Or why does what seems so easy with Cheryl Barker turn out to be tricky with Teddy Tahu Rhodes?

At my daughter’s Speech Night each year, the Headmistress (a sensible and admired woman) takes the ‘speech’ part of the night very seriously. Last year she clocked up a good 22.5 minutes explaining the challenges our daughters face in an uncertain global future. To meet these challenges the young ladies needed a thesaurus of skills. Creativity. Resilience. Imagination. Determination. Exuberance. Dedication. Innovation. By the end of the speech I was exhausted. I needed Resilience just to stay awake. 

Most of the time we attempt to be the best and give our all, but there are some times when you just can’t rise to the occasion, those days when you wake up in the morning, peer out from under the doona and know that it is just going to be a hard day. I would like to propose an international It’s Alright To Make a Mess of It Day, when you can drop things, make mistakes, play forests of wrong notes on the piano and generally forget we are in a fierce global competition that...