Business Eye: 86,400 seconds a day. Don’t take it for granted

Some say that if there were no time then everything would happen simultaneously and we could get from Aylesbury to Buckingham instantly but as it doesn’t, and as we can’t then time surely exists.

Others point out that the concept of movement itself depends on the concept of time….lah-dee-dah.

For the rest of us, we start the day with 86,400 seconds, it is there to do with as we are choose, and at the end of the day it is lost forever and can never be retrieved.

In May this year before 15 year old Stephen Sutton left us from terminal cancer, as is often the case in such tragedies, he set about using his remaining time as best he could, beginning with writing a bucket list. On that list was raising £10,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust, a figure which famously in the end became £4m.

One of his bucket list entries was to “do some public speaking” which he achieved at the O2 in front of a crowd of many thousands. What wisdom did he leave us, this young man denied the time that the rest of us take for granted?

Measure your life by what you achieve, not by the time you have invested in something. What you create matters; how long you were there doesn’t.

Never feel sorry for yourself, it’s a pure and utter waste of your life.
Always try to be as positive.

Don’t take stuff too seriously and helping yourself is simple; just help others. When times are at their toughest it pays to give.

Enjoy your life. It is here for living and shouldn’t need a tragedy to bring us to our senses. Take nothing for granted. It can and will all be taken from you in an instant.

He finished by saying “ you guys have all the time in the world to make a difference to yourselves, to make a difference…time go out there and achieve something, to go out there and help others, to go out there and enjoy life, to make a difference. And that’s it”. Stephen has been my quiet inspiration this year. It’s just amazing the difference you can make when you’re not even in the room or on the planet.