team from HSBC; I am sure that I will meet them again one day.
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