Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #875 Failed at School, Successful at Life: Ian Steel

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#875 Failed at School, Successful at Life: Ian Steel · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families Podcast.
0:05
Speaker 2: It's the podcast for.
0:07
Speaker 3: The time poor parent who just wants answers Now.
0:10
Speaker 1: I love what we get to do on the Happy
0:12
Speaker 1: Families Podcast, talking to fascinating people who have done amazing things.
0:16
Speaker 1: All this week on the Happy Families Podcast, Well, Kylie's
0:19
Speaker 1: going to take a week off and I'm having a
0:20
Speaker 1: chat with people who have stories to tell about how
0:23
Speaker 1: life turned out even if school wasn't the most successful
0:27
Speaker 1: experience for them. The reason that we're doing this is
0:30
Speaker 1: because year twelve, students around the country either are sitting
0:33
Speaker 1: or are about to sit their exams. Depends on which
0:36
Speaker 1: state you're in as to whether or not the kids
0:37
Speaker 1: are doing it right now or not. My guest today,
0:40
Speaker 1: first guest of the week. I can't wait to introduce
0:43
Speaker 1: you to him. His name is Ian Steele. He's from Adelaide,
0:47
Speaker 1: the founder of South Australian charity Kickstart for Kids, also
0:52
Speaker 1: a business owner, dad to four kids, including one foster child. Ian,
0:56
Speaker 1: great to have you on the podcast, Thanks.
0:57
Speaker 3: For joining me, Thanks for having me pleasure.
1:00
Speaker 1: I also have got to mention Australia Day Citizen of
1:03
Speaker 1: the Year twenty nineteen. This is a pretty fancy pants Bio.
1:07
Speaker 1: We're kicking off with some awesome stuff, and because this
1:11
Speaker 1: week is all about school, I'm particularly interested in what
1:16
Speaker 1: kind of a student you were. Did you gravitate to
1:19
Speaker 1: a particular subject where you were a knockout student who
1:23
Speaker 1: just knew how to get everything right?
1:24
Speaker 2: What was school like for you?
1:26
Speaker 3: Well, I gravitated to getting out of school as quickly
1:30
Speaker 3: as I could. To be honest, school was not a
1:33
Speaker 3: big part of my life. I reckon, you know, I
1:37
Speaker 3: reckon as you get older and you become a father,
1:40
Speaker 3: school is for some people, and school isn't for others.
1:43
Speaker 3: And school certainly wasn't for me. And you know, I
1:48
Speaker 3: had a lot of close mates and it wasn't really
1:50
Speaker 3: for them either. I think boys are certainly different than girls,
1:55
Speaker 3: and boys grow up later in life. But yeah, look,
2:00
Speaker 3: I was terrible at school. I couldn't wait to get
2:03
Speaker 3: out of there. I sort of took the first job
2:05
Speaker 3: I could. But in saying that, ever since then, I
2:11
Speaker 3: have been trying to better myself and I've got to
2:15
Speaker 3: say it is hard without an education.
2:19
Speaker 1: So I want to get to that in just a second.
2:21
Speaker 1: A couple more questions about your schooling experience. Did you
2:26
Speaker 1: finish your twelve No where did you drop out and
2:30
Speaker 1: what did you do when you left?
2:34
Speaker 3: Well, I dropped out, you know, I struggled through to
2:37
Speaker 3: year eleven. I guess I dropped out. I dropped out
2:39
Speaker 3: in year eleven, started a year eleven or halfway through
2:42
Speaker 3: year eleven, I guess, And I went into a like
2:46
Speaker 3: they called it a trainee will buy right at the time,
2:49
Speaker 3: it was a trainee will buy Yes. So basically I
2:52
Speaker 3: was a laborer, you know, I was the youngest young
2:54
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, look, look, it's it's not a
2:57
Speaker 3: good thing joining the workforce at a really young age.
2:59
Speaker 3: You know. I went in, I went to work, and
3:01
Speaker 3: I basically got bullied for two or three years. I
3:04
Speaker 3: can distinctly remember, you know, I would have been eighteen.
