3 years TO THE DAY... My ￡1.8m business turned to ￡0.

3 years ago TODAY...?My ￡1.8m business turned to ￡0.

What's wild about this, is even if it would have been a ￡10m business, or even a ￡100m, it would have still collapsed.

Boris Johnson saying “Please stay at home” will do that to a 14 year old, 500 real life National networking meetings each month across the UK organisation.

Metaphorically the gold disappeared overnight.

I wanted to take a moment on this significant date to share some reflections on the last few years and how they've impacted my journey as a business owner, motivational business speaker and importantly a human.

I think we can all agree that the pandemic challenged and affected us all in some way, whether emotionally, mentally, financially, physically and dare I say it spiritually.

It's forced us each to adapt to new ways of working and living, existing and it tested our resilience and determination in ways prior to lockdown, we could never have contemplated.

For me personally, I had to confront fears and doubts, (again) and had to navigate unexpected twists and turns in the road, that had long been left behind.

We all did.

But through it all, I've come to realise that my purpose and destiny - is no longer just about achieving success or finding material wealth, but about living a life of meaning and fulfilment. #NamasteAF

Not very Instagram. I know.

One of the lessons I've learned over the last nearly 20 years of self-employment is the importance of embracing change and uncertainty and facing off any shit that comes your way.

Accepting, not resisting it.

Hiding isn't a strategy that will work forever. Neither is running out of energy.

I've succeeded in failing with them both!

It doesn’t mean you have to like what you dealing with, but holding onto a red hot coal, hurts and continues to hurt more and more, until at some point the pain gets too much and you just have to let go.

Why wait?

When the pandemic hit, the team had to instantly change our business, processes and thinking, to adapt to new realities.

We all did.

The life I once lived, had gone. Instantly.

I just didn't know it yet...

We moved fast, becoming the first business network to shift online, my 14 year real life business network to online, and my focus to virtual speaking and courses and we invested in new technologies & tools to help connect to my audience in new ways.

But truth is, in order sustain everything & everyone that existed before 20.03.2020

It wasn’t really enough.

I tried. We all did.

But it just wasn’t enough.

As a leader with a team of 500+ back when this all started, as time went on, I was forced to make increasingly impossible decisions, calls where there were no winners.

Trying like everyone else to re-find normal, in a world where normal no longer existed.

People changed, just as the world did.

The environment shaped them, once coping mechanisms stopped working.

Some gave up, others pretended they hadn’t.

Survival mode was switched on.

During the pandemic, I was genuinely inspired by the resilience and creativity of the people around me.

But I too was in a crisis, my identity as the NetworKING was shattered, as a leader people look to you for answers and you have to pretend you have them all.

This was not a time as a leader to show fear.

Throughout this time I showed hope, determined hope, I even had messages from all over the world from people thanking for my inspiration and strength.

I had owners of massive National named businesses turning to me for advice.

These message gave me inspiration and strength, when truth, there were times, when I had neither.

I too was also empty, but I had to believe, we all did.

If all you have is hope... it'll have to do.

We was at sea, and whichever way we looked, there was no land to be seen.

So under my leadership, we rowed, in one direction.

There was no one coming to rescue any of us.

I knew that if we didn't, we was lost at sea anyways,

There was no cavalry.

I realised #WeAreTheCavalry

Mindset, misguided belief and resilience is so important at times of difficultly.

I saw businesses and individuals come together to support each other and find new ways to thrive in the face of adversity.

I also learned the importance of taking time to reflect and gain new perspectives.

The pandemic forced us all to speed up, all to slow down, re-evaluate priorities, and after the frenetic bayonets on lads of the first year, I used this time to deepen my understanding of myself and my work as a 'motivator'.

I began meditating, reading books, and engaged in meaningful conversations with other leaders and entrepreneurs, everyone was still at sea.

In reflecting on the last three years, I'm grateful for the challenges and opportunities that have come my way, and I'm truly sorry for the people that I've lost along the way.

But on the flipside I'm grateful for all the positive connections made, the difference made and all the good that was done.

I did everything over this my time, with the best of intentions.

Help many. Hurt few. Live life.

My journey may well be your journey, and if it is, something I've realised, TRUE success it’s not just about achieving external success, faster cars, bigger tellies, more money, you can have everything, yet have nothing.

You can have it all if you cultivate inner growth and self-awareness.

None of is found on the feature list of even the most expensive of televisions. Finest of food, fastest of cars.

Some I work with, still have identities wrapped up in how the world and they used to be… Trying to go back to a time and a place that no longer exists is...

If they continue like that, eventually life becomes a mess.

In order for you to be who you need to be, you may need to let go, of who you once were.

The gold I lost was replaced with something more valuable over the last few years, and maybe the only way I could access the true treasure was by losing.

Letting go... of the gold bars that were dragging me down as I doggy paddled to an unseen shore.

I’ve realised that the true treasure in life, which I sought through stuff was content, and happy.

You are the richest man, woman alive.

Let me put this in perspective for you, let’s say you can have ￡10,000,000 put into your bank account instantly, but as part of the deal you won’t live beyond 2023.

Would you take it?

That says that you have something more valuable than money, you have a today, you have a tomorrow.

Yet you spend today, for a tomorrow that just is not guaranteed.

We all want a better life, more stuff.

But maybe your better life can be found in more time, less stuff.

Be ambitious.

Be driven, but above all be happy.

The lockdowns, pandemics and things happened, nothing we can do about that, things changed.

Did you?

Maybe that's the price to be paid, in order to find, the real money, can’t buy treasure, in all this…

I may have lost my business.

But I found something else...

Who I really am.

#NamasteAF