As London snuffs out the flame this evening on the XXX Olympiad and, as it were, hands the baton on to Brazil, this week’s editorial will be a slight mea culpa.

The peril of dealing with people and their stories – whether for news or venture investments – is it is easy to become cynical. In my case, I expected the Olympic spirit to be broken against a wall of sponsors, incompetence and mean-spirited officialdom.

Fortunately, I have been wrong and London and these games have been a joy and succeeded in lifting, if even for a moment, people’s sights about what can be achieved.

With the Paralympics still to come I hope this feeling can last a bit longer.

As Gandhi said: "A man is the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes."

As London snuffs out the flame this evening on the XXX Olympiad and, as it were, hands the baton on to Brazil, this week’s editorial will be a slight mea culpa.

The peril of dealing with people and their stories – whether for news or venture investments – is it is easy to become cynical. In my case, I expected the Olympic spirit to be broken against a wall of sponsors, incompetence and mean-spirited officialdom.

Fortunately, I have been wrong and London and these games have been a joy and succeeded in lifting, if even for a moment, people’s sights about what can be achieved.

With the Paralympics still to come I hope this feeling can last a bit longer.

As Gandhi said: “A man is the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.”