Today I start my weekly column for the magazine, in this place I note down my observations and experiences from the week before and give some thought to my gentlemanly journey, as for all of us it is an path of constant learning.
It has been a busy few weeks here at PGHQ in London, we are busy revamping the website; developing new products and strands to our quiver of Gentlemanly tricks. It means lots of meetings during the days and late nights of planning and writing.
I have had some chance for some fun during the last week, I attended the dance/musical extravaganza ‘Some Like It Hip Hop’ with Mrs F-B. I went as one of my ex-mentees from the Prince’s Trust, where I am a Business Mentor, was starring in it. Sheree Dubois was excellent in her performance, she is an amazingly talented vocalist and certainly one to watch in the future. The whole cast and performance were superb, it was a feast for the ears and the eyes. The dancing was superb and no wonder Sadlers Wells has put its weight behind it. I highly recommend seeing it before it comes off at the end of June.
One of the most interesting things about the performance, the show did change a great deal, was it reversed the traditional role reversal of the movie ‘Some Like it Hot’. In the classic film, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis dressed in drag and showed the audience a few of the challenges of womanhood in the late 1950s. (It also shows Tony Curtis do a most amazing parody of Cary Grant, but thats for another time). In ‘Some Like it Hip Hop’ the leads are ladies and they dress in drag to infiltrate a male dominated world, they showed more manners and gentlemanly conduct than most of the males in the world they inhabited. Sometimes it takes an outsider to show us what we need to do to change and make ourselves and the world better. In this case a man with a education and a pile of books and two women dressed as men, but seriously enjoy the dancing.
It happens to be a musical post this week as my other tale from the last week is about humility and honour on television. Mrs F-B has taken a shine to ‘The Voice’ and being a dutiful husband, one watches these things. I have to say, some of the performances are excellent and some are not but the point is how you deal with the success and the setbacks. It slightly twists in my gut that I am not surprised by some of the lack of humility shown by some of the contestants, in both achieving their triumphs and their disappointments.
One should be gracious in defeat as well as success, one should shake the hands of those that have helped them along the way and acknowledge a worthy opponent whatever the outcome of the contest. There will always be other battles, other scraps and some you win and some you lose but to paraphrase Kipling, it’s the ability to treat both the ups and downs just the same. You will be remembered for how you treated others in your journey up the ladder, no matter how many times you slide down. In these reality contest programmes, even though they are edited in certain ways, the honour and humility of some of the contestants can be clearly seen by the public. I am sure this will come into play when it comes to the public vote.
Make the world better than you found it on a daily basis,
Till next week,
Zach
