Love, privilege and hard-work…

On Saturday we were very honoured and lucky to hear Duncan Piper, Director of the Dyson Institute speak.

The basis of his talk was the journey to the interview at the Dyson Institute.  He was a very good presenter in the right amount of drama and intrigue as to where the tale was going to end.

In summary he broke up his holiday to fly back for the interview with Sir James Dyson.  It meant putting his beach clothes to one side and flying from Barcelona to Heathrow to be met by his father and then driven to Wiltshire to the Dyson Institute.  The interview goes well and then as he is sitting in the car to drive back to Heathrow he gets the call to say he has the job.

Duncan describes in that moment the realisation that he got the job because the man sitting on right hand side driving the car had made it happen.  His father and mother had provided unconditional love and above all trusted that he would always find his way.  As parents it is so hard not to interfere and look at the world through our own filter which is a generation away from our children.

The other component on that day for Duncan was the realisation how privileged he was. He said he was a white young middle classed male who had received an excellent education.  We often assume everyone has the same opportunities, and we seldom stop to acknowledge our good fortune.

Privilege and love can drive you very far, however you do have to join the party with hard-work.  Duncan describes being bullied at school and reaching 6ft 3 and constantly falling over.  At the age of 14 he discovered he could run and he ran up Primrose Hill constantly to the point that school realised he could run.  From there other areas fell into place, if you could get good at running by hard-work, could you not do anything if you worked hard.

The recipe is truly brilliant – love, privilege and hard-work.  Forge ahead with confidence and appreciate the people and opportunities around you and work hard.

Please do contact  bev@nuggetsoflearning.co.uk  for colourful coaching to develop your confidence.