Turning The Tables
I wouldn’t suggest my life is any more remarkable than the next persons or that the adversity I have faced is by any stretch of the imagination as challenging as many other remarkable people.
However reflecting back one way or another they have been turning points which revealed new insight into me, my character, my priorities and the world we live in.
At school I was bullied for a number of years, so early on in life I started to realise that life wasn’t perfect or predictable. The bullying taught me to work hard at getting on with people ( I found a hobby that the worst bully and I shared (fishing) so I used to bring this subject up to try to divert him from his bullying). This developed a quality in me I used to great effect in later years as an account man in advertising. I became one of the Agency I worked for's better account man at building client relationships, and was the youngest person ever promoted to the board at 26yrs. I don’t share this for any other reason than to demonstrate an early turning around and unexpected benefit from adversity.
At 37yrs old I had my first significant health issue which resulted in a major operation. This coincided with the beginning of a change in career direction. I’d become disillusioned with advertising and wanted to play a more fundamental role in developing businesses. The operation took me out of the business for 6 months but when I returned it was with added vigour and determination to adjust course, because I realised that you can’t take your health or life for granted so why waste by not pursuing your dream.
Over the next 3-4 years I shifted into strategic planning and created a separate business with a good friend and colleague Clive Cooper, still within the agency we worked for. This is now called intre-preneurship I think ! We soon moved out of the Agency world into the consultancy world of Brand and Innovation consultancy ultimately creating my own independent business.
In parallel to all of this my wife and I had our 3rd child. Six months after birth our daughter was diagnosed with a rare Epileptic condition which brought with it significant learning difficulties. Many trips to hospital in ambulances ensued over the next 16 years .Throughout this time I changed as a person - I became more focussed and more open minded about the world. Like many people say having a child with a disability is a challenge but more importantly a gift because it teaches you that there is no such thing as a normal person or normal life. Our daughter is thankfully happy ,open and loving - she treats people without any preconceptions or prejudices. She is vulnerable but brings out vulnerability in others. She has taught myself and my family more than anything about compassion and humility . All things I have sought to weave into my life and work.
3 years ago we sold our consultancy business.Once again slightly disillusioned and starting to wonder what next - a sort of 50+ ( mid life crisis). This coincided with another chronic health condition which knocked me out for nearly 4 years . During this time I was unable to work but devoted what energy I had to learning - about mindfulness, behavioural science, psychology and new business models. Together with a disciplined regime and a greater sense of looking after myself I was eventually able to fashion my recovery. ‘The turn around’ in this case was a further renewed sense of purpose and a new motivation to use my business and life experiences to help others in life dealing with the adversities that we all encounter and to share the lessons from adversity and how it can lead to new fulfilment.
This podcast Turning the Tables is part of that new journey.
If you can relate to any of these kinds of twists and turns in your life and want to hear how others have moved through and grown from adversity please listen and join the Facebook Turning the tables community.
PS In my early life I would say I was a ‘determinist’ - I now would say that life is an unpredictable journey which you weave through adapting as circumstances change, wherever possible with a positive mindset and an openness to change.