One of the big cultural events each year in the UK is the TV series “Strictly Come Dancing”, where celebrities are paired with professional dancers and compete through the autumn and early winter each week. Trust me, go with it, it is an affirmation of human nature and joy as the nights turn darker and colder. Last weekend this year’s champion was crowned, a beautiful and radiant human called Hamza Yassin.
Hamza is a 32-year-old wildlife photographer who, as he graduated with a degree in zoology, visited the wild Ardnamurchan peninsula in the Scottish HIghland and then has never left, making it his home. I can’t really say too much about how great Hamza is, but to put in context, the top nature television presenter of all time is Sir David Attenborough. I see Hamza as a worthy successor!
If you can, watch the documentary on his story called “Scotland: My Life in the Wild“, I promise it will put many a broad smile on your face!
Now, when Hamza was asked to say a few words upon winning “Strictly”, he said:
Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming
Quite lovely. I looked this up and found the three quotes in the image above, attributed to a Tony-winning actor, André de Shields, giving three phrases to live by:
One: Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.
Two: Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be, and
Three: The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing.
At the age of 57, each of these feels ever more resonant for me.
Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming
- I am, as Chip Conley would say, focussed on “editing, not adding” to my life now, and that includes the people I commit my energy and focus to. If you know yourself to be someone on that list, know that my eyes light up when I see you coming!
Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be
- I am known for saying “slow down now to speed up later”. Do what is the right thing to do, always, and you will see those seeds blossom in time. At this stage in life, I see this as all my boys grow and mature as men. I also see this in business a lot now and in recent years, as I wrote about in: “Sowing seeds that may not ripen for years“, as people contact me, sometimes after years of being out of touch, to tell me something like “hey, someone wants to buy my business now!”, or “I’m ready now to work with you”, or simply “I wanted to say thank you for your help back then”.
The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing
- I look at this so positively. Life is a journey, not a destination. If we choose to, we can always be learning and growing, building on all we have experienced and learned so far as we move onwards and upwards.