The other night, I watched a reality television programme about a British ‘boy band’ that were sent to Korea in order to learn what’s required to become big in the world of K-Pop. Neither reality shows nor K-Pop are my bag, really, but it was still an interesting watch.

At the end of their intensive training, each of the five young lads met one final time with their overall assessor. She was a mogul of the K-Pop scene, I guess in much the same way as Simon Cowell is with general pop music in the UK. Anyway, she offered a few words of praise for the boys and wished them well.

She also presented them with a card on which was printed a personalised message – something they should take with them on the next stage of not only their musical journey, but through Life also.

This reminded me of my final day at Bank of Scotland, 54 King Street, Stirling. It was early March 1986 and I was called to the Manager’s office. I was twenty-seven years old and had worked in Mr Martin’s branch for five years. He was a well respected ‘senior’ manager in Bank circles and though it would be fair to say we were two completely different personalities we had developed a mutual respect for each other.

I sat down and looked across the large office desk. He was smiling, possibly glad to see me go to my new branch in Manchester, England. We chatted a bit then as he brought our meeting to an end, he leaned forward and ripped the front sheet off his desk calendar.

“Here, Colin. This is for you. Keep it with you.”

He handed me the small piece of paper, on which was written the month, in small, block print at the top. Below that and most prominent was the date. Then at the bottom in small, red print was that particular day’s saying. It read, and I’ll never forget:

‘It is the maxim of a wise man never to return along the path from which he came.’

Mr Martin smiled, and wished me all the best. I left.

My immediate reaction was to think he was telling me ‘good riddance and don’t ever come back this way again.’ But the more I thought about it over the next few days, I understood.

My leaving that office on that day when that message appeared … it was more than some petty point-scoring by my now ex-manager.

It was Mr Martin telling me not to look back; whatever life would bring me in years to come … deal with it and move on. Never return along the path from which I came. Even happy times are only moments. Their memories will not be replicated by repeated re-visits.

And getting even deeper, I considered, the road we all travel is a long one. The further we move along it, the greater the distance we have to look back. At the same time, the road ahead is becoming shorter with every step we take. There’s neither time nor point in traveling back along from where we came.

You know, I kept that piece of paper in my wallet for many years and though it’s now long since disintegrated, the message remains. That message was to keep moving forward.

And I did.

Manchester beckoned, where I worked with another top manager, Mike Murray.

And funny enough, within a week or two, he mentioned something in casual conversation that has become another mantra of mine:

‘You get slack by degrees.’

It’s true. As soon as you accept second best as ‘the best,’ then third-best becomes second and so on. Standards drop. Accept only the best.

Neither of these two sayings are exactly rocket science, but I still adopt them both and work towards them every day.

Am I the only daft old git to take such expressions to heart? What maxims do you employ in your day-to-day life? (Not that you’re a daft old git like me, of course.)

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