I must have been about 10 or 11 years old at the time I guess, when my Dad took me to London to see the sights. One thing about that day which has always stuck in my mind was when we stood outside Buckingham Palace.
As I glanced up I was just in awe … total awe, imagining what it must be like inside … imagining what it was like to live like royalty never having to worry about money … EVER!
I imagined what it would be like to meet the royals … to actually sit there and talk to them.
I also clearly remember putting my head almost through the bars on the fence outside the Palace, straining to see the Queen’s Guards standing tall in their Busby hats as I waited for them to march up and down outside the palace.
I stared silently in complete and utter wonder at the splendour of this huge building where, all I knew at the time, was that VERY important people lived. I remember wondering what it must be like inside those hallowed halls … with parties and banquets for visiting dignitaries and statesmen.
I don’t know what it was at the time, why I was so awestruck … probably because everything about our lives was just one hard slog … but I recall conjuring up images of fine chandeliers, huge tall ceilings and fine décor.
I could almost see in my mind the tables of people dining on the finest food with the finest wines, being served by an army of waiters and waitresses, while one of the Royal Family gave a speech to the assembled guests.
I also remember at the time how I watched the gates of the Palace part as a chauffer driven car was ushered in…
I remember, getting goosebumps as I watched that car go slowly past me and through into the palace, and how the gentleman in the back looked at me through the window and smiled at me.
Even as I write this some 37 years later, do you know I can still see those images … I can still feel the way I felt way back then. It truly was like a fairytale to the poor broke kid who was born in a caravan.
And it was those same thoughts and feelings which suddenly came tumbling over me without warning once again just a few nights ago. Thoughts and feelings which really made me stop and actually PINCH myself just in case I was living some dream and would wake at any moment.
And the reason I did this … the reason I reflected back to my childhood and those feelings I had as I stood outside Buckingham Palace with my Dad … the reason I pinched myself … was because just the other evening I found myself actually entering the very gates of Buckingham Palace for REAL … as a guest of HRH The Prince of Wales!
It was an incredible moment for me…
Here I was sitting in a Chauffeur driven Bentley, approaching the gates of Buckingham Palace, with a personal INVITATION in my hand from Prince Charles … an invitation to attend a Dinner Gala at the Palace.
As we approached, I handed in my invitation card, plus some security-check items to the policemen on duty and after a little checking, we were waved through the gate.
Not some side entrance mind you, but the very front gate where I had stood peering through back in my childhood.
As I was driven in, I glanced to the very spot where I had stood all those years before … and for the very briefest of moments I could have sworn I glimpsed myself as a young boy staring through the window of the car as it slowly and serenely passed through those gates. Just as I had done 37 years earlier. In fact, I smiled as I looked at that spot through the car window, just as the man had smiled to me all those years before. It was a very, very surreal moment.
Yet this was no dream…
Here I was in the flesh, the same Andrew Reynolds … only older, rounder and with a lot less hair … but no longer was I that child peering through the gates in awe … no longer was I the poor kid staring at the man being chauffer driven into the palace.
Instead it was me in the car … a car which was now sweeping effortlessly across the courtyard and though into the main central square. As we serenely rolled into the square we approached a grand canopied entranceway, under which the car pulled up to a gentle stop.
Here the doors were opened and we stepped out onto a plush red carpet. I just thought, “PINCH ME someone … this can not be happening to me”. If only my Dad could see this now. His dreamy-eyed broke kid with his head in the clouds had just stepped out onto the red carpet at Buckingham Palace!
A feeling of incredible warmth just pervaded every part of my body. Sadly my Dad had passed away a few years ago, but on this night … at the very moment I stepped onto that red carpet … I silently said, “well Dad, I’ve made it…”. It was a truly wonderful moment.
But before I had a chance to lose myself in my thoughts still further, I was ushered in through a huge doorway like a visiting statesman. I was met inside and then guided up the most grandest of staircases I have ever seen in my life. Whereupon I joined a small champagne reception hosted by HRH Prince Charles.
Here I met up with a couple of guests that I had invited to join me for this incredible evening…
These were members of my Inner Circle … Cash on Demand students who had proved themselves by bringing in over £1 MILLION since taking my training.
Students who, just like you, I have taught the cash on demand system to and who have put it into action.
I also met a couple of individuals and their wives who I’d invited over from the USA … Armand Morin and Stephen Pierce. I’d become friends with Armand and Stephen by the way through my business dealings with them.
Anyway, you can imagine the look of awe on the faces of these Americans as they arrived at Buckingham Palace. I’ve got to tell you that was a sight to behold in itself.
As no doubt I was, as I couldn’t help myself grinning from ear to ear.
Just as if that child of so many years ago was standing in these majestic surroundings…
I couldn’t get over it. Here I was now hosting a table of my own guests at a Gala Dinner at the home of the Queen. I just never would have imagined this would have happened to me.
Well I won’t bore you with the whole evening events, needless to say that myself and my guests enjoyed the most sumptuous dinner we’ve ever had.
Something which was rounded off perfectly at the end of the evening when it was announced that they had a little music for us.
Now I was expecting a simple string quartet playing a few background pieces.
However, instead, the lights came up on a small stage in the Palace and out stepped the group ‘Simply Red’ who gave us a private and personal performance.
It was a great way to finish a dream evening.
Even as we left the palace and I waited to walk down the red carpet to my car, I found it incredible that here I was, Andrew Reynolds, surrounded not just by royalty but many famous people.
In fact, as I waited for my car I found myself chatting casually to individuals such as Lord Young, the former Secretary of Trade and Industry. It was another of those “PINCH ME” moments.
A feeling that finally came to an end as I said my goodbyes to individuals I’d only ever seen on the television before and climbed into my chauffer driven car. Before being whisked off through the grand archway, out through the gates of the Palace once more, and into the night.
And as I did so, I once again turned to the exact spot I’d been standing as a child and smiled once more…