Thursday 11 December 2008

Christmas

In our final blog of the year before Talented Young People closes its doors for the Christmas break I thought it was only fitting this week that we talk about Christmas.

Now to me Christmas is a time of relaxation but deserved relaxation. If you put in one hundred and ten percent all year around to achieve your dreams your batteries need to be recharged with a week’s rest. With companies and a vast percentage of the population slowing down and closing up for Christmas it makes sense to get your rest and relaxation in when it is hard to get anything done.

Christmas is also a time for reflection. To think about what you have achieved this year and what you should have achieved. It’s only when looking at a year as a whole and matching we achieved against what we wanted to achieve that we can see if it has been a success or not. It is so easy to get caught up in the craziness which is the modern world and life so times like Christmas where everything shuts down are needed to get true perspective.

Christmas is about remembering what is important in your life. Spending time with family, friends and loved ones around Christmas can really bring home to us the importance of the people around us. It is a time where we make an effort to connect and reach out to people and a time where we can be overwhelmed by the generosity of others as well as feeling the warmth of making the time special for someone else.

If you want to hit the ground running in 2009 you need to make the best of this season to put to bed 2008 and to put you in a great position to start 2009.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us here at Talented Young People Ltd.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Miming

Britney Spears has launched a press and PR assault on the UK this weekend with an appearance on X-Factor and a 90 minute supposed bare all interview which was broadcast on Sky One this week. People should be talking about her new album which she is here to promote but this week many people have been left talking about her alleged miming on her so called live performance of here new track “Womanizer.”

People have been miming for years and this isn’t a new thing for music artists to do but when big names do it, it gets headlines. This week I ask when is miming acceptable and even is it acceptable at all? Should TV companies and music companies be doing more to make sure they perform live? And should we be told before an act performs if they are live or miming?

When people pay to see a concert are they paying for a show? Are they paying for entertainment? Or are they paying to see the act perform live? Now I can slightly understand if you are going on to a TV show at last minute and they can’t set the audio production up properly for you that you wouldn’t want to go on live. With sites like YouTube if you give a bad performance its going to be plastered all over the internet and through one performance could ruin your image but when it comes to concerts you play in venues which are designed for gigs and in which you have the whole day to set up and do sound checks so to me there is no excuse for miming at a gig.

When an act goes on to a TV show to do an interview and a performance do you just see this as a promotion / an advert for the music or should it be held in the same position as a performance at a gig? With a TV show no fan or member of the general public has paid anything to hear you sing live so is it acceptable not to?

You play a dangerous game when you mime and try and pass it off as a live performance. If you youtube Ashlee Simpson and Saturday Night Live you will see what I mean as on live TV her track started before she was ready and within a few seconds left the stage in embarrassment. Or if like Britney you have one of these headset mics and then when you have to be interviewed after the performance the interviewer has to put their mic in your face. As much as a bad performance can be bad for your image getting caught miming can be equally as bad just ask Ashlee Simpson.

The whole miming side of the music industry helps reinforce the belief that many people have that pop stars can’t sing and all there stuff is just edited to sound good. This is a reason why I think more needs to be done to make people perform live because as long as people continue to mime people will continue to have these thoughts.

I think the problem lies in the overproduction of tracks when they are released. When an artist can go in to a recording studio and spend days just recording one song and record it in small chunks having hundreds of attempts of course it is going to sound a bit different when you have one take to belt it out live. I think the quality of the production of some of these tracks makes it near impossible for some acts to recreate live and this puts them off performing live.

Britney picked the worst show to do a mime on as the show is all about people who have none or very little professional training performing live every week and this is what has brought this in to the headlines. If Britney had mimed on a daytime TV programme I don’t think there would have been as much talk about it.

What do you think about singers who mime on stage? Do you think it should be stopped? Or do you just want to be entertained and not care if the act is miming or not? We want to know your view points on miming and you can share your views by joining in our topic of the week:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=617

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Leadership

I haven’t done a blog on a sporting topic for a little while but this week my inspiration from this piece comes from the world of sport. If you like your football you will be able to guess what I am going to be talking about. I am a big fan of Arsenal Football Club and they have been all over the back pages this week following their Captain William Gallas making claims and statements to the press about trouble behind the scenes at the club. So this week it is all about Leadership.

In this world we will always need good leaders and leadership qualities are great to have. Now what does being a leader actually mean? Is a leadership someone who shouts the loudest and can get people to do things? Is a leader someone who leads by his actions? And should leaders speak out and act out on things which could have a detrimental affect on the group they lead?

To me a leader is someone who is considered but someone who can when it comes to crunch draw on their own experience and feelings to make a decision on how to lead. The important thing not to be when being a leader is a loose cannon. When some people think of a leader they think of someone who doesn’t bow down to anyone and leads based on their own opinions. A loose cannon is what William Gallas ended up being which is not the way to lead.

As a leader you need to put the group of people you lead before yourself and as a leader the way you act and behave will be seen as a direct reflection of your group by many people looking in. To be a leader you need to have the respect and the backing of your group without those two things even if you have the title of a leader you are not a real leader in the true sense of the word.

Even if you don’t want to a be leader when you grow up you never know when your leadership skills could be called in to question and when you will need other people to help you or do things for you so you always need to keep your leadership skills sharp. So when you are a leader never make a rash decision, always think before you act and always put the group first before yourself.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Accomplishments and recognition

We all like winning awards, trophies and recognition. Whether it’s winning the cup with your football team or being top of the class we all like to see a reward for our hard work. In a world which if you believe the press has an increasing amount of youth related crime happening it seems that more organisations are creating awards to reward young people doing great things in society whilst trying to get some good publicity for young people.

My question this week is this: Should we be rewarding young people for everything that they do? And if we do this are we just creating a culture of young people who will just expect to get an award for everything they do and then only do things if they get an award for it.

For me young people need to be empowered to achieve great things for their own personal satisfaction and not for an award. Young people should want to achieve in what they are doing first then if an award comes up it is a bonus. Someone shouldn’t be judged by how many awards they have won they should be judged by how good they are at something.

For me I want to win awards so I can show others what can be achieved through hard work as if you keep working hard at something and always want to get better at it somewhere down the line you will get the recognition for it.

So to sum up I am all for awards and recognising the efforts of young people as long as it doesn’t breed a culture of award hungry young people who lose focus on the long term goals they are trying to achieve in life.

What do you think? Do you like getting awards? Is that what motivates you? We want to know and you can share your views by joining in our topic of the week:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=605


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Contracts - Are they worth signing?

Now many of us are aware of the lengthy and sometimes unfair contracts that music acts are signed to by record labels but nobody has really thought about contracts on the X-Factor. On the show each finalist is tied down to a contract which states that they can’t release any music until after the winner has released there’s and that they will have to take part in the X-Factor tour among countless other things I’m sure.

Scott allegedly wants out of his contract so that he can start releasing music now and not be restrained by the terms of releasing music on his contract. He obviously believes that his best chance of chart success is getting something out now before the X-Factor buzz dies down. If successful he would set a president and it would get other acts wanting to do the same so I a sure if he did attempt this it would be unsuccessful.

Ok the X-Factor contract may be restrictive but without it Scott wouldn’t have gotten on TV and had all the media buzz behind him so even if he does have to wait he still has a higher chance of success than if he hadn’t been on the show. The X-Factor tour is also great PR as he gets to perform to thousands of people up and down the country at the same getting paid a nice amount for doing so which without his contract he wouldn’t get the chance to do.

