Recently, YouTube’s algorithm kindly suggested a 1994 documentary on selection for officer training in the Royal Marines! It wouldn’t have been my first pick, but there you go. My first shock was the 1990s, the coolest decade ever, looking like a dim, distant far off world, but there you go.

The next shock was the people’s inability to accurately perceive themselves. For some this was a vast overestimation, while others couldn’t see their talents and abilities!

Those entering this process in the pre-internet world of 1994 didn’t know what they were going to face as they stepped into the darkness. Or was it as they crawled into the darkness of a long concrete pipe with a cold stream running through it! Consequently some people trained very hard, but for the wrong challenges, and because of this they failed!

My three take always from the program were:

Firstly, we can lack self-awareness and therefore be either overly or underly confident in our talents and abilities, and this to our detriment.

Secondly, we can train very hard and prepare thoroughly but do it in such a way that it does not actually help us achieve our goals.

Thirdly, we can only judge those who have put themselves out there and tried. Those who failed or succeeded were willing to place themselves within the crucible of judgement, and in this case public judgement, and that within a highly edited TV program. So likewise, we can only truly evaluate our talents and abilities when they are legitimately tested.

At the end of the show we were told that one of the people who had failed came back and passed. So in their case failure was not actual failure, instead it showed them what they needed to develop in their physical and personal attributes. With this knowledge they went and did the work themselves, and were humble enough to come back!