DOING YOUR BEST

Last Friday I attended IoD Kent’s Business Breakfast at the Kent County Show.  It was a fabulous way to start the morning; there was some really good networking, and the sun was shining.

For me, the highlight was the keynote motivational speaker, Sascha Kindred, OBE.  Sascha is a Paralympian swimmer and coming into the London 2012 Paralympics, we learned that he was a 6-time Paralympic gold medal winner.  During his talk, Sascha produced a gold medal that he had won at Beijing, and we all clapped.  He then set the scene on his preparation behind his home games at the London 2012 Paralympics.  We learned how much his home games meant to him, more than any of the previous Paralympics where he already had a large gold medal haul.

Sascha told us how he had beaten the world record at the London 2012 Paralympics, and again we all clapped.  Then he produced a silver medal as his prize for beating the world record  - someone else had got a faster world record.  We clapped again, but we were all thinking that this was a silver medal and not a gold.  Then, Sascha put this all in context in an endearing manner.  ‘This silver medal means more to me than all my gold medals.  I came to my home games, I beat the world record and I did my best.’  He added: ‘All you can do is your best.’

So, I know that this is what we must aim for at all times, ‘doing our best’ and even if we aren’t first, it doesn’t mean we’re a failure, it means we have done our best and we can’t do more than that.

Sascha will be part of the 32 strong squad at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Canada in August 2013.  There will be coverage on Channel 4 Television, and you can bet your bottom Canadian dollar that I will be supporting him.  I did wish him good luck for August at the business breakfast, but somehow I don’t think he needs luck, or for me to motivate him!  Instead, I think this photo of me with him shows how Sascha is motivating us to ‘do our best’.