BOOK 1
The ringmaster and Me

The little boy goes to the circus with his dad for the first time. He's in absolute awe when you rise in this massive tent, and all this activity outside and all of these people and then they go inside. And there are lights and there's music, and there's excitement everywhere. And there's just so many people in this tent, He’s in awe of the whole thing.

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And then the show begins this man in a red jacket and a big hat comes out and tells us he's the Ringmaster. And then he proceeds to present the show. First, there are the clowns. And the boy laughs and laughs and laughs at the clowns. And they do crazy things. And they are carrying these horses, with people riding them and doing tricks. Standing on their hands standing on the horses’ backs, as the horses race around the arena.

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And next, the Ringmaster tells everyone to look up in the air and there is a wire running across the top of the tent. It is so high and there are these people doing amazing things on the wire.

This thin piece of wire. They're jumping up and down. They're swinging on the wire and the next minute. They've got swings and rings, and they're flying through the air and the little boy is amazed to watch people fly for the first time. And the show goes on and on. And all these other amazing acts come out of the boys dazzled by the acts one after another and all the way through the ringmaster is coming and he's organizing it and he's making this whole show.

And the little boy is just so amazed. He is so in awe of this man. The show finally ends and his dad takes him home and on the way out there are wild animals in cages, and he wonders why are those wild animals in their cages? Wild animals shouldn’t be in cages the little boy thinks.. one day I'm going to have my own circus and my own circus is going to be exciting and it's going to be different but I need to work out what it is that I'm going to be good at.
 

The little boy spends the next year, while there is no circus in town, practicing trying to be good at all those things he'd seen trying to walk on a piece of wire above the ground and falling off and cutting his knee and bruising his head, and still, he keeps trying.

He puts on crazy outfits to try and make his friends laugh. But they don't. And he tries and he tries. He tries to learn how to juggle like the jugglers he saw in the show, but to no avail.

He then decides I'll train the dog and I'll teach the dog the amazing tricks that I saw on the show. But it just doesn't happen. The dogs are just not interested. The dog just wants to play it doesn't want to do what the little boy does. He wants the little boy to do what it wants.

So after a whole year, he's tried everything. And he's just not good enough. He loves them all. He loves every one of those things, but he's just not good enough at any of them. Pretty soon the circus comes back to town and he's begged his father for months. Dad when the circus comes back. I just want to go to the circus.

We’re back. We're at the circus, but he says “Dad I want to get there early. I want to see if I can see what goes on behind the scenes. I want to meet the Ringmaster I love the ringmaster and I love watching what he did because he seems to know everybody needs to know about everything in the show. Please Dad, can we go early? Can we see if we can meet the ringmaster can we see if we find out what goes on behind the scenes”. So his dad says, “I know what we'll do. We'll go when they're practicing when they're rehearsing. Go down to the day before and see if we can meet some of these people and find out what it is you want to know.”

So they go down the circus isn't that exciting? When they're practicing? Sure there's a big tank and there are lights and there's all the action happening but there's no crowd there's no excitement. It's a bit boring. The boy is not that excited about it. But he gets to meet all of the people because his dad tells the ringmaster that the little boy loves the circus and he wants to be in a circus but he just doesn't know what he wants to do.

So the Ringmaster introduces him to the various acts one by one by one. And the boy tells him he's tried everything. But he's just not good enough. They encourage him and tell him that just keep trying. He can get better. Practice is the way to go.

The ringmaster tells him “Why don't you think about being the ringmaster because as the ringmaster you can be part of the whole show. You can organize the whole thing you don't have to be a great juggler. You don't have to be funny. You don't have to be death-defying on the high wires. And you can control what goes on at the show.

If you want to let the wild animals out of their cages and go back to the jungle. Be the ringmaster you should be the Ringmaster's son” he says “because the ringmaster is in control of the show and the ringmaster is in control of his life. So if you are the ringmaster all the way through your life, you're going to be able to be close to everything you enjoy. You don't have to be the best editor to be part of the show.”

In the next series:

The ringmaster is me

the little boy/girl becomes the Ringmaster and builds the best circus ever which leads to his vision of setting up a park where the animals roam free.

In the Final Series:

The ringmaster is You

he/she sets up a school to teach others to become the Ringmasters of their lives.

conclusion:

(Under development)

We're teaching kids to move from understanding you don't have to be the best at everything. You can do very well by not being quite good enough. And finding ways to influence the things that you enjoy doing.

So the three series in “The Ringmaster” we maintain the look and the consistent approach and its always about innovation and about entrepreneurship, about using new technology and looking for new ideas about understanding what an entrepreneur is about understanding what innovation is.

And I think in these series of six-nine books, I think there's probably only 15 to 20 pages per book. Increasingly more words as we go on, and I think the reading age, as we go. We start off with books and need to be read to the kids. So when they're babies to two, or three or four, and when they're just about to start Primary School at four or five to six. Then they're starting to understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

What experimenting is about what innovating is about what constantly looking for ways to do things better is all about. And I think that's probably where that focus will be so that we are taking kids who are natural entrepreneurs and natural innovators and natural experimenters when they're small and encouraging them to keep it up once I start school because generally when you start school, you become very regimented and organized and you need to do what the teachers say and you need to sit down, shut up and listen.

And I guess what we want to do is then maybe move into a third series of books, who knows where yes, you're at school and yes, you're learning things. But you're going home, you're experimenting, you're playing, you're exploring online, and the physical world. You're asking questions, the sort of questions you can ask at school, you're asking your friends and your parents and adults and encouraging kids not to be afraid to ask questions, and to have an inquiring mind a restless mind.

And I think that's the age at which we're developing real entrepreneurship in the, in the 6, 7, 8-year age group might just start school so really, I think what we're ending up here was a series of a number of books that are grouped in threes by age groups when they can't read and their parents read to them when they're learning to read just prior to starting school, and we may start school to encourage them not to just sit down and shut up and listen to the teacher. But to continue to have an inquiring mind have a restless mind to want to understand what makes things work.