Imagine if you could travel to and from your past, present and future at will – just like Marty McFly (our hero) in Steven Spielberg’s Back To The Future Trilogy.

In the film, the older (future) Marty got fired from his lousy job because he agreed to take part in an illegal business proposal with “Needles” – an old acquaintance from school days.  Needles baited our hero to take part by appealing to his values/beliefs and called Marty McFly chicken.  Our hero’s mother explains how he ends up in this situation in the future.

  “…. if he didn’t lose all self-control when someone calls him chicken”.  And she goes on “…  about 30 years ago, Marty wanted to prove he was not a chicken and got involved in a car accident … that accident caused a chain reaction that sent Marty’s life straight down the tubes … if it wasn’t for the accident with the white Rolls Royce, Marty’s life would have turned out very different.  The man with the Rolls Royce wouldn’t have pressed charges, Marty wouldn’t have broken his hands and he wouldn’t have given up on his music and he wouldn’t have spent all these years feeling sorry for himself”

In short, Marty’s mother knew his future could have been as he imagined it, if only he could see how his values/beliefs were influencing his choice of actions.  Ultimately it lead to a choice that took him away from the future that he had seen, a future where playing music was a part of his life.

Our hero didn’t know when he was going to run into the white Rolls Royce.  However, what he could do was change his response to being called chicken.

Of course, the path to enlightenment is never easy.  Before our hero could get back to 1985, he had to deal with a final challenge.  The final challenge was to rescue Doc Brown from the Old West of the 1880’s.   This wasn’t all bad as it allowed our hero to practice choosing different behaviours to being called “chicken”, knowing it won’t affect his future (from 1985 onwards)

Eventually, our hero does make it back to 1985.  As he drives around Hilldale assessing the past and the future, he is challenged to a road race at the traffic lights by … Needles … and yes, you guessed it, Needles called him chicken.  The next scene leads you to think that our hero lost self-control again and raced Needles.  In fact, our hero drove backwards instead.  The scene ends with a white Rolls Royce pulling out of a road some 300 yards into the “race”. 

At this point, our hero pulls out the “you’re fired” note from the future and  with the words “you’re fired” disappearing off the paper,  the last words go to Doc Brown who says “Your future hasn’t been written yet, no one’s has.  The future is whatever you make of it, so make it a good one.”

And Finally...
“Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get” ….George Bernard Shaw

“Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do… The best way to predict the future is to invent it.  Really smart people with reasonable funding can do just about anything that doesn't violate too many of Newton's Laws!" — Alan Kay in 1971,

“Unless you are clear about your purpose and your values and are doing something that you really care about, it is difficult to act as a leader.  You are unlikely to possess the will and the resilience that are needed to carry you through the inevitable uncertainties and setbacks.” – Goffee & Jones (Why should anyone be led by you?)