A Good man in the arena

“When I was going through my negative patch, I had two decisions.?I?could?either stay negative and not have a?fulfilling?life. Or?I could?have a crack,” Dwayne Good tells me. And the negative patch??Well, it would have derailed anyone.?

Bundjalung man Dwayne Good?didn’t?have the best childhood. And in early adulthood he found himself caught up in one the worst natural?disasters?in history:?the 2004 tsunami which devastated southern Asia.?

But Good, a trained boxer,?would get back in the?ring?in?more ways than one.?Unwittingly conjuring up the?famous 1910?Theodore Roosevelt?Man in the Arena?speech, Good?decided it?wouldn’t?be the critics?who’d?count. It would?be him. As Roosevelt said, “The credit belongs to the man who is?actually in?the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and?blood;?who strives valiantly”.?

Dwayne Good’s?story?isn’t?the tale of a keen strategist navigating the MBA-to-boardroom pipeline. His is the curvy type of success where you start, you stumble, you dust yourself off and you start again.?

Here’s?what?Good?can teach us about stepping into the ring.?

Running from problems?doesn’t?solve them?

Good was born to an?Aboriginal father and a?white?mother.?“They were quite young when I was born;?my father was 16 and my mother 17 and?they?met at high school,” he explains.

Moving between two cultures was difficult as Good was growing up.??“It became a tussle as I became older. I do remember clear differences between the two?sides of the family.?I would?go and visit?my father?and it would be a house full of Aboriginal people and?a very different?way of life,”?he told?Curveball.?

When his parents split up, Good spent most of his time with his?mum.?“The stuff?I dealt with up until the age of 24?wasn’t ideal,” he says of being kicked out of home?as a teenager?and watching his?mum battle alcoholism.?When his?mum?then?died,?Good found himself wrestling with a toxic mix of grief and anger.?So?he ran.?

“A hundred percent?I?was running. I was?going through a lot of grief and confusion, still the lost puppy.”?With plans to head to London?to escape his troubles in Australia,?Good?stopped off briefly in Thailand. It would change his life. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami tore through the town?where?he was staying.?

Your mind is a muscle. Commit to changing it, even in the face of adversity?

Good and his travel mate were?woken from their?sleep?by the sound of gunshots and the rush of water. “Gunshots and screaming and lots of?chaos,” he recalls. “The place was up to about?chest?height?with?water. And we were like, what is going on? And we were just waking up.?The gunshots were police trying to wake people up.?

“We?grabbed what possessions we could, which?wasn’t?much?other than?passport?and?phones, and opened?the door. The water just bowled us over.?We were?literally swimming?through the door, out into the courtyard.?Going with the force of the water to the back of the hotel?until we?hit the fence line.?Luckily?there was a set of stairs,?so?we could?pull ourselves up the stairs?to?the roof of the hotel,” Good remembers.?

“We just kept bringing people in and?taking them up to the roof.?We?looked out and just thought, oh my God. What is happening? This is not good. And we absolutely thought the worst.”?

The catastrophic event meant Good never made it to London, returning instead to the very place he was running from, but?now?with?survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress. But?he?was determined?the tsunami and his survival would be?a turning point. “After these huge events occurred, I had a chance to rebuild my mindset. I chose to rebuild.?I chose to start building confidence, putting myself out of my comfort zone, doing things that?were?going to be really challenging,” he explains.?

“And that will give me a sense of confidence and?I’ll?get?on a roll.?That’s?what I said to myself back then.?

“I did gain momentum. Sure, I had some losses along the way and made some mistakes, but I also gathered momentum and I got to a point at my end of my career at Flight Centre?where?I thought to myself, building [my?own?business] is my next challenge.”?

Go out on a limb and?you’ll?be rewarded?

Good spent a?decade working for Flight Centre,?while re-building his mental and physical strength.??

“I really got back into boxing and that taught me discipline and commitment, and it really challenges you.?It’s?an?incredibly?difficult sport.?You?have to?be?up?for the challenge. And?it put?me out of my comfort zone.??It taught me a lot of?great things?about my character,” Good says.?

It?wasn’t?long before he was ready step into a different challenge.?“Getting in the ring was the same?[as work] – the?challenges and putting myself?out there?with my own?company.?That’s?huge,” he says of his decision to?leave?the corporate world and?build his fully?Indigenous-owned travel business.?

“It was incredibly tough, always?challenging myself. This is one of the biggest?challenges?I’ve?had. And it still challenges me to this day.?But?I just love it,” Good says of his role running?InTravel?Group,?Australia’s first fully Indigenous-owned corporate travel company.?

“I love being tested by this every day. And it was incredibly tough and stressful. I had no idea about business ownership.?I?just simply jumped,?and then off I?went.?I had someone good?who was working with me and supporting me, but it was still?an ‘oh my?God’?moment.”?

Curveball?is a production?of?podcast consultancy and production company?Deadset?Studios. Kellie Riordan is a leading podcast strategist and former head of podcasts at the?ABC.?