My first real breakthrough collided with the last months of Callaghan's Labour government, which had every intention of enjoying my success as much as I did.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My first real experience of ambition was as party leader. It was my ambition for Labour to win, in which event I would be prime minister.
I hesitated, too, because for better or worse, I have been one of the principal architects of New Labour and I have worked closely with Tony Blair and the team for nearly 20 years.
My biggest success is getting over the things that have tried to destroy and take me out of this life. Those are my biggest successes. It has nothing to do with work.
My hope that Thatcher would inadvertently bring about a new political revolution was well and truly bogus. All that sprang out of Thatcherism were extreme financialisation, the triumph of the shopping mall over the corner store, the fetishisation of housing and Tony Blair.
I have achieved everything through either hard work or luck.
Major success feels a bit like a coronation. Like I'd become a king. I was one of the most famous people in the world, loved and hated in equal measure. I couldn't see anything bad with it. It made me a happy person.
It is clear that my predecessor as First Minister is frightening the life out of the Tories and the Labour Party. Long may it continue.
I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen.
When I joined Labour in 1982, I didn't feel I belonged to a party born to power. My repeated experience was of bitter and repeated defeats.
I've been really clear that my first job as leader of the Labour Party and co-leader of the labour movement is to engage with our base.