I think if this story is true then it is just another attempt to get media hype for being the first person to try this. I’m sure if Scott was still on the show he wouldn’t want to be released from his contract. Personally I think it is worth signing a contract like that for the opportunities that show can supply but it does bring back in to the spotlight the importance of reading a contract and thinking about the outcomes before signing one.

In this week’s topic of the week we want to know if you think contracts are unfair on the talent? Are the big record labels and TV shows wrong to tie people in to contracts> We want to know your thoughts. And you can share your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=598



Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 29 October 2008

TV, Internet and the 21st Century

This week I want to talk about an email I got this week from some of the guys working on the E4 series Skins telling me about competitions they are running for young people to get their music featured on the show and to secure speaking roles. This got me thinking for my blog this week.

I think its great how TV companies are integrating their services with an online arm and they are using their online side of the organisation to encourage members of the public to get involved and create media. The internet has made it so quick and easy for young people to create recordings of their music and videos of their acting or producing which is encouraging more young people to try their hand at these things and enter competitions like this. Back many years ago people would have to make a tape of themselves and then send it off to an address to enter competitions like this which would put many people off who had the talent and ability to do win competitions like these.

Many shows have asked for people to upload videos for competitions for acting roles but not many have offered the chance for young musicians to have their music featured on a show. This is ingenious because now young people will get the chance to have their music featured on a show which is popular with young people and a series which will be repeated, available online and possibly on DVD which is a great advert for their music.

The TV companies also get rewards for running competitions like this as they get free promotion and encourage their fanbase and potential audience members to interact with the show and feel more a part of the show. Not only this but music rights for TV programmes can be an expensive business so to get hold of music which isn’t from a major label or music company is a lot better for the producers financially as they have to pay through the nose to use music from established stars on their show.

I think we will see more competitions and opportunities like this in the near future as it is a win / win situation for all involved.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Still lots to be achieved

As the year draws closer to its end, thoughts turn to Christmas and as the nights start to draw in it can be a time that many people start to take their foot off the pedal and get caught up in the season. It is so, so easy just to let these last couple of months go to waste and to relax but this week I want to use this chance to encourage you to get the most out of the end of the year.

You may have achieved some great things this year. You may have achieved more than you expected or wanted to achieve. If this is the case you can’t afford to get complacent just because you have achieved this year it doesn’t mean that there isn’t any more for you to achieve this year. Now is the time to press on and to not settle for what you have already achieved now is the time to find out what you really can achieve this year.

On the other hand you may not have achieved what you wanted to and what you wanted to achieve may seem impossible to achieve by the end of the year. If this is the case you need to reset your goals and end this year on a high by getting as much achieved as possible so that this year isn’t a waste. You need to learn from this year and use these next two months to put you in a better place to achieve your goals and targets for next year.

Try not to get distracted by things happening around you and don’t get sucked in to that attitude of just looking forward to Christmas. Your Christmas is going to be so much better and come a lot quicker if you are busy over the next couple of months achieving more great things. Let Christmas be a time where you can look back and honestly say hand on heart that you achieved the most that you possibly could with the year, that feeling is the greatest Christmas present you can give yourself this year.

We here at Talented Young People want to know what you are trying to achieve before the end of the year and you can let us know by joining in our topic of the week which you can find by clicking the link below:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=588


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 15 October 2008

You never know where it might lead

I want to draw on a personal experience for this week’s blog which is all about making steps to change your life.

In life there are so many opportunities available to us and around us that we don’t take up because they may not be quite what we are looking for, not a big enough or important enough opportunity in our eyes. By doing this and not taking opportunities like this we never know where they might have lead.

Last month I started as a volunteer commentator for the SoccerSight programme ran by the Royal National Institute for the Blind. This involves providing a live audio description for football fans who are visually impaired and that attend live football matches. I found out about this through my local club Plymouth Argyle. I sent off an application form, went all the way to Swindon for a training day and got selected. Now if I hadn’t found out about this opportunity and followed it up I wouldn’t have got the opportunity.

So there is me having the time of my life commentating on Argyle games completely happy and content to do this forever more not wanting or expecting more and then all of a sudden I get the chance to go to Wembley. Wembley is one of the most significant sporting venues in the world and at the end of the month I have been invited to assist with the commentary for my second favourite sport American Football as the NFL comes to the UK. This opportunity all came about through my involvement with SoccerSight and if it hadn’t been for that this opportunity would have never come up.

So my message this week is to try something new and get involved with something as you never know where it may lead. My story is just one example but it doesn’t have to be like that it could just be that in trying something new you find a new passion or direction for your life or it may be that the experience of the opportunity can give you a chance to do something else that you wouldn’t have had without that experience. Always go in to everything you do by putting 100% in and always keep yourself open to any and all opportunities as you never know where something might take you.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Pay it Forward

Many years ago the Pay it Forward movement began. Pay it Forward was an idea to change the world which started from one person doing a random act of kindness for someone and then getting the person who has received the kindness to go and do the same for someone else. The movement got that big that there was an even a Hollywood film made about it starring Kevin Spacey.

The principal for the idea is so good as it is an idea which is so simple, requires no money and actively involves people in helping to change the world. The only problem is that this system depends to society reacting to it and the person receiving the act of kindness to then go and pass it on in a way which will get the person they pass it on to, to pass it forward again.

However I think it is a great concept and one which can be used to help change the world for young people. It’s like if we could get one young person to go and inspire / motivate another young person and get that young person to do it to someone else then schools, youth groups and so on would better places with less bullying and students supporting each other.

All of us should always be looking for ways in which we can pay it forward. It just may be that you start a chain that makes real difference in this world. If at first you don’t succeed try again, even if the person you are passing it forward to doesn’t pass it on again at least you have done something nice for one person and you never know that person in years time may remember it and do something nice for someone else.

So why not start a Pay it Forward movement in your own school or local community, see what differences you can make.

This week our topic of the week is all about Paying it Forward and you can join in the discussion by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=579


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Delivering on Talent

In this week’s blog I want to talk about a situation every young person wanting to achieve something with their life will experience the moment they have to deliver on their talent. Whether it is a trial, an audition, an exam or a job interview everyone will have a situation where the time for talking and practising is over and where they have to show they are better than all the competition.

I got thinking about this subject this week because X-Factor is starting to reach the business end and because last weekend the football team I help coach kicked off their league campaign.

In X-factor before the weekend they had whittled it down from the first auditions and now all the hopefuls had one more chance to sing one more song and based on those couple of minutes would learn if they were going through to the next round. They had all been put their because the judges thought they had talent but if they didn’t deliver in those few minutes then it was all for nothing. Not giving a good performance wouldn’t mean they didn’t have talent but it would mean they hadn’t delivered on their talent. Being on TV in a situation like that the nation judges you at home on if they think you are good or not they don’t take in to account if you are having a bad day or if that song wasn’t suited to you as they don’t really know how talented you are or could be as they only see you for those brief minutes.

Now delivering on talent is a lot different in competitive sports especially team sports. In this situation delivering on your talent depends on a lot of factors including the opposition, your team mates, your tactics etc. As coaches we believe our team is good but it’s not until others see your performances and see your results that they will judge where you stand. It’s like we took our team to a tournament which was for children in the age group above our team but we wanted to test them. In that tournament we didn’t get any points and looking at the results some people would say they weren’t talented but the experience we got from that tournament helped us to win our first game of the season 2 – 0.

When trying to work out if someone is talented or not you can’t judge them on one performance or a few minutes. Talent is relative as just because you are the best at something in your local area it doesn’t necessarily mean you are better than somebody from another county as the competition in that area may be a lot higher. So if you are in a football team and you finish second in a very competitive league you may be better than a team that wins the league at an easier standard of football.

