Hi, I am sure you are wondering who Chris Catt is and why you should listen to me.
As a keen cycle enthusiast and intrepid scuba diver who also lives with a long-term eye condition, things have not always been as they are now.
In my ‘live’ events I use my own story to illustrate how I transformed my life from DEPENDENCE upon a career in the supported employment field that I loathed to breaking free and becoming an Enabled Entrepreneur and now teaching this as part of Enabled Life because I have learned how to become INTRA-DEPENDNET.
It’s early 2008 and we can hear this shrill voice:
“Mr Catt, I have read the notes about the events of the night before and they are not good. I have also been looking back and see this is not the first or second occasion that we have had to have this talk. What I need to know is are you a danger to yourself and others, what happened last night is serious”.
People don’t try to set fire to where they work. It’s fortunate for you that you didn’t want to hurt anyone”.
Dr Officious is stood reading notes on her computer. Her glasses have slid to the end of her nose. She’s a lady who it is fair to say has lived life, seen it done it and bought the T-shirt.
“Have you started taking the Diazepam?”
“Yes Doctor”.
“You have a choice Mr Catt. If you don’t either find a different job or leave, the job will kill you. There might not be a next time. I am signing you off with Stress”.
“How can you sit there and say I have a choice. I’ve got a young family, a massive mortgage. I can’t see any way out of this”.
“Be that as it may Mr Catt, you will find yourself of little use to your family if you are imprisoned, or even worse, dead!”
I mean let’s face it, we’ve all had times in our lives where we have felt DEPENDENT upon those things. Perhaps you feel your DEPENDENT on friends and family, what you are getting from the Government. Potentially you are feeling DEPENDENT upon that job. And that’s making you feel like you have no choices in life. You might feel stuck, not able to move forward, and not do the things you want, with the people you want and enjoy the life that everyone else is enjoying.
So, what should I do, what would you do?
Fast forward, did I leave? Well to be honest, not straightaway. I had to work on my Life Plan first.
In 2012, I took what some would call decisive action, others may say was fool hardy.
I started to work on developing an Enabled Mindset, focusing on business skills. You know like Money, Planning, Marketing, etc. skills that I didn’t have and had to find books, courses and people to help me. I needed to find an amazing accountant, lawyer, financier and coach, the magic quartet that will help me build a secure and profitable company.
I realised that without me and my wife working and earning any money, the family’s finances were suffering. However, I knew I could overcome these money worries by utilising the expertise and knowledge I had of the Welfare to Work Systems.
Although the greatest challenge was learning how to actually get and keep customers not by some voodoo magic, by learning the psychology of how to attract them and then delivering exceptional results by serving them with all the skills and experience that I have.
So, in 2012 I launched my first business. I was so happy when I had cracked the code of who I should be working with and loved making such a difference and getting paid for it was a bonus.
And in 2015 I was amazingly humbled that I won The International Coaching Awards and runner up the following year.
And if that’s not enough, In November 2019 I was truly grateful to be mentioned as one of the top 100 most Influential People with a Disability in the UK. Selected by other People with a Disability, people like you.
Yet the thing I am most proud about is helping People with Disabilities to become INDEPENDENT business owners and Enabled Entrepreneurs.
I successfully moved from DEPENDENT on job to being an INDEPENDENT business owner.
I work with many other great businesses because I recognize I don’t have all the skills so I can be INTERDEPENDENT because I don’t need to do everything myself.
And now I am INTRADEPENDENT as I help other enabled entrepreneurs successfully navigate a similar path from dependency. It’s not because I’m anything special, yet the skills I learned are.
So, are you going to grab the CONTROLS of your life or are you going to sit back and let someone else dictate what you watch and press the buttons?