The Fairground of Life

The year has certainly begun with a bang.

I’ve taken over a business.

It's something I’ve been thinking about doing since I left the BBC, but the right opportunity hadn’t come up… Until now.

Why, you might well ask, are you looking at a photo of young Simon with his dad?

Because that wonderful man ran his own business, I miss him, and I’m thinking how proud he would be of me right now.

The business is in the media and public relations field, and I’ll talk more about it in later blogs, as I’ve learnt so much in the process of taking it over.

But, most importantly for this musing, why have I done so?

Yes, it could be lucrative and fascinating work, teach me a lot, help some great organisations and businesses, and employ some excellent staff, but there is a more fundamental reason…

It’s what I think of, and have described before, as the fairground of life. A kind of personal philosophy thing.

The best news is that we’ve all got a ticket, and it’s an amazing pleasure park.

I’ve had an unbelievable life working in a range of fields, from TV, radio, and online with the BBC, to being a writer, a tutor and teacher, and now a business coach, travelling around doing all of that…

But there was still something which I felt was missing from my experiences.

And that’s time in the private sector.

Could I really run a business? Employ people? Sign contracts? Do all the legal stuff? Grow the company? Deal with all the challenges it will present?

Be... dare I say it... a proper grown-up?! And be a success?

That’s to be determined. But I’m jolly well going to give it a try.

Because it’s one area of the fairground I haven’t experienced, and that is the downside with this golden ticket we’ve all been given…

It’s time-limited. Something we all too often forget. 

Which means I want to make the very best of my time in this incredible fairground of life, and do my darndest to try everything it has to offer.