Overcoming bullying

Brave enough to tell his story from a quiet corner in his office over Zoom, a British Sikh man tells Kerry Smith his memories of being abused in his youth and how this made him stronger to prove the naysayers wrong

Ishould be wearing a turban, but in the ‘70s when I moved from the inner city at the age of seven, my dad cut my hair short after I was beaten up three days in a row at my new school,” Rav Panesar opened up. “I loved playing football, but suffered frequent abuse from the opposition because of my heritage or skin colour. I was frequently told to go back to my own country, sometimes by my own teachers, even though I was born here.”

Still short-haired and now living in Loughborough working as the director of his own company 4Cubed.co providing specialist project, programme, and change management services, Rav’s experiences have made him who he is today – resilient and ready to prove people wrong.

The mental scars left by bullies

“I didn’t tell my family about the abuse I was getting, because I just got on with it. I was a big fan of football, happy to support team GB but reluctant to support England. I think it’s something to do with football in particular, because I wasn’t accepted and told I didn’t belong.”

Becoming a business owner

The first in his family to go to university, Rav graduated in the ‘90s and was catapulted straight into the recession. “The job market was a mess. I couldn’t go into a larger organisation because I didn’t have the grades, so I worked for small companies.” He eventually became a senior manager for a furniture manufacturer aged just 28. He then joined the automotive sector, which took him travelling around the world. Off the back of this experience, he set up his own business as a contract consultant. His first client was Aston Martin. He’s since been back to Loughborough University and graduated with a Master’s in Business.

Keeping up appearances in a pandemic

“You must always remain positive, but I was worried my business wasn’t going to survive. I was lucky that I had support from a network, especially the Federation of Small Business, and a client who needed my services. But I’m still worried I may not be able to continue and do think there are many businesses in the same boat.”

I WAS FREQUENTLY TOLD TO GO BACK TO MY OWN COUNTRY, SOMETIMES BY MY OWN TEACHERS, EVEN THOUGH I WAS BORN HERE Transforming the industry

“Project and programme measurements are all very blunt; we have to deliver to a certain quality, budget and on time, which can be very demanding on teams. All projects have one thing in common and that’s people; however, we see very few measurements about people. At 4Cubed.co we are looking at how wellbeing can be measured. Whether observably how people behave or subjectively people’s own sentiments, which may be anecdotal but reflective of the way team members are feeling and provide important early indicators on performance.”

Find out more about Rav at 4cubed.co/who-we-are. Organisations like report-it. org.uk and supportline.org.uk are available to help if you’ve experienced abuse.