The King

When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

I’ve gone way back for this image of a young Prince Charles, because this is when the man I admire for his successes launched who he was going to be.

Instead of drinking and complaining his way through waiting for his mother to die so that he could take the throne, in a long tradition of Heir Apparents, he turned the role of heir into something with a point, and in his case a passion.

There used to be fury that he wrote to Prime Ministers, he was interfering in politics! He didn’t stop. When John Major and others finally spoke about those letters, they all said the same. They were full of things he’d heard from the public.

He was out there on the street in the way they weren’t, talking to the people, listening, and keeping his promise to do something. He gave the public a voice into the heart of government for over 50 years.

I know he had some bad years, I was furious over Diana until she admitted in a TV interview that she had the first affair and was in love. She is the one who put Harry’s parentage into question and he has had to live with that. But he is so much like Charles in many ways, he can be no one else’s son. Including the tantrums with dad. As a young man Charles contributed to a book that upset his parents.

I became 50/50 on that breakup, and as I’ve become older and wiser…well it was never my business anyway.

However, what the Prince started to become as a very young man, his immediate focus on the people of the UK and wider Commonwealth, the way he went out there and talked to the people, being way ahead on climate, actively working with change makers. His sheer caring, those things make him the most successful person I can think of.

The way he used the Duchy land, benefiting so much of the farming community. The way he bought a house in Wales, refurbished it, regenerating traditional crafts to do so. He resurrected an entire national industry. He’s dedicated to maintaining tradition and national identity.

There is so much that this man has done of a caring and altruistic nature. The Princes’ Trust where he asked the young men shouting at him to work with him to create change. He walked into the middle of an angry group and told them that he couldn’t help them unless they told him what was wrong. The Princes’ Trust was born in that moment. Now the King’s Trust.

Two housing estates that have proper town centres that encourage community, food fresh from the farm. Where he gave one very clear instruction, if he could tell which houses were affordable housing, inside or out, he would have them torn down and rebuilt at the builders’ expense. Everyone deserved equal quality.

So much change he’s brought about that it’s literally too much to list. So much good he has done for the people, not the wealthy. So much employment he’s generated. Refurbishing a mansion in Scotland and then giving it to the community. I know I’m only aware of the tip of of a very large iceberg.

This is a good man who has made taking care of others his success. Creating positive change. Being our voice. Solving problems for the people. All the people. The Trust was started for disenfranchised young people of colour, it was their voice he heard, them he acted for. But of course it became fully inclusive immediately, thus building links.

When Meghan suggested colour prejudice in the Royal Family we nearly fell over. The Queen and her father before her deliberately built the Commonwealth as their way of turning an atrocity into something helpful, supportive, and respectful. The Commonwealth is highly respected in the UK. Every single country who signed up to it said yes to bringing good out of awful. I do hope it lasts.

But ultimately one thing defines this man for me. He bought a one bedroom Shepherd’s hut abroad, it’s so basic it’s not true, and he goes there, into the mountains, to decompress. He gets away from the money and the stuff, and the attention. His house in Wales was homely.

He makes links whenever he goes and uses those links to benefit the people not himself.

Working for others is to me the greatest success you can have. I admire him as a person not a Royal. I’d love to be a tenth as successful. But I do what I can.

Deb xx