3:08
Speaker 3: You know. I was cheeky, rude, probably pretty full of
3:15
Speaker 3: myself and used to get stuck into the older blokes.
3:18
Speaker 3: And one bloke turned around and builted me sort of
3:21
Speaker 3: three times at one stage. And that's how it is.
3:25
Speaker 3: Back in the day when you left school early, there
3:27
Speaker 3: were no there's no work safe or anything like that.
3:31
Speaker 3: It was tough.
3:34
Speaker 2: Why was school so hard for you?
3:36
Speaker 3: Well, I reckon, I had a you know, I mean,
3:38
Speaker 3: like these days, ADHD is diagnosed, right, but back in
3:43
Speaker 3: the day, ADHD certainly wasn't diagnosed. And I've got ADHD.
3:47
Speaker 3: You know, I can't sit still, I can't concentrate, and
3:50
Speaker 3: sitting sitting, you know, in a classroom for that long
3:55
Speaker 3: just just didn't suit me. And you know, also, my
3:57
Speaker 3: parents split up when I was about fifteen, and you know,
4:03
Speaker 3: that was pretty tough. And you know, my mum didn't
4:06
Speaker 3: have a lot of money, and you know, she was
4:08
Speaker 3: always at me to go and get a job help
4:11
Speaker 3: the family.
4:13
Speaker 1: So and as you're going through school, you're struggling, families
4:16
Speaker 1: kind of falling apart a little bit. You're inattentive and
4:20
Speaker 1: kind of active. What got you as far as halfway
4:22
Speaker 1: through year eleven? Like, how did you manage to stay
4:25
Speaker 1: at school that long? Because it sounds like it was
4:27
Speaker 1: a really really big challenge.
4:29
Speaker 3: It was I had to get a job. You know
4:31
Speaker 3: that I couldn't leave without a job because we certainly
4:34
Speaker 3: didn't have any money in the family. So and you know,
4:37
Speaker 3: I needed to contribute to you. I think I earned
4:41
Speaker 3: ninety bucks when I first got Jim and I go
4:43
Speaker 3: thirty dollars to my mum every week. So, yeah, I
4:47
Speaker 3: needed to get a job and before I left, so.
4:50
Speaker 1: You're going to get this job. And like you said,
4:52
Speaker 1: it's tough. You're young, you're immature. You probably got a
4:55
Speaker 1: little bit too big ahead on those little shoulders. And
4:58
Speaker 1: I mean the research that's just been published in the
5:01
Speaker 1: last couple of months from the federal government shows that
5:04
Speaker 1: young people who go into trades and apprenticeships and traineeships
5:08
Speaker 1: massive dropout rate, Like more than fifty percent of them
5:11
Speaker 1: drop out without completing any kind of qualification, any kind
5:14
Speaker 1: of apprenticeship, any kind of trade. Did you hang tight
5:19
Speaker 1: with that first job or did you kind of get
5:22
Speaker 1: on the job of Mary go around trying a range
5:25
Speaker 1: of things.
5:25
Speaker 2: How long did you stay port And no.
5:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I stared. I stayed there for four years. Yeah, well,
5:31
Speaker 3: and and then I went Then I went into a trade.
5:33
Speaker 3: So you know, when I was when I was young,
5:36
Speaker 3: the trades weren't as prolific as they are now. Otherwise
5:41
Speaker 3: I would have probably got into a trade straight away.
5:44
Speaker 3: But yeah, so I stayed there for four years and
5:47
Speaker 3: then went into a trade after that.
5:49
Speaker 1: As I listened to the story in the way you're
5:51
Speaker 1: telling it, it certainly sounds like the world is not
5:54
Speaker 1: quite as I want to say easy, but that doesn't
5:57
Speaker 1: feel like the right word. But the world feels like
6:00
Speaker 1: it feels like there are more options if you've done
6:02
Speaker 1: well at school, if you've got maybe that set of
6:04
Speaker 1: grades that can set you up for tertiary education. Would
6:07
Speaker 1: you agree with that or do you think that the
6:09
Speaker 1: eighteen year older and still did actually make the right
6:11
Speaker 1: choice doing the things that you did.
