I was born into a Dutch East Indies Army family. My father was brown, my mother was white, and I grew up in a country that liked to believe everyone had the same opportunities.

My childhood taught me otherwise.

At school, I was often judged before anyone took the trouble to find out who I was or what I could do. My appearance seemed to matter more than my abilities. I wasn’t stupid, and I wasn’t incapable. But I learned early that some children started life with advantages that others had to fight for.

My parents gave me two different perspectives on life. My mother taught me to recognise what was right. My father taught me to stand my ground. Together, they gave me something no school could ever teach me: the determination to think for myself.

Years later, while I was working as a doorman, I met someone from my past. He was my former brother-in-law, a teacher who had once looked down on me and underestimated my abilities. He had followed what I had achieved over the years and admitted that he had completely misjudged me.

That conversation stayed with me. Not because I needed his approval, but because it takes courage to admit you were wrong.

I never followed the path others expected me to take. Much of what I learned came from working, travelling, meeting people and discovering what I could achieve through my own ideas.

Born Behind the Line is about growing up with prejudice, but it is also about refusing to let other people’s opinions determine your future.

I cannot change where I came from, and I wouldn’t want to. My background is part of who I am.

But the man I became was never theirs to decide.