How Frank Williams Ended up in my Loo

In my downstairs loo at home, we have this photo of my uncle with Frank Williams. In the foreground, you can see an overturned Fiat 500, the sunroof is open and Frank has emerged from it obviously very pleased with life; and so he should have been, I suppose. Legend has it that my uncle Christopher and Frank used to be young tearaways together and when the Fiat 500 came out, Fiat boldly claimed that it was so safe that it could not be turned over. Immediately the two of them decided to make a bet to see which of them could be the first to upend this claim. I don't know how their other bets netted out, but Frank won this one.

Times were, of course, very different back then. My uncle was a racing driver and one of his friends casually mentioned to me that the first time they had met was when they had both been coincidentally arrested by the gendarmerie in Paris on the same evening. The fact that it was the night before a race seemed to be a detail barely worth mentioning.

We should all hope to be a hero to someone. The aspiration is altruistic in a sense that thinking about how others perceive us and wanting to be well regarded can help us to become better people. Frank Williams was one of my heroes. We all have our flaws, of course, but Frank always seemed to embody an old school spirit of pushing the boundaries of what might be possible. He took a road which was difficult but connected him for his entire life with something he truly loved.

The aspiration to do something worthwhile with my life and to be successful doing it was what drove me to start Airbox. I will always have admiration for anyone who takes the risk and makes it; nobody could say that Frank didn't do so against high odds.

So here's to you Frank - the world needs more brave innovators like you, chasing their passion and to hell with the consequences.