thinkBIG magazine - issue 2 by Mindset Media Pty Ltd

Issue 2

thinkbig It’s about empowerment

www.thinkbigmagazine.com

Le a d e r s, B u s i n e s s, M i r a c l e s, C a u s e s, A d v e n t u r e

Stories include:

Steve and Terri Irwin’s big dream Morris Goodman –The Miracle Man Kate Ceberano – passion and branding Dan Millman – what is positive thinking? Chris Howard – the power of focus

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Chris Howard audio Page 65 $6.95 inc GST July/August 2008 Volume 1.2

thinkbig

contents

It’s about empowerment

10 thinkbig Leaders

thinkbig Business

Steve and Terri Irwin – Big Thinkers............................... 10 In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Terri Irwin, thinkbig reveals the big picture dreams behind the TV image of the crocodile hunter.

It’s official. Trash is treasure........................................... 40 Brian Scudamore used the power of vision to grow his junk business.

Enduring Soul Belief......................................................... 16 At 42, Kate Ceberano’s passion to create art has not diminished, nor her drive to break stereotypes.

thinkbig Miracles Million dollar miracle man. ........................................... 20 He brands himself, The Miracle Man, for good reason. Morris Goodman’s comeback from near death in a plane crash is one of the enduring stories of human achievement. Reach for the stars........................................................... 24 Jim Stynes says today’s youth are no less troubled than previous generations.

thinkbig Causes Lentil As Anything............................................................. 29 Imagine a restaurant where you can choose how much you pay for your meal, or if you pay at all. Lentil As Anything is a Melbourne restaurant chain that has a novel way to provide funds for worthy causes. Turning ghettos into Grollo’s.......................................... 34 Property developer company, Grocon, is sacrificing a multi-million profit to become more socially aware.

Values of competitive advantage............................... 44 Collaboration or joint problem solving is the new path to sustainability. Risk management tips for the minority investor........ 45 Private investors should heed risk management tips.

thinkbig Wealth Crystal ball to wealth...................................................... 48 Crystal ball to wealth creation. Expert insights for five year planning.

thinkbig Teachers Warrior Spirit. ..................................................................... 53 Positive thinking is nothing more than an idealistic notion. Exclusive............................................................................. 56 Start small for sustained success, says Cameron Johnson. Exclusive............................................................................. 58 True love is really emotional balance, writes Dr John Demartini. Exclusive............................................................................. 60 Justin Herald writes about his favourite four letter word. Exclusive............................................................................. 61 Chris Howard on the power of focus to achieve results.

‘ our team!’ Publisher and Managing Editor Michael Walls michael.walls@thinkbigmagazine.com National Sales Manager Graham Maughan graham.maughan@thinkbigmagazine.com National Circulation Manager Jon Machler jon.machler@thinkbigmagazine.com Contributing Editor Chris Howard Senior Writers Jill Fraser and Fran Molloy Contributors Reuben Buchanan, Justin Herald, John Demartini, Chris Howard, Kimberly dela Cruz Odom. Creative Design The Big Grin Design enquiries@thebiggrin.com.au Illustrator Don Everett doneverett16@gmail.com Website/subscriptions www.thinkbigmagazine.com Enquires info@thinkbigmagazine.com Mindset Media Pty Ltd ACN 129 256 300 ABN 94 129 256 300 GPO Box 519 Sydney Australia 2001 Phone: 61 2 9925 8016 Fax: 61 2 9925 8099 thinkbig Magazine ISSN: 1835 7733 Important Message – Copyright and Disclaimer thinkbig magazine is owned and published by Mindset Media Pty Ltd (ACN129 256 300). The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights in regards to copyright of their work. No part of this work covered by the copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher. No person, organization or party should rely or on any way act upon any part of the contents of this publication whether that information is sourced from a website, magazine or related product without first obtaining the advice of a fully qualified person. This magazine and its related website and products are sold and distributed on the terms and condition that: • The publisher, contributors, editors and related parties are not responsible in any way for the actions or results taken any person, organization or any party on basis of reading information, stories or contributions in this publication, website or related product. • The publisher, contributors and related parties are not engaged in providing legal, financial or professional advice or services. The publisher, contributors, editors and consultants disclaim any and all liability and responsibility to any person or party, be they a purchaser, reader, advertiser or consumer of this publication in regards to the consequences and outcomes of anything done or omitted being in reliance whether partly or solely on the contents of this publication ands related website and products. • The publisher, editors, contributors and related parties shall have no responsibility for any action or omission by any other contributor, consultant, editor or related party.

thinkbig It’s about empowerment

Editor’s note Feedback hits the mark

When we started this magazine we wondered how people would respond to our choice of stories. We wondered how our readers would react to the design, the feel and the overall personality of the brand. Well, eight weeks after the launch issue hit the streets we have been overwhelmed by support and encouragement. Surprisingly, given that readers are commenting on a launch issue, there have been no negative comments. The underlying theme of feedback has been that people want reality. They are asking for a diversion from the tabloid magazines and newspapers and television programs that offer sensationalism and gossip with shallow messages. But there is a reason why sensation sells. It represents an escape and also because it represents a life many of its readers can only dream about. Readers see themselves reflected in the story. Fantasy is a powerful attraction. I believe everyone is interested in the lives of others. It is healthy to emulate and model those who we respect so that we learn from them. Not all universities, nor every parent teach the tools for success. In this issue of thinkbig, we have assembled some great stories of people who have turned around the lives of others through determination, self belief and a passion to see others succeed. They share many several traits. I am sure you find this issue of thinkbig as entertaining and informing as the last. Finally, here are some excerpts from some of the letters of support we received:

“I happened to pick up a copy of the debut issue of thinkbig magazine today. Congratulations on all your good work. I hope the magazine explodes with success.” - Robert Rabbin “My name is Candida Baker and I’ve been a journalist and a writer for many years – I edited the Weekend Australian Magazine for five years between 1997 and 2001. I was in Bangalow and chanced across your magazine and I don’t often feel compelled to put finger to keyboard and compliment someone but I think it is a great magazine and it touches all the bases that I am interested in.” - Candy As always, I welcome your feedback.

Michael Walls

Publisher and Managing Editor

Notes to self

Beating an INCURABLE disease

In 1984, Augusto and Michaela Odone were devastated to discover that their beloved son, Lorenzo, then just five years old, had a fatal hereditary illness called adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) that would cause progressive The Au stralian brain and nerve damage and that he Unity W issue e was unlikely to survive his tenth questio d in April 2008 llbeing Index re n a the ans - Does money sked the age-o port birthday. The pair refused to accept w m ld happine er is – up to a ake us happy? the diagnosis, and although they had ss does And p o in t. The l happine in c r e no medical background they fought e a v s e ss e w l o when to levels pretty m ith income, bu f to save him, eventually developing t u t b that, it etween $100,0 al household in ch hit a ceilin a chemical compound to stop the g tak 00 co happine es a very large and $150,000 me reaches disease progressing. The story of the ss fo a year amou most p eople o r those with l nt of money t . Beyond Odone family was made famous in the will pro n low income arger income o increase s. But s, smal 1992 film, Lorenzo’s Oil. Michaela died in duce a fo l noticeab le incre increases in in r 2000, eight years before Lorenzo finally c asein ha ppiness ome lost his battle with ALD, dying in his . sleep at home in May, 2008 at the age of 30, with his father by his side.

ALL YO U NEED IS $100,00 0 A YEA R

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We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. Mary Kay Ash, US founder of Mary Kay cosmetics empire, 1918-2001

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WALK around the world

is g . n i h liv ug t ine, t no s h d . s e u ns an er u t m u , w J o n ne e s m flo O av edo e h re ttl f li a ans sh w H ani D

Features: thinkbig heroes

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; leaders influencing the world â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

“Steve was driven about achievement” - Terri Irwin

Hey hey, they’re wearing khaki too!

Conservation warrior, Steve Irwin.

Steve Irwin was a boy from Beerwah in Queensland who became a mega-celebrity, world-famous for hamming it up with deadly creatures in front of the cameras as ‘The Crocodile Hunter.’ Behind the Aussie larrikin, Steve Irwin was a serious conservationist – and before his untimely death, he set up a legacy to protect his beloved wildlife long after he was gone. His wife Terri and good mate Barry Lyons spoke exclusively to Fran Molloy about the legacy of the Crocodile Hunter.

Steve Irwin

or 200 million regular viewers worldwide, Steve Irwin was The Crocodile Hunter, a larrikin khakiclad TV star who wrestled crocodiles into submission every week on The Discovery Channel. But most fans were unaware that behind the comic croc-wrestling, Steve Irwin had a grand plan. Before he became a mega-celebrity, before The Crocodile Hunter was sold, before Australia Zoo took off, he was channelling every cent he had into purchasing land in ecologically sensitive areas to be set aside to protect his beloved wildlife. And following his untimely death in 2006, his wife Terri has vowed to protect – and expand - the Crocodile Hunter’s legacy of hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine wildlife, purchased as sanctuary for native animals. Terri spoke exclusively to thinkbig in late May. She had just returned from an

outback trip where she was out of contact for a blissful three days and was headlong into managing the Irwin empire, giving media interviews about the mining threat to the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve in Cape York and running Australia Zoo. The tiny 1.6 hectare reptile park established by Steve’s parents in the midseventies became Australia Zoo when Steve and Terri took over in 1992. Now, it’s a 28-hectare tourism success story with 550 staff and over 1,000 animals, attracting about a million visitors a year. Australia Zoo is a private company and so its turnover, profits and asset base are confidential. Recent land purchases adjoining the zoo have expanded the site to an estimated 600 hectares and there are plans to develop much of the land further. The property holdings alone are worth many millions of dollars and now, the whole outfit is controlled by Terri Irwin. It’s a formidable empire; and Australia

Zoo is run by a tight-knit group of devotees. The general manager is Frank Muscillo, married to Steve’s older sister, Joy Irwin. Wes Mannion, Steve’s best mate, is the director of Australia Zoo and has been with the Irwins since the mid-1980s. Terri says she is continuing Steve’s dream, with planned improvements to include a lemur-island, orangutan exhibit with treetop walkway and even a recreation of the Florida Everglades, complete with airboats and over a hundred alligators. “Steve was very driven, passionate about what he wanted to achieve and a larger-than-life force. It was marvelous being able to unleash him to the world through filming the Crocodile Hunter series, it really brought this global message to the masses,” Terri told me. I must admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect before I spoke to Terri last month. Other media reports had showed a self-

‘leaders influencing the world’

Wildlife Warrior

The Crocodile Hunter’s Legacy Conservation Properties Since 1996, Steve and Terri Irwin have been buying up properties in Queensland to preserve wildlife habitat. After Steve’s death, a Federal Government grant helped secure the most recent land purchase, 330,000 acres in Cape York. Steve’s legacy now includes 175,000 hectares (that’s about 430,000 acres) of property dedicated to wildlife conservation. Australia Zoo Beerwah, Gold Coast hinterland 600 ha (1500 acres) Heathlands Near Wollum 120 ha (300 acres) Morachan Near St George in Central QLD 35,000 ha (85,000 acres)

