Making It Happen Part 3

 

Okay, so we left part two after I made the decision to go it alone and stop trying to get a Production Company to help me shoot the film which ultimately, would make the already seemingly insurmountable mountain I had to climb even steeper and higher. Nobody really knew who I was, nobody really cared who I was and I had absolutely nothing to show to anybody that would illustrate where the hell I was coming from with the idea for "Of Shark and Man," so realising this needed rectifying, I did the following...

I shot a "Teaser Trailer."

You can watch it in all it's full HD, fullscreen glory here.

First of all, what problems did I have with this?

• I didn't have an HD camera
• The film is going to be based in Fiji, I have never been to Fiji, nor do I have any footage of Fiji
• I was living in Leeds at the time. There aren't many sharks in Leeds.
• At this stage, I had only ever shot and cut music videos for the band alongside two parody "rockumentaries" used merely as a way to put a load of live footage from different gigs on one tape, I had never had to storyboard anything or construct my own shoot.

The camera was the easy part. In a symbiotic illustration of things to come and something which would become a big part of "From the Office..." Liam at Banter Media and Hamish had, on the same day, told me about the range of Canon DSLR cameras which would also shoot broadcast quality HD 1080p video and it just so happened that Hamish had one, the Canon 550D which he very kindly allowed me to borrow and also volunteered to shoot the scenes with me in them. Result!

The lack of Fiji and the lack of sharks was a big problem, it's a teaser for a film about sharks in Fiji and it won't have either in it so what the hell was I supposed to do?! This is lesson seven, learn to make the most out of the resources you have available and more importantly, be creative with them!

 

I had some video which I had shot in the Bahamas in 2008 but it was only SD footage and would not have been anywhere near the quality required for this introduction to "David Diley the film-maker." It was in a meeting with Dave Glanfield of Ocean Leisure Cameras where I had a pretty cool idea, well, I say I had the idea, it was originally a suggestion made by Dave in regards to still imagery for promo material which inspired the idea but I figured it would be a cool idea to focus on the urban and very "un-sharky" nature of my everyday surroundings. Like I said, I wanted to be original. I would take the footage of sharks and subtly place them in the glass as reflections, they were the embodiment of my dream so I would show that dream following me through the mundanity of my life.

It was only a small project but provided great experience in actually structuring my own shoot and coming up with ideas which not only reflected my idea, but were achievable.

The trailer was edited on an ordinary laptop using Adobe CS4 Master Collection and the music was my own, recorded in my close friend, Mark Burrows' bedroom on a desk top PC where we also did the voice over. This trailer cost in total, £2 to make and that was for the bus tickets to shoot the shot on the bus!

The reception was very encouraging and despite not really knowing what I was doing or how to get to grips with the camera, I don't think it looks too bad. Most important, I had something to show people how I was behind a camera but perhaps even more important, what I looked like in front of one!

 

Crowd funding

First things first, crowd funding is ace.

For those who don't know it's a way for cool people who like your idea to donate towards the cost of whatever it is you're doing and it could be anything. The concept is simple, you advertise your project and people donate whatever they want in return for a variety of "perks" like credits, merchandise, premiere screening tickets etc.

I used Indiegogo and found the whole process simple and effective and I raised $1000 which ultimately went towards the purchase of vital equipment needed to make the film and I cannot stress enough just how appreciative I am to the people who gave their hard earned money, in a time of extreme financial downturn, to help me make this happen. I can't wait to start giving out the perks when the film is complete!

I was always highly dubious of trying to source funding from ordinary people as the concept made me feel uncomfortable, however, it actually became something I considered when people started asking me how they could donate money to help me. It was immensely humbling and also went to show that people really did want to see this film get made.

 

Assemble your crew

I'll admit, my single biggest mistake came at this point and it's one I would urge you not to repeat yourselves. I didn't allow myself anywhere near enough people to actually help me make this film. The point of a crew is that their expertise and energy ultimately make your life easier in your role as director/producer/talent (eurgh, I hate that phrase!). However, in my paranoia about escalating my budget further, I simply employed people to do the things I physically couldn't do due to me operating in another role simultaneously as opposed to thinking about my own workload. 

