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I'm genuinely grateful for all the birthday wishes that came my way yesterday - thank you everyone.
The fact that anyone takes a few seconds or minutes out of their day to express appreciation is a true blessing.
Encouragement, of course, to pay that kindness forward, either through professional vocation or personal care.
71 years - I can't really believe it - and nearly 55 years of full-time employment in some guise or other.
The expression "wisdom enters through the wound" re-occurs to me today, as I think back on the years of feast and famine.
I think I've learned the biggest lessons during the years of famine. Lessons around coming to terms with failure, about resilience and the determination to bounce back higher.
"Mountains, valleys and missiles".
I decided to update a PDF to reflect just how many years were good or bad - and attach that here.
43 years of success.
10 years of failure.
I'll take those numbers as a reminder (when I'm beating myself up) that I'm 4 x better at succeeding than I am at failing.
Also a reminder that I can fail - so as not to get too cocky, or make stupid decisions to try and fix things that aren't broken, or chase BSO's.
Finally, to observe that all of it was self-inflicted, good and bad - nobody "did it to me", so there is no Drama.
You should grab a sheet of paper and a pen, create the two columns, list your previous career and work out your own ratios of success to failure - it might just contextualise your current circumstances. All things must pass.
Birthday over - time to look forward again.
Another example of the 80:20 rule in action.