So just remember success isn’t always based on talent but you can use your talent to achieve great things. Like talent success is relative, if you want to achieve great things and push your talent to the furthest is can go you have to challenge yourself as winning a football match against a team which aren’t anywhere near as good as your team it doesn’t teach you anything or help improve your game but losing to a better team can help teach you things that will make you a better player and a better team.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 24 September 2008

Noel's HQ

Now one of the main vocal points behind Talented Young People is our desire to see a better world for our youngsters to live in and to create a world of more fulfilled young people who have dreams and ambitions that they are working hard to fulfill. So Noel's HQ really struck a chord with us as the majority of the programme was highlighting how everybody can make their own positive difference to the world whilst highlighting people that already were which is what we are all about.

In a year in which we have seen a huge rise in the reports of teenage crime in newspapers and in a year which has seen the launch of the Talented Young People – Youth Manifesto, we believe there has never been a more important time than today to make the big and small changes the world needs.

We need more celebrities and people in power using their positions to help make this a more positive world to live in and it is great to see Noel Edmonds devoting his time to the cause. His TV show showed you how much difference you could make in ninety minutes. After the show had finished he had managed to sign up thousands of viewers to become organ donors as well as getting people to email in with offers of support in goods, services and time for people that were trying to change the world.

We need to fight on all fronts for this world whether it be TV, Radio, Internet or Press. We need to fight to reach people wherever they may be if we are going to change the world and make it a positive place for young people to live in.

I hope there are more programmes like this on TV but more importantly I hope shows like this encourage people to actually do something as it is the people on the ground who can make the real and big changes.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Paralympics

After all the hype surrounding the Olympics who has been following the Paralympics? After all the pages of press Team GB got for their medal haul in Beijing many people are unaware that our Paralympians have already amassed a staggering 42 Golds, 29 Silvers and 31 Bronzes outshining the success of the Olympics.

You won’t see our Paralympic team on the front of every paper when they come back, you won’t get people rushing to see them off the plane and you won’t get people saying they should get Knighthoods, but why is this? Are they less worthy of our support and adulation? NO! If anything they are more worthy as their determination and inner strength is greater than any regular Olympian.

What’s it going to be like when it is in our country in 2012 are companies like the BBC going to make more of an effort to show it just because it is in our backyard and then revert back to their old style of coverage when it goes to another country? When the Olympics were on every time you put on the TV there was something on, when you were eating your breakfast something was on, when you were eating your lunch something was on and when you were eating your tea something was on. Now if you want to watch the Paralympics there is one, one hour show every evening but not on BBC 1 as it is has been demoted to BBC 2.

In a day and age where we should all be equal and not look at someone’s disability, race or physical appearance before the actual person inside, the media seem to be in the stone age as it treats the Paralympics like a second rate sporting event. It’s the media that have so much impact on the way we react and treat each other and with them sending these messages it’s not helping us as a society and the way we treat people.

Have you been watching the Paralympics? We would love to know your thoughts on the event and you can share them by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=559

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Stage School

This week I want to talk about stage schools. Watching the new series “Hairspray: The School Musical” got me thinking about Stage Schools as in this series Denise Van Outen is trying to get a regular school to put on a performance of the hit musical on the West End. It’s going to be interesting to see how the young people react to their school being changed in to a stage school type environment and if kids from a regular school can pull it off.

Stage schools for many years have been seen as the place for wannabe actors, dancers and singers to attend in order to achieve their dreams of making it in these industries. They have also been seen as many as a place that is for children from well to do families who can afford the yearly fees and for children with pushy parents who will do and pay anything to get their child to the top.

I know many people who have gone through some of the top stage schools in the country and I know many people who have worked at top stage schools. The majority of these people have spoken highly of their experiences in the Stage School environment. The one thing that Stage School does is make you really aware of the competition and what standard you need to be at to get roles and contracts. The energy in these places are immense as in Stage Schools everyone has the same dreams and are all working hard to achieve them which you don’t get in regular schools.

Stage School’s are brilliant for unmotivated, undedicated and undisciplined people as the environment forces it’s pupils to be all these things with the rigorous hours put in to development of their craft and the pupils being forced to keep disciplined with the hectic timetable of lessons and workshops. Many people who go to Stage School wouldn’t spend half the time they do on their craft if they weren’t in Stage School. The problem is that when you graduate from Stage School and enter in to the workplace you need to be disciplined and motivated as there will be no one there to make sure you are.

Another thing to remember in this day and age is that Stage School isn’t just for people wanting careers in theatre, TV or Movies. Nowadays many TV Presenters and Radio presenters are coming out of Stage School. We now also have pop bands who are formed from members who attended Stage Schools.

I think it is important to remember that going to a stage school isn’t a guarantee of success and they aren’t the only way to break in to performing arts. Stage Schools do however give you high class teaching and time dedicated to your craft that you wouldn’t get anywhere else, they also give you a network of contacts, invites to auditions and people working on your behalf to get you work. So I do believe going to a Stage School can really help you get a career in performing arts but it is your natural talent and dedication that are going to get you there and these are things that you either have or you don’t.

I still believe that if you don’t go to Stage School you still can have a great chance of making it in performing arts but it just means that you need to be on your toes, scouring every source you can for auditions, trying to get your talent to the best level possible and building your own network of contacts. The good thing now is that more and more companies are looking for everyday people and holding open public auditions so it gives a chance to those who don’t go to Stage School.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Back to School

This week many young people up and down England will be going back to school after a six week break which has seen more rain than sun. Most young people will be wishing they had more days off and didn’t have to go back this week but that would be the same story if they went back this week or next month as everyone always wants more.

Over the last couple of weeks parents will have been shopping with their children for new school uniforms, shoes and other clothing wear as well as going to the stationeries to get all the stationery they need for their school year. As well as preparing their children with clothes and equipment for school they will be starting to prepare them mentally for school with bed times reverting back to normal and talks about what is expected of their children this year.

For young people the beginning of the school year can be a mix of emotions, gladness at going back to see friends, anxiety about a new school or a new teacher but most importantly it’s a time to think about their targets for the year and what they want to achieve out of the year. Every year spent at school is a year closer to the real world of optional education and the workplace so with every year the importance grows to do well and to be ready for the challenges after your school years are over.

What I say to young people is to sit down with their families before the year starts and set some goals for the year, goals which are going to challenge you to work your hardest but goals that you can achieve. Once this is done you need an action plan on how you are going to make this happen and you need to stick to the action plan as if the action plan is a good action plan and you stick to it you will achieve results. By having an action plan it gives us something we can look at on a week by week basis to measure our progress. This is important as many people start the school year with big dreams of what they want to achieve but after a few weeks have forgotten about what it is they wanted to achieve and have got caught up in the distractions of school life. It’s easy to put your all in on the first day and get all your homework done but what about in the fourth or the fifth month. School is a marathon and not a sprint.

Regardless of what you pack in your pencil case, regardless if you haven’t got a compass or a protractor as long as you make sure to pack your can do attitude, your action plan and your goals and live by them you will have a successful year this year.

What are your goals for this year? Are you looking forward to the year ahead at school? We want to know your thoughts and you can share them by joining in our discussion topic of the week by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=548


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 27 August 2008

Turning Ideas in to Action

We have all had ideas we have never acted upon. During our day we think of great new inventions, business ideas, ideas for TV programmes and so on but by the end of the day we have either usually forgotten about them or if we do remember them we don’t do anything about them.