I was used by now to working stupidly long hours and overloading my plate with too much responsibility and I should have thought that during production, I should give myself less of a workload than I did. I should have taken a co-producer and co-director who could help me with the mountain of responsibility I had in making production run as smooth as possible. The major role my co-producer would have been given would have been to log and back up all footage whilst editing dailies because alongside directing, filming, producing and on-camera responsibilities every day, I would have to do this every single night, all footage and sound from three people and listen to me when I say that it is a huge pain in the arse, by the end of production I was an exhausted gibbering wreck. I won't be making that mistake again.

 

I like to think I'm pretty good behind a camera but if I were to ask someone to hand over their hard earned money I could hardly ask them do it on the basis that I think I'm pretty good and I shot a three minute trailer and nothing else, so I needed a pro cameraman with a proven track record to guarantee the footage would be broadcast standard. On Hamish's recommendation I got Hugh Fairs on board and I'd already promised Hamish he could come to fulfill a variety of roles, many of which he'd have to learn on the spot and that was it, that is literally how I put my team together! Like I said, I didn't really know what I was doing and was making it up as I went along, to go into a production like this with a crew of only three people is ridiculous and not something I will ever do again, however, we pulled it off and that is testament to all involved but I would suggest to you that you save yourself the headache and try to cover all the bases.

Promote yourself

I already mentioned using social media to announce you and your project to the world but the big thing you have to do is get some media attention and this isn't easy! I spent a good while emailing and phoning all the major newspapers and although they thought it was a nice idea, none really thought anything would come of it so decided against committing to speaking to me about the film, which to be fair, I can understand.

A couple of websites had featured little bits about me but it was, bizarrely, the BBC of all places which gave me my first break. In December last year the shark attacks in Egypt made sharks front page news in the UK and it was the usual Daily Mail-esque scaremongering and nonsense for the most part. Hamish called me one day to say he had heard people discussing it on the radio and that I should try to call the radio station and provide a more balanced and informed opinion on what was happening, so I did! I was surprised to be put straight through and the journo seemed genuinely interested in what I was saying, we must have been on the phone for at least forty five minutes and lo and behold, the next day I'm on the front page of the BBC website!

Within a couple of days I had been approached by the local newspaper who wanted to do a feature on me (see above) and since then I have been featured and interviewed by numerous places, a particular favourite being this interview with Beyond Limits. The main point here is that when you get your first bit of coverage, use it cleverly and others will follow if your story is interesting enough.

I often feel uncomfortable putting myself out there as the figurehead of these projects. I'm not some attention seeking primadonna desperate to be a star, in fact, I'm quite the opposite, but I have to appreciate that I am the glue which binds all these films together, therefore I need to be a recognisable element throughout the lifespan of "From the Office..." after all, the films are, to some degree, about me and my passion so it's unavoidable, you gotta bite the bullet and put yourself out there, it gets easier the more you do it, I promise.

 

Find your sponsor

I had my idea, loads of detailed proposals, a buzz, media coverage and was gaining industry support for my project but all the while I was still skint, so much so that by this time, January 2011, I had had to give up my flat as I couldn't afford the rent or the bills anymore, financially, I was on my arse at this point so in the highly likely event I wasn't going to win the lottery, it wasn't going to be me paying for this production.

I had spent a week or so sending emails to an enormous list of companies and corporations along with famous and wealthy individuals like Richard Branson, Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Karen Brady and I even tried to get in touch with Lars Ulrich but all to no avail, I had sent approximately a thousand emails in this week which remains possibly the most tedious and boring exercise I have ever undertaken, with no serious nibbles on my proposal I was starting to worry but I had an ace up my sleeve...

The previous October, I had swapped a couple of emails with Jane at Fiji Me who had responded positively and said she would discuss it with her partner, Martin, and get back to me. That same month, at the Dive Show at Birmingham NEC, I stumbled across the Fiji Me stall and thought I had nothing to lose...

"Hi, is Jane about?"

"I'm afraid not but Martin is, would you like to speak with him?"

It turns out that Jane had spoken excitedly to Martin about my idea and we got on like a house on fire, his energy and enthusiasm was a breath of fresh air for me and he gave positive signs that they might just be interested in helping me out! They were passionate about animals and conservation and even more passionate about the people of Fiji, I knew they were the ones I wanted to work with. The saying goes that you "shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket," I always say it depends how strong the basket is, Fiji Me were the obvious choice for me and I thought if I was already gambling everything, I should back the winner and the winner in this race, was Fiji Me, I was certain of it...

