The fact is that I didn’t have one.
And when people ask me what I did my usual retort is ‘How long have you got?’ or indeed ‘I can tell you what I didn’t do’.
Now this is probably good and bad. Bad because I would have loved to have found my niche early in life and put all my energies into it and been a success and all that. But good in a very subtle way as it’s given me a wider perspective on things and people I think. At some cost though may I add!.
After a horror story of working in the pensions industry for 6 months I had a few tedious years in London attempting to become a chartered accountant which was awful, then a brief spell in Edinburgh trying to be an accountant for a Fund Manager which was trying for both parties, a futile attempt to become a primary school teacher, a summer spent teaching golf in Spain in French, a few summers dreaming away as a jobbing gardener, a fine summer spent erecting a Theakston’s mobile bar going around remote England village tractor festivals (yes tractor festivals), two seasons in Val D’Isere as a plongeur/ski guide/barman, ten years selling cut flowers and driving around Edinburgh trying to find the best coffee in town (Valvona’s), a year as a property developer, a World Bank research assistant, a couple of years trying to run a cafe, 4 months trying not to run a restaurant, a spell setting up The Big Fun Company and Highlander Golf, a few years caddying and hacking at golf journalism (Hong Kong Golf Monthly!), running at the Pompadour restaurant in the Waldorf, a mixologist at Hotel du Vin, a wine salesman at Cockburn’s of Leith, a winter becoming a Luvianista, cheffing in the Albany, concierging at the Fairmont, a film extra, a grouse beater, a Beeb worker, an Eat/Walk food tour guide, a ski instructor, a ski rep, a school ski rep, a ski bum. Now that was fun.
And I suppose in some ways at the age of 62 now I have kind of found my niche in tour guiding. But as you can see it’s been an awful long and protracted process in getting to here.
My idealistic me would have cut his way as a figure in the ski world and found a role there of some sort. Certainly the most fun and free I have ever felt has been when I was working out in the Alps.
I am going out in March to stay with a friend who has done just that. He and his wife have set up a wee ski company near Morzine and have built an idyllic chalet down the valley from the main tourist spot. I really can’t wait to see the life they have created out there and by the pictures it does look truly idyllic.
George Mackay Brown famously said that eventually everyone finds their metier. I would like to believe that.
It’s not everything of course but it sure does help if you wake up and know you are going to get paid to have laughs and exercise and be in a beautiful place and look bronzed and hearty and vigorous.
A very distant memory is emblazoned in my mind from a school ski trip out in the Dolomites 45 years ago. We were in a rustic taverna at night in this small village called Ravascletto and there was this roaring fire and there was a group of very dark skinned older ski instructors having a great fun time, joking and laughing. They all looked so well and happy and spirited and appeared not to have a care in the world.
Maybe see you out on the slopes chaps?