Reality or Fantasy? Pt1

2012 was an interesting year for me in several ways. I had taken on many challenges and responsibilities both in my personal life and in Business but the major highlight of the year was the birth of our first daughter, Hannah who was born in November 2012.

As most new fathers do, I tried to prepare myself for this new journey; I bought an iPhone app that teaches how to prepare for fatherhood, I read many articles online and I even visited forums to get some insight from other fathers. As great as all the information I came across, I was not ready for the task ahead and the real challenges that was to come. I always tell people that parenthood can be compared to driving. There are two aspects of a driving test; the theoretical and then the practical aspect. Preparing and passing a theory driving test does not guarantee that you can drive a car. You can read about it in a book, learn the road signs but until you step in a car and drive on a road, you cannot call yourself a driver. Parenthood is exactly the same thing in my own opinion, until you experience it, you will never fully understand the responsibility attached to it.

You may wonder why I started by introducing you to my new challenge. One of the many eye-openers that I have encountered since becoming a new father is the concept of ‘sleepless nights’. During my wife’s pregnancy period, many people would warn us that we should be prepared for a life-changing process and look forward to sleepless nights but I would always think to myself; ” surely it can’t be that bad“.  Well fast-forward a couple of months down the line and reality has hit home. I am a father and sleeping has become a myth!

I struggled with this for the first couple of weeks as it was not easy staying up at night and then turning up to client appointments looking like a zombie. After a couple of weeks, I decided that I would turn this challenge into an opportunity. I had that light bulb moment and thought to myself, “Why don’t I use the opportunity to do some work at night while I am unable to sleep”. So I started working through the night and this meant that I was utilising the nights that I would have otherwise spent trying to sleep. The immediate lesson I will share with you from the story above is that you must always try to look for opportunities in every challenge that you face but that is not the point of this piece.

While working through the night, I would usually use the opportunity to catch up on my favourite shows that I may have missed or listen to my favourite speakers online. From my previous posts, I may have mentioned that my biggest passion of mine is coaching individuals to greatness and bringing out the best in people, helping them to utilise their gifts and talents. It is not surprising then that two of my favourite TV shows are ‘The Apprentice UK’ and ‘Dragons Den’.

I have become attached to these two shows as they are focused on helping individuals develop their Businesses in different ways and I tend to learn a lot from the shows as well as broadening my understanding of Business in general.

While watching the last season of ‘ The Young Apprentice’, I pondered on the format of this ‘reality show’ and I thought to myself:

“Can this show really be classified as a reality TV show?’

I will be discussing my thoughts and findings in the second part of this writing.