The next few months consisted of hundreds of emails back and forth and a couple of really enjoyable meetings with Jane and it was looking good, they were definitely interested...

Shoot a short film

This was an obvious thing to do and in all fairness, I should have done it sooner. I had had an idea for some time and out of the blue I was contacted by a complete stranger who I didn't realise at the time was going to become a close friend and a big part of "From the Office..." The email was from an Aussie called Brad Robertson who, along with his lovely wife Bea, had set up a conservation focussed eco-business in Mallorca called Ondine Escape and I liked him immediately, he shared my enthusiasm and passion and he was responsive to ideas and advice. Soon we were talking on Skype about my project and during one of these conversations, I mentioned I had always wanted to shoot a film about sharks in Mallorca and his response was typical of the man he is, "why don't we?" 

Brad was running a PADI Shark Awareness course in conjunction with Palma Aquarium and within less than a week Brad and I were discussing my idea with two amazing people, Debora Morrison and Roman Gradel who both held educational and conservational positions within Palma Aquarium;

"I want to take a group of non-divers, train them up to dive then put them in your tank with the sharks and document their reactions, it won't cost much, barely anything and would be a nice short, ten minute, pro-shark piece..."

They thought it was a great idea and it was then I asked a question which popped into my head, remembering the main feature of the idea I had had for a few years, "I don't suppose you know anyone who has any photos or first hand experience of the Great White Sharks caught there do you?"

It turned out that they did and "Behind Blue Glass" was born (full HD trailer here). 

We got out micro budget funding within three weeks and three weeks later I was on a plane to Mallorca for pre-production, returning a week later to put the script and screenplay together before returning with Liam in tow, for the two week production on April 14th, only two months after Brad's first contact.

 

Shooting "Behind Blue Glass" will always be one of the happiest periods of my whole life. Three people who barely had any idea of what they were doing and poor old Liam, trying to make sense of my explanations of what I wanted in garbled, pseudo techno speak but in all honesty, he was brilliant, he knew I was new to this and that Brad and Bea had basically had things thrust into their hands to record sound, operate cameras, translate and be interviewed on camera and instead of getting frustrated or narky, he was immensely positive, gave encouragement and advice when needed and took a lot of the workload off my shoulders. 

Brad and Bea were nothing short of a revelation and I would have them in my film crew again in a heartbeat, professional, enthusiastic and energetic they never moaned once despite being driven way harder than they should have been, we all worked far too long hours and were emotionally and physically drained by the end of shooting but it was a hugely enjoyable two weeks and we managed to get some really, really great stuff. 

The trailer was incredibly well received and off the back of production, a shark conservation initiative is being launched by Palma Aquarium, not only that, shark conservation is now being discussed in Mallorquin media now, not bad considering all we had was an idea a couple of DSLR cameras and a load of enthusiasm! "Behind Blue Glass" will have its premiere screening in Mallorca in October and will then be available for you to buy, shortly afterwards.

Full speed ahead Fiji!!

In keeping with the way I seem to do things, I was about to get the news I wanted at a time when it would challenge me the most.

Having still been unsure as to whether I would source the funding I needed when I committed to doing "Behind Blue Glass," I figured it could be the thing that would be the final piece in the jigsaw that would encourage Fiji Me to take the plunge and finance "Of Shark and Man." It turned out that I didn't need that final piece of the jigsaw after all because on March 27th, two days before I set out to Mallorca for pre-production, I got confirmation that I had secured full funding to go to Fiji and make this dream a reality.

Less than a year previously, I was nothing more than a dreamer sat in an office wishing he was doing something else, now here I am with not one but two films to make! I would return from Mallorca on April 28th and have to start editing "Behind Blue Glass" immediately in order to finish that before I flew to Fiji. On top of all this I had to write the guide screenplay and script for "Of Shark and Man" and stock up on everything I needed for production and make sure that both Hamish and Hugh were ready to go as well, I still can't quite believe I actually managed to do it but it did entail working through to 5am pretty much every single day for a month so here is lesson eight, if you can, put gaps between your projects!

It took me nine months and twenty seven days to go from nothing to actually changing my life forever, endless days work, long sleepless nights, no money, highs and lows but here I was, this stupid gamble had paid off, this naive belief that yes, anything was possible, had actually got me over the finishing line of my single biggest obstacle and I couldn't quite believe it. I felt two distinct feelings, absolute, utter joy and vindication but also the weight of pressure that came with knowing, the hard work was only just beginning, I'd been given the golden ticket, this is my one and only chance, whatever you do, don't blow it...

