Restlessness as Anti-Stagnation Engine

“and I was then rising 67. You may take the view that age itself, and not only Cecil King, might have induced me to be a little more moderate in my ambitions. But— have confessed this before—when I wasn't trying some- thing new, seeking to enter into a new area of business, or making the moves for a new deal, I always had a restless feeling, a suspicion that I might be stagnating.”

“Why did I want to do it? Because all my life I have been worried when I have remained for a long time in a routine and settled way of daily habits. I was always afraid of standing still, of stagnating. My ambition had always kept well ahead of my accomplishments. The chance of becoming owner of a truly national newspaper in contrast to the purely local dailies which I ran in Canada—and indeed the Scotsman was a paper with an international reputation, an entirely different proposition from anything I owned—had a strong appeal.”