Now I had a situation like this recently. I enjoy writing and spend much of my day working in a TV environment coupled with this in my spare time I enjoy playing and coaching football. Based on my experiences in football I had the idea to devise and script a new fictional TV series based around a youth football team. It wasn’t that I wasn’t passionate enough about my idea but it was just my busy lifestyle kept getting in the way of me putting pen to paper, every time I thought I had an opportunity to start, something would get in the way.

Then after months of thinking this idea through in my head, (yes even though I wasn’t writing it I was still thinking about all the characters and plot twists for my TV series idea) I picked up my TV guide to see that BBC 2 were about to launch a series based on a youth football team. Now I’m not saying my ideas were anything close to the show that ended up on BBC 2 but now with that in a prime time slot other channels aren’t going to be looking for something similar to it.

Its one thing believing in an idea but you have to make it happen, if you truly believe in an idea go out and make it happen don’t wait for someone else to get there before you. There are so many people in life with great ideas which could change the world or just merely entertain people but none of these great ideas ever see the light of day. If half of our good ideas were acted upon just imagine the world we would be living in.

Some ideas are harder to get off the ground than others but don’t let the difficulty to deter you as a good idea is a good idea regardless of how hard or difficult it is to make happen. Don’t waste your life wondering about what ifs or what could have been. By trying to make your ideas happen at least you know what would have happened and if you are successful it may change your life or if you aren’t successful you can move on to new ideas or new projects.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Can you put an age limit on talent?

After my blog last week on the Olympics I want to follow it up with a blog which has a slight link to the Olympics. This weeks blog is about finding out at what age are young people ready to realise their full potential and talent in their area of expertise. We have youngsters in the Olympics at the age of fourteen, sixteen year old football stars and young actors & actresses on our screens but do we need to put more age boundaries in place to control at what age young people can compete and partake in certain things?

This argument was highlighted by Team GB’s youngest Olympian Tom Daley. In the year running up to the Olympics people were talking him up as a possible Gold Medal winner but when he made his debut in the synchronized dive he and his partner finished in eighth and last place. Tom has an individual dive event still to go at the time of writing this blog but if he isn’t successful in that then there is going to be much pressure on his young shoulders. After being talked up like he was he has had added pressure to perform and if he started believing the hype he will be very disappointed when he gets back home. This fourteen year old will also have to deal with any taunts from his jealous peers at school who may make fun of his achievements.

In sports if you are going to let young people compete you have to create an age requirement which is based upon giving them the best chance to compete physically with their competition. This has to be dependent on the sport in question as some sports are more or less physically demanding than others. This age bracket doesn’t mean everyone should compete when they get to that age or that they should compete it should just be there as a minimum.

Next you have to look at if the young person is emotionally strong enough and mature enough to deal with reaching that level with their talent. There is a difference to entering a sporting event for individuals than representing your county on the biggest stage like the Olympics. So you may be ready to perform at a national or international event which doesn’t have much press coverage and where you are only competing for yourself but that doesn’t mean you are ready for the Olympics. Your talent may be good enough but your ability to handle the situation may not be good enough.

This is the same in the arts as a young person maybe emotionally ready and mature enough to handle performing at a small local venue but not ready for a huge arena with lots of press coverage and thousands of fans. Young people may be to handle and understand their ability but may not be able to deal with the adoration of fans properly without it going to their head or changing the way they feel or act.

If you look at the English Premiership football league it puts this discussion under the microscope as some teams are ready to put their youngsters in the starting line up at sixteen where some will keep them on the bench and use them sparingly to build up their experience. Again there isn’t a one size fits all approach and each young people with talent needs to be handled individually as it may be that bringing someone on to early or late in their career could have a big negative effect on their long term success.

So in summing up yes I do feel that for some things there needs to be an age bracket but on the whole it needs to be looked at on a case by case basis. Although Tom Daley may not have been as successful as he hoped it could be this experience at this age which really sets him up for a long and successful career and without it his career may not have gone on to such future heights so this needs to be taken in to consideration as well. I think people need to stop expecting so much from young people with talent but instead give them the support they need to grow and develop.

We here at Talented Young People would love to know your thoughts on this. At what age should young people be allowed to compete at the Olympics? Can you put an age limit on talent? Join in our topic of the week by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=534



Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 13 August 2008

The Olympics

After much press and politics surrounding the Olympics it finally kicked off last Friday with another brilliant and interesting opening ceremony. In this blog I am going to be talking about my thoughts on the Olympics as a whole and not about the rights or wrongs of holding this years event in Beijing.

I have always been a fan of the Olympics because it is one of the very few sporting events left which is not about celebrities. Yes some people go on to fame after success in the Olympics but for the main they are hardworking everyday people who have dedicated themselves to their sport and sacrificed a lot to be there. These are people that the countries can really get behind and identify with.

The other reason I like the Olympics is because it brings sports that don’t get much media attention in to the spotlight, sports you wouldn’t normally see on a sports channel or featured on the back page of a newspaper like Canoeing or Badminton. On the flipside however I’m not a fan of them having sports like football and tennis in which feature professional athletes who get huge sums of money every year. To me the Olympics should be about putting the spotlight on those athletes that don’t get the chance to make much money or get much notoriety.

The Olympics also provides us with a great chance to get behind our home countries and brings the country together as the Olympics spills in to everyday conversation. If your country is doing well it also gives you the feel good factor which makes the country a nicer place to live in.

Above all the Olympics is inspirational. It exposes young people to new and different sports. If your country does well at a sport it encourages lots of people to take it up. For any young sportsmen and women there is nothing more inspiring than watching the Olympics with the opening parades, the support and podium ceremonies.

I hope this Olympics encourages more and more young people to get in to sport.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Summer Blockbuster Films

The weather may not be the best here in the UK at the moment but at least there have been some great Blockbuster movies at the cinema to keep us happy. We have had the new Indiana Jones, Wall-E, Dark Knight, Prince Caspian, Hancock, Incredible Hulk and Kung-Fu Panda to keep us entertained with what seems like a must see film being released every week.

Now I haven’t seen all on that list but from friends of mine that go regularly to cinema tell me that there have been some gems in amongst that bunch. Last weekend I went to see the new Batman film The Dark Knight which I thought was brilliant and one of the best films I have seen this year. I would have gone to see more but the ridiculously high prices at my local cinema means I am choosier about what I see so out of the list in the top paragraph I have only seen Dark Knight and Prince Caspian.

The cinema may be an expensive past time and I for one am personally more in favour of young people enjoying the great outdoors over the summer but with the current weather as it is I hope young people have been enjoying these films. Watching films can help inspire young people and really help develop their creativity as well as giving them some escapism from problems they may be going through.

I am also loving the rise of Superhero films over the last few years with Spiderman, Superman and Batman all having major box office successes. In a world where we seem to have less role models and with the lines between good and bad getting blurred it is good to have films which really bring the ideals of character and the battle between good and bad to the forefront. Young people shouldn’t be inspired to copy or imitate the actions of superhero but be inspired by their character traits and how they act as it’s their courage, bravery, dedication and their good citizenship which are the skills which make them a true superhero not the amount of buildings they can jump off or what villains they can derail.

What have been your favourite summer blockbusters? We at Talented Young People want to know and you can share your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=517

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Shaking up the Youth of Today

Do you ever think things need shaking up? Are you annoyed about things happening around you and want to see a change? Do you feel stuck in a rut and long for something different? If any of these are the case that means you are in the same boat as many others.

