A couple of items on the radio and TV have caught my attention over the Christmas break. The first was the appearance of Sir Torquil Norman on Desert Island Discs. I'd never heard of him before but I was fascinated by his story:
Having sold his successful toy business, instead of sinking into a gentle and peaceful retirement, he threw himself into raising the money needed (a mere £30 million) to restore a derelict railway engine shed in Camden called the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse had been famous in the '60s and '70s as an alternative performing arts venue and Norman had enjoyed taking his children there. This was an unimaginably massive project and he explained rather gleefully how everyone had told him that this was "the stupidest thing anyone's ever done", that he'd "never get the money needed and would have to give back all the money he had been given", and that it had absolutely no chance of success. But, against all the odds, by sheer determination and persistence he made it happen. The Roundhouse re-opened in June 2006.
I also watched When Harvey Met Bob, the story of Live Aid where Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and Harvey Goldsmith made the impossible happen by creating the all-day global rock concert in London and Philadelphia to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Every big name from the world of rock performed for free that day and tens of millions were raised. From a single, nagging idea that he had to do something to help, Geldof, through the force of his personality, dogged determination and passion for the cause, really did make the impossible happen on that hot summer day in July 1985. Even watching the film in retrospect it's almost unbelievable to think that he pulled it off.
Both of these stories are living proof that if you've got the passion, the vision and the determination anything can be achieved. We're on the brink of the New Year. Is there something you've long dreamed of doing, having or being, but others have told you it was impossible? Could 2011 be the year that you set out to prove them wrong...?
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