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I wasn't lucky. I just never stopped.
I grew up on a council estate in London, seven minutes' drive from Buckingham Palace and a world away from it. I've been in a gang, been stabbed, been homeless, and grown up with a stutter. Now I speak for a living, on stages around the world.
Where I come from.
My dad is from Barbados and Grenada, my mum from Myanmar. I'm the second youngest of five, raised in a council flat with brown brick balconies and a lift people tagged within weeks of it being fixed. It was a proper community. It was also the place where, by fifteen, knives had stopped being props.
I was a quiet kid with a stutter and bad eczema, and I wanted to belong somewhere. The street gave me that. It gave me respect, excitement, money and a crew. It met every need I had, which is exactly why it's so hard to leave.
At seventeen I was robbed at knifepoint for £3.20. I snuck onto a bus, pulled my cap down so nobody would see me crying, and stared at a name scratched into the seat. I didn't know who I wanted to be. I knew exactly who I didn't want to be.
Leaving cost me. At eighteen I had two minutes to pack before climbing out of a window, and spent the next six months sleeping under a table in a shop attached to a mosque. I considered, honestly, whether anyone would notice if I wasn't around.
What turned it wasn't a miracle. It was one prayer a day, then clearing weeds nobody asked me to clear, then learning carpentry until I could fix the broken window above my bed.
“I thought I was working on the garden and on the wood. In fact, they were working on me.”
Then I did it again, on purpose.
I rebuilt through a Prince's Trust programme and a first business, then spent years as a personal trainer. It was a good job. But I knew I wasn't living up to what I could be, so with nothing forcing my hand, I reinvented again, towards the thing that scared me most: my own voice, on a stage.
In 2018 I won a Pride of Britain Award as The Prince's Trust Young Achiever of the Year. The news was delivered to me in person by HM King Charles III, then The Prince of Wales, at Clarence House. Since then I've delivered more than 250 keynotes, for global organisations like Accenture, LinkedIn and The Trade Desk, in more than 200 schools, colleges and universities, and in prisons. I've spoken at YouTube HQ, and at Clarence House with HM King Charles present. My story is also featured in The Oxford Textbook on Criminology, published by Oxford University Press.
That's the thing I bring into every room. Not a story about change, but proof that you can do it deliberately, more than once.
Today I'm a husband and a dad of two boys, which is the real reason the work matters. I support vulnerable children in Myanmar, my mum's home country, and I'm still upgrading. Nobody's finished.
The morning the King gave me the news.
From a table in a mosque shop to Clarence House. This is the moment he told me.
The Prince's Trust Young Achiever of the YearAnnounced in person by HM King Charles III, then The Prince of Wales, at Clarence House.
From the Pride of Britain Awards 2018 film.
Rooms I've spoken in.
- Pride of Britain Awards, 2018The Prince's Trust Young Achiever of the Year, announced by HM King Charles IIIAward
- Clarence HouseSpeech with HM King Charles presentRoyal
- YouTube HQ, LondonKeynote speechTechnology
- The Trade Desk, LondonThe firm's first external paid keynoteTechnology
- National GridSafety, Health and Environment (SHE) conferencesEnergy
- MenariniKeynotePharmaceuticals
- AccentureStaff keynoteConsulting
- LinkedInKeynoteTechnology
- Citation GroupAnnual Product and Tech conferenceProfessional services
- schuhSales kick-off keynote, EdinburghRetail
- Police NowNational Graduate Programme induction, around 200 new officersPublic sector
- National Sales Conference, 2024Main stage keynoteSales
- South and City College BirminghamTwo keynotes for 800 staffEducation
- Arden UniversityKeynotes at multiple eventsHigher education
- M3 AgencyBusiness summit keynote, BirminghamBusiness
- Enterprise MobilityThe Leadership Edge, for branch and graduate managersLeadership
- Luiss Business School, Rome“The Invisible Edge in CX”, Master in Marketing and Customer ExperienceInternational
- Colten CareStaff keynoteHealthcare
- TEDxCoventryTEDx talkIdeas
- PiXLKeynote for the PiXL schools networkEducation
- Oxford University PressFeatured in The Oxford Textbook on CriminologyAcademia
- Association of CollegesEducation leadershipEducation
“I have had the pleasure to hear Omar deliver two very powerful speeches at YouTube HQ and Clarence House, both with HM King Charles present.”
Ronan HarrisVice President and Managing Director, UK and Ireland, Google
As seen on and featured in
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