Last Night a Statue Saved My Life.

There was a time when I realised I couldn’t lead anymore. A drought of inspiration and a lack of self-investment led to an almost Severance-like persona, ‘innie and outtie Andy’. Work divorced from meaning. All output, no human whole.

We’ve all been there. Many of you are there right now.

But inspiration sometimes comes from the strangest of places. One minute, you are bowling down the boulevard of boredom, heading into the corporate cul-de-sac, and wham, there it is: the spark, the ignition, the fire, the clarity, the momentum, the change, the new path to a daylit future.

My spark came from a lump of marble.

A Bernini, to be precise.

While clearing out the magic drawer, I stumbled across a picture of a Bernini, taken during a weekend in Rome a decade earlier.

Carved from marble with the most basic set of tools, here was an anatomically stunning masterpiece. Two people caught in mid-explosion, intimately woven together, with infinite detail of emotion and suspense, all captured in stone.  

Bold, beautiful, Baroque.

My inner Lumon retired me right there and then. I needed out.

If Bernini, at 23, could sculpt a moment in time, from a block of marble, surely I could sculpt my future self from this lump of me?

With my marbled inspiration, serendipity did its thing, and opportunity knocked in the form of an Instagram ad from the government, seeking volunteer leaders to help mentor SME owners to become better leaders and build better businesses.

I enrolled with enthusiasm. If I can’t lead, I can at least enable others to do so.

From here, the cascade of career change flowed, moving me from being a lost leader to becoming a mentor with momentum. From meaningless to meaningful.

And here I am now, helping all sorts of leaders sculpt a better version of themselves.

Andy Bernini, don’t cha know?

But on reflection: The trip to Rome, the magic drawer, the Bernini photo, and the Instagram ad.

They were a series of tiny, inconsequential moments that, when brought together by chance, led to a significant change.

It’s almost a Severance-style storyline.

Only this story was written by fate and not by me.

Meaning I waited for my story to be written.

Meaning I was a lump of marble for longer than I needed to be.

Don’t wait for your story to be written for you.

 Write it yourself. Now.

Start carving. Sculpt yourself

Have the courage to remove that first piece of stone, because once it’s removed, you can’t put it back. You will keep on carving, with the help of your own Bernini.

Sever your ties to your inner Lumon and become the leader you aspire to be.

This weekend, check the magic drawer.

Inspiration is all around; it can be found.

Regards, Gian.