How’s your year so far? Good, bad, indifferent? Mine has been largely frustrating. As a business owner I like things to happen immediately and I hate waiting, but I think that’s also the way society treats everything. It all has to be here now, I’m sure MTV started this trend, but with mobile phones and social media we are definitely in the ‘Now’ society so waiting for anything irritates me. Not to the point of anger (usually), but I’m not the most patient of men, however, I have to concede that sometimes we all have to wait and with that patience so will come the reward.
Are you aware of Ella Henderson? She had a single out in the summer called ‘Ghost’; it went to number one in the UK, Australia and a few other places; it’s a great song and her new album ‘Chapter 1’ came out this week. I have to concede that I wasn’t really aware of her until a few days ago, although I knew the song; she seems to have completely bypassed me despite the fact that she achieved some notoriety a couple of years back. I have lots of friends who abhor the X Factor, but I’ve always been a fan (I even went to the live auditions a couple of months ago with some friends), I was also at Boughton House when they had the judges houses section the year Ella was on the show. My favourite of that year, Carolynne Poole, was voted off controversially and I lost interest, but it seems that young Ella was building her fan base. She was eventually voted off and took 6th place, this was the year James Arthur won. Two years later Ella is riding high and most people have forgotten the winner, by all accounts someone who let fame go to his head.
One Direction were another name who didn’t win the X Factor, placing third, but their future was assured with the full weight of Simon Cowell behind them. If we think beyond X Factor, and many of you will be glad I do, then we can look at historical characters who haven’t had it their own way before hitting their destined heights. Sir Isaac Newton was ridiculed for a long time before his scientific theories took hold, the same is true of Charles Darwin. Abraham Lincoln was a very public failure before becoming one of the greatest Presidents of all time and again Sir Winston Churchill was thought a maverick and trouble-maker (which he was), before becoming Prime Minister at the age of 65, having endured his wilderness years when many people would be thinking their life was over.
Tony Robbins often quotes the phrase “God’s delays are not God’s denials”; take away the religious connotations and it would seem to be true, but only to those who persevere. Ella Henderson’s success (some two years of bringing things together) has reinforced to me the idea that I am on the right track, even if I am a year behind in my ambitions. I am now working on a project which I believe will have a significant impact on me and others in early 2015 and it is the planning that I am doing now that I believe that will pay off then, I guess I will be judged when the time comes. My thought is, what is frustrating you right now? What feels so far away and what could you do to make that ‘thing’ happen? How much patience do you have? What work ethic do you have? What support network do you have in place to see your dreams come true? Ella Henderson, One Direction, Newton, Darwin, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill all kept going to get what they wanted and sometimes waiting is the only way.
Andy Gibney 