The Parapet

Raising Your Head

There is little doubt that raising your head above the parapet exposes you to the danger of it getting shot at. Anyone in the public eye or in sport or business faces this prospect.

In my time, as a businessperson, I've certainly been shot at - and, I have to say, continue to be shot at. Reluctantly I accept this as a hazard and by-product of my business and personal life.

Anonymous

I guess the most upsetting thing at seeing my own name, David Abingdon, in the same sentence as the word ‘scam’ – which is something that has happened to me recently, and to my real shock - is that a lot of people that write such things hide behind the guise of a pseudonym or just plain ‘anonymous’. 

I don’t think I’m on my own when I say that any reasonable person cannot help but think that they are spineless and cowardly, taking pot shots and then hiding from view. It seems shocking that these people feel that they can write whatever they choose – even if it isn’t true. There’s freedom of speech and then there’s freedom to make all kinds of remarks without any fear of comeback because you’re shielded behind a cloak of anonymity. I’m a pretty upfront person who is much more likely to spark a row by calling a spade a useless, blunt shovelling implement than by making a veiled dig, so it’s not how I work at all.

Others self-righteously judge and scoff without examining the evidence or the facts. They somehow feel that for someone to succeed in their peer group reflects badly upon them and shows them up as non-achievers. Therefore they must attack, undermine and criticize.

Someone once said:

‘Normal’ people will tell you that

If you dream you are crazy,

If you succeed you are lucky, and

If you are wealthy you are greedy.

Some of it may, of course, be due to the Tall Poppy Syndrome. Someone does something genuine with their life and earns merit only to be cut down, resented or subjected to condemnation because they succeed in elevating themselves. How sad.

To me it is a self-evident truth, and I’ve always made it plain to my students and the people I work with that, for what I teach to work, then it must be down to them. Hard work is the only way to make it work, and I should know, given that I never exactly had a silver spoon myself and built up my own businesses by putting in the graft, grind and sleepless nights that it so often takes.

In other words, I can show you what to do and how to do it but I can’t actually make you do it. You must do it for yourself – and if you don’t, you really can’t blame anyone else.  Even when that is the easy way out.