To be continued...

Making It Happen - Part 1

 

I made a promise when I started on this whole absurd undertaking, that when (notice I didn't say "if") I made it happen, I would tell you, my faithful reader, my supporter and in many cases my friend how I actually managed to pull off what, at pretty much every step of the journey, looked like an impossible task. I don't break promises, so here it is, part one of pretty much the whole story in chronological order (probably!) of how I managed it, it might be a long one this so bear with me!

The main reason I am so keen to do this is because, particularly in the shark world, nobody has ever done it before, the very, very first thing I did when I started to seriously consider making a gargantuan life decision was to research how to do it and put something like this together before quickly realising that that help just does not exist, at least not for mass consumption anyway but why? We'll come to that later...

Ok, first thing's first, let's start from the beginning, as in way, way back, because that will give you a good idea of the foundations upon which I was building when I decided the risk was worth it in really dedicating myself to this because that is hugely important. This also isn't solely limited at addressing those who want to work with sharks, most of this is applicable to pretty much everything. I'm not going to tell you what to do, I'm not even saying you should do things the same way I did, I'm just hoping there are a few bits of information relative to me which you can find useful and apply to your own goals.

Who am I but more importantly, who are you!?

We can't all be born and raised on the Great Barrier Reef, in the Bahamas, Florida or Hawaii, we can't all have ardent SCUBA Diving parents and/or a mountain of family wealth or connections to the industries in which we want to work, let's be honest, most of us don't so that's where we have something in common.

I grew up in the industrial north of England, I am the only diver in my entire (yet miniscule) family and I am from a very working class family, my dad rennovated and designed pubs and my mum at one time, worked three jobs just to put me through university. I am not and never have been "poor," I am from a far more stable background than many people less fortunate than me who really do have nothing but money was never easy to come by and holidays to shark filled locations were never going to be a reality so in that regard, I may well be exactly like you.

Why is this relevant you may be asking? Well, it's incredibly relevant because show me someone who is living the kind of exciting life you want and more often than not I'll show you someone who has had a very fortunate head start in life, handed to them on a plate. This is not something to criticise, if I could offer the same to my kids I would and it also doesn't mean what these more fortunate people are doing is of any less value, it just means you have to work harder than they did but if you want it enough, that shouldn't be a problem. Also, don't assume that everyone at the peak of your chosen vocation got there through handouts, a lot of them would have shed gallons of blood, sweat and tears for years along the way. Lesson one, find those people and learn from them.

 

I was probably a bit of an unusual child, (that's me by the way) I had a pretty low attention span, particularly at school, in my later years, it would be fair to say as far as school was concerned, I really couldn't be arsed with it, it was boring, there was no challenge and it didn't relate to anything I wanted to do with my life. However, if I was really interested and passionate about something, I became utterly obsessed and would spend every moment of every day concentrating on that and that meant that my entire life centred around two things, Manchester United and sharks and these would be joined at age fifteen, by music, notably Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, when I realised I had a bit of a natural gift with a guitar in my hands.

Are you still with me? This is going somewhere I promise. 

The thing is, it became apparent at an early age that this obsessive personality trait would shape how I would become in later life because even as a very young child I was focussed on my career and that career was working with sharks and becoming a film-maker and author. A lot of people I know, still don't know what they want to be, even in their thirties, I knew what I wanted to be when I was about six and nothing has changed, I still want the same things, so here is lesson two, if you know what you want you're better off than those who don't, you just have to ask yourself how much you want it.

Even at a young age, I would drive myself to achieve things I probably knew were almost impossible, the fact they were only almost impossible meant I would give it my all and as I got older and the years would advance, I got even worse. I can admit now, that when I was a musician in my own band I must have been, at times, a total nightmare to deal with. When I picked up a guitar for the first time, my goal was to be in the biggest Metal band of all time, to be considered one of the best songwriters of all time and to be looked upon as one of the most influential Rock musicians in the world, I hadn't even started learning to play the bloody thing yet!

