Scoring at Life
It’s a rare breed that knows where they want to get to, sets their compass in that direction and makes their way straight there.
For most of us it’s a meandering path of mistakes, missteps and multiple attempts. We may even change our mind along the way. I heard a great quote the other day that is especially relevant for the entrepreneurially minded: “Keep quitting until you find something you can’t quit.”
The best thing schools can do is teach us resilience and navigation. We will feel lost very often but with the right tools we will find our way through.
And then one day, we may stumble across our ‘thing’ and think ‘Okay I’m going to give myself a chance at this.’ In the fairytales, we would immediately be brilliant at our chosen path and the world would instantly recognise and celebrate our genius.
Most times we’ll be bad at it at first, but with perseverance we’ll keep trying and slowly we’ll get better, and over time we might even master it.
That’s what dreams are made of. Trial and error, tenacity and determination.
And this is equally true for my Brave New Girl podcast guest this week Alison Bender, TV football presenter, whose childhood dream was poo poo’d, and when she did eventually get the chance to screen test years later, she' didn’t nail it straight away.
But she didn’t give up and today she graces our screens with the success that she worked hard to achieve.
WInning at life
It’s rarely a straightforward path to success, as we learn from TV sports presenter Alison Bender.
Alison Bender is a football reporter and TV presenter. When she was ten years old she knew she wanted to be a presenter but her teachers told her it was a terrible idea. Fast forward to now and she’s living her dream, travelling the world interviewing some of the greatest footballers and managers of our generation.
England Women winning the Euros has helped put women’s football on the map. And women in sports media is on the rise too. Alison feels there is still a lot of work to do but we are moving in the right direction.
As a little girl she said she wanted to be a presenter but that dream was poo pooed. She was also growing up in a household where her mum was an alcoholic, so how did that shy little girl find her way? She would see opportunities and then put herself in front of them.
She made her way into TV, but after working on scripts for the presenters she knew it was the presenting that she wanted to do. She said her first screen tests were terrible, but she learned what she needed to do, kept trying and eventually landed a gig.
Covid put the Kibosh on live sport. And then last November she discovered she had breast cancer. Both these life hits, made her sit back and reassess. She realised she need to have something that wasn't reliant on her time.
So she created a course helping young people learn the ropes of TV presenting. Now she is able to support the next generation of female sports presenters come up through the ranks, at the same as leading the way on our screens.
Thanks so much Alison for sharing behind the scenes of the footballing and TV world and for helping give similar possibilities to young people who want to follow in your footsteps.
Thank you also for showing us that it is possible to have big dreams and by putting the right steps in place you can work towards achieving them.
You can find out more about Alison’s work on: https://www.alisonbender.com/ and follow her on Linkedin @AlisonBender
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