Zack's Life.

Jeez, that was an adventure. Having all the police dogs in Manchester Piccadilly Station jump on me and then getting semi naked for all the police men. Lucky enough I walked away a free man!

Anyway, besides from the random inspection I’m home :)

I’m going to open this blog by saying times are tough. Why you may ask? Well, despite what the media says - as a country & in many cases as individuals we are still very deep in a financial mess. The country this year has seen some powerful changes which will make their way into the history books for sure.

For me, this year has been most certainly a year of reflection. When my relationship ended on the 29th of January 2010 my career seemed to get a massive injection of energy when I landed a really great position with Groupon. Although I was as I’d describe ‘broken’ by the previous events, the career really kept me going & through this I started a recovery & started to believe in myself again. 

I was with Groupon for several months and it was fantastic - working with a startup which had massive potential and massive investment it was certainly something I’ll always remain proud of my involvement in, a great sense of input into the building of such a fresh brand. Plus, during my time I got to pretty much live in hotels in London which allowed me to really escape from the problems I left in Manchester. 

Moving through now, leaving Groupon in the second quarter I started working with a big advertising agency based just outside of London. Again, it seemed to land on my door and felt like it was all a gift to help me recover and get back on my feet. I was given great responsibility and was initially project managing a rebrand - more great experience. During my time there, I relocated to Brighton & really came to life. Meeting new people and discovering myself in so many new ways - it was certainly a place I fell in love with and it was the perfect place to be during the summer months.

Then, revising Manchester on a scheduled weekend up north I was weighing up the idea of moving back after summer to enjoy city life once again. I heard it was University Clearing and I genuinely had little hopes of getting in - with the current changes in the world, getting into university through the normal method isn’t easy - never mind just showing up asking for a place a few weeks before.

Anyway, getting up bright and early - I went down to the University of Salford took a deep breath and filled the forms out. Then it was decision time… what course from the small list on clearing interested me. Naturally I would of chose Marketing, Psychology or Business - none of which was under clearing so it was new ground completely. I selected Law and then had to have an interview with the head of law admissions. His name was Simon, I’ll never forget - an older guy, quite tall and looked like he’d been teaching for years - but a nice guy completely. He went through some pretty standard questions and offered me an unconditional place. In my honest opinion, it was all fate - it really couldn’t of went any smoother. 

Okay, moving on through the year - obviously now knowing I was starting a law degree in September I had to shape the final few months around this. I relocated back to my old apartment in Manchester for a few months during which I had a blast with some old friends, had a couple of parties and really got back into the swing of city life. I then decided I wanted to jump into the student life with full swing… so I decided to move out of my apartment (where I lived alone) into a shared house in a student area of Manchester. One of my friends already lived there and it was an amazing modern family house - so I moved in.

September only meant one thing - University. Oh boy I guess it has been exactly how I expected it to be but in other ways a little different. Whether I choose to stay on this course is yet to be decided, going to run this year through and move to a southern university next year - hopefully going to get a course transfer too for Applied Psychology & Criminology. Law is an interested subject alright, but it really is all a little boring - still very traditional. 

Some of you may say - what a wasted year!? But in all honesty I think staying at University as long as possible is great. Now 22, after working for so many different companies for years… I learnt very quickly that working life is tough. Those earn mornings and late nights, the stresses of working with unreasonable people and being pushed to your limit - the stress isn’t worth it. I’m enjoying ‘student life’ and the freedom it brings - I’m going to make real use of the next few years. 

Now, it’s December. Just finished the first semester and will be returning home soon for Christmas. A few other things have happened this year which have made this year very memorable.

One of the biggest being my name change. It’s a shame to say but Big Brother doesn’t give you much credibility - it turns you into a character not a person. Professionally it has helped in various ways but the majority of the time it’s just got in the way, so I needed to assume a new alias for the future. Liam is now one of my middle names and I chose Zack because I thought it was a little different… plus my mum said it was her second name choice. 

Also, started a new company with one of my friends Max in November. Wallis & Young Ltd is all about creating change & redefining various norms. I’m sure you’ll see what I mean over the coming months as I blog about new projects, but it’s got alot of potential and alot of energy is going into the core ethos of everything we do. Watch this space for some exciting happenings.

I think I have covered the key areas. Of course, there is so much more - friends have been lost, friends have been found… I’m getting my confidence back & I have found myself… or the person I have always wanted to be.

I title 2010 as ‘the year of reflection & reinvention’ I guess this comes down to really thinking for hours on end about the past, learning some crucial lessons about life & reinventing myself - not just through alias but some of my core values have undergone some real changes. All in all, I’m a much happier person because of it. Still highly ambitious of course, but I guess a little more grounded and with alot more experience in hand.

Here is to 2011, I sure hope we have an exciting & successful year ahead. Have a great Christmas & I wish you all the best for 2011. 

Zack x

(Source: zackyoung)