The story of David Mitchell’s life began at his birth in 1928 in Poplar East London, the heart of that great city’s docklands.  Considered by many Londoners as the wrong end of town, even those that lived there considered that poverty was their lot in life.  It was an outlook that David refused to adopt, he had an entrepreneurial flair that he refused to let die.

David tells his story in two books, typical example of his unorthodox approach to getting things done.  Business Review Weekly in March of 2008 ran an article on the world’s top ten entrepreneurs.  None of them were career academics and most had left school by the age of sixteen.  Though he did not make the top ten David fitted their profile, very determined, refused to acknowledge it could not be done, and had complete faith in his ability to achieve his ambitions.

From the age of four David discovered that life did not hand out easy favours.  If one found oneself in adverse poverty, then one had to by shear will power overcome all obstacles placed in one’s path to escape, and not let your background hold you back.  David was not well educated in the formal sense, but he had a mind that could easily adapt to new ways of thinking.  He taught himself to play the piano and through several jobs in the confectionary field, revolutionized how that industry thought and conducted itself.  His first big breakthrough came when was appointed the manager of Sugosa, a company setup to distribute Czechoslovakian confectionary throughout the UK.  This job gave David the building blocks of knowledge and the communication skills, to build his own successful confectionary business.

It was a business that flourished and used many innovative methods of business that the confectionary industry in the UK had not seen before.  The business side of David’s life will be of interest to many readers in the way he tackled his multitude of tasks.  I found both books gave a fascinating insight into the lifestyle of the pre and immediate post WWII Britain.  The books showed just how difficult it was to emerge from the poverty of London’s old East End.  Younger readers today can take heart in the fact that even during a world recession, if they apply themselves to life as David did, they can give themselves a better future.