I came across a story recently about a guy called Josh Quigley, from Scotland. He posted a video of himself on the Internet explaining why he had cancelled a speaking event that he had organised. He called it off because he hadn’t sold any tickets, not a single one.
He wanted to be honest about the situation he found himself in. “I tried to put on an event and it failed big time. I learned a lot, but the event was a massive failure”, he said. So much of social media is about highlighting people’s successes and the nice moments in their lives that he wanted to share his bad experience and what he had learned from it. His talk was about mental health.
“After a dark and painful battle with depression, I lost all hope and attempted suicide by intentionally crashing my car at over 80mph. Having survived this suicide attempt and miraculously walking away with no physical injuries, I knew I’d been kept alive for a reason and had to grab hold of my second chance at life.
I later had an epiphany that I should tell the world my story and embark on a huge challenge to raise awareness of mental health and inspire those who had also felt like I did. On 26th May 2016, the first-year anniversary of my suicide attempt, I set off from Scotland by bike attempting to cycle around the world as The Tartan Explorer.
This was the story of one boy’s journey to happiness. After pedalling and walking over 14,000 miles through 15 countries, I finally found the happiness and meaning I had so desperately been searching for. My purpose is to inspire and empower others to be happier and healthier. My journey to happiness might be over. But it’s now my job to help others take the first step”.
He was very honest. He didn’t let one failed effort stop him and he is now a successful mental health advocate.
I had a similar experience of failure and Josh’s lack of ticket sales reminded me about it. It also reminded me of how failing at something can sometimes bring about eventual success.
Back in the early nineties, myself and John O’Connor were both attached to Mayfield Garda Station. We were involved in Chernobyl related charities at the time and for a few years we were fundraising around the city and county.
We had committed to supporting a particular project and undertook to raise €20,000. We had a few ideas but were relying on one main event to raise most of the funds.
It was a football match between Cork and Kerry to be played in Mayfield. Both teams were going well at the time and the rivalry between them was always going to draw a crowd. Neither John nor myself knew too much about GAA but we got great help from the Mayfield GAA Club.
We spoke to Larry Tomkins, the Cork manager at the time, and the late Paudie O’Shea who was looking after Kerry, and both were keen to help. They were two great characters who were easy to work with, so we drove on with our plan and publicised the event far and wide.
For a couple of months, myself and John worked hard organising the project. We had our sponsors, hundreds of match day programmes, a brass band and food and all we needed now was for the crowds to turn up.
I’ll never forget the morning of the game. I hadn’t slept well the previous night because I was a little anxious and hoping that we had everything covered so that nothing could go wrong.
I drove up to Mayfield early that morning and the first thing I noticed was the thick fog. No problem, I told myself, that will lift. Then it started to rain, and not just the drizzle type of rain, this was the real thing. No problem, I said, that will ease off. Then the wind started to blow. No bother, I told myself, that’ll calm down.
Well the fog didn’t lift, the rain got heavier, and the wind only got stronger. It was probably one of the worst days we had that year. Both teams lined out for the game in atrocious conditions but there was nobody there to watch them.
Our guaranteed banker of a fundraiser turned out to be a damp squib and we made nothing. All the programmes we had printed ended up in a skip and we were totally demoralised. We were also starting to panic a little because we still had a lot of money to raise.
A few days after that, Caroline O’Doherty of the Irish Examiner contacted me to find out how the fundraiser went. I told her about the fiasco and I think she took pity on us and wrote a piece about how the weather beat us, accompanied by a photograph of two very dejected looking gardaí.
A few days later a strange thing happened. I received a letter from a retired garda with a five Euro note attached. He had read about our disaster and apologised that he couldn’t give more. I had a feeling then, that we were going to be all right.
Over the next few weeks we were inundated with offers of help. All sorts of fundraising events were organised on our behalf across the city and the money started flooding in. Not only did we reach our target of €20,000 but we actually went closer to €25,000.
So, even when things look bleak and it might seem that all hope is lost, you just need to get back on your horse and drive on because you never know what’s waiting around the next corner. Josh seems to have managed that too.