Ian Gilbert

After leaving the University of Durham in 1988 with a French degree and hepatitis from a year in Bordeaux, Ian embarked on what was known as a ‘Diploma in Entrepreneurial Management’ at the Durham University Business School. Part of this year involved a series of workshops, which included a session entitled ‘The Psychology of Success’. This was something that made him think – perhaps for the first time ever. Despite success throughout his academic career (O-levels, A grades at A-level, Head Boy, Shiniest Shoes 1981) he now began to realise that there was more to life than waiting to be told what to do and doing it well. Attitude, creativity, taking responsibility, genius, goal setting and much more – all the stuff that he had never been told before but was beginning to wish he had. More to the point, he began to formulate the idea of working with young people to take these ideas into schools around the country. As is the case with wishes and problems, what you focus on grows and he was soon on the quest to find out as much as he could about success, motivation, creativity, learning and a whole range of related topics. Meanwhile, back at work, the Diploma had also involved working in a management role on the docks in a Northern town where he seemed to be one of the few people with a tie, let alone a job. After deciding that management life was not for him he decided to get himself into the world of advertising, something he managed by knocking repeatedly on doors throughout Newcastle until they gave up and let him in. A couple of years spent writing advertising for clients including the National Garden Festival and Formica and then his career peaked with an advert in the Beano. After that he decided to move into teaching as a way of moving closer to his goal of working with young people to help them become more successful through improved thinking skills. With a national shortage of languages teachers, especially male languages teachers, especially male languages teachers under the age of 80, he not only had a job for life but also first-hand experience of working to bring out the potential of keen young minds or at least teach them how to buy cabbages in a foreign language. Whilst teaching he met a colleague in the staffroom who liked his ideas and helped him set up Independent Thinking Ltd – this was in 1993 and since then he has never looked back, apart from during the long school holidays when he has still been working.