Closing Thoughts by Hugo Landau

It is human nature to compete; thus, faced with the opportunity to compete, there is no choosing, or choice at all; there is only competition. For no other choice is befitting of any human, or even any animal. There is little wisdom to be found in declining such an opportunity. Competition is like survival; it is an instinct, written into the fabric of our very being.

Euroskills 2008 was a skills competition I had the good and most precious fortune to participate in. Like any competition, it is an opportunity to prove and better thyself. Truly, it would be impossible to travel through such an experience without doing the same to some degree. Any individual who had the extraordinary fortune to participate in the competitions left Rotterdam a better person than they were entering.

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. This is something of a mantra for me and many now. It is a philosophy that I genuinely hold faith in. Other philosophies I particularly take to are the philosophies that sometimes, you have to live on so that you can fight another day... and that you should live in the present, not spend your life tending to the past or obsessing over the future.

I participated in a team of four, my person included, that comprised the UK Office ICT team. We came fifth; we were seven out of one hundred marks from first place.

Many people like to hold onto the philosophy, in this situation, that one did their best, and to take comfort and psychological tranquility in that concept. This philosophy could not induce more the opposite in myself, curiously.

I, frankly, reject outright the concept that I, and we, did our best. I reject this not just because we didn't come in first place, but because I don't believe that anybody truly does their best.

Understand what I am saying carefully; I take this philosophy not to be negative, pessimistic even; on the contrary, this gives me hope, moreso than the philosophy that is 'you did your best' would ever create in me.

It gives me hope because it means I, and any competitor in any competition anywhere, has the power to exceed the potential they demonstated in that self-same competition. To me, it is that no matter how much potential someone may render in some circumstance, they always have the power to achieve a greater potential still. There is no limit to human endeavour.

Accepting that 'I did my best' means accepting that I will NEVER be better than fifth place. I outright reject that notion, completely and utterly.

This is not to say that I am rendering myself a sore loser. I accept the outcome of the competition I participated in; more than than that, I am at peace with that outcome, and I believe that I, and the team in general, did very reasonably.

But I recognise my ability, as a human, to EXCEED THE POTENTIAL THAT I DEMONSTRATED, and, more than that, I WILL EXCEED that potential. Be it at WorldSkills, be it in another competition, be it in academic contribution, be it in the field, be it in invention. I will exceed what I rendered here, this year, in Rotterdam.

Recognising that power is mutally exclusive with believing that 'you did your best'. It is to me, at least.

Euroskills, to me, is perhaps a prelude to greater things to come. I believe that because I believe that I can, through my own action, effort and passion—wrought with my own two hands—come to exceed what I demonstrated here, and that in doing so, I will render myself a greater person still. I seek to better myself, and prove myself. I will do so. I swear it, and I promise it; not to you, but to myself. I give up self-improvement not for this.
I will exceed.

Hugo Landau
Open Source Specialist,
Office ICT Team, UKEuroskills 2008 · 2008·10·04

Euroskills Results

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay in writing after the competition but as you can fully understand it has been a very trying time for myself and the team.

So Euro Skills I'll try to make it brief but to the point for the days

15th September
We had the team Send Off party in London, where we received our Team UK Enamel's
We then flew from London city airport to Rotterdam (a nice private little jet) and enrolled at the Ahoy centre. Where by chance Stevie Wonder was playing

16th September
We got taken around the Euro port of Rotterdam, where there were Crates, Crates and more Crates
Later we travelled to Rotterdam to see what the City was like. Both Mike and I indulged in some decent food from McDonalds

17th September
The first day we got to check out the competition site, sadly we didn’t get to try out any kit and but we did get a good look round.
Later that day was the opening ceremony, there is no video evidence from Euro Skills of this but I do promise we did do it.
I got the chance to lead the country out, waving the Union Jack, a very special moment to me

18th September
The competition began we got table number 4
Random fact - 4 was the number on the back of my shirt at Warden Hill football B team, anyway.......
Organisation is not one of Euro Skills greatest High lights - we did not have the right equipment for sooo long, sadly it wasn’t just our competition which was poorly organised but all of them.
Though as a team we managed to get round things and we were doing well for time etc.

19th September
I had little sleep that night trying to make sure everything went to plan.
The morning session, also went drastically wrong and by lunch time I was glad to have a break.
Back in April at the team selection competition on the final lunch time before we went back to try and finish our task warren said he didn’t know what he was doing and I personally let rip, not something i'm proud of but something that had to be done
Sadly this happened again at Euro Skills, but this time we managed to get round it and we were able to get that part of the competition working in a fashion
By the end of the day we had 90% of it working in a useable form.

20th September
That day I had to do the presentation to the experts, pretending it was to the CEO of the company
As a team we gave the presentation of our lives, this is filmed and if you ever get to watch it, look out for Hugo's part, he was fantastic!!!!
We then waited for a silly amount of hours and then finally he had the closing ceremony with results.

We came 5th.

Personally I thought we deserved a medal but something’s are not to be. Also my reaction to finding out the results was not one of a project manager, but when you put everything you have into a competition like that you have to sometimes express yourself in a manner which shows how you feel.

Team UK though achieved 8 Gold Medals, 1 Silver and the rest obtaining Medallions of Excellence including ourselves.

From the darkness comes light;
The after party was amazing, free booze at the Ahoy!, and then somehow we had to bottles of wine for the coach back to where we were staying. The Atmosphere on that bus was electric. The singing, the Irish and the toilet stop by the side of the road, the bad Dutch music and poor dancing by yours truly

Now a few personal notes to people who I hope will read this....
Shereen - You could of dressed up 1000 times better but that coat did make the outfit =]
Victoria - Thank you for listening to me go on and on you if anyone deserved a Gold you did more than anyone
Hugo & Mike - Part of the 3 amigos, you were fantastic and CMA many times
John O & Kev - For giving the chance to do something I never thought I would do in a million years
Ollie Benson - My hands are still out of my pockets and won’t go back........Thank You

And finally to my Family and Girl friend Laura, you were able to keep my spirits up in my darkest times.

So when all is said and done, this was a fantastic experience and something that makes me feel proud to be involved with.

Thanks for reading

Toby H