MERVIN Thompson had to leave his home in Dunkirk, St Andrew at 11 years old, as he said his ambition of becoming a mechanic was not in line with his mother’s dream for him to one day be an attorney or pilot.

Twenty-six years later, he is living his dream.

In fact, Thompson has blossomed from walking the streets of Kingston and offering to fix people’s motor vehicles to now owning a garage on Spanish Town Road in St Andrew.

Though he currently has three employees, Thompson told the Jamaica Observer that, until recently, he had employed six people. However, he said the roadwork now under way in Portia Simpson Miller Square, formerly Three Miles, has resulted in him having to downsize.

According to Thompson, his mother left him with his father in Glengoffe, St Catherine, when he was three months old.

“Daddy grow me up until I was about 10-plus, when I decided that I needed to find my mother to grow me [with] balance.

“So when mi find my mother now, my aim and goal from mi a little youth was to become a mechanic. My mother object to it and decided say no, she want me to become a pilot or lawyer or something, and me a tell her say no, I choose to become a mechanic,” he said.

The businessman said, as a result, he was labelled as “unruly”.

“Them say me cyaah stay there (in Dunkirk) if mi nah be a lawyer or a pilot or something that make sense, me cyaah stay a them yard,” Thompson recounted.

He told the Observer that his time in the community came to an end.

“At 11 mi decide say me ago leave,” Thompson said, adding that by then he was being treated differently by the people with whom he lived.

Thompson, who also owns and operates an auto parts shop, a bar and a grocery store along with his companion, told the Observer that after he left his mother’s house, Coronation Market in downtown Kingston became his home and businessplace.

He recalled pushing handcarts and selling ‘bag juice’ to survive. He said he also slept in the market until thieves began cutting his pockets and taking the money he had earned.

At age 14, Thompson said he went to live with an elder brother in Gregory Park, Portmore, St Catherine, prior to obtaining a job as a store clerk in downtown Kingston where he was later entrusted to deposit money at a bank. However, he said that job also came to an abrupt end after he was robbed.

Before long, he was back on the street doing odd jobs to get by.

Thompson said he managed to get a job delivering gas; however, he did not have a driver’s licence. His boss later found out and he was sent packing.

According to Thompson, he obtained a driver’s license at age 17, and later returned to his former employer. However, six months later he was given marching orders after he was accused of selling a half cylinder of cooking gas and using the money to purchase lunch.

Thompson, who had already established a network in the cooking gas trade, said after this, he would approach individuals seen walking on the road with gas cylinders and offer to fill them. He explained that he would take the cylinders and the people’s money to the gas outlet and return with filled cylinders.

He explained that even though the money he was earning was no lump sum, he said he tried his best to save.

Having built a network and saved enough money, Thompson said he then decided it was time to start his own gas business. He told the Observer that he then purchased a “little van”.

“Mi print up some [business] cards, same MBM label mi use — MBM Gas — and drive round. For instance, me see you a walk along the road with a cylinder; me stop and introduce you to my business and I would take your cylinder,” Thompson explained.

Even though his business was growing and he had money in his pocket, the businessman did not give up on his dream job.

The father of two said he signed up with the Jamaican-German Automotive School to complete his auto mechanic training. He was later certified by the institution as a mechanic.

However, Thompson, who was a step closer to practising his lifelong dream, had no tools.

“Mi first set of tools… is a [businessman] buy me it, because me never have any tool at all. Him did have this pickup weh them couldn’t fix so him send call me [to fix it]… I fixed the van and him say to me say, ‘How much you charge?’, so me say, ‘Bwoy, all mi a charge a some tools enuh because really a tools me need fi go do me work’. He went inside his store and he took out a socket set, spanner set and a screw driver set and give me, and say, ‘Well, if a that you require ,fine, but me still a give you $2,000 to buy a juice when the sun bun you up, up the road,” he continued.

“When me get my skill there was no money to buy tools, no money to do nothing, so my babymother would normally give me har old [knapsack] dem and I would pack my tools in it and walk. Anywhere me see a vehicle break down I would stop, repair it and get a little money,” he said.

The businessman disclosed that he continued walking and picking up jobs until he had saved enough money to purchase a vehicle and expand his business.

Thompson, who did not graduate from high school with any subjects, is advising youths who find themselves in a similar situation to keep trying and not be discouraged by their lack of academic qualifications.

“Hope is there as long as you are alive and have ambition. Hope come with ambition, it nuh come with education; it nuh come with money; it nuh come with degree; it nuh come with diploma, it nuh come wid nothing. Mi can show you man who can’t spell his name and him a make money,” he said.