A BUSINESSMAN has revealed how he went from school truant to multi-million-pound nightclub boss thanks to the inspiration of a poem.

At the age of 10, Peter Clarke was skipping lessons at St Wilfrid's High School, Blackburn.

Now he is teaching Blackburn's youngsters how to be successful through dedication and positive thinking.

Peter, 44, founder and owner of Entrepreneurial Leisure, with a staff of 300 and an expected turnover this year of £10 million, is back in his home town to open his seventh Heaven and Hell nightclub on the old Utopia site

His rags to riches story began when his then girlfriend's father presented a 17-year-old Peter, who had left school without any qualifications, with a copy of Rudyard Kipling's poem, If.

He said: "I went off the rails a bit with the death of my mother, when I was only ten.

"She had always instilled in me a sense of achieving more - of doing better for myself but I never really enjoyed school.

"I was very creative and sometimes I don't think that was recognised by the teachers, so I lost interest in classes."

But unlike other teenagers who were bunking off, Peter, who lived in Whitebirk, would spend his time drawing cartoons and writing poetry. When he was given a copy of If, he was so inspired that he decided to take control and do something with his life.

His first job was working at the Golden Palms nightclub, now Jumpin Jaks, aged 17.

He said: "I could see mistakes that were being made by the management and was full of confidence that I could do a better job, so I gradually started to work my way up through the ranks.

"I worked every day, in every different department and got involved with anything and everything that the manager did. I was working as the manager at The Palace Nightclub in Blackpool, when a derelict club next to the Palace, became available.

"The licence was about to expire and the owners would have been left with basically an old warehouse that nobody would buy.

"I convinced the owners to pay me £250,000 to take the club off their hands and the money paid for the refurbishment of the very first Heaven and Hell."

Peter still lives in a cottage in Belthorn, and four sisters and two of his three brothers still live in Blackburn.

When his £1 million multi-entertainment venue opens next month it will change the face of the town's party scene and create more than 50 jobs.

Peter now lectures at local schools about personal growth and development and recently went back to St Wilfrid's.

"I came from the back streets of Blackburn and it is important for me to feel like I am giving something back to the town.

"Think positive, dig deep and you can realise your dreams.

"You are capable of achieving whatever goals you truly set your mind too," he said.

IF by Rudyard Kipling

If you can make one heap of all your winnings,

And risk it all in one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

...Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And, which is more, you'll be a man, my son.