“My wife is a great capitalist” - Steve Irwin

Ironbark Station Near Blackbutt 5,000 ha (12,000 acres)

Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve Cape York Peninsula 135,000 ha (330,000 acres)

Wildlife Warriors

Established in 2002, all the administration costs of this charity are met by Australia Zoo. Projects start locally, with the not-for-profit Australian Wildlife Hospital receiving an average of 100 wildlife emergency calls a day and various conservation projects supporting local native animals such as koalas. International projects include flying emergency crocodile teams and support for various existing projects including saving the giant land tortoise, the Fijian crested iguana and the Komodo dragon, tiger and elephant conservation and tsunami relief in Asia, cheetah rescue in Africa and numerous projects in places like Fiji, Vanuatu and the US.

possessed woman, media-savvy beyond belief, with an uncanny ability to turn any interview into a PR spruik. Rumours abound. The Sunday Mail reported that Terri’s staff had leaked plans that the zoo was going to be sold to the Animal Planet entertainment group and turned into a Disneystyle wildlife theme park; Terri was supposedly moving back to the US with Bindi and Robert, her children; New Idea reported that Bob Irwin had been tossed out of the park after a family argument. A rumoured rift between Terri and her father-in-law generated plenty of headlines with little substance behind

them; frustrated journalists seemed to struggle to find a negative angle on Terri – and yet were reluctant to fall victim to the relentless cheerfulness of the Australia Zoo publicity machine. And despite the constant media attention which she encouraged, even sought – it was still just eighteen months since she had lost her husband; she had been obviously devoted to him, and I wondered how she could cope with yet another interview about Steve. I was pleasantly surprised. Terri in person is warm and sincere. Though she’s keen to talk up the conservation work that she believes is her destiny, she’s quite self-depreciating about her

...and my school teachers suggested an office job

own talents – and has a dry humour befitting her outback lifestyle. Terri was named the 2008 Queensland Businesswoman of the Year award for her massive success running Australia Zoo and managing Bindi’s burgeoning TV and fashion career. Steve Irwin’s phenomenal success during his life has become legend. But what isn’t so well known, is that the man who had such an enormous impact on wildlife conservation during his life had the forethought to set up a legacy that will protect many endangered creatures long after his time on Earth. It’s hard to tell how much of this

forethought was spurred on by Terri, who taught herself to type at eight so she could help her dad do the accounts in the family business in Oregon. At twelve, she enrolled in a summer business college and in her teens had even set up her own wildlife sanctuary complete with native cougars. The Queensland properties that Steve and Terri purchased, and land reserves since put aside, now approach nearly half a million acres dedicated to safe habitat for native wildlife. Some estimates put the value of the land at around $26 million, but it’s impossible to get an accurate assessment of its worth.

“You know, easily the greatest threat to the wildlife globally is the destruction and annihilation of habitat,” Irwin told Andrew Denton in a 2003 interview. So, to fix this he decided to buy some of this habitat and preserve it. He credited the business-savvy Terri with making it happen. “My wife is an American so she’s a good capitalist… she’s very clever with money… so whenever we get enough cash and a chunk of land that we’re passionate about, bang, we buy it.” Their first venture was a 350 acre property, Ironbark Station, near Blackbutt on the Great Dividing Range, bought in 1994.

‘leaders influencing the world’

Steve gives one of his famous performances at Australia Zoo.

“Money can do some incredible things”- Terri Irwin 14

“It was beyond our budget but we just fell in love with the property. It had koalas and kangaroos – so we managed to make payments on that property, then eventually we purchased more land with great biodiversity or endangered wildlife,” Terri says. Ironbark needed a fair bit of work to restore it to a suitable habitat for local wildlife. “Steve said: I bet these koalas are having trouble getting from tree to tree because of the masses of lantana growing at the bases of the eucalyptus tree - and since his original observation it has been proved that lantana is a real problem for koalas,” she says. Steve worked around the clock to rehabilitate the property, pulling out feral pest species and planting and fertilising tens of thousands of eucalypt trees. The small koala population has since increased and formal research projects established on the property, with wildlife rehabilitation reintroducing injured animals into the wild. “Over a period of time, we purchased more land adjoining that particular one until now today that 350 acre land is 3500 acres and then of course we’ve got other properties as well.” The couple found a way to harness Terri’s capitalist instincts and Steve’s passion for conservation into an unstoppable force. “Being raised Christian I found it really interesting how often people misquote the Bible when they say that money is the root of all evil and yet the actual quote is, the love of money is the root of all evil and that money can do some incredibly good things,” Terri says. The couple agreed to take a wage from Australia Zoo – and put the rest back into conservation. Initially, there wasn’t much left over; but as The Crocodile Hunter juggernaut went global, the conservation kitty grew exponentially. Even last year, Terri says, 60 percent of the profits from Australia Zoo went back into expansion plans and the remaining 40 percent was directed into conservation programs outside of Australia Zoo. “That’s my life quest, to continue his work and get as much accomplished as possible in whatever time I have here,” Terri says.

“We’re not dealing with humanitarian issues and wildlife issues separately anymore, we’re all intrinsically connected and if our wildlife and wild places are depleted, it will ultimately affect all of us.” Steve Irwin’s death in 2006 from a stingray attack was a freak accident that didn’t make sense to the millions who had watched the cheeky Australian subdue huge crocodiles and swim with man-eating sharks. “I eat, sleep and live for conservation,” Steve told Reader’s Digest in 2002. “That is all I do.” Many Australians were somewhat bemused by his old-fashioned slang and over-the-top showmanship, and to them, Irwin’s global influence was puzzling. But he’s been credited with singlehandedly boosting Australia’s tourism profile exponentially, and thanks to Steve Irwin, eco-tourism has suddenly become one of this country’s big export success stories. The Crocodile Hunter series has now screened in 140 countries, bringing the Discovery Channel cable network over 70 million new subscribers. After top-rating talk-show host Jay Leno started inviting Irwin to appear on his show in 1997, some pop-culture analysts claimed Irwin was the most famous Australian – more famous than Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe or Kylie Minogue. Getting other people to share his love for the wild was a lifetime goal for Steve Irwin – one he achieved beyond his wildest dreams. The little boy from Essendon who got a 12-foot python for his sixth birthday present idolised his reptile-mad father;

and in the early 70s, Steve’s dad Bob Irwin, sold his plumbing business and moved the family north to set up a twohectare reptile park on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The initial video footage caught the attention of director John Stainton, who filmed The Crocodile Hunter series, sold to the Discovery Channel in 1996. Terri’s uncanny instinct for business kicked in – and she encouraged Steve to make the most of his enormous talent; and the rest is legend. “He was just such an amazing, unique, one-of-a-kind person, and that person that I fell in love with was the person that I knew up until we lost him. His ethics never changed,” she says. “I always felt that I was here just to be Steve’s right-hand woman, to work with him and share the dream and it wasn’t until we lost Steve that I thought, you know maybe this is what destiny had in line for me.” She says that Steve once asked her to promise that if he died, she would keep Australia Zoo going. “At the time I made the promise, I think we had 10 staff and about four acres. Now there’s 589 of us and 1500 acres and we’re just embarking on a 150 million dollar expansion program and I think it’s just a little more daunting but I’m still unwavering.” Whether Steve Irwin’s greatest legacy is the half-million wild acres in Queensland, his two little over-the-top children or the business-savvy Terri is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure, he will not be forgotten in a hurry.

by Fran Molloy

“Life is series of collisions” - Kate Ceberano

Twenty years on and I’m still smiling

f! l e s y m o t e ll tru

Be t will a line. I l in

fal

Kate Ceberano.

Kate Ceberano

Enduring soul belief B

rand building gets the thumbs down from singing sensation, Kate Ceberano, who has consistently defied critics and advisors and gone her own way regarding her body image and belief system. Refusing to succumb to pressure to become yet another rake thin pop singer, the celebrated performer says that ultimately the two worst pieces of advice she has ever received was “to give up Scientology and ditch my Mum as my manager” in order to avoid bad PR. The warning was resolutely ignored by Ceberano. Yet ironically she remains standing as the number of celebrity casualties who are buckling under the stress of their success and the excesses that all too often accompany it, continues to grow. By her own admission Ceberano has had more than her share of career highs and lows and she gives credit to the Church of Scientology for her ability to cop the lows on the chin and keep bouncing back with a “passion to create art and beauty”. Her widely disparaged religion, which is renowned for its secrecy and high profile followers including Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Jenna Elfman and Kirstie Alley, has been a constant source of inspiration in her volatile career. “Life is a series of collisions,” she says. “I have been signed and dropped and signed and dropped and signed and dropped yet I continue to endure, and the thing that sustains me is Scientology because it’s taught me to confront the impact instead of trying to avoid it or convert it into something else.” When it comes to understanding how to work the entertainment industry as opposed to passively waiting in the wings, Ceberano is a grand master. Driven and determined her goal has always been “to bust apart fixed conditions” and she confesses that the industry view that mature singers should step aside and let young, up-and-coming singers have a go horrifies her. “To a living artist this is death talk,” she exclaims. At 42, the exotic looking, Melbourne-born performer is a bona fide veteran of the stage. She began at age 15 as a lead singer with funk bank, I’m Talking and by 19 had won Best Female Vocalist at the Countdown Awards and Best Female Singer at the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Awards. Known for her passionate, powerful, soulful vocals, singer-songwriter Ceberano, who last year won season six of Channel 7’s Dancing With The Stars, has released six platinum and four gold albums, sold over 1.5 million albums in Australia alone, acted in acclaimed feature films and hosted her own television show.

Her focus is on communication and somewhere down the track she made a pact with herself to “keep it all real”, a conviction that underpins everything she does. Having a body shape, which she is convinced “pushes people’s buttons because it’s not the stereotypical one”, did not deter her from being fearless on Dancing With the Stars and allow partner, John-Paul Collins, to turn her completely upside down during a dance routine with her knickers high in the air. “People at home who have shapes similar to mine saw me doing all these incredible things on national television and thanked me,” she giggles equating the revealing experience to like “having had sex with the nation”. Despite her lifelong dedication to Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard’s “business and organisational technology” Ceberano struggles to put the philosophy into a nutshell. “I don’t think that things of great significance can be put into concise, little statements,” she says. “The subject to me is like a breathing, living organism. I apply everything that I have learnt from it to my life and I see that it works so it is entirely a self-generated interest. I don’t have it super-imposed on me. It is a very active philosophy and requires a lot of application. My life gives me a great place to apply the tools because everything I do is very mercurial.” The sassy songstress who is never afraid of putting her heart and soul on the line for the sake of entertainment concedes that ridicule and criticism is all part of the business and that once again it was Scientology that taught her how to deal with her feelings in the face of negativity. “Under normal circumstances, one wants to lick their wounds and take time out to reassess what happened,” she says. “But returning to what I was saying earlier about life being a series of impacts, I have the tools to go back into the area after the collision and find out what part of it I could be responsible for. Prior to her recording her current CD, Nine Lime Avenue, a cover album of classic 80s tracks, she underwent throat surgery, which she admits has given the album greater significance. “Just quietly it was a bit frightening,” she says. “I was assured by the brilliant surgeon and specialist that it would all be fine, but I still had to check out with the biopsy etc”, she says.

by Jill Fraser

‘leaders influencing the world’

At 42, songstress, Kate Ceberano’s passion to create art has not diminished.

