“First the worst, second the best, third the one with the hairy chest!” chanted my six-year-old niece enthusiastically as she decided who would be going first at frisbee this Easter Sunday

As the inventor of the world’s first roadgoing locomotive, Richard Trevithick is revered in my hometown of Camborne: indeed, the final Saturday of each month has been designated as the town’s Trevithick Day for over forty years now, celebrating his achievements with dancing, steam engines, parades, stalls, entertainments and thousands of locals and visitors coming together to enjoy a real community day.

Trevithick had the worst luck though. The Puffing Devil steam engine that climbed Camborne Hill on Christmas Eve in 1801, overheated and incinerated itself shortly after. Although he worked on engineering projects and devised machines and engines around the globe during his career, he sometimes struggled to gain public recognition, and had long periods of poverty, eventually dying a lonely pauper, buried in an unmarked grave.

This might not sound very inspiring, you readers may be surmising. But what life-lessons can we learn, 223 years on from Trevithick’s record-breaking innovation?

1. Don’t be afraid to diversify. You are unlikely to thrive or survive doing exactly the same thing forever in your work or personal life. Try new projects and hobbies.
2. Leadership can be lonely. Practise acceptance that setting boundaries in the home, blazing trails in the workplace, is part of who you are, but not as easy as keeping your head below the parapet.
3. Money may make things easier, but, is it what makes you tick? Are you on this earth to be a parent, carer, innovator, leader? (If you’re not, that’s okay, by the way, but if that’s in your blood, money for something that isn’t your passion will stifle rather than inspire you).
4. Wherever you are from, and whatever hurdles you face, you can travel, create, inspire yourself and others.
5. Don’t stop believing.

Next fortnight I’ll be writing On Where It All Went Wrong – fret not, you won’t need the whole two weeks to read it! Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this subject you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Penny Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here:

https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/stress-awareness-at-work-beyond-eaps-what-managers-can-do-every-day-425/