MAINTAINING THAT ELEVEN

by Jez Bond

I always used to wonder why an A in some exams was only 84% and why you could often get 50% and still pass. The truth is that attaining 100% is very difficult, and, as I have discovered, maintaining it is even harder still.

I am acutely aware that my energy level – which is the radiator of my passion, my enthusiasm and my confidence – must never falter. Positivity is the key to success and the energy one puts out into the world is absorbed by those around. As such I endeavour to personify the dial on the Spinal Tap guitar player’s amp – “this one goes up to eleven!”

Some days are understandably better than others. One day there’s pure joy at an exciting idea or a piece of architectural design that magically comes together, another day there is frustration at bureaucracy within an organisation we are dealing with or at a new stumbling block which has emerged. But, nevertheless, every day I must be at 100%. It’s simply not possible to create what we are trying to do with an amp that only goes up to ten – and I certainly won’t get anywhere running on nine.

And no I haven’t missed the point of that Spinal Tap gag (why not make ten the highest and make that as loud as the current eleven). The point is there is belief in the magic eleven and perhaps it’s that extra little something that propels us to greatness (cue the pods).

So I try – though I must admit I don’t always succeed. If money was no object – or if there were a team of people like me all working towards a mutual long term dream, then things might be different. Rome wasn’t built in a day and nor was it built by one man. The Park Theatre however is being built very quickly by very few.

Never before in the field of human culture…. or something like that!