While travelling through America, I spent a few days in Los Angeles, the 2nd largest city in the United States and the world centre for the entertainment industry. Of course, no trip to L.A is complete without a trip to Hollywood, and while I was there I took a tour of Universal Studios. Included in this tour was a stop-off at the pool containing the beast (or rather, the head of the beast) that sparked terror into the hearts of millions in the 1970s, and had people too terrified to go into the sea – Jaws!
While it made use of what were considered ground-breaking special effects techniques at the time, 30-odd years later, getting up close and personal with the fibreglass model of Jaws was anything but scary! As one of those who was terrified by the film, I was horrified at its amateur appearance!
The life lesson here is even something very basic can create a huge impression if it’s used in the right way. So don’t be scared - take your talents and use them to create magic.
In 1994, I took a 10-month working holiday in the United States, and was fortunate to see many of the more famous attractions in cities across the country during this time. One of the attractions that most impressed me was Sea World in San Diego. Of course I realise that, almost 20 years on, these large “super-aquariums” are pretty common place – South Africa has uShaka Marine World in Durban and the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, and there are others in Australia and Europe. At the time, however, I was bowled over by Sea World. It was like Disneyland, but with fish! It was simply the best aquarium I had ever seen.
The lesson here is that it pays to be bold. If you do something unheard of, daring and completely revolutionary today, you may well be setting a trend for the future.
