Ladies in the audience of the recent Entrepreneurs Bootcamp held at London’s O2, were treated to a special gift by Entrepreneur Andrew Reynolds, the Bootcamp’s founder.
Attendees at the Bootcamp event were introduced on video, to a South African gentleman who, having no way of earning money to feed his family – turned his attention to fashioning beautiful metal flowers from old scraps of wire and tin cans he found on local rubbish dumps near his small shack in the township of Khayelitsha, on the outskirts of Cape Town.
Golden – who was named after his former job as a Goldminer, now clothes and feeds his family from the proceeds of his flower making business.
Andrew Reynolds said “I was so moved by Golden’s story and the way in which he had taken action to keep his family – rather than sitting around moaning and believing the world owes him a living – that I wanted to do something to raise awareness of what he does – and also to, in some small way, help him with his business.
Golden is, quite rightly, a very proud man and I knew that offering some form of charity would not be what he needed.
Instead, I figured that the best thing I could do was to give him the largest order for his flowers that he has ever had in his life.
We had hardly started offering tickets to our Bootcamp at the O2 at the time I met Golden – but I felt we would probably have around 2,500 ladies in the venue – so asked Golden if he could make me 2,500 flowers and send them to England in time for the event some months later.
The look on his face was priceless as it suddenly dawned on him just how many flowers were involved (Golden’s native tongue is not English – so it took a few moments for what I was asking him to do, to sink in).
The Entrepreneurs Bootcamp held at London’s O2 Arena, has been named as a prize winner for Business Event of the Year at the 2010 Visit London awards.
Beating major international conferences from major players such as IBM, Thomson Reuters and Ericsson, Andrew Reynolds Entrepreneurs Bootcamp won the Silver Award for Best UK and International Conference.
Andrew Reynolds visited Disability Initiatives headquarters in Camberley with a cheque for £30,000.00 as the charity celebrated its 35th Birthday with a Royal visit and karaoke.
Andrew Reynolds continues to back World Kickboxing Champion Paul Bernard’s unique black belt scholarship scheme.
Camberley based Disability Initiative Charity recently celebrated its 35th Birthday with a Royal visit by the Countess of Wessex.
Andrew Reynolds sponsors one of his Students to complete the Mt. Kilimanjaro Trek for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Andrew Reynolds launches the latest fund raising initiative 2010 Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice raffle which gives supporters the chance to win a 2010 registered Toyota Yaris.
Andrew Reynolds Bootcamp was the first major seminar event ever to be held at London's premier arena - the O2.
All 7,500 attendees were each given a chance to win Andrew's Bentley as part of their entry ticket for the Bootcamp.
Hello Andrew, l was at the bootcamp, and recived one of the flowers, which is on display at all times, this bought tears to my eyes then and watching this recording 12 months later it has done the same.I would love to get a sunflower from golden. Thankyou. With you on his side l’m sure he’s a lot better off. Good Luck.
Jacqui x
Comment by Jacqui Stacey on 27th September 2010 at 12:35 pmA wonderful example of overcoming any hardship, getting down to work and making things happen. The video of of “Golden” working to make flowers from coke cans was inspiring. Here was a man In the face of total poverty, making a living.
Comment by Geoffrey Olden on 28th September 2010 at 12:00 amThe video film would have been good enough but Andrew took this example and brought the reality home to the audience.
It was a demonstration of the extra steps necessary to make a difference.
The difference between the man in the street and a millionaire.
In his world “Golden” was that millionaire too.