What could I possibly have in common with Thomas Magnum?…

What could I possibly have in common with Thomas Magnum?…?

Not a lot it would seem.?

I’ve never visited Hawaii. I’m?pretty certain?I’ll never earn enough to own a Ferrari of my own, or as a minimum, I don’t think I’ll be equipped with a friend who’ll glibly let me drive their Testarossa (or any other Ferrari model for that matter) around freely. I’m 100% not playboy material and I’ve never served in the Military and therefore I’m not haunted – as Magnum is - by past tragedy or events. I’m almost certain too that I’d make a truly terrible private investigator.?

Yep, Thomas Magnum and I have very little in common it would seem.?

His creator however – or the actor who crafted him into what we know of today, I should say - well, it turns out I have a lot more in common with him than I would ever have thought possible.?

Fresh back from a week’s holiday where I put aside all thoughts of work and held back from any business-related reading and treated myself to some leisure reading instead, I took to a good old pastime of mine and caught up on a few biographies. First up, Tom Selleck’s recently published biography, “You Never Know”.

I’m a sucker for people’s life stories. I love nothing more than a good documentary or a tell-all biography (told in the first person, of course) and this past week saw me get through everything from the great PI himself, to how Rocky became one of the best and longest running film franchises of all time, to what it’s like to run a second-hand bookstore. My reading taste is varied in case you can’t tell!??

Written last year as Selleck enters the golden age of his acting career, and with a vast number of hits, awards, and accolades to his name, it turns out Selleck is a raging introvert.

More comfortable behind the lens than in front of it, he fell into the role of acting by accident and made it work by never quite letting up. His early career was one of knock-back after knock-back, but his dogged determination and perseverance saw him eventually find his way and eventually led to success in time.

A literal ‘grafter’ by trade, his mantra – that’s served him through?all of?his 50+ years in Hollywood to date - is one of ‘just keep laying bricks’. An ongoing reference (and reminder to self) to his starting out as a bricklayer at the outset of earning money.?

I can’t say with any certainty based on a couple of hundred pages in a book and having never met the person in real life, but it seems Selleck has a similar personality type to those Carl Jung would describe as ‘introverted feelers’. Happy to be around other people but more content in being amongst a small circle of very close friends than in large groups. Happy to be in the limelight but likes to retreat to the quiet of his own company when the need has been met or the job done. A fighter for justice and fairness where he sees it lacking, and a painstaking eye on getting the job done right and?fairly rather?than simply ‘done’.

He knows his own worth but equally values the worth of others… when asked what the film studio could do for him to stay one final (8th) season as Magnum he asked simply that all staff on the set get a bonus. He was refused – it would set a “precedent” came the reply from the studio execs! Not one to be outwitted or undeterred, he insisted at least ‘he’ get a bonus then, for which studio execs gladly awarded him one – a very big one too! In a clever switcheroo, he then divided it all up and gave all staff equal share of his personal bonus as reward for their hard work, dedication and commitment to the show.??As they say, "where there's a will, there's a way!"

While I can recognise many traits Selleck appears to have, the one that perhaps caught me most by surprise was the imposter syndrome he suffered from through most of his professional career. It would appear our favourite PI suffers like so many others do with a niggling voice inside his head that constantly tries to knock him off course or down a peg or two.?A loud and obnoxious 'Chimp' as Dr Steve Parkers would call it.

I don’t suffer from it as much these days myself – like Selleck learned to overpower his negative inner monologue over time too – but I know its something that I, like many leaders had to learn to overcome. It just goes to show that what's on the surface and the success we see doesn't always come without a fight or a struggle.

But, like Selleck achieved, these things can be mastered and even though we might sometimes 'fall' into a career rather than execute on a carefully considered career pathway, we are all capable of finding our way to the top. The key is 'who you are' in climbing your way there and 'what you do with that success' when you do eventually find yourself in a position of power or influence.

As my favourite Tom Selleck quote goes, "few of us are as good as we think are: none of us are as good as we can be." How true that is...