A bricklayer who left school without any GCSEs says he now makes up to £10,000 a month and drives a sports car.
According to 26-year-old brickie Kurt Malpass, when he was at school he was stuck on a course 'for kids who don't listen' but ended up discovering that his true passion in life was building walls of bricks and mortar.
Lots of people would be bricking it if they left school at 16 with no GCSEs and three years on Kurt went self-employed, saying he can now make up to £800 a day.
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Having shared his story on TikTok (I do hope there's some sort of #BrickTok on there) and Instagram, he said he was earning £1 per brick laid but it's actually more like 62p per brick, which is still pretty good.
The Staffordshire bricklayer said that the key to his fortune was being 'willing to work hard and put in the hours', though he's had some people tell him they know bricklayers who don't make anywhere near as much as he does.
He said: "I'm quite clever but subjects like French, Spanish and geography never interested me.
"When I went to do bricklaying, I fell in love with it and I was naturally good at it too.
"I bought my first house at 19 - if you're willing to work hard and put in the hours you can earn ridiculous money.
"Being a bricklayer, people don't look at you like you're a clever person. People think it's easy and we're overpaid for what we do - but it's a skill and not everyone can do it."
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He reckons that on a regular day he'd be making about £500, but if he works longer hours that can climb to about £800, and he's worked on projects ranging from new builds to millionaire's mansions.
With his money he was able to buy his first house at the age of 19 and drives around in a £30k Audi sportscar.
"When people see me doing it on Tiktok they think it's easy, and that they could do it, but its not," Kurt said when talking about some of the reactions he's seen online.
"I also get a lot of comments saying 'my family member is a bricklayer, they don’t earn this money'.
"But if you're willing to work hard and put the hours in, you can earn ridiculous money.
"I love it, I find it therapeutic. I couldn’t imagine where I'd be without bricklaying."
As for the future, Kurt wants to earn his way to buying a Lamborghini and a second home.
Joe Harker