From starting out as a post boy to advising the sporting greats on the most important financial decisions of their lives to battling cancer, Jonathan Power's life has been anything but dull. There was a point when he had the option to sell his company for seven figures and retire in style, becoming a multimillionaire while still in his thirties. The champagne was on ice, the pen was in his hand, but he didn't sign on the dotted line: "I had so much more I wanted to do," he said.
Jonathan comes from "humble beginnings" but insists that if he can do it, then anybody can. He's speaking from his flat in London but his family home is in Cardiff, where he lives with his wife Emma and daughter Millie.
His address book is impressively full of international sporting names and showbiz royalty. There's footballer Andy Cole, Joe Calzaghe, Rio Ferdinand, Idina Menzel, Ellie Goulding and the late Bobby Robson to name but a few. Oh and by the way, he's jetting off to the States later this year to attend Elton John's Oscar viewing dinner and after party in LA.
He's come a long way for a kid who grew up in Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire before moving to Cardiff and attending Howardian high school to do his CSEs. It's been such a journey in fact, Jonathan has just written an autobiography called Fortune and Fame.
Jonathan's father was a postman and in those days it was customary to follow in your father's footsteps, Jonathan explained. And so, aged 16, Jonathan found himself in the postal service with a reliable wage but no real prospects.
"Probably a couple of months before I left school I actually had a an interview with the post office, and it was my dad's friend that interviewed me," he said. "And the interview was very much about how's your dad? How's your mother? You want a job in the post office? You've got the job. Congratulations. You're going to start as a telegram boy, and you're going to be a junior postman."
Jonathan spent several years cycling the streets of Cardiff in the eighties delivering good and bad news by telegram to the houses without phones. It wasn't until he reached his twenties that he began to think there must be more to life. He found himself a job in the post room at British Telecom, which he stuck for two years until something better popped up: a newspaper ad for an insurance consultant.
With no idea what one of those really was Jonathan applied anyway and, to his surprise, was given the job at Churchill.
"I didn't even know what insurance was but I had pinned myself into a corner with no prospects and I had no qualifications," he said. "I had a burning desire to achieve and I wanted to be the best that I could be. And I knew I wasn't going to get that from working in British Telecom."
Jonathan found himself on a fast track learning course about financial services and before he knew it he was up to speed on all the insurance and life insurance products and working in his own office in Cardiff. He was effectively a salesman, pushing insurance products to customers in south Wales. He turned out to be a natural at it, so much so that in just six months he was promoted to branch manager.
"I gave it my heart and soul," said Jonathan. "I did all the courses. I got as qualified as I could. And doors started to open up. I got headhunted pretty quickly because I was achieving really, really good things." After a few short stints at other companies, Jonathan accepted a job with Legal and General where he achieved "great success" and "smashed targets".
As Jonathan flew higher and higher, he found himself in Hong Kong on a Legal and General convention where the company had hired the Beach Boys for a private performance. Life was good and it seemed Jonathan could do no wrong. In just a few years he was a senior manager overseeing the Cardiff branch but also working as a financial consultant for the company where he earned commission on any sale he did.
Although he was limited to only selling Legal and General products, Jonathan had some connections within the local sporting scene, including former Cardiff City boss Eddie May. Realising there was untapped potential there, Jonathan had the bright idea of setting up a Breakfast Club which he christened the South Wales young executive club.
"This really changed things for me," Jonathan said. "It created the pathway to my future." Before long, he was representing most of the Cardiff City football team. The sporting world operates in small circles and thanks to his natural ability to network, Jonathan found more and more clients coming his way.
"I loved it, it was natural to me," Jonathan explained. "I just felt comfortable in that world because sport and entertainment are my passions as well. I'm a sports fan. I love the arts. I love entertainment. I love the theatre. I love music. I love creative subjects. And that was really the start for me."
Firmly established and seemingly set for life, Jonathan made a bombshell announcement to his bosses at Legal and General: he was leaving to start his own business. Over time, Jonathan had realised that these big sporting stars really needed independent financial advice which, as an employee of Legal and General, he simply couldn't provide.
"I was encouraged by Legal and General to bring more business in, but the business that I was bringing in was a very high level and were big personalities certainly in Wales at that time," he said. "I really knew - deep down - that what these people required was actually independent financial advice. I made a decision to leave and I gave up a huge salary, all the bonuses, all the perks, the whole shooting match, and I gave it up and went on my own."