6:15
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I've got two boys of my own who
6:19
Speaker 3: are dyslexic and have ADHD school. They hate school, but
6:26
Speaker 3: I got them through to year twelve. I've got one
6:28
Speaker 3: throe to year twelve. I've got one who now is
6:31
Speaker 3: sixteen in year ten or nearly seventeen in year ten.
6:35
Speaker 3: It's important to start at school. I really believe it's
6:37
Speaker 3: important to start at school, not only for the options
6:42
Speaker 3: you might have later in life, but for your community,
6:45
Speaker 3: right for your friends. I mean, you know, you don't
6:48
Speaker 3: realize until you've left school that school is the only
6:53
Speaker 3: place you see your friends every day without trying. As
6:56
Speaker 3: soon as you leave school, leave you lose that community
6:59
Speaker 3: and that ship straight away. Look, if I think that
7:04
Speaker 3: in a perfect world, you know, I think education is
7:08
Speaker 3: a great thing. And in my charity, it's all about education.
7:12
Speaker 3: It's all about trying to get these kids through to
7:15
Speaker 3: the end of year twelve so that can become a
7:17
Speaker 3: valuable member of the community and a valuable employee.
7:21
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the charity, but just as
7:24
Speaker 1: a quick aside before we step into that. Along the way,
7:27
Speaker 1: as you've got that trade and kept on building and developing.
7:33
Speaker 1: You've owned a pub, you've run a fruit and bedshop,
7:35
Speaker 1: You've had a construction business, you've sold a widget business.
7:38
Speaker 1: I mean, you keep on developing these ideas, and on
7:41
Speaker 1: top of all of it, with with no with no
7:45
Speaker 1: high school education, on top of all of it, you've
7:47
Speaker 1: gone and started this, this this charity. Tell me about
7:52
Speaker 1: how Kickstart for Kids came about.
7:56
Speaker 3: I will, well, well, let's let's just go back to
7:58
Speaker 3: my to my story. So you know, so I left
8:02
Speaker 3: school completely uneducated, right, and I've always had a burning
8:08
Speaker 3: desire to be better than what I was. So every
8:13
Speaker 3: move I've made, you know, I might have bought a
8:15
Speaker 3: business and I've sold it, but every time I you know,
8:19
Speaker 3: little fruit and beached business, I sold that, they went
8:20
Speaker 3: into a pub, sold that went into something. So it
8:23
Speaker 3: gets bigger and bigger and bigger right as we go.
8:27
Speaker 3: If you don't get an education, that is really what
8:29
Speaker 3: you have to do. So if you don't get a
8:32
Speaker 3: tersiary education, you've really got to if you really want
8:35
Speaker 3: to make it in this world. Unfortunately, you've got to
8:37
Speaker 3: own your own business. So, you know, that's what I did,
8:39
Speaker 3: and I sort of realized that I didn't. I didn't
8:41
Speaker 3: have an education, so I had to So I had
8:44
Speaker 3: to build businesses up and become successful and then sell them,
8:48
Speaker 3: and then you build another one up and sell them
8:50
Speaker 3: and that. Look, that's worked pretty well for me, but
8:53
Speaker 3: kicks out for kids out of that come about that
8:55
Speaker 3: That basically came about from doing some men touring in
9:01
Speaker 3: a you know, from the education department. I've always been
9:03
Speaker 3: interested in helping young kids and coaching footy and whatever,
9:07
Speaker 3: and I was just doing some work in a lower
9:10
Speaker 3: social school and just noticed that the behavioral difference was
9:15
Speaker 3: massive between those kids in that school and where my
9:18
Speaker 3: kids went to school. And just went on from there
9:20
Speaker 3: and obviously then found out about all these disadvantaged kids
9:24
Speaker 3: and the horrific social circumstances they were living with. And
9:29
Speaker 3: it's all about breaking the cycle of unemployment and poverty,
9:37
Speaker 3: and you only can do that through education. So we
9:41
Speaker 3: have to keep the kids at school. So everything that
9:43
Speaker 3: we run, the breakfast program, a lunch program, mentoring, a
9:48
Speaker 3: period poverty program, a vacation camp program, is all about
9:52
Speaker 3: well being and keeping the kids at school so they
9:54
Speaker 3: can get educated and finish school.
