Franchising Enabled School Dropout To Get Motoring

Times Online:

Joseph Yussef (photo) was dyslexic and left school at 15, fearing he wouldn’t get the qualifications to succeed academically. He decided to learn about business so that one day he could start a venture of his own.

Suffering from dyslexia at a time when the condition was not fully recognised made school life difficult. ‘What tends to happen is that you are in a class with kids of a far lower ability than you. It is frustrating and, unless you are academic, you don’t get the opportunities,’ said Yussuf.

His parents had come to Britain from Cyprus after the second world war and he and his brothers were brought up in Peckham, south London, with little money to spare. His father worked in a factory.

So aiming to become an entrepreneur was a radical departure for Yussuf. ‘My father’s family are quite academic, but they were never able to cope with failure,’ he said. ‘I think that if you are used to failure then you become conditioned and just pick yourself up and have another go.’ Read on.