As many of you know, my oldest and dearest friend is Paul.
We were born 4 days apart and have spent all our lives together.
Through school.
Through our teenage years.
Through the best of times and the worst.
Through moments of stupidity where we should have immediately denied knowing each other.
And while we have physically lived far apart from each other for over 20+ years, that bond is still there and it’s one I treasure so much.
Now, if you ask my wife or Paul’s wife what we’re like when we’re together, they would probably say we become our 9 year old selves.
Cheeky. Mischievous. Daft.
There’s definitely a lot of laughing.
And while we have only really had a couple of genuinely serious conversations in our life – forced on us due to tragic circumstances that was going on in our lives – I’ve always taken our friendship, and him, very seriously.
Put simply, Paul is a bit of a hero to me.
There’s a bunch of reasons for it, reasons I choose not to share as they’re very private and personal, but his attitude to life is one we should all aspire to, exemplified by the fact that at 47, he’s decided he wants a career change.
Now wanting a career change isn’t that unusual, but actually doing it – without circumstances dictating you have to – is.
You see Paul, a printer and part-time bouncer, is starting his own business.
A coffee business.
A mobile coffee business.
A mobile coffee business called The Frothy Coffee Man.
He’s bought a van with all the machinery, he’s done his training, he’s got his council approval and he will soon be located around parks in Nottingham helping tired Mum’s get their desperate hit of caffeine as their kids run them ragged.
Are their risks?
Sure – he knows that – but there’s far greater risk if he doesn’t.
For the last 20+ years, he’s been doing the same job in the same company, and while he enjoys it, he doesn’t want to be someone who has fallen into ‘comfortable’. He wants to challenge himself. He wants to be more in-control of his destiny. He wants to feel alive.
I think it’s wonderful.
I also think he’ll do brilliantly.
He’s cheeky, charming, kind and – at 6 foot 5 – a walking billboard for his company, so on top of buying a coffee if you ever find yourself in Nottingham, raise a glass for my best mate Paul … who is doing something the majority of us only wish we were doing.