Leadership: 5 lessons from cycling 1600km with 2 women in Thailand

Today, I am sending this newsletter out from a mining camp in Port Hedland, Western Australia. It is a real pleasure to again be working with the good people from Fortescue . Mining is an industry that sometimes divides opinions, but without it, much of our modern world would cease to function. The foresight of leaders like Briohny Evans and Jacinta Strong to invest in building culture and empathy just highlights the future of this industry is people leadership.

This edition, I want to share a journey from some time ago for me, one I hope you will find interesting and inspiring. Enjoy!

5 lessons from cycling 1600km with 2 women in Thailand

You might think?cycling 1,600km in 16 days across rough, bumpy roads in Thailand sounds tough... and you’d be right, it is hard on your entire body and most of all the daily routine of 6-7 hours on the bike seat drains you physically and mentally.

In 2013, I had the honour of sharing this journey with two of Thailand’s most inspiring and remarkable women. I don't mean I rode beside them... we literally shared the journey on a tandem bicycle!

When Peter Baines OAM originally suggested the idea, I thought he was joking. But when I arrived at our starting hotel in the north of Thailand and saw what we later nicknamed "The Tank", I quickly realised this was no joke. Over the next three weeks, I would pilot The Tank across a 1,600km journey of the most beautiful, challenging and inspiring cycling of my life.

My partners on the tandem were Suthasinee Noi-In?(Mae Thiew to the kids) & Khru Prateep Ungsongtham Hata.?We were cycling to raise money for?Hands Across The Water, a charity very close to my heart that supports hundreds of vulnerable children in Thailand.

Mae Thiew, Reader's Digest 2011 Asian of the Year, is an amazing leader. Despite battling cancer, Mae Thiew founded a home for abandoned and orphaned children, many with HIV, in the remote North East of Thailand. