When I was little, I’d pretend to own my own business. I’d clean cars for family members, sweep the neighbours’ driveways – I’d do whatever I could to earn money. My parents taught me at a very young age that I had to earn what I wanted, so I learnt to work hard for the reward. Why did I want to own my own business? I guess it runs in the family. My dad had his own successful company. Although teaming up with him would have been an obvious route for me, I really wanted to have something I could call my own.

After graduating, I travelled the world, acquired some useful life skills and came back re-energised with a desire to run my own company. The only problem: I didn’t have a product or service to offer. That’s when my friend who worked for Enterprise told me about the company. He said I’d have the chance to run my own business with the backing of a multibillion-dollar brand. To me, that sounded like the golden opportunity.

And that’s how I got started. I joined as a Management Trainee in Chatham, Kent, in southeast England. I worked hard and reaped the rewards. Within a year, I had the keys to my own branch. Within three years of my start date, I received an area manager promotion to run the operations in Essex and Hertfordshire. After that, I had the opportunity to oversee all of the airports in the southeast region and got to hone my skills in a whole new business environment.

I have never found a shortage of opportunities here. I’ve been able to grow in many roles, and Enterprise always has challenged me to stay at the top of my game. Today, I’m the Group Rental Manager of East Midlands and East Anglia in the U.K., and I oversee more than 50 rental branches that have a combined fleet of 8,500 cars. I don’t rent cars for a living; I develop people. I help develop great area managers, and in turn, help them develop great branch managers.

From Day One, I’ve taken pride in seeing like-minded people who want to be successful achieve their personal and professional goals within Enterprise. I have always aspired to be the best at what I do, as opposed to being orientated by money. The great thing I discovered at Enterprise is those two things generally come hand-in-hand.

I love my job and I love my free time, too. I’m a sports enthusiast, and especially love water sports like kite surfing and wake boarding. But I also love trying new sports and activities. Luckily for me, I get to host events each month to reward the top employees in my group, and we always do something fun and adventurous. I see that as one of the perks of the job.

As a proud father and family man, I love nothing more than spending days out in the country and giving the dog a run out. After that, my wife and I enjoy the awaiting pint and roast dinner in our local pub.

Enterprise have a number of Graduate Jobs available across the country. You can find out more about their opportunities here.