‘En Avant’ and Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Everyone needs a hero - not because your hero is perfect, but because he or she has some admirable qualities or achievements which can inspire you to greater things. My hero is Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Brunel was a 19th century engineer who built the Great Western Railway, the best railway of the times. He built the Great Western, the Great Britain and the Great Eastern - the largest steamships of their age. He built great bridges and tunnels. He made things happen, and his works still stand today as examples of innovation, design, entrepreneurship and execution. In an extensive national poll accompanied by in-depth BBC TV documentaries, Brunel was voted the second greatest Britain of all time.
Brunel seems to have always been around in my early years. My parents’ families lived near the GWR at Hayes and Hounslow (the local pub was called the Great Western). I studied Computer Science at Brunel University in London. My early career in the UK was at both ends of the GWR - near Paddington Station and Bristol - and Brunel’s constructions were nearby.
Brunel’s life story is as fascinating as his work. As I learnt more about the man, the more I identified with his sense of ethics, his egalitarian elitism (the subject of another post one day), his setting of grand goals (not just his works themselves, but why they were built) and his ability to achieve them.
This blogsite is titled after his personal motto ‘En Avant’ - which means “Get Going’. Anyone who knows my leadership style knows that I want to get things going, get started, start delivering value. It is no coincidence that I was a very willing sponsor when Fronde decided to really take on Agile Project Management and Agile Development (which I say is just En Avant brought up to date).
It will come as no surprise that my private companies are named after him. I have a small but growing collection of Brunel books, pictures, DVDs and souvenirs. My car number plate is ISAMBD (which has most personalised-plate translators completely stumped). I even have a life-size banner photograph of the great little man hanging on my study wall - the only place allowed by my family! Top hat, 3-piece suit, cigar, and muddy boots - what an icon!
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April 14th, 2007 at 9:27 am
We’re up and running on the new server. Now, we just wait for DNS to catch up!
Ed. Obviously this isn’t anything to do with the topic, but thanks Andrew!
April 18th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Nice start Jim! We also lived by the Great Western Line when in London, in Ealing. We were there during the ‘Great Britons’ BBC series which featured Brunel. To be fair I think his ranking was helped a lot by the fact that the celebrity backing him was Jeremy Clarkson (of Top Gear fame) and also by a stack of txt votes from fellow Brunel University alumni and students! But, still, an impressive guy.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Rowan: Thanks. Re the poll being hijacked by the Brunel students and alumni - just goes to show what a tech-savvy bunch we are. All good fun, and having Clarkson make the pitch was a huge boost too. But you have to doubt any poll that puts Princess Diana 3rd ahead of Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, Austen, Nelson, Wellington, Montgomery, Drake, Elizabeth I, Henry V, Edward I, Robert the Bruce, Lloyd George, Newton, Darwin, Bell, Turing, Babbage or Berners-Lee, to mention a few.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Ah, but she as the ‘people princess’ and therefore had te power of the tabloids behind her.
By crickey, is it my eyes or is this the smallest font I’ve ever seen in a text box [squint]
November 12th, 2007 at 6:13 am
[…] blog is named En Avant, after the personal motto of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the 19th-century engineer (and my personal hero). en avant is a French phrase with several […]
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
[…] usual (my blog title means Get Going), once I’d made my decision, I immediately put it into action. I resigned the first day back […]
August 8th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
[…] in Bristol yesterday (Thursday) and spent the afternoon visiting the SS Great Britain, designed by my hero Isambard Kingdom Brunel and launched in 1843. Brunel conceived his ships as extensions of his Great Western Railway, […]
August 24th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was my great great great uncle. It’s so nice to hear that so many people think of him as a hero, it makes me feel prowd. I have heard many stories from my father about him as a child. He was known as the little giant because he was such a small man who had a huge amount of knowledge. I haven’t personally been to see any of his work as I live in New Zealand, but would dearly love to one day.