Adventures Blog

Getting On With It

Fri, 24 May 2013 02:00:14 GMT

Experience the experience

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:15:00 GMT

Since September 2010, we in Christchurch have been in the grips of a once-in-a-lifetime experience (at least, we hope it’s only once!) or maybe I should say, we’ve been through 11,000 experiences.

We know we can survive. It’s the living that has troubled many of Canterbury’s finest citizens.

And each of us felt the outcomes in a different way. Judging by the outpouring of sympathy, and the inpouring of financial support from around the country and indeed the world, most people thought the earthquakes to be an unprecedented disaster. And they were. Some people, however, see them as an unprecedented opportunity, a chance to renew, revitalise and refresh the city, a time for reflection on what is really important, and of course, the quakes were that too. It’s all in the way we see it. No view is wrong or right as all of us have our own backgrounds and circumstances, but I invite people to see what they CAN do next.

The fact remains that whichever camp you’re in, Christchurch has had a lot of earthquakes over the last two years, and a lot of changes. We all know that some people fared well out of it, and some didn’t. What is undeniable is that everyone has a story that is personal to them and will be theirs for life – that is our true shared legacy.

Crisis, disaster or opportunity, the choice is ours. The Chinese I Ching says ‘out of crisis comes opportunity’. Of course it’s easier to see opportunity from a safe house in the west than peeking through the cracks in your east-side walls, but the answer is the same. Earthquakes, it seems, are inevitable; suffering is optional.

There is an opportunity for everyone to have their own remarkable recovery story, a story of overcoming a major natural event. A story of survival, of courage and maybe of heroism. How we treat an event is our choice. We can bury our heads ad hope it goes away, or we can experience the experience, take charge and create a memory worth passing down through the generations. Either way, it will pass in time; how do we want to remember it is the question.

There is a lot of fear and worry in the world.

Perhaps the best lesson I have had is giving things a go.

Stepping Up

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:05:00 GMT

In 1995 I bought a business for a dollar.

Life Link was a social service, providing support to New Zealanders with disabilities or recovering from accidents. There were 40 staff, and a board in Auckland, and it was owned by a doctor.

My job was to manage a team of staff and I started on a roll. It was great work and I loved it; the only problem was that when pay day came it was a case of BYO pay cheque. We were paid eventually, then the next week we weren't, and so on. Finally we found that the business was going into receivership due to some misappropriation of funds. Now and why is just want was and examining it is irrelevant.

The owner asked me if I'd like to buy the business for one dollar!

Now I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so there was nothing to do but tell everyone I'd been made redundant and become a business owner in one day! Of course buying a business on the verge of bankruptcy comes with a fair share of problems, not least of being that the staff had not been paid for two weeks, and neither had I.

Believing that honesty is always best in these situations, I told the staff exactly what the situation was. I said I didn’t know if we could stay afloat, or when I could pay them, and that if they wanted to leave, I would understand. One by one they all replied that they’d stay; they had clients needing services and that was what they were going to provide!

The furniture and phones were repossessed. There were a lot of difficult issues and times. But with honesty and a positive attitude we kept gping. That was in 1995, and that business is thriving today.

There are many lessons I learnt, but first and foremost – just give it a go. Just front up and remember that the worst thing that can happen probably isn’t that bad. And it may go better than your imagination is telling you.

Honesty, goodwill and treating excellent people well are what have made this business successful.

Don’t step into the adventure with worry, run in with a positive attitude and just enjoy it. Life is to be lived.

Going to the moon

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:01:38 GMT

I remember, as a child, being told to follow my dreams. Of course, no one expected my dreams to be quite so big, so soon after, I started hearing, “keep your feet on the ground… you can’t do that… you’ll never make a living doing that…” – I’m sure you all know how the story goes. Whatever lights your fire, someone has a wet blanket for it. I wanted to get a motorbike; Aunt Molly had the story of how her Jim broke his collarbone on a motorbike. “You don’t want one of them, they’re dangerous!

Well, I had news for Aunt Molly – that’s why people want motorbikes! They’re dangerous, and fun, and girls like boys on motorbikes… you get the feeling that the well meaning Aunt Mollys would have us on pushbikes for life – with training wheels, to boot. Not that there’s anything wrong with pushbikes, indeed some of my best friends have pushbikes, but let’s face it, they don’t pick up many girls on them!

In the 1950s and 60s, the United States wanted to put a man on the moon. Naturally, plenty of people said it was impossible they couldn’t do it – after all, it had never been done before, and people had only been flying for a few decades. NASA ignored the wet blankets, found some entrepreneurs who believed (and believed with their bankbooks) and simply set a date.

“In ten years, we will put a man on the moon.” The declaration was a bold one, but working back from 1970, they started taking the steps to space travel. They achieved the ‘impossible’ goal, with a year to spare

I learnt at an early age that if I want to do something, there’ll be plenty of people who don’t want me to do it – but there’ll also be people who do want me to, who are inspired and interested and will help with the journey, or maybe even join me on it. The trick is to hunt out your supporters and stick to them like glue. There’s no point in trying to convince the wet blankets that you can and will get to the moon, why bother? That just detracts from reaching your goals.