With the current situation of highly publicised youth crime never has been there a more important time for a shake up within the media and a shake up for young people. When we see things going wrong or things not working we can’t rely on the same old tired approaches we have to shake things up which includes shaking up our approach to dealing with situations.

I use the phrase “Shaking up the Youth of Today” because I have a hand tremor which means I shake a lot and what I do when I talk to young people is shake them up so it fits in nicely. It’s alright just helping and offering advice to young people but sometimes the only way to truly make a change is to shake them up. If a child is on a bad path I want to shake them off that path completely and redirect them. Shaking things up is about taking action, going in there and making changes.

Away from youth crime many people just go about their everyday lives doing the same thing day in and day out whilst not enjoying it. These people are stuck in a rut and want to get out of it but don’t have the confidence or ability to do something about it. These people need to be shaken up also as they need to know you only get one life to live and getting stuck in a rut is a waste of precious time. We need to help change these peoples mindsets and getting them to follow their dreams. Without being shaken up they aren’t going to unleash their full potential.

Young people are like all the fruit you put in to a blender to make a smoothie. They have all the different tools and equipment but to taste nice and put all their skills to use and bring them together you’ve got to switch the blender on. We need more people to act as blenders who bring together some great raw ability and turn it in to a brilliant end product who everybody would want to be around.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Dragons' Den

I’ve been looking back over my blogs this week and realised I have never discussed the UK TV programme “Dragons’ Den.” The sixth series has just started on BBC 2 and for those unfamiliar with the concept the programme sees up and coming entrepreneurs and inventors pitching their ideas to a panel of rich investors in the hope of getting one or more of them to invest in to their idea.

I like this programme as it takes you the viewer through the process of pitching an idea and what the experience can be like. So as well as being entertaining it is also educational. It shows you how important your presentation skills are as it is not always the best business ideas that do well but the ones that are well presented normally fair well.

The first episode of the new series also linked in to my many blogs regarding the changing scene of the music industry. The episode saw Peter Jones invest £75,000 in to a band called Hamfatter who had come on to the show looking for money to produce their new album in return for giving away 20% of future profits from music sales. It was brilliant to see a music group go on a business programme and show a different route to success in the music industry. With not even having to have a physical CD in the shops to get in to the top 40 gone are the days where you need a record label to achieve success. With a good product, good promotion and money behind you, you can achieve great things in the music world. Following on from the show Hamfatter have been getting interviews and press coverage everywhere so not only was it a good financial decision but also great for PR.

I enjoy the show as it is very inspiring to see people who have nothing but an idea and a desire to take that idea to the next level putting themselves out there to achieve the next level of success. I think there is an inventor and entrepreneur inside of us all and I love seeing what people from across the UK have come up with and designed. With wages not going up in line cost of living on the whole being an entrepreneur is a way of escaping low salary jobs but with the credit crunch hitting the business world some would argue it is even harder to be an entrepreneur in today’s climate.

Dragons’ Den is a great programme to watch if you are thinking of starting up a business as it will give you some basic ideas and knowledge. Dragons’ Den also provides many talking points which are discussed the next day in work places, schools and the media. It’s good to see what other people thought of ideas and businesses to see if there was something you overlooked. Getting people talking about investment, inventions and enterprise is great and a lot better than people talking about shows like Big Brother and Eastenders.

Do you watch Dragons Den? What do you like about the show? Ever tempted to apply to go on? We want to know and you can share your views by joining in our topic of the week:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=506


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Youth Manifesto

This week saw the launch of one of our most important projects to date the Talented Young People – Youth Manifesto.

With teen crime making daily headline news and with many people at a loss to what to do to combat it we had to step in. We could no longer sit idly by waiting for someone else to try and solve the problem we had to act. No longer could we continue to debate the rights and wrongs of government policies or national laws. The time for debating is over the time for action is now.

This week the government seems to be focusing on what to do to punish and re-educate young people carrying or using knives. We however believe prevention is what is needed as if we keep on trying to cure the problem we may never solve the problem. The point of our Youth Manifesto is to encourage, inspire and motivate young people not to carry knives with them or feel the need to carry knives. We want to equip young people with the ability to achieve great things.

Another way in which our Youth Manifesto differs from others is that it’s not just aimed at young people it is aimed at all sectors of society with sections dedicated to many different sectors. For us to change this world we need to all work together and not leave it up to one sector to do all the work as this is not a problem that can be solved by one sector alone.

It’s not policies or funding which is going to solve the problem it’s everyday people working together, taking a stand and putting in action behind their words. If we all come together we can still have a huge impact on this earth we live on. It’s now our time to put the power back in our own hands.

To find out how you can get involved with the Youth Manifesto go to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/youthmanifesto

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 9 July 2008

Giving away music for free

This month will see McFly trying to expand their fanbase by giving away their latest album for free through The Mail on Sunday through which they expect their album to reach three million homes in the UK. We have already seen the likes of Prince giving away his album through the Mail as well as Radiohead offering their album in exchange for a donation on the internet but it now looks like pop acts are getting in on the act.

As the way in which we consume music changes the industry needs to change with it so I am always interested to see what new and innovative ways companies and music acts are using to distribute music. However I feel that when a handful of acts start giving their music away for free and doing it in a mainstream way it affects the whole music industry. If one act can afford to give away their music for free then the general public start to think they should be able to get music from other acts for free and not paying for music becomes an acceptable activity.

Another problem which occurs when music is given away for free is that music becomes worthless. Music instead of being a saleable product it just becomes a form of advertising and promotion for a band to sell merchandise and tickets to live events. By making music worthless it becomes harder for the smaller acts to make money. The bigger acts benefit from doing it as they run live events at big indoor venues and make a lot of money from merchandise but small acts who only tour small venues need the income that record sales provide.

There needs to be systems and services put in place which can give people access to music at a reasonable price without having a negative affect on smaller acts. With the credit crunch how it is it is right for the music industry to react in a way that makes music more affordable but it is just a shame that crunch will probably affect how much money is invested in to new acts. I think new unsigned acts have to capitalise on their ability to produce music and promote it on the cheap thanks to new tools on the internet as record companies no longer have big budgets to establish artists with. That’s the one advantage for unsigned acts is that their music is cheaper to produce than a signed artist so they can afford to give away heir music more cheaply.

The internet has revolutionised the way in which we buy, watch and listen to music, TV and films we just need to make sure that the way in which we are consuming media is fair to the artists and the production companies. For some time I feel the industries have been to kind to the artists and not kind enough to the consumer in the way things have been priced and profits made but we need to make sure we don’t go in completely the other direction where it becomes unfair to the people creating media. As for us to have good quality entertainment we have to have people making it who are fairly paid.

What do you think about bands offering their music for free with newspapers or online? Does it make you less likely to pay for other music? And you think it is a positive thing for the music industry? Let us know by joining in our topic of the week by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=494

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 2 July 2008

Reality TV

During my weekly media consuming I came across a new programme on a channel called “Fiver.” The programme was called “Living Lohan” which is a fly on the wall docu-soap / reality programme on Lindsay Lohan’s younger sister Ali. The programme follows Ali through her home life as she tries to make a career in the music business and this programme got me thinking for this week’s blog.

This is not the first programme of its kind and there have been many like it since the popularity of “The Osbournes” series. However when these shows were first used merely as entertainment c-list celebrities, washed up celebrities and relatives of celebrities are now appearing in their own reality programmes to promote an album or to try and get a career in an entertainment field. Music stars or wannabe music stars think instead of having to travel the country to promote themselves or an album they can just get a camera crew to follow their home life and it can be broadcast to the masses with little effort on their behalf.