9:58
Speaker 1: So that the aims of the charity. But how did
10:03
Speaker 1: it actually start? So you're doing this work in this
10:06
Speaker 1: school with the Department of Education, and you noticed that
10:08
Speaker 1: there are behavioral differences in the two places. But what then,
10:12
Speaker 1: I mean, the way you tell the story at this point,
10:14
Speaker 1: it sounds like you saw a need and all of
10:16
Speaker 1: a sudden, you've created a charity that's aimed at helping
10:20
Speaker 1: kids get through school. But what does that look like?
10:22
Speaker 1: And what did it look like at the very start
10:24
Speaker 1: when you saw the need?
10:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, I'm pretty buzzy about it. You're right. But yeah,
10:31
Speaker 3: so I ad a construction business at the time, a
10:34
Speaker 3: building business. I couldn't take all those kids at home,
10:36
Speaker 3: but I realized they were all starving, so they couldn't.
10:39
Speaker 3: They didn't have anything to wheat, right, And as a
10:44
Speaker 3: young father, I knew how unmanageable my kids were when
10:48
Speaker 3: they were hungry. That's what these kids were portraying. So
10:51
Speaker 3: I decided to how are we going to get into school,
10:54
Speaker 3: how are we going to get into school on time?
10:56
Speaker 3: And how are we going to make them happy? So
10:59
Speaker 3: they starting to pass rain, Well, let's give them some
11:01
Speaker 3: breakfast and give them some lunch. So I went down
11:04
Speaker 3: to the shopping center and filled out the back of
11:06
Speaker 3: my ute with as much product as I could and
11:10
Speaker 3: set up a breakfast program and offer went from there. Really,
11:16
Speaker 3: the reason I really.
11:17
Speaker 1: Want to drill down onto this is because this people
11:20
Speaker 1: see this need all the time, right Like, you show
11:23
Speaker 1: up at the school or you show up at whatever
11:24
Speaker 1: it is, and you can see that there's need, that
11:26
Speaker 1: there's disadvantage of that, there's some challenge or whatever. But
11:30
Speaker 1: then you've not only seen that there's a need, you've
11:32
Speaker 1: decided to go and round up a whole lot of food,
11:34
Speaker 1: ask for a whole lot of donations, and then you've
11:37
Speaker 1: literally just chucked it in the back of the ute
11:39
Speaker 1: and driven to the school and said, hey, I've got
11:41
Speaker 1: breakfast kids.
11:43
Speaker 3: Basically, that's how it happened. It's a bit more complicated
11:46
Speaker 3: than that, but that's certainly how the first one started,
11:49
Speaker 3: and you know, I did that before work, you know,
11:53
Speaker 3: for ten years with my family and just went out
11:56
Speaker 3: and ran breakfast programs and took kids as much food
11:58
Speaker 3: as we could. See. The media got hold of it
12:01
Speaker 3: and then at for you know, it just sort of
12:03
Speaker 3: snowboard and grew from there. But yeah, I saw a
12:08
Speaker 3: need and I did something about it. We all say
12:12
Speaker 3: that we're going to do this, and we're going to
12:14
Speaker 3: do that, we don't necessarily go out and do it.
12:18
Speaker 3: I reckon blokes are renowned for that, you know, whether
12:22
Speaker 3: it be going for a run or not having a
12:25
Speaker 3: beer or you know, whatever it is. We're renowned for
12:28
Speaker 3: saying stuff and not doing that. And I was certainly
12:29
Speaker 3: renowned for it. But this rock my world. I had
12:32
Speaker 3: to do something about it, and off we went.
12:35
Speaker 1: So what I want to ask you is were you
12:36
Speaker 1: always that kid, like when you were that fifteen sixteen
12:39
Speaker 1: year old kid in a really nice Adelaide school. Were
12:44
Speaker 1: you mindful of other people and their needs? Were you
12:46
Speaker 1: involved in charity and service and volunteering when you were
12:49
Speaker 1: a kid?
12:51
Speaker 2: Is that who you've always been? No?
