So, I was still in the college at the time
and I said to myself, "how can I do something different?
What can I do different enough for me to see results
that no-one else will think of doing?"
An idea came to my head
to go and knock on people's doors and ask them:
"What skill and qualities they had to become so wealthy,
so that I can extrapolate that and use it for myself."
The pitch when I knocked on people's doors was,
"My name is Reggie, I'm from East London.
I came to Kensington and Chelsea because I researched
that this is the wealthiest area in the UK.
And I just wanted to know what skills and qualities you had
that allowed you to live in a wealthy area like this
so I can extrapolate that and use it for myself."
Hi Reggie!
Hey, how are you? I'm good, thank you. How are you?
So good to see you.
So I went down a private street,
the second door I knocked on, a lady speaks through the intercom.
She opens the door and invites me in.
As we were speaking,
a gentleman walks through the room,
that guy was Quintin Price.
At the time, Quintin was
The Head of Alpha Strategies, at BlackRock.
First thing I started thinking about was, all right, well,
let me think about how, when I go into work tomorrow
I can organise for him to get some work experience.
I got there so early, I was the first one there.
I think I got there like an hour early,
just so I can build a good impression.
It was amazing to see how many bright young people there were.
Even before I got there, I didn't know you can get an A* at A-level.
I thought it was just A was the maximum,
but then these guys were telling me, "I got 3 A*s and 4 A*s."
They'd ask me: "What grade do you get in college?"
and I was like, "I'm still in college I haven't finished yet."
That's when I realised I'm actually the youngest person here,
and these guys are all undergraduates.
From that day it really altered my mind
and changed the perspectives of all sorts of things
and that's when I realised, you know what,
something is definitely gonna come out of this and it surely has.
Afterwards I had a meeting with my mum, Quintin,
he'd advise me to go to university because
it will give me the best shot to work in the financial services.
I'll never forget the one thing I heard that still resonates with me now,
which was, "If you want to see different results,
you have to come out of your comfort zone and see something different."
Even on my internship, there were 9,000 applicants,
115 of us got it, only three black people.
On my floor right now I'm the only black person
on that floor. So it is hard, I understand where you're coming from.
So when you see a black person you're like,
We just need to be friends, we just need to be friends.
In the corporate sector, I'm a minority and I won't hide it,
I'm a minority like even where I work, there is diversity but
like in every corporate environment I've been to,
it can be a lot better.
So I guess playing the game for me is just
adapting to the surroundings around me,
I wouldn't say it's conforming but just adapting to
the surroundings around me so that you can,
I guess make the biggest impact to make
the biggest difference that you can.
I think, in any hyper-competitive environment where
you are a minority. You have to play the game
to a higher level in order to prevail,
because you are educating people to overcome
their ignorance and prejudices.
And those prejudices exist. We wish they didn't but they do.
And so, where they exist, I think it's incumbent upon all of us,
both those of us who are lucky enough to be in the majority
and those who are in the minority but have an opportunity
to prove the naysayers wrong
and to set an example to the next generation
that makes this a more equal society. We see it all around us
and the more people like Reggie there are,
the faster we will get to the right place.
I would say,
embrace the rejections, because I got a lot of nos
even in the working world
even to the build up of the working world.
I guess they make for a better story
and through that, you are just going to be able to
inspire and help a lot more people.
I would say don't take the nos as gospel,
use it, and embrace it,
use it as like the petrol for you to get through,
to where ever you need to be.