Slow starter at Ghanaian secondary school
When I was 12 dad’s work as an infrastructure planner took the whole family to Ghana for four and a half years. One day it was mentioned that the move was a possibility and then all of a sudden we found ourselves hit by a wall of heat as we got off the BA plane at Kotoko International Airport in Accra. It was hot. I can only ever remember wearing shorts in Ghana from that day onwards.
Mum always assured the family that it would be a fantastic experience. At the time living in Ghana became the normal way of life for me, although on reflection she was right.
Entry into Ghana International School required an English and a mathematics exam. I was to find out that the school loved putting students through exams and I did not get off to the best start. Although I achieved more than 70% in the English exam, I got less than 40% in mathematics.
The low mark ensured my first weeks at school were spent staying late for remedial mathematics classes, however, just like building up towers of coins was a competition, so was school. I ended up doing ok at school because I was determined to do better than my classmates - it was another competition.
Despite my poor start in mathematics and those initial remedial classes I was invited by the school to take my mathematics GCE O Level a year early. I got an A.
(Written January 1st 2009. Republished from Tim's personal blog on startups & small businesses)
