Ian Wallis had wide experience in the further education sector, having worked in seven different colleges in different parts of the United Kingdom, including one college of higher education. He gained fascinating insights into the working of the institutions in which he worked, including, at the start of his career, at WHSmith, where he started his postgraduate career as a management trainee. However, after two and a half years travelling around the country, he became disillusioned with commerce and gained a post as a lecturer in management studies at the tender age of twenty-three. The fact that he felt able and qualified to lecture others on the intricacies of management when he had little to no experience of managing anyone says a lot about this cavalier spirit who survived by his wits, sometimes in difficult situations.