Tonight as I sit here thinking about a Blog – I cast my thoughts back to earlier this week.
Wednesday night was our annual Green Taylor Partners Film Night – an evening where we put on 2 movie sessions at the theatre and clients are invited to attend “on us” – starting off with drinks and nibbles in our office and then we go in to watch the movie.
The first reflection: What wonderful clients we have! It is really a pleasure to work with them and I get such satisfaction to be part of their journey through life – particularly as it is a big part of our make-up: to enjoy a lifetime partnership with them.
The second reflection: What a great team we have – how the team looked after our clients at both sessions was terrific – willingly being involved until late in the evening and staying late to clean up and get everything back in shape. But importantly, doing it with enthusiasm and making it just another part of having a good time! I really need to say how good they are – we are very proud of them!
The final reflection: The film tonight was “Rush” – about the rivalry of Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the late 70’s in Formula 1 racing. Part of the story was how Lauda crashed and was badly burned but still got back into the race car that season to fight out the World Championship. Showing determination and a fierce desire to succeed – and what can be achieved if you really want it. The other big thing I took from the movie was the totally different approach taken by Lauda to Hunt. Lauda was calculating, worked hard and was meticulous in his preparation. Hunt was the opposite, a playboy, drinker, smoker and appeared to operate just on talent without preparation or real effort.
Both won world championships: Once Hunt had won – that was enough and he was more interested in living it up.
Lauda never stopped – he had a drive to be better and continually improve – one win was not enough. He subsequently won again.
The criticism of Hunt was that he could have been and done so much more. He dropped out early and died young – but he might argue he had a lot of fun along the way. But what we don’t know was how miserable he might have been once the racetrack was gone and the glory only a memory.
The criticism of Lauda was that he was so focused on winning and on preparation etc – he didn’t have time to enjoy things as they were – perhaps not stopping to ‘smell the roses’?
Interesting to reflect on – we need to strive to achieve and be the best we can be in business and in life – but also we need to be sure we enjoy it along the way!
Thanks to our clients and our team at GTP.
