Taking Responsibility For Others
His rapid journey took him from advertising sales manager at 18 to running his own advertising agency at 19, before becoming a social entrepreneur overseeing projects in South Africa and Tanzania at 22.
David went straight into advertising after leaving school, deciding against further study. “I felt I could get more accomplished in four years in the world rather than staying in university studying it,” he says. “I have always wanted to get out there and do it.”
He shot up the ranks and became the agency’s sales manager within 6 months. He then set up his own advertising agency from his bedroom at his parents’ house, and three year’s later sold his stake in the company at 21 years old. Despite his massive success in the world of advertising, David would eventually find working in this field less and less rewarding. He has no regrets over selling the business and moving into social enterprise instead.
“In the closing months before the sale of the business, the appeal of selling and managing advertising space was lost on me,” David says. “I love making people excited about things (that’s pretty much all I can do), but the only thing I feel that I can commit to wholeheartedly is a cause that is unquestionable in its value. That, for me, is trying to address the issues that face my generation. In a global village I can’t see any problem that does not involve my neighbour, therefore it is my problem too.”
In June 2008 David set up a social enterprise in Cape Town that aims to provide employment, training and computer skills internships. He is also one of a team of young entrepreneurs and charity directors developing a project aiming to put computers into every secondary school in Tanzania. The NoPC project is also supported by David’s fellow Make Your Mark Ambassador Robert Wilson.
Closer to home, David runs a tutoring agency based in Surrey called Teach Me 2. Teach Me 2 aims to tailor tutoring to suit the individual and increase their pupils’ confidence and motivation as well as boosting their grades. David hopes that this venture will widen the access to premium teaching that might not otherwise be available.
David’s driving force through all this is his faith, and he feels a great personal responsibility to care for others in any way he can. “I am only young but there is much I can do,” he says.
On Enterprise 
