“Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit”.
If you’re ever looking for some morning motivation, Les Brown has to be it. I’ve been listening to his powerful voice and contagious laugh for a long time now, but in recent months I’ve made his Spotify list a daily hit. The impact has been so big that I’ve even started writing some of his quotes in lipstick on my mirror.
This morning I spent an hour or so sitting at the window, watching the sun rise up over the rooftops of Vejle, thinking about what my future will look like and writing it down. It’s no longer the misty haze of opportunity I used to love. The fog has cleared and, for perhaps the first time in my life, I’m happy knowing what’s next.
There’s a man in it. He’s tall and handsome with a head full of brainporn and enough drive to make anything happen. He has the excact same inappropriate humour that I have, too. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much, ever. He’s a best mate, a business partner, a teacher, a looker-afterer and he’s the one by my side, building that future with me.
Our Danish life starts this week in a dream apartment that overlooks the prettiest square in Vejle. Four walls to call a home. It’ll be Scandi in style but garnished with little bits of us.
Helmut Newtons will hang above the dining table and cosy lamps will glow in every corner. Our roof terrace will be covered in lots of plants that he can look after and every morning in the summer we’ll lay out our yoga mats for a sunrise stretch.
On the front balcony there’ll be a table and chairs where we can sit and watch the sun go down over the town hall. And inside, beneath the slanted ceiling and wooden beams, there’ll be a bookshelf full of wisdom and a daybed with lots of blankets to cosy up under. Our Danish winters won’t be so bad at all.
Mindless Academy is going to carry on going from strength to strength to become the global business I know I’m destined to run. The impact we’ll have will stretch far beyond student employability and skills in digital storytelling. We’ll become an institution; a go-to destination for self-empowerment and conscious living.
Then there’s my role at Lego which is starting to take shape, keeping my brain entertained in a different way. It’s a labrynth of global and local organisational charts, complex processes and exciting technology. A melting pot of incredible leaders and a hive of inspiration.
Lego will be a role model for everything I build at Mindless and likewise, my experiences with Mindless will inspire me to inject some start-up agility into the corporate world. They’ll both keep me on my toes and yet somehow grounded at the same time.
Further ahead from this, I have a good idea of what’s coming. There’ll be more adventures, more brainporn, more Buddha-loving good stuff and every day is going to feel like Christmas. We’re going to aim high and hit.
Yernasia Quorelios 23 August 2020
♤ ‘Failure’ is a State of Mind; brought on by Parents and Other ‘Authority’
…♤♤♤…
Derek Rowe 25 August 2020
I think an important thing to think about first is what you’re aiming for. Not everyone has a clue what they are aiming for and that in itself is probably a failure of sorts. They key for me is that if you don’t have an aim then you are unlikely to succeed. Having said that, you can be happy without success and you can be successful without being happy. This I know from personal experience. So… above all try to be happy.