I went from being expelled from school & jail to making £300k working 2 days a week from strip club… how ANYONE can too

The Sun

10-08-2025

IT was while stewing in a police cell that Hardy Sidhu made the decision to turn his life around.
The wayward teen, then just 15, had been expelled from three schools - including his primary school - for fighting and dealing cannabis.
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Things came to a head when he was arrested for GBH, having broken a so-called mate's jaw over a £10 debt, and sent to a young offenders institute for six months.
While incarcerated, Hardy read his first book - triggering a transformation that saw his life and fortunes drastically change just a few years after being let out.
On his release he went from stacking shelves at his local supermarket to raking in £300,000 a year working just two days a week, and living a party-boy lifestyle he could have once only dreamed of.
Now 29, Hardy, who grew up on Hayes council estate in Hillingdon, west London, is sharing his remarkable story of redemption to encourage others to follow in his footsteps.
'No one would have believed what I managed to achieve," he tells The Sun.
"Back at school my teachers had given up on me and even my parents didn't know how to deal with my destructiveness and fighting.
"I was suspended from primary school at the age of 10. I mean, how the f*** do you get suspended from primary school?
"That behaviour continued. I went to another school before secondary school and was kicked out in my first year.
'I was suspended loads and spent months in isolation. Everyone gave up hope - even the deputy head teacher said, 'You're not going to end up anywhere in life, you'll probably end up in prison.'
'I was fighting all the time - throwing punches, chairs, scissors, anything I could grab at teachers - because they were talking at me, not to me. I didn't know how to deal with my anger.'
Hardy admits he was "fed up of being poor" and wanted to have more cash, so he "did stupid things".
Aged 15, he started dealing weed - earning up to £30 a week - to pay for fast food chicken burgers and to pitch in to support his shopkeeper parents, who had immigrated from India.
It was around this time that a petty row with a friend spiralled and changed the course of Hardy's life.
He recalls: 'There were arguments back and forth but it escalated. I beat the s*** out of him to assert dominance.
"It was over £10 or something. He was hospitalised with a broken jaw.
'When I was arrested, it was... like an avalanche of dread. My mum was crying her head off. It made me realise, 'Oh man, this is f***ed up'.'
Turning point
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Locked up with just a maths GCSE to his name, Hardy's future looked grim until a friend gifted him a book that advised 'seven tips for wealth, health and happiness'.
'I'd never read a book in my life but it clicked with me," Hardy says. "It spoke about how setting a goals plan could help you to make your own reality.
'It was a turning point in my life, and where I am today is because of that book. It made me realise I could fix my life, and I put together a 10-year plan.'
Upon his release, Hardy saved £200 from his job stacking shelves at Sainsbury's to buy books about coding.
When I was arrested, it was... like an avalanche of dread. My mum was crying her head off. It made me realise, 'Oh man, this is f***ed up'
Hardy Sidhu
He started programming websites in his spare time, charging £50 a time, before landing a £700-a-month coding job, and then a more lucrative gig in digital design.
'The guy who hired me, who remains one of my best mates, took a massive chance on me,' Hardy says. 'I didn't have the skills but he could see I had the ability.'
By 18 he was earning £250 a day, and two years later he was headhunted for a firm in Sweden before moving to Amsterdam.
'I hit my 10-year goal plan,' he says. 'I'd set up a product design department with 120 people and led 12 offices by the age of 24.
'But I got to the point where I wasn't sure if the money was making me happy, so I trialled it by moving to New York on a £300,000-a-year salary, working just two days a week."
'Wolf of Wall Street' lifestyle
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While living in America he claims he lived a lifestyle not far removed from scenes in Martin Scorsese's 2013 blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
'You give a kid with nothing from a council estate a load of money and wild s*** is going to happen," Hardy chuckles.
'I was constantly partying, spending £2,500 on tables, grands in strip clubs, I blew through a s*** tonne of money but thought 'F*** it, I'll make another £4,000 this week'.
'I worked from the strip club, bought loads of cars... I loved BMWs, so I bought a bunch of them - M3s, M4s - Omega and Cartier watches.
"But I was bored out of my mind and recognised being rich wasn't everything.'
After returning to the UK and a stint at a start-up, he decided to challenge himself by launching his own company in 2023 called Format-3, a 'human-centred design studio'.
He returned to his visualisation planning techniques and decided if he could make £1million in revenue in a year, it would become his next venture.
When Hardy exceeded that target by £200,000, he became determined to make it into a world class business.
Hardy Sidhu's top tips for forging success
In a twist none of his teachers could have predicted, Hardy Singh has forged a successful career and made millions for his employers.
He bounced back after being incarcerated and scraping just one GCSE from school after two expulsions and multiple exclusions.
Now with Format-3, he's tipped to being in £2.4m in revenue this year alone and gives his tips for forging your own success.
He tells us: "Everyone wants the answers to their problems.
"But for some reason, they always look eternally, like going online, rather than searching internally and finding the answers within themselves.
"No one talks to themselves. But I have found it can be really helpful. To become a success, you need to ask yourself those hard, difficult questions.
"Things like, 'What do I enjoy?' and 'What do I want in 10 years?'
"Once you work that out, you can formulate a plan, set goals and targets. And with hard work, your brain will focus on finding a way to make it a reality.
"A lot of people are held back because of fear but they shouldn't be.
"Don't be afraid to try something. Don't be scared. Life is not about the reward but about the journey. With that in mind, you can't go wrong."
Within the last 12 months, Format-3 has grown a whopping 300 per cent and expanded into the US and Middle East, working for brands including the Natural History Museum, The DailyWire, Majid Al Futtaim and EPAY.
This year it's forecast to make an eye-watering £2.4million.
Hardy claims bosses admire his outspoken nature and that he has 'the balls to speak up while 40 others remain silent'.
He says: 'I will tell business founders, 'That's a s*** idea', and they tell me, 'That's what makes you special Hardy, having balls'.
"I credit that with being a Hayes boy.'
Proud and content
Now a father, Hardy lives a drastically different lifestyle to his violent youth and wild lifestyle in his early 20s, claiming he's more content and focused than ever.
And he is turning his attention to creating a 'Silicon Valley in the UK' - similar to the California tech titan hub - and launch a design school in his familial native home of India to give people there better opportunities.
'If I wanted to be a millionaire I'd cash out of my business now, but that doesn't interest me anymore," he says.
"I want to help people in my motherland and revive the UK tech sector."
He adds: 'My mum asked me what I'm most proud of. It made me realise, I was this kid with no academics, who was kicked out of multiple schools and had never read a book.
'So to achieve what I have, thanks to all this knowledge I've accumulated is remarkable.
"I've made it and found out what makes me happy. But what I'm most proud of is still being alive.'
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