The problem now comes that in order for a reality show to be successful and get a deal on a major network it has to be controversial and entertaining. This means that situations have to be created and aspects of their life manipulated in order to keep their audience happy which means they can start to lose control of their image and messages they are sending out in the hunt for TV ratings. This is where the lines of fiction and reality become blurred and where people who appear on these shows are left acting like they do when the cameras rolling when they aren’t. The pressure of a TV series which follows you around everyday has taken its toll on many families like the Hulk Hogan family from “Hogan Knows Best” I believe that if it wasn’t for their reality series then some of the problems and issues in their current lives could have been avoided.

I think these type of programmes are declining in popularity but because they are so cheap and easy to make there will be lots more to come especially on the random channels on Sky that seem to import anything from the US. I think viewers are now savvy to the ways in which these programmes are edited and filmed to make the show controversial and not a reflection of everyday life.

Now in balance there have been some fly on the wall programmes I have enjoyed which have followed by sporting teams, dance schools and other assorted groups. I just don’t enjoy programmes which over sensationalised and that are about celebrities or creating celebrities


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Is Second Best?

I was at home the other day and for the first time in ages turned on daytime TV for some background noise and happened upon a chat show that was discussing: Is Second Best? The argument put forward was whether having to deal with defeat or finishing in second at an early stage of your career more helpful in the long term than instant success? This got me thinking so I wanted to share my thoughts with you on this subject.

Personally I feel instant success can be detrimental to long term success. There are exceptions to this rule but on the whole the quicker success is achieved the shorter the success lasts. Finishing in second place or losing out to others in things like competitions, job interviews and auditions is a test of character. It is at this time where we find out if the thing we are pursuing is truly what we want to do with our life. When this happens we can either accept it and say that we aren’t good at something or we can actually be proactive and tell ourselves we want to be the best and work even harder to become better than the competition. The one thing we can’t do is keep going in to competitions, job interviews and auditions thinking we are the best when we are getting knock back after knock back just hoping that one day we will win something, you have to earn the right to call yourself the best and you do that by working hard and delivering the good when it matters.

Having to go through a period of finishing second makes us appreciate it more when we finally win as we know what it has taken to get there and we know the experience of finishing second all to well. It is also good to start by finishing second and then finishing first as it shows your development and progress whereas if you have finished first from the start it has harder to see how you have improved. To succeed in this world it’s not just your talent that will get you to the top as you also need a strong character to make it happen.

Without a strong work ethic and support success can be taken away as quickly as it is gained. Take TV talent contest winners like Hearsay, David Sneddon, Steve Brookstein etc All these guys were thrust in to the limelight after winning singing competitions just for them to have short term success followed by a fall from fame within a very short space of time. If you compare Hearsay to Liberty X who finished second in the Popstars series who went on to have more chart success or David Sneddon who finished first in Fame Academy and Lemar who finished third who again went on to achieve more chart success. Its not about the position you finish in it is what you do after the result that counts.

If you ask most successful people they will tell you tales of times where they didn’t get the part or win the competition. Just because you only see someone on the telly when they are famous don’t assume that happened over night and they won everything on the way to getting there.

So in summing up to me finishing second is best when you are developing your talent as it can teach you much more than winning ever can and when you are developing your talent it’s not success that is important, its learning which is the important part.

What do you think? Do you agree? Have you experienced finishing second? And has finishing second motivated you on to better things? Let us know by joining in our topic of the week by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=479

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 18 June 2008

The Global Credit Crunch

The credit crunch is hitting the world hard. Prices of everyday items are going up, prices for petrol are rising and so on and so on. I don’t want to look at this from the affect this has on the economy or the general public, I want to look at this from the affect that it has on young people achieving their dreams.

When there is a global credit crunch the government have less money to invest in youth related projects. A big source of income for the government is based on the spending of the general public and when they aren’t spending it hurts the economy which the government have to support. Unfortunately funding and spending on youth projects is way down the list of priorities when governments do budgets so this means that youth projects supported by the government or by other funding bodies disappear or run a smaller service due to the lack of money. These youth services could be anything from art to sport projects.

Then we have youth charities which rely on donations to keep running. During a global credit crunch the public have less money so their income from donations dwindles and again affects the way in which they can operate. Similar to this we have youth organisations which require their members or the families of their members to pay a fee or a subscription to keep the organisation going. Because these organisations rely so heavily on subscriptions the inability of just a couple of families to pay fees could make a huge difference to the service they provide. The costs of running youth organisations are going up but because of the situation of their members many youth organisations can’t raise their fees.

We also have to look closer to home. If the family budget is tighter with more money spent on everyday things it means there is less money for parents to spend to help their children reach their dreams. This could be anything like buying a new pair of football boots, taking a child to an audition or paying for a child to attend a club.

In these times it is stories like that of George Sampson who won ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ become more common place. George performed dance routines on the streets of Manchester to raise money to put petrol in his parents car to get to shows and auditions because his family couldn’t afford to take him otherwise. Then in one night his life changed as he won £100,000 to help his mum pay her mortgage.

George wasn’t the first person to fight through financial adversity to achieve their dreams and won’t be the last. Young people and their families need to now be more creative with their thoughts and ideas and need to do more research on how they can help their young child to achieve their dreams on a shoestring budget as believe you me there are ways and it can be easily done. Buying someone the best guitar doesn’t make them the best guitarist. If you have talent and can find a way of showcasing it then you have a great chance of achieving greatness no matter what your financial situation is.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Londoncentric Thinking

Many countries across Europe are currently enjoying following their national football teams in Euro 2008 where us English people have to watch other countries enjoying the party whilst wishing we were there as every game gets screened live on terrestrial TV.

When England failed to qualify the national board the FA promised a what they were calling a root and branch investigation to get to the bottom of our nation’s failures over recent years to compete on the worldwide stage as well as the current lack of English born players currently plying their trade in the Premier League.

As many of you are aware I am actively involved in youth football in my local area so I was interested to see what changes if any were going to be made at grassroot level. So now months on from that investigation and I receive some news via local channels on new rulings from the national FA board.

For year’s professional football clubs and county organisations have ran academies. This is where they select the best players from the area to get trained by them and use their facilities whilst competing in a fixture programme against other academies. For girls football it use to be that girls could play for an academy side whilst still playing for their local youth side but now the FA are soon to either vote on or pass a regulation saying that if they play for an academy they can no longer player for their local youth side.

Now this may work in big cities where they have a wealth of players but when you are in a small region which is only just emerging with a handful of local youth teams with some of those teams struggling to get enough players for a full side an academy could kill the development of girls football dead in that area. The fifteen or so girls you have in the academy could turn in to great players but after they have gone through their will be no other players coming through as there will be no leagues for them to play in. To improve girls football there has to be access for all.

Instead of taking the easy option of just working with a select group of players if county organisations and professional teams could invest time in setting up good local leagues for girls it will give more players access to football and a lot better in the long term. Having a competitive league of ten teams would see a minimum of seventy girls playing football on a weekly basis which is nearly five times the amount that would be catered for by the academy.

If local youth teams get their best talent cherrypicked by academies then are they going to bother continuing without them? If this is the case what if that player gets let go by the academy half way through the season and she comes back and she has no club to play for? By taking one player from a team could spoil football for many girls. Young people become better players by playing with and against good football players.