My ten years in Nerve Engine taught me some incredibly valuable things however, things which got me to where I am today, the good stuff, that endless hours of hard work, passion, self belief and sacrifice would yield positive results, that if you want to be good enough and put the work in, you can be good enough. It also taught me the bad things, people will quickly look to exploit your passion, hard work and ability for their own gains, at your detriment, that sometimes means that no matter how good you are, sometimes, lady luck just isn't smiling down on you and perhaps most importantly, what you know comes a distant second to who you know. Lesson three, get to know the right people!

Know your subject and know it well!

Whatever it is you want to do, if it is vocational, that vocation will have a primary subject matter and you better make it your business to know it as well as you possibly can!

My first introduction to sharks was the one which got me hooked. Long story short, I was three and was in Wales visiting my grandparents who happened to live by the coast. Along with my dad, a keen naturalist, I found a dead Tope on the beach. My dad told me all about what it was and I was fascinated by this seemingly huge (relative to my diminutive stature of course,) fish. That afternoon, an advert came on for JAWS which was being shown on television later that night, my dad joked that had the Tope not died, it would have grown up to become JAWS and that was me done, from that moment on, sharks became the coolest thing on the planet.

From then on, I obesessed over shark books and shark documentaries. Bear in mind, back then shark documentaries, particularly those shown in the UK were as rare as rocking horse poo, there was no "Shark Week" (maybe not such a bad thing?), nobody barring a select few were interested in sharks anywhere and most importantly there was no access to the internet. This was actually a huge plus in my development because I had to earn every bit of information I could get my hands on. Due to it's complete absence, I also wasn't influenced by the internet which, whilst being an amazing source of information, is also an amazing source of misinformation. In short, I had to think for myself and as I got older, I would question the things I was learning and was beginning to come up with my own theories and discussion points. At age nine, I had managed to get a letter to Valerie Taylor via an aquarium who's address and curator I found in the back of one of my books and we started corresponding for a few years. Remember, there was no email so it was quite a laborious process!

 

I would also correspond with the likes of Dr Eugenie Clark, Leonard Compagno, Peter Klimley of the Scripps Institute and Ian Fergusson, a man I have enormous respect for and with whom I would discuss the likelihood of Great White Sharks visiting the UK coastline, a subject about which I wrote an article aged only twelve and a subject about which in the UK at least, as far as I was aware, only Ian, Richard Peirce and myself were talking and this is twenty years ago. Back then, pretty much nobody would entertain the concept, now it's a fairly common belief that it is entirely plausible, even highly likely. To put it in simple terms, I didn't learn what I knew from Wikipedia, I learned it from the best of the best and I will always have a never ending appreciatation and gratitude to those people for taking the time to respond to letters from some kid in England.

This also stoked the already raging fire in me to learn to dive and actually see a shark up close but as I said, we didn't have any money, I was only a kid and diving is expensive. I even went so far as to make a homemade wetsuit for a trip to Scarborough (UK, not the other ones!) out of a kaghoul, some trackie bottoms, a wooly hat and some gloves. I forget how old I was but needless to say when I got there I readressed the wisdom of going into the freezing cold north sea in what amounted to nothing more than a load of old clothes when I knew I wasn't going to see any sharks anyway!

That brings me back to the original point of this section, knowing your subject, whatever it is. I have been self studying sharks through books and films and in later years actually getting up close and personal with them in their habitat and I don't mind saying that yes, I know my subject and I know it well but what is most important is that I appreciate the next lesson, there are people out there older than me, with more experience, who know more about sharks than I do so I make it my business to listen to them and learn what I can from them. When I was a teenager as you may be yourself, I also thought I knew everything there is to know about the world but what went in my favour was that I knew this wasn't the case with sharks and I embraced every opportunity to learn from people who did. Lesson four, you don't know everything there is to know about your subject, you might think you do but really, you don't. Learn from people with more knowledge and experience than you and don't take it as a personal insult if you are challenged, listen, learn and take it for what it is, someone who may be trying to help you become better at what you do!

Why have I spent the last hour writing a load of stuff about what i was like as a child and the effect it's had on me in my later years? Because if you are on the verge of making your own big decisions, it might just help to know that there are people out there just like you who have done it with the same limited resources. Also, if any of this sounds familiar then it also goes to show that ordinary people can make extraordinary things happen and if you see some of the same personality traits I have, in yourself, then it is proof they can be put to good use!

I told you this was gonna be a long one, you still with me? Go get yourself a cup of tea, take a break and let's crack on!

