Boy who couldn’t read rises to supervisor

Once an illiterate child selling newspapers at a busy stoplight, Marlon Powell has risen to become a business owner and a sales and promotions supervisor at a food-processing company -- a transformation he credits to lessons learnt while selling THE STAR and The Gleaner.

Now 40, Powell says those early mornings on the road did more than put food on the table -- they built the confidence that would shape his future.

"My success didn't have anything to do with academics, but with my experience with selling the STAR and Gleaner," he said. "It was at that time that I developed this passion for sales and it gave me confidence to stand up in front of everybody and do any form of business."

Raised in Windsor Heights, St Catherine, Powell grew up with his mother, Pauline Tully, and two siblings. Life was hard. Tully worked as a street sweeper, struggling daily to make ends meet.

"I gathered that life was very difficult for her. She was able to read and write well, but I had literacy issues," he recalled.

"My mom had three of us [when she was] young, and when I was born some family members told her to give me up for adoption because she wasn't in a position to take care of all of us, but she didn't."

"As a child, I realise my mother was suffering and I drew her pain and I told myself that I was going to help her," Powell said.

To earn extra income, Tully became a newspaper vendor -- and young Marlon was right by her side.

While other 10-year-olds were still asleep, Powell would wake before dawn and accompany his mother to sell newspapers at the Ferry stoplight in St Catherine.

"When I just started selling Gleaner and STAR, I didn't know what was on the headline because I couldn't read. I was in grade five at that time," he said.

The routine was gruelling but necessary.

"My mother would wake up and be on the road about after 5 every morning to catch the newspaper bus. We would start sell Gleaner about 6 a.m. and mi would go home," Powell added.

But poverty was only part of the battle. Powell struggled with illiteracy for years, watching opportunities pass him by.

"I just couldn't read and write, and this was where there is so much out there for me to attain but I couldn't," he said.

As a boy at Marlie Mount Primary School in St Catherine, Powell watched helplessly as his classmates moved on after sitting the Common Entrance Examination -- the test then used to place students in high schools. He never sat the exam himself, having struggled severely with academics.

His mother, however, refused to give up on him. She sought help at a Red Cross remedial class in the parish, and by grade nine, Powell had learnt to read and write.

He later transitioned to Jonathan Grant High School, where he graduated, having passed just one subject -- mechanical engineering.

Despite those early setbacks, Powell remained determined. He secured a job as a warehouse attendant at Very Amazing Products, a food-processing company, where his work ethic caught the attention of his employer. Under his boss' mentorship, Powell was given opportunities to grow and develop.

Today, he is a supervisor at Very Amazing Products and the owner of a decor business, with bookings across the Caribbean and the United States.

One of his proudest achievements, he said, is being able to improve his mother's life.

"I have managed to take my mom out of a board house and got her a concrete structure. ... I also have my own decor business and I am getting bookings in the Caribbean and the United States. This story is just to bring hope," he said.

Though life has improved, Powell's mother remains a newspaper vendor -- by choice.

"My mother still sells Gleaner at Ferry stoplight, and my sister sells it as well. My mother is in a better position now, but if I should ever stop her now she would probably die. I am happy she is still able to do her little thing and find her little joy," Powell added.