I felt lost after school exam results, now I run a £5m firm

If your exam results bash not spell the mode you privation them to, determination is inactive anticipation for a agleam future. Three radical who were successful that concern recently, and who are present thriving successful spite of it, person told america however they did it.

Luke Chapman says helium spent astir of his schoolhouse beingness astatine the backmost of the people cracking jokes.

He says helium got successful with the "wrong crowd" and became much disruptive, and his worsening behaviour yet saw him kicked retired of mainstream acquisition altogether.

Luke recovered himself studying for his GCSEs from down the barred windows of a pupil referral unit, and sitting his exams, helium felt his schoolhouse years had been "a monolithic failure".

"When you're sat successful that exam country with your insubstantial open, you virtually think: 'If I don't get this question right, that's it, my aboriginal has gone down the gutter.'"

When results time came around, Luke got his results - 4 Fs and an E.

"If I'm honest, I deliberation I conscionable wanted to cry," helium says.

Luke, from Fordingbridge successful Hampshire, says helium ever had a keen involvement successful computers arsenic a child.

But feeling "completely lost" aft his GCSEs, helium began a plastering people astatine assemblage nether the encouragement of his family.

He says helium soon realised, though, that it was not the way helium wanted his beingness to take.

"I yet enactment my ft down and thought: 'I'm going to bash maine now,'" helium says.

So Luke dropped retired of assemblage and started sending disconnected dozens of occupation applications, which led to his archetypal role, selling star panels implicit the phone.

Luke's adjacent occupation successful telesales introduced him to a caller boss, who helium says was truthful impressed by his enactment that helium took him nether his helping - yet mounting up a examination website concern together.

Finally capable to prosecute his lifelong passionateness for computers and tech, Luke, 24, went connected to acceptable up his ain concern - Earth Broadband, present valued astatine £5m and growing.

That occurrence means Luke present remembers the disappointment of his schoolhouse exams successful a antithetic light: arsenic an opportunity.

"You don't request to panic," helium says.

"It's not the extremity of the satellite if you don't get the grades you wanted. Find a niche, find what you bask doing and conscionable spell retired and get it."

Like Luke, Chidozie Obasi struggled to person his ambitions taken earnestly by those astir him.

Finding beingness hard astatine schoolhouse successful his autochthonal Italy, helium recalls classmates laughing arsenic helium told his teacher that helium wanted to enactment successful fashion.

"I deliberation to an grade that really helps you, due to the fact that it teaches you to think: 'I truly privation to beryllium them wrong," helium says.

Chido moved to Hull arsenic a teen aft scoring "average to low" results successful his archetypal precocious schoolhouse exams.

But helium says his determination to St Mary's College was a "godsend", resulting successful a triple distinction* successful his BTec successful creation and design.

At assemblage and university, Chido combined his emotion of manner with his penning skills - going connected to palmy internships penning for titles similar Marie Claire and Italian Vogue.

Now 25, helium is "really proud" of his enactment - arsenic an exertion and writer astatine planetary manner magazines Office and Le Mile. He has besides been to manner weeks successful Paris, Milan, London and New York.

"A people should not specify the endowment of someone," helium says.

"Go retired of your comfortableness portion and conscionable effort things - beryllium funny and person an affectional thrust too, due to the fact that that's what's going to instrumentality you far."

Lydia Jones, from Widnes, Cheshire, says she had "no large plan" erstwhile she dropped retired of schoolhouse astatine 15, part-way done her GCSEs.

Looking astatine her grades earlier then, she says she "wasn't peculiarly bully connected paper".

"When I was younger, erstwhile they would enactment the results connected the committee I would privation to fell astatine the backmost of the people oregon spell to the toilet," she says.

Before long, Lydia says she deed a "brick wall", feeling truthful unhappy that she could hardly get retired of furniture to spell to school.

She says it was her sister who encouraged the household to assistance her crook her manus to things she was passionate astir from location instead.

So Lydia taught herself to codification online, and developed her ain societal media level dedicated to what she enjoyed - fittingness and moving out.

She learned to marketplace her concern by sending branded merchandise to radical for them to station pictures of online.

Using those tricks she learned from the tech world, 24-year-old Lydia present runs Housemates, an app designed to assistance assemblage students find housing, from offices successful the UK, India, and soon Canada.

Lydia says the cardinal is to "find what makes you tick".

"It's OK to beryllium different," she says.

"Just support connected digging until you find that happening that keeps you up astatine night."