I had to smile when I saw this come through on the newsfeeds. It reports that a driving instructor in Ilkeston “narrowly missed out” on being voted the country’s top driving instructor. The article reports:
His pupils voted en masse to put him forward for the Golden L awards, a national competition to find the UK’s top driving tutor…
It also adds:
Andy… says he is thrilled to have beaten 42,000 other instructors to be named second best in the country ‘so early on in his independent career.’
I’ve got news for you, Andy. You didn’t “beat” 42,000 other instructors. You beat all except one of the handful who were put forward by their pupils. I very much doubt that the pupils would have been aware of the award in the first place unless it was… ahem… brought to their attention. More than 99% of the other 42,000 instructors out there didn’t get entered – indeed, they were probably like me and didn’t even know about the competition, and wouldn’t have cared if they did.
Having said that, good luck to you and well done. But be careful not to let it go to your head. When I worked in the rat race, I once got an award I found embarrassing (and didn’t want) for showing “exemplary customer obsession”. In the end, it was precisely the same “customer obsession” that cost me my job.