Chapter 1. thinkbig miracles

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;inspiring the will to liveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

For almost 25 years Morris Goodman has woken at 3.00 am every morning in order to prepare himself for the day.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Apparently I had nothing to live forâ&#x20AC;? - Morris Goodman

Million dollar miracle man

routine that would take the average person 30 minutes to complete takes him close to three hours. But he never complains. Instead of cursing the gruelling daily grind Morris Goodman blesses every tentative step along the way because he knows that the very fact he is alive is an extraordinary miracle that defies the odds and continues to turn contemporary medicine on its head. Since surviving a horrific light plane crash in 1981 that snapped his neck in two places, crushed his spine and his voice box, destroyed every major muscle in his body and threatened to take his life on more than one occasion as his body tried to shut down, Goodman has been known as The Miracle Man.

And surviving the accident was just the beginning of his physical and mental battle. What followed were months of excruciating pain, humiliation and what appeared to be insurmountable obstacles. But remarkably, through amazing endurance and faith, Morris Goodman came through it and today he tours the world as one of the most highly regarded motivational speakers on the international circuit. Initially unable to speak, eat, move or breathe without a respirator his mangled body was declared a vegetable. Then suddenly astonished family members noticed that he was blinking and winking in response to comments.

is y a yd Ever worth one ing... liv

My ti me i sn’t up yet ..!

Miracle man speaks: Morris Goodman, on stage.

‘inspiring the will to live’

This is my lucky red tie.

“I teach Unconditional acceptance” - Morris Goodman

The plane after the crash that almost killed Morris.

He underwent a marathon nine-hour operation that surgeons warned had a one in 1,000 survival rate and emerged only to discover that he would be totally paralysed for the rest of his life. “At one point the doctor didn’t think I could hear and he was talking to my wife about the prognosis. He said, the most hope I can give you is that one day he might be able to sit up in a wheel chair and blink his eyes. “Everyone, my family and friends and the nursing staff, were saying, why don’t you just give up and accept the way you are. If I’d given up no one would have blamed me because I’d suffered so much and apparently had nothing to live for,” he says. But he kept going powered by his strength of will and the principles of positive thinking. He maintains that he never doubted for a minute that he would get back on his feet and walk out the door of the hospital, and twelve months after his operation he did just that. Prior to his accident Goodman had been the epitome of success. He was one of the leading life insurance salesmen in the world, a member of the exclusive Million Dollar Round Table and Top Of The Table Club, which is rather ironic considering tests showed that he had no aptitude for sales. He credits his career achievements on Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, which led him to believe

that he could do whatever he told himself he could do, and his ability to beat the million-to-one odds of regaining his mobility and voice on the words of motivational speakers Norman Vincent Peale, Bob Proctor and Zig Ziglar. “We all possess what it takes to get through situations like that but we don’t always use it. Everyone has the raw materials, what most people lack is the formula,” he says. Goodman believes that the formula is linked to spirituality. For him it’s Christianity but he concedes that all paths to God ultimately converge. He maintains that by failing to acknowledge this deeper truth The Secret missed the point and omitted one of the most crucial ingredients of the Law of Attraction. Goodman, whose life was saved by his adherence to the Law of Attraction, says; “until you really believe that you have a higher purpose than just existing and making money you won’t get it”. Paradoxically, Goodman has big material dreams. His goal is to be making $1 million a week by the time he is 65. He’s now 61. “The thing is that it’s not about making money for money’s sake because money alone won’t make you happy - although poverty won’t make you happy either! “Money is wonderful but you also need what money won’t buy.

“Money will buy a house but it won’t buy a home. Money will buy companionship but it won’t buy love. Money will buy food but it won’t buy health. “Life is about reaching your potential and becoming what God wants you to become.” The challenge, he says, is remaining on the right path; the acid test being if things are “flowing”. Goal setting, he says, is crucial but he has a problem with the way this is currently being taught. Arguing that a lot of people are ‘emotionally sick’ and not ready to set goals, he says, goal setting is about thrusting forward whereas most people are running in the one place feeling guilty about what they did in the past and wondering about what’s going to happen tomorrow. “Most people waste all their energy looking forward or back and don’t have any energy left to set goals.” Goodman teaches emotional stability and argues strongly against the concept of self-esteem. “Self-worth, self-esteem and selfimage”, he declares, “are the most negative concepts on the face of the earth”. “The problem with self esteem and self worth is that it bases our worth on who we are or what we’ve achieved. When you base your worth on that you’re doomed to fail because you can never achieve enough, you can never have people love you enough and you can never be accepted enough. “I teach unconditional acceptance. You’re worth something because God says you are. Not because of what you’ve achieved. “When you equate your worth to that you’ll always be anxious because you can never hold onto it.” Goodman is the Australia distributor of a new film, The Opus, (www. theopusmovie.com), which is about to be released on DVD and which he predicts, will rival the success of The Secret.

by Jill Fraser

To contact Morris Goodman regarding workshops and corporate speaking check out www.themiracleman.org or www.goko.com.au

“I was captured by his honesty” - Jim Stynes

We all need a genuine voice.

Reach chief, Jim Stynes.

Reach for the stars I

n the nineties, self esteem as a quality for young people was generally spoken with one eyebrow raised by all and was viewed as something discussed in the alternative, personal development set. But Stynes knew from experience that the key to well-adjusted, socially engaged kids lies in the power and motivation that comes from them possessing a positive feeling about themselves and their innate potential. When he witnessed a motley group of teenagers talking passionately and emotionally to each other about their dreams and problems in a theatre-based workshop conducted by film director and drama coach, Paul Currie, he recognized that Currie had found that key. Twelve months later REACH was born, established by co-founders Stynes and Currie. “The kids were blown away by Paul’s techniques,” says Stynes. When the Brownlow Medallist and Victorian of the Year (2003) met Currie he was already into devising camps for kids called, Passion for Sport; Passion for Life because he realised that harnessing the passion for sport and applying it to life was part of the equation. But it took Currie’s special brand of method acting, which taught actors that the art of evolving a character hinges on an ability to understand themselves and tap into what makes them tick, warts and all, for the penny to drop. “He adapted that approach for the kids and when I saw his workshop I thought, this is the missing ingredient,” says Stynes. “It was what I had been aiming for using the sport analogies and metaphors. But Paul was able to break down all the barriers that existed between the wealthy kids and the poor kids and the harder edge kids and the quieter ones and they were on a level playing field.” Stynes observed the kids dropping their barriers and releasing emotion in a safe, non-judgemental environment and practically turning cartwheels when they left and he identified with the experience. Maintaining that the over-riding element in Reach’s success is its ability to encourage and give kids permission to tap into their “genuine voice that they have been yearning to express”, Stynes talks of his own adolescent challenges in downtown Dublin, Ireland, which he says, prompted his work with kids. “When I was young I wanted to do two things, become a footballer and a teacher. They were my voices,” he says. “But being a teacher wasn’t a celebrated voice in Ireland and it was bloody hard work trying to become one because you had to be good at Irish, which was a subject that I hated.” Admitting that he wasn’t a smart kid at school and struggled to keep up Stynes tells of his father sending him to youth camps that were run by a tough taskmaster who helped him find his identity. “I was captured by his intensity and never give in attitude. He didn’t care if people thought he was crazy. His goal was to live out his dream and he went for it with such drive and passion and I really responded to that,” he says confessing that prior to

future ort r u o e p Kids ar all the sup d ee they n get. an they c

ut! o h c o rea t d e we ne

Two FORMER REACH PARTICIPANTS Three 14 to 16 year olds, Sam Cavanagh, Jules Lund and John Moore, were participants in Reach’s first workshop and went on to become facilitators prior to launching their own highly successful careers. All have remained friends and credit their achievements to their time at Reach. Sam Cavanagh, producer Hamish and Andy, FOX FM “The most annoying misconception about Reach is that it’s for troubled kids. Unfortunately the word youth has become synonymous with problems. “All kids have got issues that they’re dealing with. For some it’s about being 16, for others their parents are not getting along, for others it’s a heroin addiction. “Reach is about celebrating youth and creating a positive peer group and environment where kids can learn, be themselves and not have the sort of pressures that they encounter at school. “I was very privileged. I had a great family life and through Reach I was able to grow up in an environment where I felt very supported and where no one would hang shit on me for wanting to be successful. “Reach offered us new ways of thinking and constantly challenged and pushed us. It also gave us a deep understanding of inter-personal dynamics, which has been a huge advantage in the business world.”

‘inspiring the will to live’

When ALF legend, Jim Stynes co-founded the Reach Foundation for youth in 1994 the concept of self-esteem carried very little weight in child development circles.

And remember, be kind to your mum

“It means taking a risk” - Jim Stynes

Jules Lund, reporter, Getaway, Channel Nine

“Jim and Paul came to my school when I was 15 and we did what we did with all guest presenters, we tried to make them cry. But they weren’t going to have a bar of that. “They stood me up in front of the group and threw a few questions my way. Basically they kept asking me, who are you? I thought they were madmen. “But then there was a moment where I went, okay these guys are talking about going after what you really want in life, and they were doing it without it sounding flowery. So I turned up for the course. “I realised that the way I was trying to get acceptance was by being really negative. Reach is a positive peer group that rewards you for thinking big whereas in school it’s quite the opposite. “For me it was a really magical environment where as a teenager I could go in and feel that I’d left my doubts at the door and inside I could discover an uninhibited side of myself. “At the time I was studying graphic design and through Reach it became very clear that while I was doing something I loved it wasn’t my purpose because it wasn’t going to allow me to express everything I was. “I decided I wanted to work in TV and set about making that my goal. At Reach we never wasted time wishing. We got busy designing our future. It was all about aiming high. If you knew you couldn’t fail what would you like your life to look like? “Jim Stynes taught me how to be a TV host. From my Mum I got an emotional intelligence and psychology. Dad gave me my skylarking, cheeky, show-off, performing nature. Reach gave me the confidence to back all those qualities.”

A REACH session in action. attending these camps he had felt a bit of misfit. He admits that had he not gained confidence through the camps he may have gone off the rails, despite having a good family who loved and cared deeply for him. The confidence gave him the impetus to play sport. He came to Australia in 1984 and played his first senior game with the Melbourne Football Club in 1987. Referring to sport as his escape he says that although he loved footie he soon realised that it didn’t fulfil him. He also needed to plan ahead to the time when he would no longer be playing. Working with kids enabled him to combine his teaching and motivational skills. REACH is a not-for-profit organization. Stynes and his 25 full-time staff members are paid salaries. Stynes’ long-term aim is for all roles, including his own to be voluntary. In 2007 REACH ran 16 different programs in more than 400 locations across Australia, to nearly 60,000 young people. It visited almost 400 schools. Stynes disputes the frequently expressed opinion that kids today are more troubled than previous generations. “Issues are more complex now but I don’t think that they’re all that different. It’s just that we are a bit more aware,” he says. “In the old days if kids were depressed we just thought they were in a bad mood or down in the dumps; we didn’t understand

that depression is a treatable illness. And when kids were being abused they didn’t have a voice; they weren’t encouraged to speak up about it.” REACH allows kids to face their fears and needs in a safe, supervised environment. Workshops are conducted by accredited facilitators, aged between 18 and 23. The youthful face of REACH is another key to its success. Stynes remains hands on, often talking at schools around the country. His message usually revolves around “having the courage to identify and heed your voice”. “That may sound simple and clichéd but it mans taking a risk. It’s a bit like an archaeological dig. You’ve got to keep peeling back the layers and you don’t know how deep it is and for 14 and 15 year olds that can be quite scary.”

by Jill Fraser

Chapter 2: thinkbig causes

g n i g a r u o c n â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;e people to give!â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Lentil as anything

Lentil As Anything owner, Shanaka Fernando.

