Page 3 - Future Leaders 2018-2019

FOREWORD

A WORD FROM

THE EDITOR

nd… here we are 10 years in! Wow! I kind of feel like Biggie Smalls right now
when he said, “you never thought that Future Leaders would take it this far?”
A Well, he didn’t actually say ‘Future Leaders’, but you get where I’m going, right?
Or, to bring it into 2018: Future Leaders is “doing just ne” – shout out to Not3s!
Yes we are! And it feels really good to have reached this milestone! Looking back on all
the young people we have interacted with and pro led, and many more who have read
and been inspired by this publication, makes every bit
of time and e ort that went into reaching this
point more than worth it.
When thinking about what I would say this
year, I realised that when you put together
something like this and make this kind of
a prediction – that someone is a ‘Future
Leader’ – you could actually be setting
yourself up for a fall. I mean, how do
you know if someone is going to live up
to that, right? Well, of course you don’t,
but the beauty of this initiative is that
every single person is already that. Just by
being a role model to others means they are
blazing a path for them to follow.
When I was younger, there were people I read
about in magazines who inspired me and helped
push me to pursue my dreams. So, I still get totally ‘gassed’ (in my mind, of course, to
maintain my ‘cool editor’ exterior) when a young person arrives at their Future Leaders
interview and says: “I saw this magazine in my sixth form, and I told myself I was going
to be in it one day” or “Being in Future Leaders changed my life”. A whole life changed
by this magazine? Really? And, I’ve heard that countless times. Surely, there is no better
motivation to carry on doing what we do.
I could never have imagined that this magazine would do for others what other
magazines did for me when I was younger. But I believe that Future Leaders does it even
better. A lot of the people I read about in my youth were celebrities or people who were
famous – nothing wrong with that, but social media and technology have made it so we
can hear about the accomplishments of everyday people who grew up down the road
from us, in our boroughs, estates and ‘ends’, whose background is a lot like ours, which
means we can relate to them on a deeper level. That’s what makes success and achieving
goals a reality to a lot more people. Future Leaders provides countless tried and tested
ways of how you can set yourself up for success and caters for a range of ambitions.
So to sign o , I will say, “Happy 10th birthday, Future Leaders!” And to every single person
who has featured, read and supported, thank you so much for being part of our
wonderful journey so far!

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