By George Begg, author of The Hidden Story: Book 1 – The Mysteries of the Other Side
We often say we wish we had known then what we know now. It’s a familiar thought, especially as we get older. What advice would you give your younger self if you met them today?
I like to turn that question on its head. Instead, I wonder: what would my younger self say to me?
Most people like to divide my life into three distinct chapters. First, I was a fighter pilot in the RAF during the Cold War, helping to deter nuclear conflict with Russia. Second, I became an entrepreneur and, eventually, a multi-millionaire. Third, and perhaps most unexpectedly, I became the author of a trilogy exploring the spiritual world.
So, let’s imagine those conversations.
The fighter pilot
What would the young RAF pilot have said to me now, aged 70, if we’d met after an exhausting sortie? To do our jobs properly, we flew extremely fast, up to 1,500 mph, and dangerously low to avoid radar. It was high-risk flying, with plenty of near misses.
If I had tried to offer him words of wisdom, I suspect he would have waved me away.
“Don’t talk to me about wisdom, old man,” he’d say. “I’m a bit busy saving the world. Let’s talk about luck instead.”
A close friend of mine once described luck like this: when we are born, God gives us a handful of ‘lucky tokens’. Every time we escape a scrape, we hand one back. The trouble is you never know how many tokens you were given. A few weeks after sharing that thought, my friend was killed when his tokens ran out recovering from a steep dive.
“So don’t lecture me,” my younger self might say. “Just be grateful I didn’t use them all up, so you got to reach a ripe old age.”
And he would be right. I would simply thank him for giving me the foundations, courage and experience I would need later in life.
The entrepreneur
Next, what would the middle-aged businessman have said to me?
By then, life was physically safer, though no less challenging. During my RAF years I had been a staunch non-believer, but that changed after a profound, life-altering experience in which God came to me as a blinding white light. From that moment on, I was able to communicate with God, who guided me into business and towards success.
How would that conversation have gone?
“I appreciate your wisdom,” he might say. “Yes, I made mistakes, and if I’d known then what I know now, I might have made fewer. But here’s the thing. I may have lost some money, but I still made enough. More importantly, I became a better person through those mistakes.”
He would remind me that learning the hard way is often the most powerful teacher. Being handed wisdom, rather than earning it through experience, would not have had the same impact.
So again, I would keep quiet and thank him for taking the knocks that prepared me for what came next.
The writer
Finally, what would I have said to myself five years ago, halfway through researching and writing my books?
After the business chapter of my life, I was asked to reveal spiritual mysteries hidden within ancient scriptures. It was a shock, but one that came with detailed guidance.
Writing the first book was only the beginning.
My younger self would look at me and say, “So, this is what I’ll look like in five years? It’s going to be tough, isn’t it? Thanks for the offer of wisdom, but I already have everything I need.”
Then he’d add, “Writing the books was just the start. The hardest part comes after. But if you look back at your life, you already have all the tools to see it through. Good luck – if you have any left.”
What I know now
At 70, I’ve learned that life works best when we find a healthy balance between the physical and the spiritual. The rest arrives in its own time.
And perhaps that’s the real lesson: we don’t need to know everything in advance. We just need to trust that each chapter prepares us for the next.
If you’re curious about your own spiritual life, the journey continues in my book.