The delightfully named, Lentil as Anything chain of restaurants in Melbourne are doing very well, despite – or perhaps because of – their policy of not setting a price for any of the food on their menus.

t Lentil As Anything customers pay what they think the meal is worth, putting their money in a box as they leave. In a country where ‘doing a runner’ on a restaurant bill is almost a rite of passage for some groups of young men, the Lentil chain is doing well; they estimate that about twenty percent of their patrons don’t pay, often people with limited resources who struggle to feed themselves. Some volunteer to work off their meal washing dishes or peel potatoes; others

play music for the restaurant’s customers or donate a work of art. One customer paved the courtyard garden of the St Kilda restaurant. And for many, the welcoming atmosphere of the restaurants and the great food is worth a substantial amount: recently, one group of diners left $1,000 for a few vegetarian burgers, while just last year, one diner donated a house. The house has since been converted into a home for refugees, many of whom are key staff members of the Lentil restaurants.

‘encouraging people to give’

A little lentil goes a long, long way!

“You have to recognise the commitment here”- Shanaka Fernando 30

Restaurant founder, Shanaka Fernando, says that his key ambition when he started the first restaurant was to encourage an atmosphere of trust and compassion and to break down barriers. He heaps praise on his staff and customers. “You have to recognise the extraordinary levels of commitment people have in order to make this work, especially the people who come and eat there every day, to support this unconventional idea,” he says. In 2001, Shanaka used his life savings to set up a small vegetarian restaurant, named Lentil as Anything, in St Kilda. “I started with an indigenous chef and a couple of people with blissfully unstable backgrounds, from drug dependency to homelessness.” He says that he hoped that the lives and stories of these people might have some chance of getting validation and that the restaurant would provide a focal point for marginalised people.

TRUST that People will give... everyone has a little bit to give.

“I knew that as long as we made good food and maintained a passion for what we were doing that it would have a place in the community, but it was so unusual I was happy as long as it survived for about three months, I thought, okay then I will have proved my point.” The restaurant didn’t just survive – it thrived; and, deciding to live his Buddhist ideals, Shanaka relinquished his capital in the restaurant. Lentil became a non-profit Incorporated Association and has been formally classified as a Public Benevolent Institution. Federal Government legislation only grants this classification to groups whose dominant purpose is “the direct relief of poverty, sickness, destitution, suffering or misfortune, and for the benefit of the community or a section of it.” With its provision of free meals to those who cannot afford to pay, training opportunities for those who

have been marginalised and even crisis accommodation for the homeless, Lentil as anything has become a very different – and hugely successful – not for profit community organisation, employing and training around 150 people in the restaurants. Eight years later, Lentil as Anything is a Melbourne institution and Shanaka has toured Australia, invited by a wide range of people to speak about his achievements; most are keen for a local Lentil as Anything to be set up in their own town. Some full-time employees are fullyqualified chefs and floor managers, while others are on training allowances, completing a mentoring program through the Department of Immigration. The training is intense, with most outlets averaging around 100 meals an hour. Employees include people who are new migrants, refugees, people who have disabilities or are dealing with

One of the Lentil As Anything restaurants.

“I am a fan of unconventional models” - Shanaka 32

substance abuse or mental illness. Some have criminal records, some are long-term unemployed who have been marginalised for most of their lives. The group also provides crisis accommodation, English tutoring, homework assistance – even driving lessons. Lentil as Anything now has an outlet at the Abbotsford Convent, in Brunswick, in St Kilda, they run the kiosk at Artplay in the city and began this year to run the canteen at the Collingwood College primary school. Two more sites are being negotiated at the moment. Shanaka says that the Collingwood canteen is the most organised of all of his venues because they have a consistent customer base – of around 600 children each day. As with all of his restaurants, Shanaka says that good food is the key to success at the school canteen. “The kids are very honest critics, they just will not eat anything unless it tastes good.” The food at all of the restaurants is vegetarian – with a great variety of ethnic influences, inspired by his mostlymigrant staff of African, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, Indian and Japanese backgrounds. Shanaka is a migrant himself, arriving in Australia from Sri Lanka in 1989, at the age of twenty. Born to a Sri Lankan father and Irish mother, he had an unconventional childhood, raised in a wealthy household with servants and an extended family which included his aunt, a famous sculptor whose studio was the family kitchen, and an uncle who was a triple international sportsman who played cricket for Sri Lanka and Davis Cup tennis. Shanaka left his high-achieving family to study law at Melbourne University, but lost interest and didn’t stay long in the course. A range of jobs followed, in fruit shops, helping elderly people and also dancing and acting; he performed in more than a hundred shows with a theatre group in the Melbourne Fringe Festival and eventually at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. His Catholic parents had insisted he have a Buddhist education, and Shanaka decided in 1992 to pursue a long-

held ambition to become a Buddhist monk, travelling to a forest monastery in Western Australia. He didn’t last long there, either. “Unfortunately, there was a very beautiful Buddhist nun in the monastery and I ended up having a torrid affair with her and I got kicked out,” he recalls, with a cheeky grin. He spent the next six years travelling around the world. “The experiences I got from those travels are what I think formulated the idea of what I’m doing now, which is to bring cultures and people together and basically for people to just sit and eat and talk without boundaries.” “That’s what I experienced in the third world through my travels and I notice that when people eat and their needs are satisfied there’s a nice big ray of conviviality and culture that brings them together.” Returning to Australia in 2001, Shanaka had around $40,000 that he had raised through a cottage industry of

...Do you think we could fit an elephant on the roof?

recycled silk saris; it was just enough to start up the first restaurant - and the rest is history. Shanaka says that he is in the process of stepping back a bit, wanting to spend more time with his nearly-four year old daughter, Grace. “When I started Lentil as Anything, my long-term partner realised my involvement and my passion was with the restaurant and she wanted a more conventional lifestyle where the man worked and brought money home and we went shopping to Bunnings together and bought pot plants, which is certainly not the direction I was heading in.” A few years later, his ex-partner was keen to have a child and asked Shanaka to be the father. “I agreed to that, being a fan of unconventional models and so I have Grace with me three days a week and that seems to be working quite well.” Life hasn’t always been so cruisy; but Shanaka, who relinquished all his capital in the businesses and turned them

into a not-for-profit charity soon after they began, says that he lives very simply. For more than two years, he lived in a waterfront, he says. Actually, it was a tent on the Elwood foreshore – and when local papers got hold of the story, he attracted much attention from Port Philip Council’s officers, who often moved him on. “Some of the media called me a millionaire who owned five restaurants, which was quite amusing because I don’t have any assets and I’ve probably got about $70 in my bank account at any time. They asked me why I lived in a tent and I said I misunderstood my Buddhist teacher who asked me to go out there and live with intent.” Shanaka says that he has no desire to accumulate money or possessions but feels hugely rewarded because he has had the opportunity to promote a culture of trust and benevolence in society.

by Fran Molloy

‘encouraging people to give’

Inside Lentil As Anything.

house the homeless...

Turning ghettos into Grollo’s Corporations are fast realising that they can’t ignore social and environmental issues.

“We are getting a lot of value from this” - Daniel Grollo

n the game of corporate social commitment construction giant, Grocon Pty Ltd, Australia’s largest privately owned development and construction company, has just played its trump card. In partnership with the Victorian government Grocon is constructing a $50 million inner-city homeless shelter in Melbourne, sacrificing up to $15 million profit in the process. Grocon CEO, Daniel Grollo, who was handed the reins of the family’s multi-million dollar firm in 1999, says that this project is part of the company’s new direction. Voicing his concerns about the building and development industry’s lack of attention to the impact it is leaving behind, Grollo talks of his growing awareness of his organisation’s social and environmental footprint. Becoming socially aware does not mean that it can’t be a win/win situation, he says, even if the books indicate a $15 million shortfall. “Yes, it is a loss of profit but I have to be honest and say that I don’t quite look at it that way. I see that we are getting value out of it,” admits the charismatic Grocon chief. “For one, we are getting closer to our community and two, we are getting great engagement with our people who either work on the project or have the opportunity to observe what we are doing. “There is of course a limit to how much of this work we can do at any one time because we have to run a profitable business. But what we are doing here I don’t see as a cost.” The 10-storey shelter, to be built at 660 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, is based on a New York supportive housing model known as Common Ground. It will house up to 120 homeless people and have on-site mental health referrals, drug and alcohol counselling and employment services and is expected to be completed in 2010. Common Ground, which was established in 1990, has created more than 2,000 units of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, Connecticut, and upstate New York and reduced street homelessness by 87 percent in the 20-block Times Square neighbourhood, and by 43 percent in the surrounding 230 blocks of West Midtown. Grollo attended a presentation by a spokesman from Common Ground and found the rationale and argument for early intervention and housing for the homeless compelling. “It’s a much better economic and social outcome than letting the homeless bounce around in the system, which ends up costing far more and has a much greater adverse impact on human lives,” he says. Grollo concedes that being born into wealth (his father is reportedly worth $80 million) means that understanding how the other half lives does not come easily.

10 storey shelter completed by 2010 nounce must an s in 6 month

Socially aware Grocon CEO, Daniel Grollo.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;encouraging people to giveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Why? Because I can!

“99 per cent of people are great” - Daniel Grollo

Grocon Projects

Completed: VIC includes the Eureka Tower, the Rialto, Crown Casino, 101 Collins Street, 120 Collins Street, the Grand Hyatt, ANZ World Tower and the redevelopment of the MCG. NSW includes No 1 Martin Place, 400 George Street, 185 Macquarie Street, Civic Tower, World Tower, Governor Macquarie Tower, Governor Phillip Tower and Market City – The Peak. Current: VIC Media House Docklands, Carlton Brewery Swanston Street and Melbourne Rectangular Stadium. NSW Space 1 Bligh Street, 413 George Street, 157 Liverpool Street and Civic Place Parramatta. QLD Vision Tower Brisbane, Soul Surfers Paradise and The Oracle Broadbeach.