12:53
Speaker 3: No, no, no, not at all. And look, rest related
12:57
Speaker 3: to your podcast here about education and whether you need
13:00
Speaker 3: education or Look, I think we all need life skills, right.
13:05
Speaker 3: And I was the most hedonistic, selfish sixteen seventeen, eighteen
13:10
Speaker 3: year old you could ever imagine, you know, I was
13:12
Speaker 3: only worried about myself and my three or four close
13:16
Speaker 3: mates and where an xper was coming from and what
13:19
Speaker 3: we were doing on the weekend. But blokes, males, boys, mate,
13:25
Speaker 3: we don't grow up until we're late twenties, really mid twenties.
13:30
Speaker 2: And some might say a little later, just between you
13:32
Speaker 2: and me, and some might say.
13:34
Speaker 3: Later, absolutely even later. And mums and dads get so
13:38
Speaker 3: wrapped up in exactly what you're talking about. Oh you know, exams,
13:43
Speaker 3: Oh you know, how are they going to go? You're
13:46
Speaker 3: not studying enough, You're not doing this, you're not doing that.
13:49
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, exams mean nothing, right.
13:52
Speaker 3: I believe if you can get broody year twelve, right,
13:56
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter what happens in your exams, because what
14:00
Speaker 3: you do when you leave school, I absolutely guarantee you're
14:03
Speaker 3: not going to be doing it when you're twenty eight
14:06
Speaker 3: or thirty two or thirty five. We all grow up,
14:10
Speaker 3: and we all change our ideas and our ideals and
14:13
Speaker 3: our beliefs, and we get better as we mature, and
14:20
Speaker 3: we finally find out what we're good at and what
14:22
Speaker 3: we want to do when we mature.
14:24
Speaker 1: I've got to I've just got to share this with you.
14:27
Speaker 1: I think it will resonate so strongly when I'm talking
14:30
Speaker 1: about topics like this in schools and in organizations around
14:34
Speaker 1: the country. Doing the various talks that I give, I
14:38
Speaker 1: always ask this question. I'll ask parents to please put
14:41
Speaker 1: up their hand nice and high if they are still
14:43
Speaker 1: doing today what they thought they'd be doing when they
14:47
Speaker 1: finished year twelve. And it's about about twenty percent of
14:52
Speaker 1: hands go up. The other eighty percent stay down. And
14:55
Speaker 1: then I say, okay, so if you had a plan
14:57
Speaker 1: and it didn't work out the way in doing something
14:59
Speaker 1: totally different, your hand and then literally eighty percent of
15:01
Speaker 1: hands go up. And I think the point that I'm
15:05
Speaker 1: hearing you make, and it's the one that I make
15:06
Speaker 1: as well, is we're putting all this pressure on our
15:09
Speaker 1: kids to get this result because the year twelve exams
15:12
Speaker 1: become this exclamation mark on your education. But your education
15:16
Speaker 1: in many ways, really starts out of school, doesn't it.
15:19
Speaker 3: Of course it does, and we all know whatever you
15:23
Speaker 3: achieve in that year twelve result can be overturned when
15:28
Speaker 3: you actually know what you want to do by going
15:30
Speaker 3: and applying for a different course at UNI. You know,
15:34
Speaker 3: I often speak to parents who are still parenting their
15:38
Speaker 3: nineteen year olds about not going to UNI. Like, these
15:42
Speaker 3: kids have been at school for the last eighteen years
15:45
Speaker 3: and their parents want them to go and jump into
15:48
Speaker 3: UNI the year after. Oh my god, please let them
15:51
Speaker 3: go and do whatever they want to do for four
15:53
Speaker 3: or five years and then maybe go to UNI. You'll
15:56
Speaker 3: get a higher education.
15:57
Speaker 2: So what do you do with your kids?
15:59
Speaker 1: You've got three of your own, and you've got to
16:00
Speaker 1: foster child who I presume you treated your own. Anyway,
16:02
Speaker 1: what's the conversation look like in your home when it
16:04
Speaker 1: comes to I mean, you've already mentioned that there's some
16:06
Speaker 1: additional needs and additional support necessary, But what's the conversation
16:11
Speaker 1: look like and sound like as your kids move into
16:13
Speaker 1: those later high school years.
