My values
I believe that values are important. They underpin our actions and give us the character and support to get through difficult times. Being conscious of the values that motivate and sustain us also makes it much easier for us to set and achieve rewarding goals.
My core values are:
- AUTHENTICITY: I have always valued honesty and straight-forwardness in people. Authenticity is also about sticking to your principles when the tide seems to be against you. I once heard Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British army and one of the few luminaries my school produced, say in response to a reporter who was suggesting that he was being politically incorrect:"I believe you are mistaking me for someone who gives a sh*t". This appealed to me because it is unusual and refreshing to see an establishment figure showing independence of mind and having the courage of his convictions.
- OPPORTUNITY: while it is important to know your own mind, the value in attaining such self-awareness is to enable you to recognise and take opportunities in life, not confirm you on a single, uncompromising track. Samuel Johnson wrote "To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life." I believe that, as a society, we operate massively beneath our potential ... and that the secret to unlocking that potential is for individuals to explore and understand their motivations and personalities and to make lifelong commitments to learning so that they are best placed to recognise and take opportunities when they arise.
- COMMUNITY: I define community as a group of people with different personalities and backgrounds working together for common benefit. The term has been hijacked by online forums which link people together who have interests in common for their own gratification. For me the essence of community is sacrificing some of your narrow, individual interest for the benefit of others without expectation of any direct, personal reward.
Two of my favourite quotes are:
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T.E.Lawrence
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." Bertrand Russell
For me they balance each other perfectly. One should seek to change things for the better because it is possible to do so, but one must remember that we are but tiny stepping stones in the evolution of humanity. Little can be achieved and sustained without a good team and successors to continue the good work.
The picture on this page is from a multimedia project of mine on the Heygate council estate in Elephant & Castle, South London. Two caryatids, female, sculpted figures carved by Henry Poole in 1885 and which decorated Rotherhithe Town Hall until bombing destroyed the building in 1945, existed almost unnoticed for the duration of the estate's existence. They were moved on in 2009 in preparation for the estate's demolition. I have a certain affinity with the statues - they have their own personality - stoical and still dignified despite years of neglect.