Bear Grylls Quote

In every potential sponsor’s eyes, I was a nobody. And soon I had notched up more rejection letters than is healthy for any one man to receive.I tried to think of an entrepreneur and adventurer that I admired, and I kept coming back to Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin.I wrote to him once, then I wrote once more. In all, I sent twenty-three letters.No response., I thought, So I did precisely that, and at 8:00 P.M. one cold evening, I rang his very large doorbell. A voice answered the intercom, and I mumbled my pitch into the speakerphone.A housekeeper’s voice told me to leave the proposal--and get lost.It’s not clear quite what happened next: I assume that whoever had answered the intercom meant just to switch it off, but instead they pressed the switch that opened the front door.The buzzing sound seemed to last forever--but it was probably only a second or two.In that time I didn’t have time to think, I just reacted…and instinctively nudged the door open.Suddenly I found myself standing in the middle of Sir Richard Branson’s substantial, marble-floored entrance hall.Uh, hello! I hollered into the empty hall. Sorry, but you seem to have buzzed the door open, I apologized to the emptiness.The next thing I knew, the housekeeper came flying down the stairs, shouting at me to leave.I duly dropped the proposal and scarpered. The next day, I sent around some flowers, apologizing for the intrusion and asking the great man to take a look at my proposal. I added that I was sure, in his own early days, he would probably have done the same thing.I never got a reply to that one, either.