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a-ha tildelt St Olavs Orden [a-ha receive Royal Order of St. Olav]
November 6, 2012 at: Gamle Logen / Oslo, Norway
If only I could have said as my aunt Magny,
... when the Mayor of Kristiansand told her that, uncle Bernt would be awarded the King’s Medal of Merit.
“What was that?” she asked, as people around her started clapping.
“Bernt is to be awarded The King’s Medal of Merit”, someone repeated to her.
“Is that so? Then it can’t be very prestigious.”
When Paul, Magne and myself set course to England, we had great plans.
But we could not imagine that -
30 years later, we would be here at (Gamle) Logen, to be appointed Knights.
We had to leave Norway to become a-ha.
Norway is a leader on natural resources,
but not on refining them.
That’s true for most fields, including our own.
Talents have to be refined and managed.
No one can succeed on their own.
You need to have the right people around you.
If you don’t find them here [in Norway], you have to leave in time.
And now we are coming to the point, in my little speech
We have great resources in Norway, none the least of the human kind.
But, if we want to take part in discovering the future, we have to focus more on the unknown.
If we don't, (the furure) will just be presented to us.
In Norway, we have an immature view on failure.
It brings a sense of shame.
We don’t like to take risks.
Risk-taking is deemed irresponsible.
We need a more realistic approach to what it takes to succeed.
If there is one reason to honor us here today, it has to be this :
We have stayed true to what we believed in.
Together and on our own.
Congratulations, guys!