Elton John an inspiration for Bolingbroke
A LEADING Manchester United executive has returned to the classroom to pass on his tips for business success, and divulged how he was inspired as a teenager by a trip to an Elton John concert.
Michael Bolingbroke, chief operating officer at the club visited New Charter Academy in Ashton-under-Lyne last week, where he told students about how, as a student he had lacked a clear career goal, until the concert trip,.
He told GCSE and A-Level pupils at the school, which is a partner of the Manchester United Foundation that: “When I was 17 I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was good at maths so went to university and trained to be an accountant, but I wasn’t that inspired.
“Then one night I went to an Elton John concert and just before Elton came on stage I remember watching energy travel through the audience and I realised at that point, ‘That’s what I want to do; I want to be involved in exciting people and doing things that create energy.’
“Today I love being in a job where the aim is to entertain people. There are 80,000 people at Old Trafford on a match day; I’m glad that I play a part in them leaving with the feeling that they have had a good afternoon.”
Mr Bolingbroke, 46, who previously worked in senior executive roles at
Cirque du Soleil and the Jim Henson Company before joining Manchester United, said success was down to a mixture of three ingredients – hard work, ability and luck.
He explained: “Everything you do and want to do boils down to three things: your ability, the effort you put in, and the luck you have.
“Ability is something you are born with; you either have it or you don’t. You can train to make it better but it’s what you’re born with. Luck: if you’re lucky, you’re lucky; if you’re not, you’re not. But effort is all about you. The more effort you put in, the better you will be.
“You cannot really change your ability, you cannot really change your luck; but effort is down to you.”
Stephen Ball, New Charter Academy’s principal said: “The partnership with the Manchester United Foundation is giving our students exciting opportunities to meet and work with some of the big names in sport.
“Michael’s visit will inspire our young people to get involved in more projects and think about sport and leadership as a possible career.”
The three-year partnership between New Charter Academy and the Manchester United Foundation hopes to promote business and enterprise opportunities and to get teenagers thinking about different career paths.
