“Ha! He’s made mistakes— too many to list here, I think!”
Having worked across four continents, I have built businesses and created business infrastructures in developing countries that went on to employ thousands of people directly, while supporting many thousands more through the wider networks, services and economic activity connected to them. The rapid growth of the South African call centre industry after I opened the very first outbound call centre in Cape Town in November 1999 is a prime example.
Creating jobs has been my driving force throughout my working life, and it remains so today. The personal satisfaction I get from creating opportunities for others is worth far more to me than money.
I have taken risks, made mistakes, learned from failure, experienced trauma and adversity, and faced circumstances that tested me in ways I could never have anticipated ~ and that most people could not comprehend, then adapted and started again.
I have experienced extraordinary highs and difficult lows.
Some experiences changed my direction.
Some changed my perspective.
And some changed me.
I have experienced emotional trauma, adversity and enforced imprisonment ~ including being held against my will in a Middle Eastern prison, in what became my own real-life version of Midnight Express!
Those experiences left deep marks, but they also taught me profound lessons about people, resilience, communication and the human capacity to adapt and overcome.
They also gave me an extraordinary, real-world understanding of the law—and how to stay within it, while still achieving my clients’ goals.
They also taught me to say no when most people would say yes.
Today, those experiences continue to influence the way I feel, the way I think, the way I communicate, the way I work with people and, ultimately... “the way I train and lead.”