“Tim Bean has asked me to say a few words about The Hard Edge Programme so I shall try to tell you briefly what it has done for me: My friends tell me I look 10 years younger. I received a job offer that will increase my income threefold based on my “energy and drive” that, before meeting Tim, would have ended at the (unspoken) interview question “Why are you so fat?” I now need glasses that are only half as strong as they were last year. People have respect for me as soon as I walk into a room, not just after I open my mouth and start talking. I no longer wonder whether I can walk to the tube station, but how fast I can run 5 miles. People now ask me my advice on health and fitness. I look for the stairs, not for a lift, and people cannot keep up with me if they walk beside me. I can go to designer clothes shops and buy clothes off the peg, not just to the tailors. When someone looks at me, I know what they are thinking…and it’s not “Boy, he’s let himself go”… This has given me my life back at the age of 40…I intend to live the rest of it to the full. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made!” – Jonathan Biles (41), CEO, Sextant Ventures, United Arab Emirates