Fight the Fear

Ironically fitting for the horror-themed weekend that Halloween unleashes upon the Western world, the sad news of the fatal crash suffered by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the death of a crew member jarring into focus the sheer audacity and danger of the attempt to bring space travel to the masses, is not only a reminder of the importance of such endeavours but also helps recognise that there are those out there taking risks, pushing boundaries to the limit and ensuring man continues to strive forward, all in the name of innovation and our inherent desire to explore the further reaches of our capabilities.

This extremely unfortunate occurrence should not stop Branson and his team from continuing to do what they dream to accomplish. It is because of risk-takers like Branson and those pushing themselves at the risk of death that we can stand proud as a race and take heart that we are never content with what we have achieved - other great modern-day pioneers taking "moon-shots" (see previous articles) such as Larry Page of Google fame, Elon Musk electrifying us all with his cool cars and increasing numbers of tech entrepreneurs-turned-philanthropic-explorers, add to the delight of continual achievement and a refusal to accept the status quo. No, rather than be frightened to continue, or cowed into pulling back the scale of such projects, now is the time to push on and make proud the memories of those that sacrifice for such undertakings. Fight the fear. Onwards and upwards.

Central Bankers working both-ends-of-the-monetary-easing-candle may be impressive to some (yes, the Japanese certainly appear heroic at present, unleashing further QE resulting in massive gains for equity markets), yet no one can deny that those hurtling towards the outer reaches of the known Universe or testing the very limits of comprehended aeronautic physics, slightly put those pampered bankers - sitting comfortably in their Uber Luxes as they iPad read whilst shuttling from conference to conference - to immeasurable shame!

On a Halloween weekend where the spiritual, pagan and now incredibly commercialised-collide..when exactly did FOMO of trick-or-treat take over London??..the horrors of such set-backs on projects capable of taking us to the next step of an ongoing tech-revolution...imagine flying through the stratosphere from London to Los Angeles in 3hours!..yes, that's what Virgin Galactic will ultimately try to achieve..allow us to once again re-evaluate the truly important from the simply fleetingly entertaining. If man had shied away from reaching beyond the comfort zone in the face of fatal adversity, we would likely not enjoy the fruits of all that surrounds us, all too easily now taken for granted. Who 100yrs ago would have imagined you could zoom across the skies from Singapore to Los Angeles in safety and comfort? Will we look back fondly 50yrs from now and pity those earlier travellers that had to sit for endless hours before reaching their destination, replaced by a literally a short 'hop' across Continents. Who knows what the future holds? The future is indeed a mystery yet what is known for sure, is that without sacrifice and seemingly 'bonkers' visionaries, we are doomed to the death-knell of mediocre satisfaction. 

As we dance and ghoul our way through a plethora of fancy-dress costumes…thank you ladies for all those lovely She-Devil Bikinis..take a moment to think and reflect on how far we have come from those original pagan festival days, where we believed a flat-Earth was the centre of the Universe, realise that without risk-takers and the perennially adventurous, we would probably still be howling at the moon.