Last week I wrote about how Mike Tyson used to beat himself up more than he beat up anyone else. What I didn’t say was that I’m the opposite. I was brought up to believe I could achieve whatever I set my sights on, that it was in me to do it. That (self) belief was reinforced when in my 20s I was doing some writing for The Sunday Times and interviewed someone who had become a billionaire in his first year in business (which wasn’t quite the fairy tale I was expecting – Dadi Balsara had done so by marrying a very wealthy lady and asked her for one million of her dollars so he could start a perfume brand called Miss Singapore, so not quite the rags to riches story I was hoping for).

After the interview, I asked him for one piece of advice to pole-vault my own many ambitions and he said that every morning, I should stare at myself in the mirror for a whole minute and say to myself: “I can achieve whatever I want to”. It was as if he knew my parents.

Anyway, I started doing it (try it – it’s not easy) and whenever he came to London, he would call me to check that I was indeed doing it.

To be over-loaded with self-belief has got me to places a south London street urchin who failed all his O-levels usually doesn’t expect. But there are also many things I’ve set out do which I haven’t achieved. Yet.

One of the drawbacks of having such a mindset is the realisation every now and then that you’re not as special as you may have thought you were – as I have found out yet again today. A little while ago I wondered if I should share the fact I was on a 264-day winning streak on the New York Times word game Wordle but on the basis that no-one likes a show-off, I didn’t.

I’m relieved I didn’t because in the London Times this morning, I read an article which started: “Do you think you are good at winning Wordle? Well, that’s very 2021. The real test is, how good are you at not winning Wordle? And that, it turns out, is a far sterner test.”

The article quotes a software engineer: “Wordle is so brilliant because it is so well calibrated. In six guesses, the game nudges you to the answer without totally giving it away.” Amused by my delusion, I was intrigued to find out about the surge in interest in Don’t Wordle where you only win if you come up with a series of words along the rules set out and successfully don’t guess it.

So, it’s time to raise the bar, to up my game. It’s Not Wordle time.

The other day one of my nephews asked if I knew Jay Rayner so I sent him an article Jay did 25 years ago which centred on the epic journey of opening The Cinnamon Club. One of the many ambitions we had in those days was to be the first Indian restaurant ever to be awarded a Michelin star but while we were in build mode, the brilliant Vineet Bhatia got there first. When Jay asked me how I felt about that, unflinchingly I replied: “We’ll have to go for two.” No wonder he called me a big mouth. If big mouthery involves having ideas beyond one’s station, I’m proud to be called that.

My lesson this morning from learning about Not Wordle is to resist being straight jacketed into pursuing conventional forms of success and realise that the more difficult route brings a greater reward.

Now when I stare in the mirror, I won’t seek to convince myself that I can do what I intend to do. Instead, I’ll start thinking of what I’ve not thought about, who I’ve not considered and how we might set new challenges for the new venture I’ve been planning for a while.

The Wordle comfort zone ends today. But I don’t want to just articulate what we’re not.   I’ll be launching a website soon. I now know how it will start.