Esther McVey: Inspiring a generation

Aug 8 2012 Heswall News

I HAVE long advocated the importance of role models in society and how big an impact they have on children and their choices in life.

For that reason I wrote a careers book for girls and this year I'm writing one for boys.

The legacy of these 2012 Olympic Games should in part be fantastic role models for a whole generation of children.

In fact when I wrote my careers book for school girls I included Olympians from Jayne Torvill to Beth Tweddle.

They told how they woke at 5am daily, practising before school and again after school, to become the best in the world. Not everyone can be a world champion at sport, but everyone can find what they are best at, and pursue it.

For my career book for boys next week I'll be interviewing Louis Smith – part of team GB's gymnastic squad and double medallist at the Olympics – and I've already had the pleasure of meeting Trevor Baylis, British inventor and creator of the wind-up radio who was born in 1937, missed most of his formal education because of the war, but said there wasn't much he couldn't do with a Meccano set and later in life he did day release from work to study engineering.

Among the others I've interviewed are Andy Green, the world land-speed record holder; inventor and entrepreneur James Dyson and businessman Sir Terry Leahy.

All are providing me with their life story, their personal role models and how they succeeded.

We all need a bit of help in life, inspiration, good luck and tonnes of hard work. But by showing how other people have achieved and laying down a realistic path to success, others can follow.