I mentioned in a previous post that I would chat to Sophie Paine about what she finds inspiring. Last year saw her publishing her first book “Are you my mummy? / Es-tu mon papa?”
Besides writing children’s books she also offers Financial literacy training to kids and adults.
(I might need to knock on her door for a little help in the effective budgeting department).
We had a chat over yummy Indian food at Chunking mansion and since then, truth be told, I ended up staring at a blank computer screen every time I sat down to write about Sophie. Here’s my predicament. She’s a finance whiz but at the same time she is fully in touch with her creative side. Pardon me for thinking that chartered accountants all wear pale gray suits and secretly communicate via their calculators. Where do I place her in this world we so skillfully filled with boxes, labels and tags for people?
Lesson learnt. As a result I will tweak my approach and instead of structuring Sophie’s inspiration (through my eyes) on a page; I’m just going to let rip. Bugger structure, bugger labels and everything else that goes with that.
Sophie was born in Orleans, France and she’s married to Denzel: whom she describes as an incredibly loving and supportive guy.
They have two lovely boys - Sebastian and Oliver, aged 9 and 7 respectively, who like to swim and play ping-pong.
They love traveling as a family and find multicultural surroundings interesting and inspirational.
She’s learning not one, but two new languages – Mandarin and Arabic. Wow, wow and wow.
What inspires me about Sophie is her seemingly effortless jumping from one project to the next. Now that must call for some serious time management skills. When I asked her about this she described it as “cross fertilization between different projects”. The one nurtures the other. I do like the sound of that. Maybe after I get “Effective Budgeting 101” down to a tee I can start connecting my tiny projects with one another.
Well, I’m inspired. I’m sure you are too.
In this day and age of e-mail I’ve come to adore anything handwritten. Check out Sophie’s note on how she likes to relax at home. Whew, just when I though this Superwoman doesn’t need to take a break.
