Being the victim of sexual abuse as a child, Laura Young said she went down a “self-destructive road”, meaning school was a challenge for her and she was “kicked out” at 15.
The operations director at Cairn Independent shared her journey into the world of financial advice at the Lang Cat’s Home Games event in Edinburgh yesterday (October 3).
She said her experience of being given a chance at the firm has shaped the way she now recruits people.
Young explained: "There was a significant turning point in my childhood where life got very dark, very quickly. I was sexually abused and, as a result of that, as a child, I didn't know how to even begin to process or deal with the things that happened.
"I went down a very self-destructive road."
Likewise, attending school was very hard. She was bullied and she admitted: "I did everything I could to break the rules". This resulted in her being told there was nothing more the school could do for her, and she was asked to leave at 15.
"I found myself with no education, no direction and, at that point, I'd be lying if I said I cared, because I didn't," said Young.
At 16 she decided to teach martial arts, something she had participated in since she was four. She said: “I continued to run 100 miles an hour in completely the wrong direction, and I successfully managed to shut out everybody, including my family.
"I ran away; I was self harming; I was on a lot of medication. I just really wasn't in a great space at all.”
She said her parents tried to help but she wasn’t in a space to accept it.
Rebuilding her life
It wasn’t until her early 20s she realised she was ready to go home - a move that eventually led to her entering financial services.
At 22, she ended up back at her parents' front door and she began to “rebuild her life”.
Two years later she was given a chance, working part-time at Cairn. After just a month she asked whether she could study; she was given the opportunity to do this and went into a full-time admin role.
She decided she wanted to be an adviser after achieving her diploma, and eventually moved into a paraplanning role.
She said at this time, a director at the company worked hard with her, sometimes until 10pm to reach the goal of becoming an adviser.
However, during the process she realised it wasn’t where her strengths lay but when the opportunity to move into the operations side of the business came up, she realised this would be more suited to her.
Young said: “Cairn really did give me a safe space to grow, to develop, to fail, which I did quite a few times, but ultimately to succeed.
