Emotional Intelligence – That moment when YOU decide what happens next…
In a week when Michelle Obama was in the UK, promoting a global initiative to provide education for all girls, everywhere, as a basic Human right, yesterday, I had the very great fortune to meet and listen to Richard Farleigh (of Dragon’s Den) at an event at Boyes Turner, Reading.
It wasn’t just that he was amusing and entertaining, that caught my attention…
It was his ‘story’; his account of life, growing up.
You can read about some of it here.
But, with an alcoholic and schizophrenic father, at the age of two, he and his 9 remaining siblings (one had died from drinking contaminated water) were separated and fostered out. I think he said it was 20 years before he saw any of them again.
Tough.
Goodness me, some of the stuff that people have to cope with.
Or not…
In his younger years he was written off as ‘backward’. Let’s face it… he had every right to be!
Like any child, he believed everything the grown-ups told him.
But after getting off to a slow start, and finding himself in a school for other ‘backward’ children, he began to find his feet… eventually at the age of 14, becoming a champion on the global professional chess circuit. The adult global professional chess circuit, mind you!
And that was just the beginning. Then followed university and the derivatives market (due to his mathematical ability – no computer algorithms back then – just the back of an envelope, a pencil, and your wits!) So more than once I found myself in awe of Richard’s ability and willingness to turn his life around.
No… More than that…
To thrive and succeed…
No… More than that…
To support and enable countless others to launch their ideas and turn their lives around, of course by using both his entrepreneurial business skills and emotional intelligence.
Meanwhile, I was running late for the second meeting of the day, and I still had to collect my car from the garage, where they were kindly updating the software in the computer in my car.
If only it were that simple to upgrade the operating software in your head!!
Well, in some ways it most certainly is! And you don’t have to go it alone, like Richard. Think Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy; ‘Brief Therapy’, if you like.
And it puts me in mind of an enduring idea that at any stage, you can stop in your tracks and say,
“Thanks mum, dad, teachers, friends, circumstances, events…
I’ll take it from here.”
But don’t get eaten…
You’ll enjoy Richard’s amusing account of a friend’s sporting prowess and a very special way of doing things…
Best advice from Tony Robbins
“Every day, work harder on yourself than on anything else, because if you become more intelligent, more valuable, you can add more value to other people.”