Age: 46
Occupation: Marketer, Chef, Outdoorsman

 

My place in the world:

I am a happy, healthy man in his mid-forties, living in the vibrant heart of Sheffield with my beautiful Girlfriend – Sophie. It is important to me to have open-space and a view of the world, chaos within reach and tranquillity when I need.

I studied Computer Science at the University of Hertford, but through some strange quirk of fate ended up in the profession of Marketing, and I have managed to take my love of data and logic forward into my much more artistic career.  I have a strong background in science, am an atheist by nature, and love to debunk myth and flim-flam: I don’t believe that there is a quick-fix for anything significant in life, and ardently challenge those who do without strong evidence to the contrary.

I’ve reached a point in my life where I want to ‘put something back’, and in order to do so, I want to develop myself and my abilities to the point where I can make a positive difference to men’s lives and leave something of a legacy for the next generation to develop and improve upon.

My passions:

I love data.  I love looking at it, analysing it, organising it and looking for the patterns deep within.  I love statistics too, and love to challenge the ‘simplistic statistics’ that produce the answers people want, not the facts within.  One of my favourite sayings is “93.27% of statistics is complete bollocks”.

Outside of intellectual pursuits, I love to be outdoors, pitting my skills against nature, getting good exercise in ‘nature’s gym’, getting lost – both physically and metaphorically – and then finding myself again.  Stone Circle is a fabulous channel for me to do this: the adventures we go on allow me to bring all my skills to the mix, to challenge myself both physically and mentally.

I have a passion for DJing house music, I still love to dance, even at 46.  I suppose I still love to be the centre-of-attention at a good party, and DJing ‘filthy’ house-music is my method-of-choice.   I have a small catering business which gives me the chance to create beautiful food for people who appreciate it: it’s such a challenge to be given the responsibility for catering someone’s special event: understanding their needs, testing and tasting, the stress of the production and then the satisfaction of a job well-done and well received.

Finally, I have a passion for ‘proper’ DIY, rebuilding houses and creating and repairing shelter.  This satisfies some deep need in me to provide shelter, security and safety for others.  I love nothing more than pulling an old house to pieces, and building it back up to something clean, simple and efficient.  I do have a bit of an obsessive attention to detail, and do tend to over-engineer things, but I always think it’s best to over-engineer something than have it fall down!

My hopes for the future:

Like Terry, I too wish for a Star Trek inspired future, where war, poverty and the evils of greed and consumption are put aside for the much more positive pursuit of exploration and understanding our universe.

I firmly believe that if I want such a future, I need to play my part in developing myself to be the better man, to live the values myself, that I feel will benefit the world. Only then can I hope to help other men to achieve their potential.

My Philosophies:

I feel that we have so much to achieve as human beings, and so much of this is lost in petty disagreements about who owns what, or believes what or is entitled to what.  Nothing in life is free, and nothing of any value is easily attained or acquired.  Too many people have too much ‘stuff’ and too many people have nothing. If we could spend less time worrying about what we have, and more time worrying about what we know, the world would be a better place.

While I understand that every man has a different capacity for learning and understanding, I firmly believe that the quality of a man can best be judged by how much he applies himself to learning, and aspires to make a daily advancement in his knowledge of the world.

I firmly believe that we are all hell-bent on destroying our home, and each other in it.  Whether you are environmentalist, activist or scientist, the overwhelming evidence is that we cannot continue to consume so irresponsibly, and expect to continue with life as we know it.  I believe that working on a solution to the global crisis is the innate responsibility of every man, in every action he takes.  It should be the mantra of every man in every situation to consider the environmental impact of his actions, not in return for recognition or reward.  To do anything else is the height of disrespect for your fellow man.

My Stone Circle:

Stone circle for me is Challenge.  The challenge of developing myself and my abilities, bettering myself alone and with my fellow men.  It is about challenging my long-held beliefs about myself and others, having the courage to open the ‘black box’ of my assumptions and allow other men to look in there too.

My stone circle is a place where I can work with other men to overcome challenges, be they real-world or just-for-the-hell-of-it, to make myself a better man, and help the other men of Stone circle to achieve their ambitions.

For me, Stone Circle is the one-chance I have to become the best I can, and – leading by example – to create an environment where we men can come together to learn to truly be ourselves, love ourselves, challenge our failings and build on our strengths.