“You only live twice. Once when you are born, and once when you look death in the face.”
Ian Fleming
“There is a third, but you won’t know it until you get there.”
George
Giorgio asks me if I ever look death in the face. My natural inclination is to avoid the question, which just shows I am probably not very brave. Then I remembered one time when I was on a ski-lift looking down at a ravine… The point was I was scared out of my wits. I hated the ski-lift, and I knew I was far too high up for my weak stomach and bowels. When, finally, I put my skis down on terra firma, I was no more certain. In business, or rather I should say venture capitalism we celebrate the concept of the unicorn. A unicorn is a company that comes from left-field to swipe the market. It confounds even the predators, the lions and the witches in their wardrobes. I cannot explain why, but at that moment, as I was about to hurl myself willy-nilly down that dreaded piste, I thought of myself as the unicorn. Reader, I made it to the bottom without falling over, or hurting myself. Needless to say, Bruno, my instructor thought it was hilarious when I tried to affect a parallel turn beside him and fell in the snow. The witch of Narnia was no doubt cackling, too.