Success   
      
The organ console at Symphony Hall was centre stage and connected to the six thousand organ pipes by fibre optic cable - the very latest technology. The internationally known organist had travelled from Paris to perform. He came onto the stage under the glare of spotlights and played magnificently, his hands and feet taking flight over the four manuals and the pedal board. He finished with the well known wall of sound which is the toccata from Widor's organ symphony (a piece often used for weddings). I think that all 6,000 pipes were sounding. The audience erupted in applause. But it was an audience of only about 300 in an auditorium capable of holding 2,200. Kylie would expect to perform to an audience of 5,000 with ticket prices five times the amount we paid. Is she the more successful? Or are we comparing chalk and cheese? After all, organists, even female ones, don't expect to wear spangly leotards.
 
But things are changing. Artists, for instance, who by tradition were mostly posthumously successful, are taking steps to have the benefits of success now. They use agents to manipulate the media to try to become fashionable and so make lots of money. And who can blame them? It was quite amusing to go around the Palazzo Grassi in Venice and see the installations which the foundation had bought. They mainly showed little skill in their execution and had turgid and pretentious explanations of what the artist was trying to say, a sure sign that he has not succeeded in the basic requirement - that an artist should communicate through his work. But they are fashionable and, around the world, rich people are paying huge prices for these things - at the moment. At the nearby Peggy Guggenheim museum, in contrast there were ‘contemporary' works from an earlier period, which at least displayed genuine skill in their execution and often managed to communicate a point directly to the viewer, even if some further explanation was helpful. Although many of today's artists have succeeded in their aim of making lots of money, I think that their patrons will find that they have only succeeded in buying a collection of the Emperor's new clothes.
 
Fame, though, tends to be transitory. Not many continue to be famous throughout their lives, and most of us will only ever achieve what could loosely be called fame in a very circumscribed way - if we are good at what we do, then others in the same line may know our names. Solicitors and other professionals, of course, do not produce things that can be hung on the wall or displayed on a pedestal. Even my most erudite analysis of my client's legal position is unlikely to be seen by more than a few people and it will then gather dust in a file. It is probably because we cannot display our work in its rich colours and layers of argument that professional people get together in learned societies. We go to dinners to which we invite representatives of other professions and wear chains of office designed to make us feel important. Indeed, for a year, I was President of the law society. Well, actually the Tamworth Law Society. The small group of lawyers in Tamworth took it in turns to be president, based on how long they had been qualified. In fact, our society was so small that, unlike the rather more venerable and prestigious Birmingham Law Society of which my brother was president for a year, we didn't actually have a chain of office, although I still have somewhere my plastic name badge.
 
So, was I successful in my professional life? Reasonably so. But, when we give up work, we are released back into the wider community where our former professional achievements are of no great importance. And we are soon forgotten even by our former colleagues and clients. Does this matter? Well, only if being famous or important in itself matters to you. In fact, I think it puts it all into perspective. My aim is now simply to get on with enjoying life. And, no doubt more by luck than judgement, that is something at which I have been quite successful.

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