“Do I have an appreciation for it? I would have to say no. Do I read about it and ponder it? Absolutely. But I don’t think you can truly understand how desperate and difficult it is unless you’re there.” Grollo’s grandfather, Luigi began the business in the late 1950s. In the 1980s and 1990s his father, Bruno transformed it from a small concreting concern into a major building company. Grollo has extended the company’s reach beyond the parameters of his hometown Melbourne, where Grocon buildings dominate the cityscape, into Queensland, NSW and Dubai. He refers to the company’s tenet of positive sustainability and social responsibility as a renewed focus pointing out that his grandfather created jobs for immigrants who couldn’t find work. “So he was looking after his own community even back then,” he says. Philanthropic projects have been on Grocon’s agenda for several years but over the past 12 months Grollo has shifted it up a notch with the instigation of an employment program in conjunction with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence and the juvenile justice system. “To date every person we have taken on has been an exemplary individual and has gone into our workforce fabulously well. The people working with them have a sense of pride and achievement in taking that person on their journey in the organisation,” he remarks. Another arm of Grocon’s Corporate Social Responsibility agenda is the Dina Grollo Community Fund, named after Grollo’s late mother, which was launched last year. The Fund distributes around $150,000 each year to charities and not for profit groups in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Social awareness equals environmental awareness and increasing its sustainable

practices is high on Grocon’s to-do list. Much of the material from buildings designated for demolition is recycled and the company’s green image has just received a huge boost. Grocon beat five competitors to secure the contract for Dexus Property Group’s new office tower, Space 1 Bligh. The building, which is being constructed on the corner of Bligh, Bent and O’Connell Street, Sydney, promises to be a world leader in environmentally sustainable design. Grollo, 38, joined Grocon at age 18 and worked his way up through the ranks. He admits that his career choice was pretty well set in stone and that he never really aspired to anything else. He and his wife, Kat have two children, Finn, 9, and Tillie, 5 and having experienced discrimination as a child of Italian immigrants he hopes that tolerance and the valuing of differences is one aspect of his philosophy that gets passed on. “Given that we operate in the Middle East I get concerned with the coverage that the area gets here. I go there for family holidays and watch my kids deal with the contrast and the realisation that 95 percent of the world is just like us,” he says. “Unfortunately it’s very easy to fall into the hole of thinking that someone is bad just because they are different. “I work on the premise that 99 percent of people are great and that we need to spend time understanding what makes each other tick.” His notion of thinking big is “not being constrained by the status quo”. “That is certainly how we try to run our company,” he says. “At Grocon our goal is to always think beyond ourselves and push the boundaries.”

by Jill Fraser

Advertising feature

Chapter 3. thinkbig business

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;motivating l entrepreneuriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;a minds

Who said it’s not good to talk trash!

“I didn’t know how it would happen” - Bran Scudamore

Junk business magnate, Brain Scudamore.

It’s official. Trash is treasure Rubbish is big business, as Canadian Brian Scudamore discovered when he founded 1-800-GOT-JUNK nearly 20 years ago. The private trash collection business is now a hugely successful franchise, with over 300 outlets across Canada, the USA, Australia and the UK (where it is branded ‘GotJunk.com.)

must take out the trash... CALL 1800 -got- JUNK!

rian Scudamore was a 19-year old university student who decided to earn some cash in his summer break when he spotted a beat-up grubby rubbish removal truck with a handpainted sign in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada, in 1989. Soon after, he bought an old truck for $750 and started up a rubbish removal business with a difference, concentrating on good service and a spotless image. In only a few weeks, he had paid off the truck, along with the business cards and fliers he had organised; and after three very successful summers, Brian realised he had a winner on his hands. He had gone into the junk business – an industry with notorious Mafia connections, old-fashioned attitudes and a reputation for poor service - with a different mindset. “Our service isn’t just about junk removal, it’s about saving people time, and helping get things done,” he explains. These days, his multi-million dollar business aims to recycle 60 per cent of the rubbish it collects, donating much

“We use time and creativity” - Bran Scudamore

When junk is your life nothing else matters

to charity; and the uniformed drivers clean up after the job is done. Brian recalls that his father, a surgeon, was aghast when he dropped out of university at just 22 to become a junk man. But within a year, he had grown his fledgling business from a few part-time student drivers to operating three fulltime trucks - and soon after, opened a call-centre to handle the growing volume of orders. “By 1997 I thought I was ready to grow,” Brian recalls. “I had six trucks in Vancouver and two in Victoria. I always had a mind-set of bigger, better, faster.” Soon afterwards, he changed his business name from “The Rubbish Boys” to 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, to capitalise on an emerging trend in North America for phone-names (that is, phone numbers that spelled out a word.) By 1998, Brian was 28 and his company was already generating just under a million dollars a year in revenue. Sitting on the dock of his parent’s waterfront cottage, he wrote out a vision for the future: a detailed description of where he wanted his business to be in five years.

He imagined that, by 2003, his business would operate in the top thirty metropolitan cities in Canada and the US. “I didn’t know how it would happen, I just knew that it would,” he told attendees at a recent franchisee conference. And it did: in the last week of 2003 – Brian opened an outlet in his thirtieth city. He’s not the first to use the power of vision to make your goals come true, but Brian used his clear picture of a vision for the company’s future to drive its success. He says that his team became so aligned with the vision that, though it seemed improbable that a one-city junk haulage business could become a North America-wide brand within just five years, they had a definite goal which they were driven to achieve. His crystal-clear vision (or “painted picture” as he calls it) included some key predictions that he made sure would come true; 60 percent repeat business from his customers; an annual growth of ninety percent – and even a segment on ‘Oprah.’

Since then, Brian has run regular sessions to teach his franchise partners the importance of “seeing the future.” He says there are three keys to turn vision into reality. One: you must have a very clear “painted picture” of what your vision will look and feel like. Two: you must never, ever question your vision or your ability to get there. And three: you must publish your vision somewhere you will see it all the time, to remind yourself – and everyone that is a part of your team – about where you are headed. Brian had no experience in franchising but saw that it was a key for him to be able to meet his plans for rapid expansion – and opened his first franchise in 2000, in Portland in the USA. By the end of 2001, he had sold eleven franchises in Canada and the US and his annual turnover had topped $4 million. Brian sold his 100th Got-Junk franchise in 2004 and by 2005, had expanded to Australia, where the company is known as 1800-GOT-JUNK?. These days, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? claims to be the world’s largest junk

removal service, sporting more than 340 franchises and an annual turnover estimated at US$130 million. The trademark blue clown-wigs and shiny blue trucks are just part of the strong brand; the company has a solid focus on customer service, promoting its friendly drivers, who promise to call customers in advance, arrive on time and clean up after they have removed the rubbish. The company also says that up to 60 percent of the goods they take are either recycled, or donated to charity. For many years, the company has topped surveys canvassing the most desirable employers in the workplace. Brian says that hiring great people and treating them well is a key to the company’s success – and the company pursues a strong work/life balance for employees. Some of the benefits include five weeks personal paid leave, full health and dental benefits, flexible working hours and a 25% profit share program. The Got Junk organisation has a big focus on internal communication, with employees in the head office holding a daily five-minute, stand-up meeting

by Fran Molloy

Australia goes Junk Paul Tomezak owns one of the four Australian franchises of 1800-GOT-JUNK and says that the business has grown very quickly here. Paul operates in Sydney South, an area covering 550,000 people; the three other current franchises are in Sydney North, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and he says there are plans to open more, though he doesn’t have details. “We pick up anything and everything as long as it’s non-toxic and non-hazardous,” he says. “The advantage of getting us in rather than getting a skip, is that we do all the work. We pick up the junk, we sort it, we load it and we clean up at the end.” The company charges by volume. The minimum charge is $152, with a full truck-load costing $718.

by Fran Molloy

‘motivating entrepreneurial minds’

Members of the junk team.

called ‘Huddle,’ where they tell each other about new achievements, frustrations with existing systems and make suggestions for improvements. The fast-paced huddle has been described as ‘cult-like’ by some critics; but it’s just another way of reinforcing Brian’s “Painted Picture” – the vision for the company’s future. In fact, employees are all encouraged to develop their own “Painted Picture” detailing 101 life dreams and tracking their progress toward achieving them. Brian’s staff are all Got-Junk evangelists, encouraged to promote the company in the outside world, recruit new staff, for the new Painted Picture goal is for global domination and many staff have developed a fervour not out of place in such a plan. Meanwhile the company’s 200-plus corporate staff – and 1700-plus franchise employees – all form a key part of the company’s marketing strategy. Guerrilla marketing is core to the company’s promotional plan, with Brian on record as stating that he won’t spend money on large national ads. “Instead of using money for marketing, we use time and creativity.” The company spends a measly 10% of revenue on marketing, a lot of which is used on a fleet of billboard trucks. Television ads are small, quirky affairs aimed at local stations. This paid off big-time when a 30-second television ad broadcast on a local Vancouver station was emailed to employees and franchisees. The ad was featured in the TBS ‘World’s Funniest Commercials,’ capturing an audience that no amount of paid advertising could ever guarantee. Meanwhile, Brian’s various longterm goals include building 1800-GOTJUNK? To become a globally admired company with a presence in ten different countries by 2012. For most businesses, a plan so grand would be laughable but Brian Scudamore has already demonstrated that his power to create reality from a vision is almost supernatural – and eerily accurate.

“Know your dominant values” - Kimberly dela Cruz Odom

thinkbig insights

Every business strives for competitive advantage: how do we smash the competition, and grow market share and profitability, irrespective of how we get there. Or do they?

Values of competitive advantage M

anagement studies are describing collaboration or joint problem solving with suppliers, customers and competitors as the path to growth and sustainability. Examples include Apple inviting code writers to add to and improve its iPhone and other apps; and Eli Lily, the drug maker, spinning off InnoCentive.com that charges clients (’seekers’) to broadcast scientific problems on a website where scientists (solvers) are offered cash – usually less than $100,000 – for solutions; more than 50 challenges are now pending. Oppositional or collaborative. Which is the best way forward? Are you flexible enough to do both? Within a business we can find similar challenges on style, approach and values. Glenn is the divisional GM of a very traditional multimillion-dollar organisation. He is leading his division of scientists through the transition from excellent scientists to excellent, commercially attuned scientists. A scientist himself, he earned his management experience and reputation by working through the ranks at well-known and respected competitors. He has accepted the challenge to “commercialise” the division – to bring it into the cut and thrust of today’s business world. A business focus makes many of his team uncomfortable after all they are scientists! They are dedicated to making the world a better place. How much they spend, how they advance their work and how they share their findings should not be reduced to commercial imperatives. They are absolute in their traditionalism! They understand the reason for the business emphasis but it’s such a different paradigm that they try to ignore it. A highly respected senior scientist, Martin, is leading covert white-anting about Glenn’s ability to lead and effectively manage the division. Martin’s Machiavellian tactics have produced a handful of complaints against

Glenn about favouritism he is showing Cheryl, a star scientist. Cheryl and her team create much of their work by collaborating with colleagues. Their projects are recognised by the international business community and have brought in more revenue than almost any other team. The perceived difficulty is that Cheryl is Glenn’s wife. On the face of this, this just looks like a hairy, but not unusual management challenge. At a deeper level these behaviours are actually a clash of values: traditional, purposeful, absolutistic, vs commercial innovation and market participation, vs aggressive undermining to preserve an old way or hide an inability to transform into a new way vs collaboration, consultation and co-creation to create anew. It is never either/or, and always “and”. If you desire to become a truly successful leader who creates growth, increase in market share and profit, encourages innovation and collaboration and can handle staff “behaving badly”, then you have at least two distinct challenges: 1) Can you identify the predominant underlying values driving your staff without being drawn into the drama being played out because of those values? 2) Do you know your own dominant values? Is your behaviour flexible enough to not only understand the values of your staff but also draw on their cloak of values while interacting with them so that they feel heard, understood and can therefore do their best work? If you can do this you can effectively lead a competitive organisation for the long term in any environment.

by Kimberly dela Cruz Odom Kimberly dela Cruz Odom facilitates evolution, personal, organisational and societal, using values based evaluation. Contact her at Kimberly@Aurai-Integral.com

In today’s information highway there is no shortage of advice on how to successfully invest in the stockmarket, but very limited information on how to invest into private companies.

