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Billy Liar
I read a stage play yesterday that moved me. I read a lot of plays and screen plays because I love the medium and of course because I am a screen writer and a playwright myself so I like to research and be inspired by the words of other writers. Another more specific reason for me reading Billy this week is because my friend Nick Bagnell, a West End director, will be putting on his interpretation of the play later in the year, so I wanted to see what he was so excited about when he called to tell me the good news. Of course Billy Liar is a classic, and even if you don’t necessarily know the complete story (I didn’t) you will I am sure have heard of the character Billy, the perpetual liar and the plays namesake. What I love about the story is not so much the brilliant writing - it is beautifully sketched - or even the fact that is a classic – it has been successful in play, book and movie format – what really excites me is the message that I took from the play. The message of missed opportunities.
… Click here to read Billy Liar
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Exponential Function
People have been talking a lot lately about this being the age of information. We even have the information highway on the World Wide Web. The word information is used with some reverence, and rightly so, of course information is important, you might say that information is currency; certainly people do use it as a lucrative means of commerce. But I don’t think that we are residing any longer in the information age, not from my observation, in business and in the business of life. Undoubtedly there was an information age, but we are now through it, certainly we are on the exiting periphery, and entering into a new era, a fresh orbit, a brand new reality called the age of experience. People have heard about experience, of course, they have read about experience definitely, and every day we all have experiences of one kind or another, but not often the magnificent experiences, the big experiences that we would really like to have – people (it has been noticed) are ready to expand, they are ready to break free from the mundane in order to encounter the extraordinary - they want to immerse themselves into great experiences, because they know that great knowledge without great action is impotent. What is the use of knowing stuff if you can’t apply it?
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The Greatest Business Secret in the World
I would like to share with you the greatest business secret in the world. Actually it is a great secret full stop; not just for business but also for life. The reason I am offering it to you gratis is because I love you….I am joking, I hardly know you. Let’s just say that I like you A lot. I am fond of you…I think you are all right. Actually (joking aside), the reason for my philanthropic offering will become clearly evident soon enough.
… Click here to read The Greatest Business Secret in the World
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Escaping Death
When I fist started training in the martial arts, nearly forty years ago, I used to look at my heroes - Terry O’Neill, Bruce Lee, Frank Brennan, Chuck Norris – and wonder, ‘how did they get to be so good?’ Working locally at the time with local instructors in small local community halls (with cold wooden dojo floors) I trained with good people, dedicated people, but they rarely met the standard of those who graced the covers of our MA magazines. There was a difference in class, and that difference was startling, so much so that it was easy to believe there was an ‘us’ and there was a ‘them’ and that never would it be possible for the twain to meet. I always half believed that I – and everyone I knew personally – fell into the ‘us’ category, and the ‘them’ (people like Dave Hazard and Bob Poynton) were special, ordained to greatness, the naturals. I say half believed, because there was another part of me, the cheeky, strongly intuitive part, that knew this was bollocks, secretly I was aware that greatness was for everyone. I just wasn’t brave enough at the time to say it out loud. If you had foresight and individuality and could muster the daring-do to work like a steel fixer and invest like a city trader, all things were possible. I knew that to be magnificent you had to strive and dare to become magnificent. I wasn’t entirely sure at the time exactly how or why these legends entered the hallowed halls, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it had a lot to do with massive industry, and more still to do with finding piss-excellent instruction.
… Click here to read Escaping Death
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Pearls
Pearls I thought it might be nice this week on the penultimate newsletter of 2009 to have a guest article from my lovely friend Wael. Actually it is not an article as such, but a poem. My friend lives in Dubai, and this piece was sculpted after he completed my masterclass. Despite the fact that we have become fast friends and that we are fellow artists, what I love about Wael and what is reflected in his poem is his openness – he lives in a culture rich with heritage and knowledge and yet he still made the fourteen hour round trip at great cost every month to gain experience from outside of his usual influence. And what I admire about him is his courage – he is brave enough to invest in himself. Few people are brave enough to invest in themselves. In order to reach our fullest potential we must by necessity step outside of what we know, physically, psychologically, fiscally and geographically. People rarely court the fertilising agent of discomfort; it is always too far, too hard or too damned expensive. Every time I find myself falling for these excuses (the usual suspects) I think of Wael and his monthly pilgrimage from Dubai and I kick myself up the arse for thinking too small. People that do not invest in their own potential do not grow their own potential.
