Training & Development
Those Two Imposters
Turfcare sector trainer and motivational speaker Frank Newberry considers how we might respond to the triumphs and disasters in our working lives
Above the players’ entrance of the Centre Court at Wimbledon is an inscription that reads: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same”.
These sixteen words are lines eleven and twelve of Rudyard Kipling’s popular poem ‘If’ which you may recall begins: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you”.
The great highs of triumph
At this point, to bring this piece closer to you personally, you may wish to pause to reflect and then insert into this unfolding narrative the names of well-known politicians, sporting heroes, famous entertainers, people in our own industry - and even perhaps - members of your own family who have experienced the great highs of triumph and those who know the desolation of disaster.
Kipling, who completed The Jungle Book in 1892 and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907, wrote the poem for his son John in 1909.
I have always wondered what he actually meant when he wrote about “those two imposters” - triumph and disaster. My Oxford Concise Dictionary defines an imposter as “a person who assumes a false character or pretends to be someone else”.
So, does this mean that a personal triumph is not really a triumph? Is a disaster not really a disaster?
Inspired by exploits and example
Should we not celebrate personal triumphs (in our careers and our personal lives) and feel sorrow for the disasters that may befall us?
Kipling’s poem was inspired by the exploits and example of Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, leader of the failed Jameson Raid of 1895 (against the Transvaal Republic to overthrow the Boer Government).
Had the raid succeeded, the British Government would probably have turned a blind eye to its illegality. Jameson was out of contact, under resourced and isolated. Impetuously, he launched the long planned raid without the order to proceed. Perhaps because it failed, Jameson and his fellow officers were duly arrested and tried in London for invading a ‘friendly state’.
140 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 A hero, a rascal and a rogue
According to Kipling, the poem was written in celebration of the many personal qualities Jameson displayed in overcoming the difficulties caused by the botched raid. Any study of Jameson’s life quickly confirms that the poem was indeed about the man. Jameson, who has been variously described as a hero, a rascal and a rogue, took personal responsibility for the failed venture - refusing to implicate others, some of whom were at the very highest level in Government.
Jameson was (in short order) found guilty, imprisoned, released because of severe ill- health and then pardoned. He led a very successful life following this personal disaster, receiving many honours in later years. For example, he served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1904 to 1908. In 1907, he was made a Privy Counsellor and, in 1911, he was made a Baronet.
Frank with two great groundsmen - Wimbledon’s Grant Cantin and Will Brierley. Photograph used by kind permission of AELTC Wimbledon
So how should we deal with triumphs and disasters in our own lives?
I have had a fair few of them myself, so here are ten tips to start you off but, as with everything, feel free to add your own:
Ten Tips
1. Be prepared for both triumphs and disasters
2. Anticipate that bad things and good things can happen more than once and, on occasions, both far apart and close together
3. Be prepared by checking out Kipling’s poem - particularly verses one, two and four. I am not a gambling man, so I prefer to see verse three of ‘If’ as a metaphor rather than an instruction
4. See each triumph and disaster as a moment in time, and then move on in your life
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