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I can remember as a child in the early 1970s that my dad, who was managing director of a family business of shoe shops called, appropriately enough, Hilton’s Shoes, took up golf. He had no real experience, but a lot of business seemed to be done on the golf course in those days (probably still is for all I know – I don’t move in those kinds of circles). My dad enlisted my help one Saturday as his caddy. I had recently been dropped from the school football club. (No, not the school football team, the actual club. Apparently, I showed little promise in turns, falling over and ‘playing the man not the ball’ and rarely actually connecting with the ball!) So, I had a sudden window in my diary on Saturday mornings. Now I loved my dad to bits but his golfing skills gave my footballing ones a run for their money and he was approaching his first 18-hole match against other players (well, I suppose that’s what made it a match). As his willing but struggling caddy, I had trudged behind him to the first tee. There were no golf buggies back then and even if there had been, I would not have been of an age to drive one. He had inherited my grandfather’s clubs, made in the 1930s, which were seemingly forged out of lead and kept in a bag without even wheels. Bear in mind I was only a couple of years older than the photograph you saw of me at the front of the book. I was struggling a little here but my dad, although he was the best dad in the world, was largely oblivious. He was focused on trying to get around the 18-hole course. I sensed he was apprehensive (although I probably did not know the word at the time, let alone know how to spell it!) but as he was about to tee off, he said out loud, ‘One hole at a time.’ Whether my dad was talking out loud to himself or talking to me, it stuck with me. Rather than being overwhelmed by the pressure and the watching gaze of the other players, he broke the task down into 18 smaller goals. I don’t remember him winning but he did get around the course.
Enough said.
Riding the Waves
13. Aim for respect and not popularity Nobody I know deliberately seeks to be unpopular but doing the right thing will not be popular, as other members of staff are only likely to have some of the pieces of the jigsaw and our nature is to look to see how things are going to affect us first. Accepting that this is the way of things can help to build your
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04-Mar-20 13:48:10