Investing in private companies is tricky if you are a minority investor and have no control in the company. The main difference between investing into public ASX listed companies, and private ones, is liquidity. There is no ready market for private companies should you wish to exit your position. The only way you can really get out of the investment is when there is a liquidity event, such as a trade sale or IPO, initial public offering of a firm’s first sale of shares. This may take years, if ever, so there are certain steps you should take prior to investing into your neighbours ‘exciting new venture that’s sure to go global’. How can I become a private investor? Anyone can become a private investor, but in order to be a successful one there are some risk management tips you should heed first:• You need to have capital that you can invest and a willingness to accept risk with the investment, ie. only invest money you can afford to lose. • It’s best to have some experience of running your own successful business or businesses. The more experience the better. • You need to be keen to get involved in start-ups and developing companies in a hands on way should the need arise. • Do plenty of due diligence on the promoter through ASIC and other background searches. Get some references from the promoter and check up on them. You basically want to know what kind of a track record they have behind them, and also if they are an honest and trustworthy person. • Back promoters or entrepreneurs who want your expertise and knowledge, not just your money. • Get the private company or promoter to clearly justify the valuation to you. Question them on it. Ask yourself, is the business really worth what they are asking?

• Get some good legal representation and make sure your lawyer has previous transaction experience. Get them to review the shareholders agreement and make sure you have a qualified accountant go over the projection assumptions. • Find out if there are any planned dividends to be paid once the company is profitable. • Question the promoter on the exit strategy for the business. • Spread your risk across multiple investments. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t get too excited about the first boat that docks at your shores. • Join a business angel group. There are many business angel groups and associations across Australia. This will also assist you with finding new deals. • Be patient. Be prepared to wait 3 to 5 years to get your investment back. • Keep your money onshore. As soon as it leaves Australia, you have no protection under ASIC corporations law. If you lose your money, you are on you own and you can pretty much kiss it goodbye. A final word of advice… Last but very not least, follow your gut instincts. If you don’t feel good about a deal, or an individual at the first meeting, or there is something not right about the deal, just let it go. There will be plenty more where they came from. As a real estate agent once said to me, ‘the deal of a lifetime comes by almost every week’.

by Reuben Buchanan Reuben Buchanan is a corporate advisor for Sydney based advisory firm, Integral Capital Group.

‘motivating entrepreneurial minds’

thinkbig insights

Minority investor, managing your risk

Chapter 4: thinkbig wealth

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;creating profitable thinkingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

“Avoid debt and get out of leverage” - Professor Steve Keen

I predict that your shares will go up and down...

Crystal ball to wealth thinkbig surveyed leading economists, academics, financial strategists and the nation’s top social demographer for insight into what lies ahead and how best to structure a wealth creation portfolio that has a projected lifespan of two to five years-plus.

igh interest rates and the global financial crisis weigh heavily on one side of the economic scale while escalating mineral prices push down hard on the other and in the middle teeters Australia’s economic outlook, which will be determined by the upshot of these two opposing forces. Economists are forecasting a prolonged period of high inflation, slower market growth, an increase in unemployment and a robust Australian dollar but how long will this climate last and what does it mean for wealth creation?

Declaring that America stocks are four times the long-term average in terms of their ratio to consumer prices, which means they’re four times over valued, he says that Australian stock are over valued two fold. “We use a whole range of unreliable indicators. One is price to earnings ratio because a huge part of what we call earnings for a large number of firms is actually capitalised asset price appreciation. “What that means is that what we’ve been calling earnings are just inflation and asset prices.” Keen would avoid Australia property because “it’s the most overvalued it’s been in its history - more than in America”. “American property looks like it still has about 50% to go down before it’s back to a long-term trend. Australia has even further to fall.” Where would Keen put his money? “In government bonds and cash.” Professor Fariborz Moshirian, Editor, Journal of Banking and Finance, School of Banking and Finance, The University of New South Wales says all indications are that the resource boom is going to continue over the next 20 years. “The Australian economy is de-coupling from the United States and it is part of the China/India equation and as they keep growing and demanding resources we are going to prosper,” he says. There are more than 50 million middle income consumers in India and China and it is predicted that by 2025 China will represent 40-45% of GDP of the world’s economy a year. Moshirian forecasts that our agriculture sector will also reap the benefits of our relationship with China and India and flowing on from that the infrastructure sector because getting resources to market will require a vastly improved railway system and ports. In the next two to five years Moshirian predicts that the banking sector will become healthier, stronger. “Hence we are not going to see too many negative surprises in capital markets,” he says. Regarding property Moshirian says that unlike the US, which has an oversupply of housing, Australia has a shortage. “We are going to see a strong migration of skilled workers, which

Bernard Salt

Peter Connolly

Doug Turek will increase the demand for houses,” he says. “Therefore I cannot see the price of houses coming down.” “It’s going to rise steadily. Queensland and Western Australia will lead the way because of their resource boom but I expect NSW will catch up over the next two to five years. The shortage of land in Victoria will cause prices to remain strong.” Wealth advisors caution against risk. Dr Doug Turek, Managing Director, Professional Wealth Pty Ltd (www.

‘ creating profitable thinking’

The question is whether this turbulence is just an irritating hiccup in the midst of booming prosperity, with the expectation that the stock market will rally and property will hold its value, or the beginning of a substantial slowdown, with financial markets de-leveraging, interest rates remaining high, price inflation continuing and equity markets stalling. Professor Neville Norman, is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne, immediate past President of the Economics Society of Australia and senior advisor to companies and State and Federal government bodies. Professor Norman identifies three dominant forces that will shape the economy over the next two to five years: 1) The past - a well managed economy gaining from the growth of China and India and supporting our export markets and basic deregulation of the financial and manufacturing sector, which has been good for enterprise. 2) The mismanagement of financial affairs in the US, which won’t necessarily lead to recession here or in the US but dampens the shortterm returns for financial investors and businesses. 3) No change of government in Australia over the next five years due to a weak Opposition. “The Federal budget slowed inflation, which is a positive for long-term wealth creation. The problem is that escalating oil prices are going to cause inflation to rise and there’s nothing the budget could have done to stop that,” he says. Professor Steve Keen, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Western Sydney, says: “The basic argument I’d make is that what we’ve been calling wealth creation over the past 20 years has been leveraging up gains in asset prices and hasn’t been creating wealth at all.” Keen asserts that we have now reached such a degree of leverage that sustaining the debt on the leverage has become impossible and asset prices are unwinding in the other direction, following the debt down. “I think the only wealth creation strategy of any sense for the future should be doing what ever possible to avoid debt and get out of leverage,” he says.

“It’s about reading the political shift” - Bernard Salt 50

professionalwealth.com.au) suggests that because it’s so difficult to anticipate where the investment markets and the economy will be in a few years time the wisest strategy is to adopt a “no regret” approach. Maintaining that “no regret” moves work well at a time when uncertainty exists in the economy, he says that this entails de-risking, diversifying and embracing quality. “We went through a period of booming investment markets, which saw people becoming super confident about the way markets would work,” he says. “They took on extra debt, invested in alternatives and things they didn’t understand, didn’t hold as much money in cash and forgot why we have bonds and a portfolio. And suddenly we’ve experienced an event that reminded us why we have a defensive part to our portfolio and why we hold our debt levels at a certain limit.” Turek argues that even in a boom there’s a chance of over exposure. “Things can easily fall off the perch”, he says, “and people often forget that their job is to manage risk not just manage investments”. “In a period of prosperity we let our winners ride and that’s okay because we get capital gain, we postpone tax. But having 40% of your portfolio in any stock, even BHP or Woolworths, is not a good risk. “Why put your quality of life into the hands of Chinese who are buying our ore or steel,” he declares, noting that one of several surprise “X-factors” that may throw the economy sideward is that overnight China could suffer political instability or a financial hangover after the immense pre-Olympics construction. His advice to small business owners is

to carefully determine how much of your wealth is re-invested into the business. “If we have a poor economic future taking some money out of your business and putting it into defensive assets might be a prudent strategy,” he says. “That way you’re covered if the demand for your services diminishes. “Personal coaching might be the flavour of the month at the moment but in an economic slowdown especially a severe one, something like this will be one of the first things that people cut out.” Peter Connolly, financial planner, Centric Wealth Advisors Ltd (www.centricwealth.com.au) believes we should lower expectations based on abnormal returns over the last five years and consider where profits will be made from passive investments and share markets over the next five years. Broadly he expects that share markets will generate around 5-6% above inflation. He believes that the sectors most likely to benefit are energy (in particular alternative energy sources such as bio fuels and ethanol) and soft commodities. He maintains that the supply/demand ratio is unlikely to change over the next few years due to the drivers, “a rising wealth in Chinese and Indian middle classes, demand for energy, demand for food and supplies issues”. Regarding sinking funds back into your business, Connolly cautions: “In a lower return environment and a changing world, you should think through the issues of diversifying risk away from 100% of your exposure in your own business”. Bernard Salt, KPMG partner and social demographer notes that not only has the number of billionaires throughout the world escalated rapidly

over the past five to six years, a large percentage are now coming out of China, India and Russia whereas previously the majority came from Western Europe and North America. “A shift in geopolitical paradigms has opened up China and India and deregulated Russia allowed individuals to harness opportunities and be catapulted forward,” he says. “The driver to wealth was the change in a geopolitical structure, which led to a shift in thinking. When you have a shift in thinking at the upper most level of a country the way it is managed changed and so does its relationship with the rest of the world changes and that shift creates opportunities. “A regulatory or political change at the upper most level will change the rules of business and people who read those rule changes early and position themselves well can be catapulted forward as a consequence. “Eddie Groves (founder ABC Learning Centres) did that when he read the trend of working women and realised that what was required was a McDonalds of childcare. “A shift in thinking about airline deregulation caused Richard Branson to pop up. “Big picture shifts in the way things are done can come out of a political shift or a shift in government. The shift to Rudd after 10 years of Howard to Rudd will create some dramatic changes. Some people will read those changes better than others, position themselves accordingly and the rich list in Australia in 2015 will reflect this. “For example, if there is a change in thinking with regard to carbon tax in Australia there might be an opportunity for someone to harness an aspect of that. “Alternatively at the 2020 Summit there were calls for hydrological surveys of Australia’s north to evaluate land for agriculture. Someone will read the wind of change and act on it. “It’s about reading a political shift, backing your judgment and putting your neck on the line and waiting for the tide to lift to fortunes. “The danger is that you read the shift, make your investments and the tide don’t come.”

by Jill Fraser

Chapter 5: thinkbig teachers

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;educating individuals to changeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Look at how positive I look from this angle...

