I had to attend a old friend's funeral on Friday.

He died a few weeks ago actually but because it was so sudden there was an autopsy and enquiry before his funeral and send off could be arranged. 

Big John was one of those larger than life characters (in every respect) - Life and soul of the party - every party he could get to in fact!  and that's how I'll always remember him.   

His death was very sudden. He was just 50, the same age as me in fact but to those who knew him perhaps not that surprising considering his lust for life - food and drink mainly. 

He won't mind me saying that - it's not something he ever apologised for or felt guilty about. 

It never stopped him building a successful engineering business or playing bass in a band - his big passion -  right up to his last days. He also collected old cars and was very proud of his old Aston martin which he restored over about 20 years. 

At his wake, friends had set up a projector showing slides of all his good times. His music collection was played and his beloved Rickenbaker bass had pride of place next to a framed picture of the man himself. It was nice. 

There is a lesson here I think. 

That is that we should really grab every opportunity that comes our way as Big John did.

We should make every effort to live life on our own terms as he did too (maybe not so much the beer ice cream floats or who can eat the most chips competitions) 

We live in times where we have more opportunity to build the life we want to live than ever before. 

John chose the life he wanted to live and set about getting it. He did it the traditional way because when he got started there was no internet. Maybe the stress of that didn't help in the long run - the deadlines, the customers, the budgets, the long hours ….

He was a smart guy and I can't help thinking he could have turned his hand to anything.  

At John's send off I re-connected with a lot of old friends and I heard that the big guy had actually been having some hard times. 

The failing economy had meant he'd lost most of his freelance contracts in the oil industry and he had been living off an insurance policy that provided him with income for a year. Sadly he had been hitting the bottle pretty hard - and that's probably what ended up taking him from us so soon.

It would be crass of me to try and turn this post into a pitch for SFM but it does highlight the argument for having a flexible skill set that enables you to achieve independence from the ups and downs of a traditional, ailing system. 

RIP Big John and I'll see you at the big gig in the sky. 

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