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Little interlude. Those of you with me on here a decade ago may remember that I was collecting a book of advice for my son when he was 14 this year.
2020 seemed pretty distant then. http://tomfletcher.global/blogs/details/70">https://tomfletcher.global/blogs/det...
2020 seemed pretty distant then. http://tomfletcher.global/blogs/details/70">https://tomfletcher.global/blogs/det...
I loved that book. I would have run back into a burning house for it. Pearls of wisdom from three US Presidents and so many more. Other people were curious about it too.
Like @LOS_Fisher @thetimes:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dream-big-kid-and-give-carla-a-call-mtxkvdcsh88
And">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d... @richardquest @CNN
https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2013/08/26/qmb-fletcher-advice-for-charlie.cnn">https://www.cnn.com/videos/bu...
Like @LOS_Fisher @thetimes:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dream-big-kid-and-give-carla-a-call-mtxkvdcsh88
And">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d... @richardquest @CNN
https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2013/08/26/qmb-fletcher-advice-for-charlie.cnn">https://www.cnn.com/videos/bu...
Well, two years ago I lost it.
I know, I know.
I had taken it to show some @nyuniversity students and then it was gone.
Mortified. Hunted endlessly. Harboured unfair thoughts about who had nicked it. Grieved for it. Even worse, my son’s 14th birthday is coming up.
I know, I know.
I had taken it to show some @nyuniversity students and then it was gone.
Mortified. Hunted endlessly. Harboured unfair thoughts about who had nicked it. Grieved for it. Even worse, my son’s 14th birthday is coming up.
And then this morning I was doing one of those manic lockdown clear outs.
I was being ruthless with an old file of Foreign Office reports. I was debating whether to keep one that said I’d make a half decent diplomat once I developed some gravitas.
And it just dropped out.
I was being ruthless with an old file of Foreign Office reports. I was debating whether to keep one that said I’d make a half decent diplomat once I developed some gravitas.
And it just dropped out.
Rapture.
But I’m terrified of losing it again. So with my son’s permission, here are some of the best pieces of advice.
I think they are even more useful than I’d realised for the 2020 in which we ended up.
I think they are even more useful than I’d realised for the 2020 in which we ended up.
In all the book of advice, the one the Presidents were most excited to appear with was @jk_rowling:
Love the exuberance of this one from President Kufuor of Ghana:
Bill Clinton wrote his out in draft first.
Gorbachev’s was the most moving:
President Obama didn’t linger over his, with good reason: https://www.google.ae/amp/s/www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/david-cameron-barack-obama-tie%3famp">https://www.google.ae/amp/s/www...
Chris Hoy wrote his in Beijing, just after winning his third gold medal:
Beckham and Pele did theirs at the same time. In the excitement I didn’t explain the advice part very well...
George W Bush took the book away for a month to read it. I was relieved to get it back with a long note saying how much he had learnt from it.
Some wisdom from Irish President Michael D Higgins, who signed it in Beirut after visiting Irish troops on the border.
I should stop there so that some of them are still a surprise on his actual birthday. Obama said he would be rich or smart, depending on whether we sold the book or kept it. It’s not for sale and I will never lose it again. 
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