Back to the book

I had this urge to pull out my old writing last night. Reading a number of chapters had me smiling and excited. The stuff I had written was not bad at all. In fact it is funny and engaging. It is also written in a typical ‘me’ style, a big rush. Opportunity abounds to slow it down, to expand and embellish.


I skipped ahead to the last chapter that I had written. It was difficult to read, disjointed and all over the place. Obviously not a well edited chapter. Not my best work. The result of my last attempt to get the book on the go again.

Regardless, it was good to read matter that I could call mine. Gave me this little glow deep within. I’m a little inspired to sharpen my pencil and get writing. A mere 35 months after the last piece of real lead broke.

I wonder how long this inspiration will last. Perhaps I can even push through the next 6 chapters to the end.

It really is not far at all...

Random news

Been an interesting week. What with Guinevere getting stuck in a train carriage, delivering a good project, meeting some old friends for dinner, and having my new tooth rejected by the dentist!


I also discovered a potential solution to my total lack of energy of late. A vitamin supplement; and a world of difference it has made. Far better than a Coke to fuel the late afternoon snooze issues.

Then there was the surf on Saturday morning. We saw our first swell in months tumble onto our shores, and line up some lovely waves just ripe for surfing. It has been a long summer for a Cape Town surfer, flat seas and lots of wind. Winter is on its way, and this makes the surfer in me very excited!

Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, also found its way into our week. I took my boys to mass in the morning amidst much excitement. All the excitement of course, generated by the number of hours that they would be late for school, rather than for the event that we were celebrating. Regardless it gave us a great opportunity to talk about Lent and the preparation that we can do within ourselves for Easter.

The Pope provided some much needed inspiration for me to continue writing my book. At the tender age of 83, whilst in charge of a massive organisation, he still found time to publish another book. With another one on the way, God willing!

Tomorrow is Monday and I am immensely excited. We have a board meeting scheduled for 08h23 at backline and the waves are expected to roll in. Really looking forward to this week, I have a feeling that it is going to be filled with excitement!

Writing to the End

Last night I was challenged to complete my book.

I felt myself getting a little angry! Who on earth were these people that had made such an obscene challenge. Did they not know how busy I have been? Did they not understand that one cannot just sit down and churn out chapters of words infused with feeling? That meaningful writing does not just happen. That the right frame of mind is critical if my passion, concern, and love for my fellow man is to leap off the pages and into their lives.

I smiled and nodded, wondering how long it would take before I could get out of there.

Perhaps my smile was too broad? Suddenly the floodgates of advice were flung open and I was swimming against the deluge. You should set yourself a writing hour a week. Just write regardless of what it is. Editing is for later. Find the time. Manage your time better. How important is this book to you really?

And then I realised that these people really cared about me. That they were only trying to help me achieve a goal that I had set myself about five years ago! A goal that seems as far away now as it did when I created it. Perhaps they could already see that it was not going to happen. Was it that obvious that my failure to finish this project was acceptable to me?

Slowly, a little window in my murky consciousness opened. I can finish this book if I really want to. I already have 16 good chapters and a great book plan! Just 10 chapters to go!

With a little effort, I can make this happen!

In the Loop

I thought I would do something different today. A very brief insight into our lives, an update if you will on things that have been happening:

• My wife is now 28 weeks pregnant with a baby girl. The pinkness which was always confined to my wife’s cupboard has started to mushroom in other parts of the house. I will need to keep an eye on this!
• My business which has focussed on management consulting for the last year will continue to do so but will also include a new twist. My partner and I are going to venture into some new and unknown territories as we pursue some opportunities which have presented themselves recently.
• Tweety, the old yellow Ford F100 that I am busy rebuilding is still looking old and sad despite 8 months of work. I have realised that I need to take more interest and get seriously involved in the creative aspects of her renewal otherwise she will always be a dog! Now that I have my mind around the artistic license required, I am keen to do more.
• The book I was writing lies within the depths of my computer, untouched. On the positive side, my mental book plan has changed again, and I really think I have an awesome angle. Excuses need to stop and words needs to be written...
• I still cannot drop in on my halfpipe (sorry, my children’s halfpipe)! All in good time...
• My surfing has come on in leaps and bounds mainly due to the halfpipe. Having a standing wave in the garden will do that for one!
• The new highlight in my boys lives are the judo lessons on a Monday and Wednesday evening. The lessons cause untold excitement and energy to explode into being. The three of us are doing it together and I hope that the end result is an increase in discipline.
• Our little stream in our garden is back to being a stream after the intense rain a couple of weeks back. I heard yesterday that our area last received that much rain about 60 years ago.

Life is good. Too good in fact. I feel guilty that I don’t do more to add value to all of the lives that surround us!

My Year Off

My plans have not gone according to plan this year at all. It has been a wonderful exercise in detailed planning and then completely abandonment. I would hate to go and check out my goals that I set so long ago. Then they all seemed to be achievable and even laudable. Now they are still laudable but achievable only in my dreams. In the end I have achieved more than I could have dreamed of but not in the direction that I wanted to go at all.

Funny that the thing I really excelled at was bringing in an income and yet this is the one thing I did not want to do this year! And the rest of the world is in financial despair...

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, so let me lay it all out here:

· I left the corporate rat race to collect my thoughts and try and build a life that was outside the pursuit for money, power and prestige. I gave myself a year to save the world, connect with my family again, do good and find my path in life. Instead I ended up with half a year off and then four months of consulting night and day away from my family in a foreign country. I reneged on most of my newly acquired social commitments to do good. A clear aim was for a year of money free bliss and ended up with a lucrative income and a fledgling consultancy.
· I started to write a book on money, power and prestige as the forces that could dominate one’s life and the resulting tensions with other aspects of life, mainly family and values. I wrote 14 chapters which after many revisions still needed further work. I only have seven chapters to go but now they all lie on the shelf gathering dust. It should have been a slam dunk to have this book finished, instead I just have a collection of rantings of the mad man.
· My family and I have connected on a different level. This even though I have spent much of four months away. I did learn that I have a hard time being away from my family and that my family needs me. It is fantastic to be needed! This aspect of my year has far exceeded expectations.
· My lifestyle has been out of this world. It has included some surfing although not nearly as much as I would have liked. The main thing about my lifestyle is that I have been able to choose how I wanted to spend my time. There is heaps of freedom in that choice and I have thoroughly enjoyed that.
· I have learnt so much. I thought that I had a good handle on life and business but I have been humbled by how much I did not know I did not know. Starting to fill those gaps has been a voyage of new discoveries. I cannot believe that learning could be such a thrill!
· From a personal point of view, I have grown in huge leaps and bounds. I have become far calmer, more introspective and have a very different point of view to the old me. I feel that I am a far better person for the experience.
It is interesting that I started to write my book with the perspective of this just wounded corporate animal that managed to crawl away from a terrible killing ground. As a result, my writing was filled with some grandiose ideas. The upside of the consulting work is that it has helped me understand how to tie those ideas into reality. I cannot wait to get stuck into my writing again, and yet there seems to be some more work out there for my consultancy. It looks like I will need to leave the dust on the book and the right time will present itself in time to come. This book will be written! I still have a story to tell.....

All in all, my year has not been what I wanted a year ago. On so many levels it has been way better, on other levels I have failed dismally. I have learnt so much though and hopefully armed with this knowledge, I will be able to make the difference that I crave to make.

I will change the world!