I Do Like a Whinge But ...

Well to be honest, like many people, I do like a bit of a moan about how tired I am, little things that go wrong, I'm too busy, I'm not busy enough, the list is pretty endless. But have I got anything to moan about really? I've got a long list of things that are going wrong with the building we've moved into. Yes the Palace Hub seems to have been built by people inspired by John Wayne, the early films of Clint Eastwood and who may be rather fond of Brokeback Mountain or Geordie builders anyway who are to building skills what Kevin Keegan is to football management. Yes they've done a lot of it, it initially looks good but it turns out sh** in the end.

See I told you I like a moan ...

Tuesday morning changed my perception on my regular gripes though. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council held their first business breakfast network and as a bit of a serial networker I went along. It wasn't massively attended with much of the audience consisting of Redcar council bods but there was a speaker and the breakfast was pretty good (much better than the Middlesbrough equivalent I have to say). So a bit of networking, a cuppa and a bacon bun later we were ready for the "inspirational speaker".

Now I've seen a number of "inspirational speakers" and most of them aren't. I didn't know much about this fella named Ben McBean (@benmcbean on Twitter) but he did live up to his billing. Ben was a Royal Marine who was blown up in Afghanistan losing most of one leg and one arm and nearly his life. Since being discharged he has used his compensation to build his own business and it is doing well. Ben didn't tell us how to grow our businesses and gain more customers, he simply told his story and highlighted that life is what you make of it and it is up to you to make a success of it or otherwise.

The lasting memory is of his photo just before his op after being injured. He knew he may die and couldn't think of the fantastic one liner we all want at the point so he simply had a photo of him taken with thumbs up and big smile. His limbs were shattered and he must have been in massive pain but he wanted to show that he was proud of what he had done and achieved. On surviving he has gone on to believe that you can achieve with whatever you have and what you want to do if you have belief and put in the effort. Ben is a truly inspirational speaker.

So on Friday I woke, felt miserable as I knew it's going to be a long weekend of work despite being a bank holiday and then in my mind up popped an image of Ben pre-op with a big smile and thumbs up. I immediately smiled and just cracked on - thanks Ben!