So there you go that’s my rant of the week have you guys experienced situations like this where national organisations have passed down rulings which don’t help at local level? We want to know and you can share your views by going to our topic of the week:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=470


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Flava Have Got Talent

Did you stay in all last week to watch Britain’s Got talent? If you have been watching the series then you will already know about some of the amazing talented youngsters we have in this country. However this week I am not dedicating the blog to the winner George Sampson who I personally thought was amazing but an act that made me proud to be Cornish that being beaten Semi Finalists the dance act known as Flava.

In a society that puts young people across as a group of self obsessed wannabes who want to have everything but not put in the hard work to get it Flava were a breath of fresh air. As everyone else on Britain’s got Talent were pushing stories of personal hardship, pleading for votes or support and then getting upset about any negative comments or crying when they found out they hadn’t made it Flava stood out as a shining example of how young people should behave.

When young people are trying to make it in the world of sport and entertainment they are normally pushed to be as competitive as possible, to only care about themselves and to beat all competition at any costs. Flava showed that to get to the top you don’t need any of these characteristics, you just need to be dedicated to your talent and they showed that being a good role model can get you further than trying to stomp on all the competition to get to the top.

In a self obsessed world it was great to see them celebrate with “The Cheeky Monkeys” the young children that the judges put through ahead of them and to then lend their support to acts like “Signature.” When you are in the public eye like they have been they have showed that getting ahead in life is not all about winning competitions as I know they have now had many offers to go and perform for and work with many different organisations because of their performance on the shows. If you compare their behaviour to fellow semi finalist act ‘Per Diem’ who basically threw a tantrum after receiving negative feedback and then you start thinking “I bet they didn’t get many offers for work after the show.” This thought wasn’t based on their performance as they were both talented musicians but it was a prime example of how not to act when receiving feedback and to do that on national TV is career suicide.

When young people enter shows like this they have to remember that only one act can win so if it isn’t them that win they have to make sure that they get the best out of their appearance and put themselves in the best position to get work out of their appearance. Young people also need to be aware of the lives that their performances and actions on TV shows like this can have on young viewers and the power they have to inspire and motivate young viewers.

I wished that Flava were given the chance to perform in the final but by losing in the semi-finals it gave them a chance to show the world how inspirational they are as young people in the way they took defeat and they showed how you can turn defeat in to victory.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Flava.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Does Anything Really Change?

Does anything really change? Last week it was discussed in the news whether funding for youth related projects and schemes had actually made a noticeable or quantifiable improvement to the lives of young people or not.

It is hard when you read the headlines over the weekend of murdered teenagers to actually imagine that funding is helping but how do you gauge the national and overall success of a project when you have stories like this to contend with?

No matter how much good is done the news outlets will always highlight sensational and extreme news of the minority of young people committing crime. This will in turn lead people in to thinking that this is what young people are up to across the country.

Although we all hate figures, statistics and having to measure success I think in some cases it is needed. If you as a government are going to invest millions of taxpayers pounds they have to know they are getting a return for their money. It is hard to stop extreme cases like we have seen on the weekend but what needs to be done is to make sure that these stay isolated and minority events, it is when these incidents become the norm is when we have failed. One teenager dieing is far too many but you can’t stop wanting to better or to improve things as we only lose when we stop trying

These events need to remind us that no young person is safe and we all need to be doing are all to make sure every young person leads a safe life. We can’t rely on funding or education to solve the problems we all need to take an active role within our communities to make sure we are all safe.

When every young person has the same access to funding, education and support is when we will be able to judge change properly and see real change on a national basis. Success with young people is only temporary and we can never afford to forget it. That is why we need continual funding and continual monitoring for the improvement of young lives in the UK. Just because a project has been successful for a young person and changed their life it doesn’t necessarily mean that if support was pulled away that they would continue to be a success.

It may seem like nothing changes but it is a much better world than if funding and support was to be taken away from youth projects and programmes. Just remember that just because you may be reading the same headlines every year it doesn’t mean change isn’t being made or happening.

Do you think anything is changing in regards to the success of support for youth related projects and programme? We here at Talented Young People would love to know your views and you can share them by joining in our topic of the week by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=457


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 21 May 2008

The benefits of travelling

As you are all aware there was no blog last week because I was away on my travels to work in Israel for the week. Hope it has been a productive fortnight for you since my last blog. My experiences over the last week are the topic of this week’s blog and the topic is what travelling can do for your personal development.

In a world which is getting smaller and smaller by the minute where we have the ability to interact with, do business with and find out about people from other countries we can’t afford to lose our want to travel. You can learn a lot from your bedroom but the most important learning comes from experience which you can only get from actually going to another country.

By visiting another country you can find out about how people of a similar age to you act and behave. You can also find out about their attitudes and the standard of their education. It is interesting to see how young people who have more or less opportunities and support than you do cope with their own personal development. You can take bit from their approach to life which you can bring back home with you and sew in to your life to improve your self development.

One thing I noticed from my trip to Israel was that a high percentage of the population spoke both the native language of Hebrew as well as English fluently whereas in England there is only a small percentage of the population can speak two or more languages fluently.

By visiting foreign countries we have never been to or by going to countries in which we don’t speak the native language it gives us a sense of adventure. Putting ourselves in these situations challenges our problem solving skills which is a good skill to test but if you do plan on doing something like this be sure to do your research and to keep safe. To succeed in life we need to encourage our adventurous side.

Visiting other countries can give you inspiration. Seeing a famous landmark, beautiful scenery or experiencing something different that you can’t do or see back at home can be very inspirational. It can spark the inspiration to try something new when you get back home or to do better in things you already do.

And finally an important thing travelling does is build memories. Memories are a strong emotional factor which can help you achieve great things. The way you create memories is by trying new things and experiencing things you never normally would in a regular day.

So if you get the chance to broaden your horizons and go and experience new places you never know where it could lead.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Pushy Parents

In this week’s blog I wanted to address a topic that I haven’t addressed yet but a topic I find myself discussing on a regular basis which is ‘Pushy Parents.’ With the financial rewards for success getting even bigger and bigger and with more young people in the media spotlight is it creating more pushy parents?

For many years pushy parents have been associated with child models and child actors but now it seems there are Pushy Parents who are pushing their children to success in all manner of activities. Not only now is there great financial reward for success but social kudos for parents for having successful children and in some cases stigma around parents whose children don’t succeed as we as a society become more interested in what everyone else is doing and keeping up with the Jones.

With the media interrogation in to the lives of young celebrities their parents are becoming publicly known for their position as the parent of and have their lives interrogated. This has been highlighted by TV series like True Hollywood Stories and the tabloid press who need a story like a pushy parent to get viewers and even young celebrities are now getting in on the act by selling stories on their own parents to get media attention.

I think Pushy Parents still exist today but I also feel that now because young people are getting exposed to media earlier and because their interaction with media is more intense that they are pushing for stardom and success themselves and not because of their parents. Young people see programmes like Hannah Montana and High School Musical and see the popularity that the actors and actresses have and want that for themselves. Young people are now also more aware than ever before of the levels of income these young people make.

I feel that parents should encourage, motivate and push their children to succeed but in areas that their children want to succeed in not the areas they want their children to go in to. Children need the freedom to find their own dream and then the support of their family to make it a reality. Regardless of how high or low the financial reward for their dream job would be parents need to worry about how happy their child is going to be in later life not how much money they are going to earn. Too many parents try and live their dreams through their children using them as if they were puppets instead of loving them for the individual that they are. Helping your child to live their dreams and not to live yours is an achievement to be proud of which means a million times more than them living out your dreams.