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The Village Fool
Me and my wife Sharon were at dinner with an old friend recently when she started lamenting about the fact that everyone these days was letting her down, her family especially. As she warmed to her subject she gave us examples of her angst; forgotten birthdays, calls not returned and favours not proffered by friends in business when she was struggling, especially the latter who she had selflessly helped so many times in the past. Her profound disappointment and the meal-spoiling relish with which she delivered her displeasure was mouth-wateringly delicious. I could tell that, contrary to her words, she actually enjoyed how let down she felt.
… Click here to read The Village Fool
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A Beer, a Pizza and a good Wank!
During a difficult period some years ago I walked around Coombe abbey with my old friend Tony Somers and we talked. It was a good time for me because I was very depressed, and although I was suffering I knew that the depression was purifying (all the depressed parts of me were leaving), even in the middle of that dark night when all I wanted to do was escape, I knew that my experience was ultimately great, one might even say fantastic. Why was it so fantastic? Because even though I was walking, talking and sleeping in a thick fog of melancholy I knew what I wanted. I knew exactly and precisely what was missing from my life. Freedom. I wanted freedom and I intended to get it, at what ever the cost. When I told Tony that I wanted to be free my certainty was as hard as diamond.
… Click here to read A Beer, a Pizza and a good Wank!
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Safe Places
‘We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments; under the most perfect conditions, under conditions of greatest courage, we enjoy and even thrill to the god-like possibilities we see in ourselves at such peak moments, and yet simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe and fear before the same possibilities.’ Abraham Maslow _____________________________ Some one once asked me at a book signing what my greatest fear was. They imagined (I think) that I was going to opt for the obvious fear of violence or fear of great heights or the terror of being buried alive. I didn’t. I knew my greatest fear like I know my own hand, back and front. I was afraid of my own potential. I was afraid of success, or rather the responsibility and change that my own massive potential might bring. This question was proffered many years ago and of course I have gone on to realise many of my great ambitions, despite the knee trembling terror that success threatened. So to a certain extent I had forgotten this fear, or certainly the potency of it.
… Click here to read Safe Places
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Per Ardua Ad Astra
It is said that the Mexican Shamans of old honed their intent to such a high degree that with concentrated thought, and at will, they could alter time and space. Don Juan Matus (one such Shaman) said that the universe was consciousness – this is what he taught his apprentice Carlos Castaneda - and that we are all connected, no only to each other but also to everything else. He said that when we fully understood this, new worlds would open up to us. This might sound a little fanciful, it might come across as a tad esoteric, but current science – particularly quantum science – is beginning to concur. String Theory certainly suggests that everything connects to everything else; The Observer Effect shows that we connected and what we observe is changed not only by our observation of it but also by the nature of our observation (we see what we expect to see). And The Participating Anthropic Principle is a scientific president which asserts that the very act of looking for a supernova in the night skies actually causes a supernova to occur. This is exciting stuff, one might say inspiring, but how do you go about honing intent? If it is true, if strong intention is the key to the creative universe (and my experience tells me that it is) why aren’t we all creating new worlds already? The simple answer to this is, we are. Every second of every hour of every day each of us creates a reality that we live and breathe in. The problem is…
… Click here to read Per Ardua Ad Astra
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Fragile Life
Imagine if you will a pile of dust. It is sat to your left hand side. It is about six inches high and the same in breadth. Do you see it in your minds eye? Now move across to your right, a metre, and find another pile of dust. Similar in height and breadth. The pile of dust on your left represents your genesis. It is where you started. At some point you were and - according to biblical lore - you came from dust. The pile of dust on your right represents where you are going. To your grave. At some point in the near or far future you are going to die. According to new science, physiologically speaking, you are already dying, and your demise is as certain as anything can be in this quantum soup. When you are cornered by the coffin you will go back to dust. We are born in human form and we die. That is fact. But do not despair, this is not an article in the negative, this is inspirational. Birth and death are the two things we can rely on. The only certainties in the spinning chaos we call the Milky Way. This is good! Hard facts in a world of infinite variables is good purchase. We can grind our feet into certainty as we push off on our hurdle through space. But that is not the most interesting aspect of our earthly sojourn; the exciting part for me, the bit that gets my juices going, is the span in the middle.
… Click here to read Fragile Life
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