I look back at those moments now and just think to myself that was literally all I was ever going to be. I thought I'd just show you this picture of a photo album from back then. I lived, breathed, and dreamt about football. It was my everything. It was the thing that I threw every little bit of energy into. Believe it or not I never actually dreamt of being an estate agent.

When I look back on my childhood, those days of going to school, playing in playgrounds, and everything else, I see I never thought, ‘I’m going to go and be an estate agent for 28 years.’ No way, right? It was football.

I got on the ladder of training and playing. I was at the Peterborough United School of Excellence, and I had England trials when I was about 14 years of age. I was at Leeds, I had trials at Leicester, and all these different lovely places. It was a pretty cool time, looking back. I'm not going to lie, it was a really interesting journey.

When I look back at some of my decision making when I was like 15, I see where things started to go wrong. I remember I was training with Cambridge United when I got poached by Peterborough United. My rationale for why I went from Cambridge United to Peterborough United was basically because Peterborough was easier to get to, there were a couple of lads that I knew, there was a coach that I knew. It just seemed like a really easy decision at the time.

When I was playing at Cambridge United, actually, I was playing some of my best football at a younger age. But I thought it would be easier to join Peterborough United and go down that particular road. That was actually quite a pivotal decision to be honest. When I was at Cambridge United, I was playing with a lot of lads who I look back on years down the line who ended up playing first team football. They were pushing me and I was better for it, but I chose to leave.

I made my decision based on comfort. I suppose when you're that sort of age, you don't really know how to think and figure out what's the right thing for you. If I was to go back now, what would I have done differently? I’d have wanted to stay outside of my comfort zone. I know now that when I slipped into my comfort zone, I slipped backwards in my learning and my ability.

Not long after joining Peterborough, in my first game against Norwich City, I remember breaking a bone in my foot. I was injured, and it all started to kind of go wrong at that point. I had a pretty crap first year as an apprentice, started mixing with the wrong crowds, probably, outside of football. I was enjoying what I'd consider to be another life.

I took my eye off of the game, and it really did affect my chances of progression. I always remember it was about March time and I got tapped up by somebody who was connected to Rushden and Diamonds. A few little promises were made, and on the back of a few promises, I ended up going to my gaffer and the head honcho at Peterborough United and asking if I could get a decision as to whether I was going to get a pro contract.

I always remember that it was a straightforward answer: “No, we're not giving out decisions right now. If you don't want to wait you have to go.” And I ended up leaving.

I remember walking out of there. I hadn't even told my mum and dad – they didn't know their son was just about to walk out on his football career, but I did. I walked out.

I walked down the road towards the train station, and I was thinking ‘What the fuck have I done?’

The next thing you know I was in labouring jobs. I was on building sites. I was at power stations. I was in the trenches. I was carrying crap around sites. All of a sudden my identity just completely shifted and disappeared. I felt like I was lost.

Around this time my brother Andy passed away very suddenly. He died of meningitis – which is why I've raised a fair amount of money for meningitis over the years. Can you imagine what this is like for a young man of, I don't know, 19?

I was standing in a hospital in London, and then next thing you know I'm in a room with the doctors, with my mum and dad being given a decision to turn off my brother's life support machine.

I was just feeling completely desperate and lost, not really knowing what the hell I'm doing. What am I supposed to do? How the hell do you deal with this shit? How do you deal with being asked to be involved in making a decision to turn off your own brother's life support machine?

I think my life spiralled pretty much at that point. You know, things just seemed to keep going wrong. It was almost like why me? I found myself feeling really lonely and started turning to things like drugs and alcohol and social circles and pushing myself outside of my values.

It was shortly after that that I started learning to drive. I was feeling so lost. I didn't really know what I wanted to do when my mum cut out a newspaper advert. She said, “Look, there's a trainee estate agent job. Your uncle Philip used to work for Harrods Estate Agents. You'll be really good at it. Really good at it. You should go and do it.”

I just remember thinking to myself ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. It says you need a driving licence, some sales experience, and I want none of those things.’ I was really in this mode of feeling sorry for myself and being a real victim not just to all of the things that had happened which were outside of my control, but some that were inside my control, too. I was so focused on negativity and just feeling really sorry for myself. But it was my mum that said, “Just go and ask. You know you don't know.”

I remember coming away from the house after that conversation with my mum and walking into the town, because obviously I didn't drive. I walked to the estate agents in the town and was greeted by a very enthusiastic and energised guy. That was until he realised I wasn't necessarily going to buy a house.

I inquired about the job and sat down in front of the manager. The manager said, “Why do you want to apply to be an estate agent? You don't have a driving licence.” And I just said, “I love helping people.” It was almost like that moment was a lifeline, you know?

I look back now and think, 28 years later I'm here helping estate agents learn how to scale their careers and their abilities. I help them achieve things in their life which are probably unimaginable for them before we work together.

When I look back on myself then – after three interviews and getting the job and everything else, I suddenly realised I had the skills and passion to do something again. I loved helping people. I loved the recognition of helping people. And I had a bit of competitiveness about me. So being an estate agent in a corporate environment where you were encouraged to be quite competitive fit.

I went from feeling sorry for myself to finding something to focus on. I was able to see that the job really was all about the things that I value the most: recognition, feeling passionate about helping people, and actually competing to help people. I could really be there for people, relating to them, connecting, and building relationships. It seemed to come quite naturally – a bit like football did early in my career.

But you know I’d lost that career, I’d lost my brother, I’d lost a lot of things in a short period of time. My mindset when it was in a negative state seemed to just draw more of the sort of negativity and those shitty energies around me. It was only when I took this step of getting this opportunity to be a trainee estate agent that a new light at the end of a very long tunnel began to appear.

It was at that point when I started to think to myself, ‘I can do this. This is a career’. I realised I could get into it, and I could enjoy it. Now, I use that moment when I look at the current crises that we face in our industry and the economic crises that you face as a business owner.

We have to make big decisions and have really dark days, dark moments, and challenges. But I know from having got through all of this early on that if I take these challenges on, if I embrace these challenges, I'm only going to get better, stronger, clearer. I'm only going to be able to help even more people when I move forward from these challenges.

Maybe I'll write a book one day about the challenges that I've had just in recent years. Because of my past, I've been able to deal with them with resilience and understanding.