Jonathan set up as an independent financial adviser and told all his clients he could offer them real independent financial advice. "And that was the start of great things," Jonathan added. "The whole sporting world started to open up for me. I was making really, really big connections at this stage. I went from an advisor within Wales to the international stage. And I I became an advisor to the biggest names in the Premier League." One of them - Manchester United footballer Andy Cole - even wrote the foreword for Jonathan's book.
"I really, really worked hard," said Jonathan. "Leaving school with very few qualifications, none of that mattered anymore. because I was a really focused individual and I knew where I was going. Within 12 months of setting up on my own as Jonathan Power Associates I was offered a seven figure deal to sell my company to a stock market listed company."
But he turned them down: "I was going to do the deal," he said. "It was the biggest decision I ever, ever, ever had to make in my life. Because at the stroke of a pen I would literally have become a multimillionaire. I just felt there was more that I could do. And I hadn't fulfilled my dream."
From that point onwards, John Power Associates grew and grew and clients became friends. "We were a very small boutique business," explained Jonathan. "My staff were well rewarded. They loved their roles. They enjoyed meeting all the stars. And we were a family, my business was my hobby, and my hobby was my business and my staff shared that. We were flying. We were recognised for providing financial advice to some of the biggest names in the sporting and entertainment industry. I was representing people like Ian Wright, Rio Ferdinand, and John Terry."
Such was the service Jonathan and his team provided, it wasn't unheard for them to organise weddings and holidays for the stars. Most of the England rugby team were advised by Jonathan at one point. So too were snooker stars Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams. Gradually more and more clients came from the entertainment world too.
Then, at the age of 43, Jonathan walked away from it all and retired from financial services. "I achieved everything that I wanted to," he explained. "My life kind of changed because my daughter was born and instead of the business being the most important thing in my life my family now became the most important thing because we were a family."
For the first few years of little Millie's life, Jonathan "wasn't around as much as I wanted to be". He continued: "My priorities changed and I just wanted to be home instead of being on the road. One day I could be at Liverpool, the next day I could be at Manchester City. The next day I could be at Arsenal and then the next at Manchester United. The next day I could be in a recording studio in Dublin and the following day seeing a football player in Paris. It was thrilling. It was exhilarating. It was exciting. It was everything I wanted it to be and and more and the money was great and my life had changed totally from where I'd started out to where I was then.
"But my priorities changed and I wanted to be with my little girl and I wanted to be home with my wife and I made a decision - much to the amazement of everybody that I knew - that I was simply going to retire."
Dabbling in the world of theatre and producing for a while, life turned upside down for Jonathan when he was suddenly diagnosed with cancer when in his early fifties. "It came from nowhere," said Jonathan haltingly, the memory causing him to pause and gather himself. "It rocked my world. I was fit and well, I was healthy and life was great. I was doing some producing and a little bit of acting stuff on a professional basis. Life was absolutely wonderful."
Read how Jonathan made is his new goal to start a movie career here
After watching a test match at Lords in 2016 and indulging in some celebratory beers afterwards, Jonathan noticed a lump on the side of his neck while brushing his teeth which hadn't been there earlier that morning. He thought maybe his glands were up but after seeing the doctor, he heard the words he was dreading: he had cancer.
In just a few short weeks, on August 31, Jonathan had an operation to treat the cancer. "I'll never forget it because August 31 in my in my professional life was a huge day because it used to represent the transfer window," said Jonathan. "We were so busy during that time because so many of my clients would be moving and my phone would be red hot. They had money to invest and they wanted to buy a new property and my services were always in demand around that time."
Thankfully, after treatment and gruelling chemotherapy, Jonathan made a full recovery. He finally sat down to write a book about his life: Fortune and Fame.
If writing has offered a chance to reflect on a life well lived, what's he most proud of, I ask. Jonathan is quick to reply: "Millie is the most important person in my life. She makes my my life worth living and when I was ill, I kept thinking of her and I was digging deep because there was so much I had to live for and I wanted to be around for my daughter and my wife.
"Yes, my career has been a successful one and I've loved it. I've met some amazing people. I've worked with the biggest, the best, world champion boxers, elite Premier League footballers. But there's more to come and writing my book and seeing the reaction to my book and the amount of interest globally is so important. But my biggest message is I just want a kid somewhere to pick it up. Maybe he's been told he's not very good or he's not going to achieve anything, like I was when I was a young boy. But if I can do it, then so can anybody."
He added: "I was a telegram boy - a junior postman - and I went from that to advise some of the biggest names in the sport and entertainment world. And so many people used to say to me, how did that happen? How did you go from being a junior post boy to being the advisor to the stars? And that's my book, that's the story."
Jonathan's book is now available to buy. Full information on the website www.fortuneandfame.co.uk
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