So be a Pushy Parent but not in the way we think of when we think of Pushy Parents. Push your children to be as happy and fulfilled as they can be. Give them belief, give them strength and give them support to achieve their dreams as you the parent have such an important part to play in your child’s development and hard work now can help secure happiness and fulfilment for your child for life. Don’t let your chance to create a great life for your child go to waste. Being a Pushy Parent in the old sense of the term can do so much damage to your child that may never be repaired. Just because they may be seen as successful or a celebrity by the general public or just because they have lots of money it doesn’t mean they are happy or fulfilled. Some of the most so called successful people in the world are some of the most unhappiest. So help your child to be the most happiest and fulfilled they can be as to me that is the mark of success.

Have you got an opinion on ‘Pushy Parents’? Then you can share your views by joining in our topic of the week by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=443

Just as a heads up there will be no blog this week so our next blog will be published on the 21st of May.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 30 April 2008

The Importance of After School clubs and activities

This week in the news it has been reported that in the region of 500 schools are having their after school club budgets cut in Northern Ireland.

Now due to the financial situation of the UK and the changes in society with higher numbers of single parent families the importance and demand of these clubs is much higher. Many families cannot afford the rising cost of childcare and cannot afford to clock off work early and lose hours of paid work.

On top of this we have national rises in the level of youth related crime with many people and organisations crying out for better facilities for young people to keep them off the street. This is why I think it is a sad day when things like this happen and cutting their budgets is a very short sighted idea as the money saved by this could be lost in the rise of youth crime, the change in the financial situation of many homes and parents contributing less working hours in a week which through rising taxation pumps money back in to the government.

I think after school clubs can play a vital role in a child’s development and should be used by children regardless of if they did have someone at home who could look after them. After school clubs provide great learning environments for young people as it gives them freedom to learn more about what interests them in a less formal setting. These clubs also give young people chance to do their homework and catch up with work without all the noise and distractions they have at home so they can reduce a better high quality result or piece of work to hand in.

It’s not just on the education side that clubs help young people as there are also many sporting clubs which are great for helping keep our nation of young people healthy and save the NHS on time and resources. Sporting clubs also help young people with key things like team work. After school clubs also help broaden young peoples social skills and circle as they get to interact with people they may not be in classes with and form strong bonds with a good group of friends.

I think anything that keeps young people away from the TV and the video games whilst giving them a safe and controlled environment to develop and grow should be commended and not have their budgets taken away.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 23 April 2008

What is Talent?

In the UK millions of people are getting caught up in the second series of Britain’s Got Talent. After a successful first series and after the concept being sold to TV networks across the globe the UK’s thirst for TV talent shows still remains. For those that don’t know anything about the show it’s a talent competition with the winner getting the chance to perform in front of royalty at The Royal Variety Show (wonder what winners in other countries win?)

The series has got me thinking and has been a subject of many conversations I have been having recently. The show brings up the question of what is talent? The show has no limits and is just about people performing in front of the judges which has meant we have seen some weird and wacky people and talents on display from people breaking things over other peoples bodies to people re-enacting theatre whilst using a bouncy castle as their stage.

The next question it raises is what level or standard do you have to be at something to be considered talented? Many people have claimed to be able to say what talent is and what standard you have to be at to be considered talented but I don’t think it’s that simple as talent is something very subjective.

I think it’s hard in a show like this to say who is the most talented as I think you can only say who is the best performer. Contestants only get a minute or so to perform one act to the judges in order to progress to the next round. With this set up I think it is possible for people who may not be so-called talented but who are able to perform brilliantly to give that illusion. It’s like someone may not be a great singer but can perfect one song which they have been working on for years and go in and impress the judges.

The show as well as showcasing the best of our country also promotes the worst side of our society by encouraging the live audience to boo off any act they don’t like. It’s like a pack, one starts jeering and they all join in getting some pleasure out of watching someone break down or go off stage. In this country people seem to be ridiculed for being different or standing out for actually having the guts to try something. I have got a lot of respect for anyone that goes on shows like this and gives it a go as it is not the easiest thing to do.

So going back to what is talent? To me talent is something that people dedicate themselves to and show that they can do better or different than other people and who are always improving and wanting to improve.

Have you got on opinion on what talent is? Then why not get involved in our topic of the week and give us your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=428

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Underdogs

This week I wanted to talk about being an underdog. If you are a football fan you will be very aware of underdogs as this season it has been the year for the underdog with many lower league teams beating Premiership opposition to make the later stages of the FA Cup. In my opinion the greatest underdog achievement though came last weekend as my team Queen of the South from the Scottish First Division made history by reaching their first ever cup final by beating Aberdeen 4 – 3 in a thrilling semi.

An underdog is someone or a team that people don’t think will win or succeed against their opposition. It’s not just in sport where you get underdogs but in everyday life. It’s like when some young people are written off from achieving anything because of their background or the area they live in, they then become underdogs to achieve as few people believe in them.

Being an underdog isn’t necessarily a bad thing as when you are an underdog nobody expects you to win so you don’t have their added pressure on your shoulders. You can go out and do what you want to do in your own style or way. The only time when being an underdog is bad is when you start believing what everyone else thinks and start believing that because you are the underdog you can’t win or achieve.

Being an underdog just means you need to try harder than the rest and always do everything with 110% effort. That to me is why being an underdog at times is so great as in that position you know you have to give it your all where as people who are so called favourites or likely to succeed don’t always have that same drive or concentration as they think you will be easy to beat.

The greatest achievements in life are those that were hard to achieve and required real effort. When an underdog wins it means more to them than a favourite as they had to work harder and in the process shown people just what they are capable of. The minute we start thinking we are going to win everything and achieve in everything is the moment we will probably fail as you can never take success for granted.

Never be put off by the underdog tag as it’s not what others think of you that counts it’s your belief in your ability that does. If you are labelled an underdog use it to your advantage, use it to give you drive to succeed and let your opponents think like that as it will make them easier to beat.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Career Advice!

The BBC news website reported two news stories on the subject of career advice and chosen careers which got me thinking:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7323033.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7318919.stm


Now I can’t say I am shocked by these findings as I have thought this for some time and it’s quite funny how these stories which are so related came out in the same week. I believe that career advice has been inadequate for some time and big changes need to be made if we are going to get young people in to the right careers and get unemployment levels down.

The education system seems to have a one size fits all approach with students forced to become jack of all trades and master of none in a race to look good in the school league tables. The only thing schools get graded on are exam grades and not what careers their students go in to so the only thing they are interested in is there results. Until schools get graded or rewarded based on what careers their students go in to they aren’t going to invest time in proper career advice and nor should they have to if they aren’t getting the right reward for it.

Employers are looking for young people who are highly skilled and educated in specific areas not people who are moderately skilled in many areas. Young people aren’t informed about this at school though or told enough about what qualifications you need for certain jobs. This is the information young people need to be equipped with to get ahead in the market place but the school system keeps them in the dark with the blinkers on in order to make sure they try their best at all subjects so they can get highest league table place possible. If young people were armed with this information they probably wouldn’t try as hard at the subjects they didn’t need but improve vastly in the areas that were linked to their career choice.

Yes young people need to be able to be flexible and adapt in this ever changing world so need as many skills as possible but they also need to have strong skills in the areas they want to work in. The other information young people need is to be told how much certain jobs pay and how accessible these jobs are in the local area as it may be a young person is investing time getting ready for an occupation which may not pay enough to support them or may not be available locally. Young people need to be made more aware of the work place and schools need to devote time to career studies on a regular basis. Every pupil at school should have to go to career advice mandatory and career advice shouldn’t be something that is optional and hidden away.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com