He has written a classic best-seller that is hailed by thousands as life changing and a strategy for positive thinking, but Dan Millman is under no illusion that positive thinking is anything other than an “idealistic notion”.

Warrior spirit

Peaceful warrior, Dan Millman.

‘educating individuals to change’

an Millman, the author of the semi-autobiographical, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, believes that it is more effective and realistic to accept all thought – positive and negative – and to recognise that the down times are often the means to attain “wisdom, strength and compassion”. The caveat however, is to view the negative as lacking in substance and then “move on, focusing on constructive behaviour and right action”. “Often when I talk to a group I’ll say, please raise your hand if you’ve read a book on positive thinking or positive mental attitude,” he says. “I then say, please keep your hands raised if you have only had positive thoughts for the past week. All hands go down and everybody laughs.” Cautioning not to simply assume that authors of positive thinking books have mastered the art he says, these are just theories. “Warriors can’t afford to surround everybody with light and be lovechildren. Life has its shadow side as well, “ he says.

“I sow seeds that can blossom later” - Dan Millman 54

“The challenges we face are the means of our growth and evolution – not that we have to like them.” He views sport and business as forms of “voluntary adversity”, describing both processes as transformational through self-doubt, insecurity, and limited self-concepts. While Millman stresses that he does not possess techniques that can change lives during a weekend workshop he says that he offers resourceful choices and reminds people of what they already know at deeper levels. “I’m a good generalist as opposed to a financial coach, or an expert in relationships, health or wellness,” he says. “I sow seeds that can blossom later on into practical/realistic perspectives and principles and practices that integrate with daily life. “But to say I can save people all pain would be nonsense,” he declares. The essence of Millman’s message, which is about living life with a peaceful heart and a warrior spirit, redefines the concept of success and is deeply entrenched in his own experiences. He began life as a gymnast and went on to become a world champion athlete, a coach at the prestigious Stanford University, a martial arts instructor and a college professor before a motorbike accident plummeted him into depression and caused him to reevaluate his values and goals. His book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, which has been translated into 29 languages and is one of the highest selling personal development books of the past decade, was motivated by his own struggles and achievements and coming to terms with the tendency for success to be short-term nature and superficial.

Inherent in success, he says, are the elements of adversity and its polar opposite, joy. Quoting a Serbian proverb he says: “two men looked out of prison bars; one saw mud and the other saw stars”. “Alternatively we can see two people on a rollercoaster – both screaming – one with delight and excitement, the other in terror. Some people go through adversity and become bitter, resentful and fearful. Someone else goes through adversity and comes out the other end stronger and wiser.” How we perceive the world, he says, all boils down to our “perceptual filters”. “We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are,” he says. “Each of us looks at the world through a window but we don’t realise that it is a window of our own perceptions.” Carrying the analogy further, Millman talks of the window possessing muddy spots or potential distortions in the glass and being dark or light. He says, “we see life through the filter of our interpretation, our beliefs our past experience, our fears and our misunderstandings. “Part of my work is firstly to help people recognise that the window exists then to help them clear it and begin to see life more objectively.” The first step, he says, is to be aware of the window. “In much the same way as an alcoholic cannot heal until they acknowledge, I am an alcoholic, you can’t clean the window until you know it’s there “We’re all like people who refuse to wear glasses and keep blaming newspapers for the poor print.” He explains that until we realize that we are the centre of our problem and recognize that the choices we make are shaping our lives, we will remain in “victim consciousness”.

s “Challenge” = Growth es spir n i h t w o gr

The way through the illusion and denial, he says is “logical progression – where we explore where we have more control over in life and orient our attention and energies into these areas and begin to see life with more clarity. “We then start to shift our perceptions about ourselves and our world in a direction that is more realistic and life starts working better.” Having a warrior spirit and a peaceful heart requires courage and compassion, he says. As a young man Millman’s mentor was the archetypal figure and fictional character, Kwai Chang Caine in the television series, Kung Fu. Caine was a master of kung fu but also a Shaolin Monk, a priest and healer, “so he only kicked a few bums every other week”, laughs Millman. On a global scale Millman says that translating this perspective into a world movement towards a more peaceful existence will necessitate a change in our perception to seeing ourselves as one body of humanity. “It will require a shift in enough people from a competitive mind to a collaborative mind and the ability to start noticing that we have more in common than we do different. “When we see that we are truly brothers and sisters – not just in some poetical, metaphorical sense – it will become insane for one human being or nation to want to hurt another. We will finally get that is like the arm warring with the leg.” Millman confesses that he is a short-term pessimist, but a longterm optimist. “Eventually, we will get the message. But what is that message? “Einstein once said, ‘Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.’ Changing politicians works at that same level of awareness. I’d like to suggest a warrior’s way to peace: which is recognising that we are all in this together as one human family. “Head in the clouds, feet on the ground: peaceful heart, warrior spirit.”

by Jill Fraser For information on Dan Millman books and tours check out www.nibbana.com.au

‘educating individuals to change’

Look into my eyes, what do you see?

Start small to be big

“Put yourself out there” - Cameron Johnson

thinkbig insights

I started my first business when I was only nine years old, with just $50 and only a 4th grade education. Before I graduated high school, I had started a number of different internet based businesses and had made my first million dollars.

hen I was only 15, I was the CEO of an internet company generating nearly $15,000 in daily revenue and that same year, I became the youngest American appointed to the board of a Japanese based company. A bestselling biography book was released in Japan on my life that year called “15-Year-Old CEO.” I’m now 23, and to say I’ve been there, done that I think is an understatement. Each of my businesses built on the success of my previous ones, although there is one lesson that stands out more than any other. And that is this simple principle: Start small. So many entrepreneurs or wannabe business owners think they need massive capital, a fantastic education, endless connections or resources, or perhaps better timing. While I agree education, connections or resources, or brilliant timing can all help you find success. I can’t stress to you enough my philosophy of starting small. Starting small allows you to be nimble, to grow over time, but most importantly it’s the path that requires the least amount of risk. Time after time I’ve seen brilliant entrepreneurs with great ideas fail, simply because they rush into things and before they know it, they lose their focus and become frustrated and unprofitable. No one wants to experience either of those feelings. I think a lot of would-be entrepreneurs are attracted by the idea of big gambles and big risks, dramatic gestures, and flamboyant moves. That’s not smart business. Business is much more common sense than rocket science and I’ll remind you that both Microsoft and Dell started small – and in dorm rooms. In my book You Call the Shots I describe how I always start small – but also, always dream big. You have to dream big and be bold – but don’t be too proud to start with baby steps. Test your idea first on a small, manageable scale, so that if it doesn’t work the way you thought, you haven’t bet the farm. Back in 2000, during the dot-com bust we saw plenty of startup companies who had, what many would consider,

everything needed for success: talented people, sometimes good ideas, and endless amounts of money. They hired insanely fast, grew overnight, spent millions, yet never became profitable. Had they started small with limited resources, they would have reached profitability. In addition to starting small, entrepreneurs have to be willing to put themselves out there. This is what I’d consider one of the most things anyone can do and that’s why the first chapter in my book bears the same name. In that chapter I tell the story of how I put myself out there when I was just eight years old. I was eight years old and had just seen the movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York starring Macaulay Culkin. It was a worldwide box office smash so chances are you remember the film. You may not remember, however that Macaulay Culkin stayed at The Plaza Hotel which was then owned by Donald Trump. After seeing this film and seeing New York City in such a manner, I wanted nothing else but for my parents to take me to visit New York. I begged and pleaded with my parents until finally they made me a deal: If I were to get straight A’s for the entire year, then they’d take me to New York City that next summer. I did just that and when I found out we’d be staying at The Plaza, I decided to write a letter to Donald Trump. I was only eight but I knew Mr. Trump owned the Plaza as he had a cameo in the film. The time had finally come for us to fly to New York yet I was a bit disappointed as I never heard back from Mr. Trump. When we arrived at the hotel and my parents began to check-in, the receptionist leaned over and said to me: “Hi, you must be Cameron!” I was elated as I then realised Mr. Trump must have received my letter. So go ahead and Start Small, Dream Big – and always, put yourself out there. Cameron Johnson is an entrepreneur and author. Visit www.cameronjohnson.com

by Cameron Johnson

True love is balance “Unbalanced emotions close down the heart” - Dr John Demartini

thinkbig insights

“It is said that whenever a friend reported enthusiastically, “I have just been promoted!” Carl Jung would say, “I’m very sorry to hear that, but if we all stick together I’m sure we’ll get through it.” If a friend arrived depressed and ashamed saying, “I’ve just been fired,” Jung would say, “Let’s open a bottle of wine; this is wonderful news, something good will happen now.” Robert Bly - ‘Iron John’

There is a common belief that love is only the nice, positive, and supportive side of the equation of life. My experience however in working with thousands of people around the world is that there is a vastly more powerful noumenon*, which I call love. Instead of a one sided energy, true love emerges from a state of emotional balance. One of the purposes for example of having a partner is to maintain a loving equilibrium. If one partner is manic and up, the other partner’s role is to help bring him back down into balance. If one is down and depressed the other will help lift them up. That’s how relationships work. Every husband does the same thing for his wife and vice versa. If one partner becomes cocky, the other brings them down. If one becomes deflated the other helps them up. This balancing act is what maintains the divine order or true love. In the past I would come home from my office after a ‘big day’. I’d see a pile of patients, provide a load of service and make lots of money. I’d just be thinking:, “Oh, wow what a day! Anybody want to touch me for luck?” I would then drive home in my Jaguar all cocky and elated, “Oh, man, what a day!” I’d sail home and… boom! Slam-dunk. “Where the hell have you been? We were supposed to go out to dinner almost an hour ago. Did you pick up what I asked you for? Who do you think you are, anyway?” I would come down with a crash because I didn’t understand how that was actually great love. It took me a while to appreciate the balance because my first immature response was. “Well, thanks very much. I was so up and positive and I had such a great day. How come you are putting me down? I work so hard and you don’t support me. Damn it, everybody else sees how great I am. What the hell’s wrong with you?” And do you know what would happen? No intimate activities for a week. I would get humbled because we’re not here to be right, we’re here to be love. These two sides make up true love. I was surrounded by love, but I was addicted to the pleasure at

work and resentful to the balancing pain at home. I eventually realised that every time I came home cocky, I wasn’t present with my family. And if I wasn’t present and in love with my family, the slam-dunk is what returned me to being present with them. And if I came home down and really depressed, there she was, lifting me up. I realised if I wanted to come home and find love there, I’d better not be elated or cocky. So on the drive home I would be thinking: all right, what patient did I forget to call? What paperwork did I forget to do? I would humble myself and not walk into the house until I felt centered and present. And like for any true science, which is reproducible, if you do that, you will repeatedly have a loving wife at home. It is absolutely amazing. You literally have the power to change the state of your partner, from a distance, by going into the state of balanced love. When you have true love you see the balance all around you. When you have a one sided emotion you get the other side to center you and bring you back to true and balanced love. This is the divine order at work. You will never attract an opportunity without a challenge, and happiness comes hand in hand with sadness. If you would love to be the director of your own life then equilibrate your perceptions, balance your emotions and you will become liberated. By equilibration I don’t mean indifference or apathy. I mean a point of inner balance and poise that is beyond emotional extremes. The heart only opens when the mind becomes consciously equilibrated. While imbalanced emotions close it down. I now understand why St. Augustine emphasized that, “The will of God is equilibrium.” (*Noumenon–that which is conceivable to the mind but not perceptible to the senses, such as God or the soul.)

by Dr John Demartini Dr John Demartini is a best selling author and international speaker. Visit www.drdemartini.com

“We all need a mental trigger that says next” - Justin Herald

thinkbig insights

There are many four letter words that could come out of our mouths when things are getting tough or things just don’t work out for us the way that we had hoped. I want to let you know what my favourite four letter word is when I am in that situation.

