I was chatting to one of my co-presenters last night in Leeds, Stephen Hancocks – a former wet-fingered dentist who is now a publisher, writer, speaker and Editor of the the prestigious British Dental Journal.
On the subject of personal turning points, he related the story of a flat-mate in London who, when asked why he had failed to show up for an important job interview, told Stephen he just “couldn’t be bothered”.
Stephen reprimanded him with words to the effect of “you will never get on in life with that attitude” and was amazed when his colleague rallied with the comment – “so since when have you been able to comment on making the best of your life?”
This seemed unwarranted, as Stephen was a successful London dentist at the time – until his friend pointed out that he (Stephen) had been whining on for years about how he wished he had pursued a career in acting – but had never done anything about it.
“It was a turning point for me,” Stephen told me, “the next day I rang all the drama schools in London to ask for a prospectus, enrolled, trained and I now run my own theatre company which I lead, manage, write for and perform in.”
An outrageous dream fulfilled.