04/16/2026
When I was 16, I built a business from inside a phone box.
We didn’t have computers, the internet or smartphones. I also didn’t have a network. I didn’t have funding. And to be honest, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing!
All I had was a telephone box, a phone book, and a big idea. I wanted to start a youth culture magazine so young people could better understand what was going on in the world, and have a safe place to learn about topics no-one talked about at the time - like abortion or finding community as a gay person.
The problem was, no one knew who we were. We had no advertisers, no office, no contributors and certainly no credibility.
At a bit of a loss, I decided to open the phone book and started calling people. I would ring up big companies and ask to speak to the person in charge of advertising. When they answered, I’d do my best to sound far more experienced than I was.
“Are you interested in reaching the most influential young people in Britain?”
“Your competitors are already advertising with us.”
“This is going to be the biggest youth magazine in the country.”
Call by call, rejection by rejection, something started to happen. A few people said yes. Then a few more. I could hardly believe it. Eventually, we had enough advertisers to print the first issue.
That scrappy little magazine went on to interview people like Mick Jagger and John Lennon and it taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life: You don’t need everything figured out to get started. You just need a bit of tenacity, a lot of self-belief, and the drive to keep the promises you’ve made (especially when they’re a little ambitious!).
