Schools have gone back in Scotland and are shortly due to do the same in England. The usual nightmare of exam results is even worse this year, thanks to Covid-19.

But I have a tip for anyone awaiting their grades – don’t worry.

Life will take over, no matter what your grades are. At 18 I had no clear picture of what I wanted to do. Many young students don’t know what their aim in life is – that only comes with growing up. And it is never too late to re-sit exams, try again, and keep trying. Tenacity is the key life-skill.

I didn’t find my niche until 2008. I was young – or younger – and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw TV pictures of queues forming outside the Northern Rock bank. People were panicking over whether they could get their money out.

That’s when I learned several things. I learned about the importance of stable money; I learned about how central banks kid us into believing that paper is ‘real’ money; and I learned the meaning of the phrase ‘bank run’.

A bank run is a scary thing – people of all ages worried that the money they have deposited in a bank may not be there anymore.

I didn’t learn any of that at school or university, yet they are lessons that we all should be taught.

So by accident I found my niche – which was to design, develop and bring to as many people as I can the chance to have real money, gold, with immediate access. People need to know that their real money is entirely safe; they need to know they will never have to stand in line hoping to be able to get their money. People need to have confidence.

Not only that.

I realised that people need to be able to be able to spend that money with no hassle.

So I created Glint. No exam taught me how to do that. Thinking for yourself is the best lesson of all.

Till next week

Jason