How mentally tough are you? Dare you take risks?

Okay so we've done the introductory part, now it's on to the heavy duty stuff and some of it you may not like or want to "hear."

I recently made a new friend (Hi Paul) who contacted me for advice, the kind of advice I'm giving here, because he also has a passion to do something with his life that doesn't veer too far away from what I am doing. What I liked about what Paul discussed with me is that although it's an enormous task he has set himself, he has started doing the boring stuff that always comes at the very beginning of setting one's self a goal, he's passionate and he listens to advice! I think, although what he wants to do is going to be insanely difficult, he might just pull it off, at least elements of it anyway and I really hope he does because he has a lot of the qualities it takes to do stuff like this.

Do you though? I mean, do you really?

I see a lot of people using facebook statuses as a way to impart wisdom to others, you know the type of stuff, the fluffy, flowery crap you get in women's magazines which are almost always followed within only a few days by the same person saying how much they hate their life, job or family, usually with a caveat of "f**k my life," or "Why is it always me?!"

I'll impart some wisdom of my own, ignore these people, do not respond to these people at all. Ever. If you are about to embark on possibly the single biggest life changing event in your life so far, you don't need any overblown negativity or self pity in your life and you don't have the time or luxury to encourage it to come in your direction from others who can only affect you negatively.

How selfish are you? Are you prepared to focus absolutely everything on doing the things you want to do, to very possibly let down family and friends, to become socially unreliable and to become a one dimensional embodiment of what it is you want to achieve? If the answer is "not very," then you have two choices, change, or assess the concept of whether you are ready for all of this.

Do you believe in yourself that you can do this, as in you think you have everything it takes to overcome every obstacle that is put in your way? Write down the reasons why you think you can do this and the reasons you think you may not be able to do this and be brutally honest with yourself. If the list of negatives is more than two or three long and they are the kind of things you don't feel you can change, put the list in a drawer for future reference and reconsider if you are ready for this because chances are, you probably aren't.

The following bullet points relate to a goal similar in size to mine and one which will require the same amount of commitment, the type of goal which to everybody else, maybe even you, seems almost impossible.

• Do you have dependents, i.e. a wife/husband and most importantly, kids? If you have kids, bear in mind what effect doing this will have on them, more often than not, the negative effect. I don't have kids (praise the lord!) so this wasn't an issue for me fortunately.

Let's assume you're childless like me, the following points relate directly to you and don't have that added issue to consider.

• Do you have a job? Quit. If you're gonna do something this big then you can't do it part-time because chances are you'll fail if you do. Even better, take voluntary redundancy if you have the chance, get a bit of cash behind you. Remember, it's only a job, if you see it as more than that then maybe reassess what you would rather do, work there the rest of your life or really go for what you want.
• How do you feel about not having a social life? Not a problem I hope as you can forget having one when you get started!
• Imagine your life without the things you have now, money, possessions, car, new clothes, holidays, a home even, how would that make you feel? Chances are you're gonna have to get used to doing without or losing some, if not all of these if you go for it.
• Your girlfriend or boyfriend says "it's me or this stupid dream," what do you say?
• Consider this question for a couple of minutes, **what are you going to do if you fail?**
• How are you going to survive without a monthly income?
• Why do you want to do this in the first place?
• What do you have about you that makes you better, or more qualified than everyone else to do this?
• If you pull it off, what are you going to do afterwards?
• Who do you know now who can help you at the very early stages of putting this together and how well do you really know them?

These are just a few things for you to bear in mind, if you haven't already, you need to start questioning yourself, your motivations, your strengths and your weaknesses.

Tomorrow, part 2 is going to go through what I went through, what I did, how I did it, the mistakes I made and the highs and lows of actually taking that first step and going for what I have wanted my whole life.

Your questions are always welcome and I would love to hear about your own experiences. I want to help you in whichever way I can and hopefully some of you may get some good stuff out of this process which does just that. It's about time people started to help people like us, success and excitement in life shouldn't be confined to a small group of people, it should be a realistic goal for everyone who is willing to make the sacrifices to get there and it would be nice to think that at least a few of those will remember the people in a similar position to the one in which they found themselves previously and offer advice and support to those who want to follow in their footsteps.

**Incidentally, how did you answer the question "what are you going to do if you fail? hopefully you answered that failure is not an option and you will not fail! If you did, you're on the right tracks already.**