My favourite four letter word B

efore you shut your eyes expecting something bad, please read on. My favourite four letter word is NEXT. That’s right, when things go south I just say to myself “NEXT” and I move on. I don’t dwell on it to much; I don’t try to breathe life into something that is not going really going anywhere. Sometimes although it may sting, we need to be honest with ourselves and accept that something’s just won’t work out the way we hoped. I believe that too many people concentrate their energy on things that aren’t going to change, and if they did change they would only change for the worst. All they end up doing is spending (or wasting) a lot of energy tried to flog a dead horse. What we all need to have is a mental trigger that says to us, “NEXT” when things are just getting too hard. Each week I sit down with many people one on one who are after advice with starting a business, running an existing business or trying to get their personal lives back in line with their personal desires. I am constantly amazed at the amount of people who sit there and explain to me how long they have been working on something that is not only clear to them but also to me, that it isn’t going to work out the way they had thought it would. Many of those people feel that if they gave up on that dream it would mean that they have failed. I don’t think that that is the reality of the situation at all. Just because something doesn’t work, just means that you need to either try it a different way or stop doing it and give something else a try. Wasting energy on things that provide no results is exactly that; wasted energy that you will never get back. There are many things that I have tried that haven’t worked out. Although I did have reasonable success with my first business (Attitude Inc) I was under

no illusion that everything else I did from that point would just work out the same way my first business did. There have been many business ideas that I have started that just went the opposite way to what I had imagined they would. Do I sit there for weeks or months on end trying to jump start life into those ideas? No! I just say to myself, “Ok that didn’t go the way I had planned. NEXT” I still however approach things with a sense of success. For example the new venture that many media outlets have been talking about www.trustytradesman. com.au. Sure other things may not have worked out for me, but as I move on, I learn from what went wrong and apply that knowledge to my next attempt at something as I have with this new venture. One of the biggest mistakes many people make when things don’t turn out the way they had hoped is they allow that setback to affect their attempts at anything else, which in turn brings their fears into their reality and they were the ones who caused it. So if you have suffered some disappointment or failure in the past, have a “NEXT” mentality and get back on the path to achieving your desires. Who knows, your greatest success may be just around the corner.

by Justin Herald Justin Herald is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and best selling author. Visit www.justinherald.com

If you were to take a 250-watt light bulb and plug it into a power source, you could light up a room. But if you directed that same 250 watts of energy through a laser, you could cut through steel. That’s the power of focus.

arness your own attention and intention, and you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Persistent focus is one of the most common traits of billionaires. Those who enjoy wealth and success have a way of setting their mind to one goal or skill they are passionate about until they master it. Warren Buffett once said: “I’m like a Tiger Woods, or a Michael Jordan, these people have an incredible ability to focus.” From day to day, Buffett pours his attention on reading financial reports and analysing businesses so that he can interpret the numbers and recognize the investments that will pay off over time. Thomas Edison once had an idea he believed in passionately he thought he could find a way to harness electricity so that homes could remain brightly lit after sunset. However improbable others said it was, he persisted through thousands of failed attempts until the light bulb became a reality and literally lit up the world. Edison kept his mind riveted on this one vision until he saw it through to fruition. Focus comes naturally from passion. So choose goals that you are passionate about. The stories behind both Gates’ and Edison’s success are rife with technical difficulties, personal challenges, stiff competition and outside resistance. Yet, it was their single-mindedness of purpose that lent them almost super-human strength to persist and overcome obstacles. Their focus and resolve proved a stronger force than any outer circumstances that came along. So how do you access your own power of focus? And more importantly, how do you direct it like that laser to cut a path straight to your dreams and create the life you personally desire? The answers to these questions take us deeper into the exciting mechanics of the mind and

imagination, which work together like a wealth propulsion system. It turns out, our ability to direct and re-direct our attention what we choose to look at, listen to, say to ourselves is a major key to overcoming any obstacles to success. When you shift your thoughts away from what you don’t want, and consistently train your attention on the experiences you do want, you actually improve your ability to create those desired experiences. This is confirmed by leading neuroscientist, Dr. Michael Merzenich, who says: “Change comes primarily from the things we pay attention to.” The fact is, the brain has habitual thought patterns that the mind you can override. Too many people act as if their mind has a mind of its own, and they themselves have no control over what they get in life. Habitual thinking, usually based on past conditioning, perpetuates getting the same results over and over again. By creating a vivid picture of yourself achieving the kind of success you want, you are using the power of imagination to design your own reality. Write down your goals. Continue learning. Give yourself the neurological experience of having already attained sweet success. Then practice, practice, practice. Focus is like any other skill or athletic ability. Every outcome you could ever desire exists first as a possibility in your mind. By harnessing the power of your focus, you could light up the whole world.

by Christopher Howard Chris Howard, is promoted in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Events, ranked number 13 in BRW’s fast Companies for 2007. Visit www.universalevents.com.au

‘educating individuals to change’

thinkbig insights

Harnessing the power of focus

Antarctica: fairy tale landscape.

“The land looks like a fairy tale” - explorer

The last great frontier

It’s one of the world’s last great frontiers: Antarctica, the icecovered southernmost continent, site of legendary explorations and (ostensibly) uninhabited by humans – well, apart from the 4,000 scientists, and the 40,000 or so tourists expected to visit during the 2008–09 summer.

ost tourists travel to the edges of the continent (the Antarctic Peninsula) by commercial ships – and nearly all travel ashore. The extreme conditions of the ice-bound continent makes travel difficult any time outside the high season of December to early March. The Antarctic Peninsula is a short two-day sail across the Drake Passage from South America – and trips range between $7,000 and $20,000 per person, depending on the ‘luxury level’ on board. The more remote East Antarctica is less accessible, usually involving a ten-day crossing of the Southern Ocean from Tasmania or New Zealand. These trips are typically more expensive, ranging between$12,000 and $35,000. Even more exclusive (and expensive) are the small aeroplane charters that visit more remote areas; prices are typically around $50,000 for a week-long trip. And at the bottom end of the scale, Qantas offers fly-overs: a twelve-hour round trip over Antarctica in a jumbo from Melbourne or Sydney, with prices ranging between $1,300 (for an aisle seat) and $6,000 (first class, with all the trimmings). The rapid growth in Antarctic tourism is a quandary that has scientists very concerned, environmental groups in passionate debate – and the travel industry rubbing its hands in glee. While visitors to Antarctica have the potential to be passionate advocates for its conservation – they may also be contributing to its decline. “Increased tourist and ship activity has the potential to cause pollution,” warns the Australian Antarctic Division’s latest State of Environment report. “The introduction of exotic pests and/or diseases due to tourist activities also has the potential to considerably affect Antarctic ecosystems.” But with climate change impacting on so many wild frontiers, there is a growing trend for ““Doomsday Tourism;” a gruesome list of “must see before it’s gone” sites that may not survive the next century – and Antarctica is high on the list, . Luxury cruises advertise air-conditioned designer cabins with queen-sized beds, private bathrooms, on-board saunas and Jacuzzis, champagne cruises, dancing, gourmet meals.

thinkbig adventure

Does ANYONE know which way?

It’s a far cry from one of the earliest advertisements for a voyage to Antarctica, placed by Sir Ernest Shackleton in The Times: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” The famous explorer tried to cross the Antarctic on foot between 1914 and 1916, but when his expedition ship, Endurance, was destroyed, led his team across 1,300 km of the Southern Ocean in an open boat and trekked icy terrain to eventual rescue in a remote whaling station. The crew spent 22 months in the Antarctic. And while tourists are attracted to the promise of pristine, remote wilderness, the history of explorers like Shackleton and Douglas Mawson resonates in Antarctic legend and there is still an edge of danger. But the words of the first explorer to reach the South Pole, Roald Amundsen, still inspires visitors: “Glittering white, shining blue, raven black, in the light of the sun the land looks like a fairy tale.” Sailing through the Falklands and into Antarctica with expert guides Natural Habitat Adventures (USA) Ph: 303-449-3711 Cost: AUD $17,500 (ex Ushuaia) Departs: Jan 22, 2009 This tour takes about 80 travellers on a three-week voyage to Antarctica on the cruise ship Ocean Nova. The ship departs from Ushuaia, in the southern Argentina province of Tierra del Fuego, travelling first to the remote wilderness regions of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Expedition leaders, naturalists, geologists and polar experts join the trip, which was featured in National Geographic’s Best New Trips for 2008 because of the tour operator’s commitment to sustainable travel. www.nathab.com Camping with Penguins Intrepid Tours / Travel Lab (Melbourne) Ph: (03) 8602 0500 Cost: AUD $53,835 (ex Cape Town) Departs: Nov 10 & Nov 20, 2008 This tour takes ten travellers to Antarctica for 11 days. The flight from Cape Town, on a small DC3 Intercontinental jet, takes nearly six hours. Passengers spend six days in a “luxury eco-camp” abouve a 60 metre icefall in Dronning Maud Land where advertised highlights include skiing lessons,

by Fran Molloy

Guidelines for Low-impact Antarctic Travel (80) • Only book with a tour company that is a member of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). Check their directory at: www.iaato.org • Choose an Antarctic tour operators which carbon offsets their trips. • Don’t bring or wear any clothes that might contain seeds, dirt or insect eggs – contamination could wipe out sensitive penguin colonies. • Ask for a tour guide with environmental qualifications and follow their instructions to minimise your impact. • Take nothing but photographs; leave nothing but footprints.

thinkbig launch party thinkbig Magazine held its launch party on April 30 at The Loft in Sydney. More than 150 people attended the event. Guests included Justin Herald, Siimon Reynolds and many leading business people. Publisher, Michael Walls, told guests that thinkbig would quickly establish itself at the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading magazine for self improvement and empowerment. ould, ould eth G Rob G d n Elizab a Herald Justin

Siimo n Re ynold s

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Check out the hors dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;oeuvres

Michael Walls, Ken Wood, Karen Corban, Reuben Buchanan, Graham Maughan David Biard

How am I supposed to find my friend in this crowd?

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