Two years on, the opportunity presented itself to do some Associate Lecturing at Brookes. He had always wanted to teach and despite his initial reaction to his first day - “I thought I couldn’t do it” - he persevered:
“Luckily I came back and worked out how to help students realise their potential with lots of help and support from very experienced colleagues.
Ross also borrowed some techniques from his hobby, stand-up comedy and sees similarities between this and lecturing.
There’s no greater reward or pleasure than enabling someone to laugh. In the same way that I think there’s an equal reward and pleasure in helping someone learn something about themselves […] a lot of entrepreneurship teaching is about helping people to understand themselves.
Alongside his teaching, Ross also worked in a number of different roles for Land Securities PLC (the developer of the Westgate Centre in Oxford), and set up his own business called “Brit Picks” which manufactures guitar plectrums out of recycled plastic.
Ross continued juggling these various roles until 18 months ago, when due to the opportunities that arose, he had to choose between full-time work in academia or full-time employment in a commercial property PLC. Ultimately, it was the teaching that swung it:
Fundamentally I love teaching and I love the student experience. I love seeing people learn and find their place in the world.
Moreover, as an entrepreneur, he is aware of opportunities and how to take them and felt that there was lots of space for development at Brookes.