Embedded in an entrepreneur’s operating system is the imperturbable desire to address issues and to create. Our inner algorithm hardwires us to explore and exhaust all options. There is a global phenomenon that is threatening a vulnerable environment, with the inability to protect itself, and I am joining the expedition to curb this utterly avoidable wave of spoliation through philanthropic endeavors.
My name is Samuel Leach, and I’m the founder of Samuel & Co Trading Company, an enterprise I started in my college dormitory in 2012. I employ seventy trusted and dedicated staff members. I crossed the million-pound threshold at age twenty-five. As my business has grown, and I set my sights on retirement in four years at age 32 to approach significant challenges outside of my day-to-day dealings. As an entrepreneur, like most of the lot, I’m curious, able to identify inefficiencies and work tirelessly to overcome obstacles and solve problems. With great personal financial success, comes a tremendous humanitarian responsibility to one’s community and the world at large.
I’ve identified one such cataclysmic dilemma, our oceans are under attack.
I grew up a child of divorce to two endlessly supportive and loving parents; however, monetary hardships and instability were at the forefront of my adolescents. I spent my teenage years sharing a one-room abode with my brother and father. I learned from a young age the disadvantages that come with financial insecurity. Money gives those in possession of it more options alas when there’s no sufficient presence of ends-meet-capital, a family must make do with limited mobility.
Determined to create more opportunities for myself and my family, I enrolled at the University of Hertfordshire. Initially, I was to attain a degree in marketing and advertising but decided to pursue more lucrative fields during my studies. After researching what occupations in the area would give me financial flexibility, I nearly became an oil rig worker, had it not been for the requirement of decades worth of experience in the field.
My interest in monetary pursuits led me to the financial sector itself and stock trading. I tapped into a passion for corporate shares and foreign exchanges. I took a summer internship at a local bank to learn more, but my knack for trading outgrew said opportunity. I even put my pursuance of higher education as a secondary priority with a gamble of my two-thousand-pound bursary that would pay for my schooling expenses that term. I invested that loan into stocks and, within a year, turned it into one-hundred and seventy-eight thousand. Creating personal fiscal gains is hard work, but making a difference that benefits our connected society is harder.
As I’ve built my company to a place of stability and projected growth, I understand that my efforts can be useful elsewhere. The oceans don’t have the same luxury of an optimistic outlook as my business. The threat of systemic collapse wades the rough waters of the sea and its Biodiversity. Originating from dry-land and products used for human consumption, abandoned plastics in the ocean are detrimental to the homeostasis of an integral part of the planet.
Around eight million tonnes of discarded plastics will have infiltrated the ocean’s once-thriving ecosystem annually. The sea and its inhabitants don’t have a defense mechanism against this human-made epidemic. If the polluting of our bodies of water continued unencumbered, estimates allege that by the year 2030, that there will be more intruding, free-floating plastics in the ocean, than fish in the sea.
Whether its marine life mistaking plastics for food or the toxins released into the waters from synthetic waste, the manufactured compounds we dump into the deep blue are harmful to all its aquatic-dwellers. We’re polluting them into extinction.
Taking its name from the tactical view of a service operation, OverWatch is the act of assessing the entire landscape to zero-in on objectives and then committing to action. Protecting coral, endangered species, and preventing animal torture from sea debris is our mission.
Through charitable contributions, 100% proceeds donated purchases of our eco-friendly branded apparel or gift-giving of our care packages; OverWatch is committed to raising the capital to combat the deterioration of the ocean.
From corporations and governments to individuals and coastal communities not privy to the extent of its impact, an all hands on deck approach to restricting human-created contamination of our oceans must start now. No amount of personal capital is too small to help in the bigger picture. Raising global awareness at OverWatch is our intention, and we can steady our scope on our aims with resources, however significant or modest. The collective pledge to change and reverse course is an impactful one.
As with business ventures, nonprofit altruistic undertakings are successful when one exhibits dedication, unwavering passion, and a stellar work ethic. I am as devoted to OverWatch as I am to any other of my enterprising accomplishments and hope you will join me stifling ocean pollution.
Follow Samuel on his Website and Medium