16:16
Speaker 3: It's about being happy. You're not happy, then you're not
16:22
Speaker 3: being the best person you can be. So you know,
16:26
Speaker 3: obviously I've told you about my boys. If I can
16:29
Speaker 3: get my sixteen year old to get to year twelve,
16:32
Speaker 3: well that'll be fantastic. But if he's all and he
16:38
Speaker 3: he's just not happy at all, well then he goes
16:40
Speaker 3: and gets a trade to be happy. Right now. You know,
16:44
Speaker 3: my elder son who started a school based apprenticeship a
16:48
Speaker 3: week got him through to year twelve and then he
16:49
Speaker 3: started full time employment straight the year after my girls,
16:55
Speaker 3: and it's a lot different, right. Girls are more studious.
16:59
Speaker 3: So my girls they did all the things that they
17:01
Speaker 3: needed to get through to year twelve. One studied a
17:07
Speaker 3: little better than the other one, but they both got
17:09
Speaker 3: into nursing. But none of them they're not doing nursing.
17:12
Speaker 3: They're both having fun and they've got part time jobs
17:15
Speaker 3: and they are living their best life. They might go
17:18
Speaker 3: back to nursing next year. I'm sure at some stage
17:21
Speaker 3: they'll get sick of working part time jobs, but they
17:24
Speaker 3: will certainly, and they'll go back and go to UNI.
17:27
Speaker 3: But they just felt that they weren't going to be
17:29
Speaker 3: happy studying straight after year twelve.
17:32
Speaker 2: Ian, I've loved the conversation. Thank you so much for
17:35
Speaker 2: sharing your story.
17:37
Speaker 1: My understanding is that Kick Stuff Kids is now in
17:39
Speaker 1: over three hundred and sixty South Australian schools.
17:41
Speaker 2: Is that about right?
17:42
Speaker 3: That's all right. Sixty thousand breakfasts, ten thousand lunches, three
17:47
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty schools and a one thousand volunteers.
17:49
Speaker 2: It's amazing. It's amazing. Love your drive, love your passion,
17:53
Speaker 2: love your story. I think this is going to be
17:55
Speaker 2: so beneficial for so many parents. Thank you, Ian, Good.
17:58
Speaker 3: On you, mate, Thanks for the chat.
18:00
Speaker 1: That's father of four, Ian Steel, married to Georgie Adelaide,
18:04
Speaker 1: born and bred, went to one of the most prestigious
18:06
Speaker 1: schools in Adelaide picked up the Australia Day Citizen of
18:08
Speaker 1: the Year in twenty nineteen. The founder of Kickstart for Kids,
18:12
Speaker 1: business owner and just an incredible story about.
18:14
Speaker 2: A guy who didn't do so well at school.
18:16
Speaker 1: Obviously values education and knows how important it is, but
18:20
Speaker 1: highlights that there is so much more to life than what.
18:24
Speaker 2: You get on your year twelve exams.
18:28
Speaker 1: So good luck as you have your conversations with the
18:30
Speaker 1: kids about education and about the decisions that they're making,
18:33
Speaker 1: and particularly about how they're going to go with their
18:36
Speaker 1: year twelve exams. Tomorrow we have a chat with another
18:38
Speaker 1: fascinating guy. His name is Cam Barber. Cam has mentored CEOs,
18:43
Speaker 1: He has mentored movie Company's Fortune five hundred companies in
18:46
Speaker 1: the US. And for those who love the AFL, the
18:49
Speaker 1: Hawthorne Football Club and we're going to find out why
18:52
Speaker 1: he quit UNI on day one. All this week conversations
18:57
Speaker 1: about education and how what happened in year twelve may
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Speaker 1: or may not be the most important thing that can
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Speaker 1: ever happen in your kid's life. The Happy Families podcast
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Speaker 1: is produced by Justin Roland for Bridge Media. We have
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Speaker 1: Craig Bruce as our executive producer. For more information about
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Speaker 1: making your family happy, visitors at happy families dot com.
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Speaker 2: Today you