I grew up in Cardiff as the child of two Windrush generation immigrants. My father is of West Indian descent and my mother’s family are from Sierra Leone.
My father often recalls about how he could have lived anywhere in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ when he first arrived, however he quickly fell in love with Cardiff. He felt racial tensions elsewhere, but had an excellent reception in Wales, and he also loved how green it is.
My mother’s mother, my grandmother, was a matron at the Heath Hospital and my mother also worked in healthcare as a care giver. She subsequently explored her entrepreneurial side and opened her own care home in Roath.
I credit my parents with making so many excellent decisions about how me and my brothers and sister grew up. A significant one was the primary school I went to – St Joseph’s Convent School (now St Joseph’s RC Primary School).
These years shaped how I view myself, and how I hold myself. There I met a group of lads who remain some of my best friends. I was the only black kid in our group, but to me it was normal, it never mattered.
However, in many ways it was unknowingly standing me in good stead for when I entered the world of work, where I am often the only black individual in the room.
After graduating from Bristol University with a degree in aerospace engineering I returned home and started applying for jobs. An impossible task as it turned out and I didn’t get much of a look in. I didn’t equate this to my racial background. I don’t know if my skin colour played a role, and I’m not willing to even explore that, but in any case, I had no luck.
In need of money I got a sales job, doing a lot of door to door. Here I found that my appearance worked for me as people seemed surprised to see me when I knocked on their doors and were generally very engaging. I leant into this and did really well, soon building a team of 12 people and winning an award for excellence in the field of leadership.
But it was never supposed to be a long term career – teaching was my next move. However, after qualifying I was rejected from every school that I applied to. Not a great start.
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After lowering my expectations and applying for supply work, I got an interview. I interviewed alongside a white woman who I quickly learned would be given the position. This wasn’t a matter of prejudice, she was better qualified for the role. However, on the drive home I received a call from the head teacher who interviewed me, and who as it turns out had been impressed.
He couldn’t believe someone hadn’t already snapped me up, and while on this occasion the role had been better suited to the other candidate, he said he would never be able to find another candidate like me in Wales. I knew what he meant; young, black, male teachers in Wales are few and far between. So he said he was going to create a position for me, and he did.
It’s as a result of experiences like this that I’m quite sure that while the colour of my skin may have worked against me, it has also benefited me. And in this life you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.
In time the pressures of being a teacher began to get to me and I pondered my next move. I had always been a massive football fan and after learning about We Make Footballers, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands, and with the backing of the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, I made it happen.
As a football coach I have to say my skin colour is a truly neutral thing. Football is a huge leveller. That’s not to say football doesn’t have a race issue, but at the level at which I operate where I teach young kids to learn and love the game, me being a black man has not been a factor. In my experience the parents of the kids I teach just want to see them happy and I’m there to assist and nurture their growth, just like when I was a teacher.
- Mr Stapleton was recently named as the British Business Bank’s 2024 Start Up Loans ambassador for Wales. The entrepreneur launched is business with a start-up loan from the British Business Bank.
