My wife, Allison aka The Running Princess, who is an English teacher at a secondary school, told me about a recent assignment she gave to her pupils.

They had to choose 3-5 people they’d invite to a dinner party. They could be alive or dead, past or present, real or fictional and mention what they would eat, what they would talk about etc. 

I haven’t written a post for a while so I thought this would be good to try myself. For this post though, I thought about choosing 5 people, why I’ve chosen them and one question I’d want to ask each of them.

Here goes…..

The 5 people I would choose are:

  • Walt Disney
  • The Queen
  • Princess Diana
  • Jurgen Klopp
  • Graeme Pallister

Why?

I’m always intrigued to learn how people do what they do as much as what they do. Their beliefs, what makes them tick. When you can learn this from people who inspire you and adapt them for yourself, it’s almost like discovering the secret to eternal youth.

I didn’t grow up a Disney fan but couldn’t help but feel inspired when we went to Disney World on our honeymoon in 2010. I choose Walt Disney because many of his quotes were displayed around the parks, in areas they were redeveloping or reimagining. You can read them here.

My next choice is The Queen. I’m not a big royalist but you can’t help but admire anyone who’s occupied the same role for 70 years. Can you imagine the stories she could tell?

I want to go with another female and choose Princess Diana. Diana was a very prominent person when I was growing up. She went from a rather shy nursery teacher’s assistant to being thrust into the spotlight when she married Charles.

Jurgen Klopp is my next guest. I grew up a Liverpool fan, following them when Kenny Dalglish played for them. What I admire about Klopp is that he brought his philosophy to the club, his teams play the same way in every match, regardless of who they’re playing and who’s in the team. His strategy that saw his team come from 3-0 down to beating Barcelona 4-3 in the Champions League Semi-Final a few years ago proves anything is possible.

My final choice is my friend, Graeme Pallister at the amazing 63 Tay Street restaurant in Perth. I’ve never met anyone as passionate about what they do as Graeme is about food.

I haven’t chosen him because it’s a dinner party and he’s a chef!

The Questions

The challenge here is you’re only allowed to ask each guest one question. 

My questions to my guests are:

  • Walt Disney – If you were alive when Disney World opened, what would you have done differently to what Roy created?
  • The Queen – If you became Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you would do?
  • Princess Diana – What did your new role as a Princess give you an insight into that you knew you could make a difference with?
  • Jurgen Klopp – From what you’ve learned in your career and the success you’ve had, what would you tell your younger self. who’s starting to mould his footballing philosophy? 
  • Graeme Pallister – How can you improve the food industry in Scotland from the way it’s grown to how it’s sold to how it’s served?

Those are my choice of guests and the questions I would like to ask.

It’s not just about the answers. I think just listening to them speak, hearing the passion in their voices would be amazing to witness.

Over to you now. Which 5 people would you invite to dinner, your reason for choosing them and what questions you would ask them?

I’d love to know. Let me know in the comments or contact me here.