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I was talking at lunch today on the Business Course with Nigel, we were discussing travelling, staying in hotels and working away. 

Nigel has come to us on the Business Course to chat about his practice, he has an extraordinary life portfolio, travelling, doing the things that he likes and a very varied clinical working career. (I’ve asked his permission to say that, I did it on the course today).

I remember though the lesson I learned from my father in law who was a manager at Prudential, the insurance company. 

‘When the door shuts in your hotel room, when you’re work away, you’re nobody’.

Last week I travelled to Glasgow (I told you about that). I stayed in the Malmaison hotel, which was nice and luxurious, but it was lonely and sad when the door shut; I was nobody.

People like Nigel and me get asked to speak to different groups time and time again which is a privilege.

Generally, people who ask you to speak say “we’ll pay for your hotel and train”.

You seem to forget though, that I don’t need a hotel or a train if I don’t come to lecture. It would be much better of these people to say “please will you come to our group to speak because you might change lives, make a difference to dentistry and therefore society”; but nobody does that. They think it’s glamorous to go and stay in a hotel, and it isn’t.

Glamorous is walking to work.

Glamorous is walking to work with your headphones in and listening to a book.

Glamorous is walking your son to school with your dog before you go to work.

You can put me in a 5* hotel if you want but my house is better than that. It has my kids in it, my dog, my wife, it has a bike in the shed and a coffee machine in the kitchen.

I don’t stay in hotels to get away from my family, I stay in hotels to try and make a bigger difference to a greater group of people to make the world a better place for my family.

Blog psot number: 1567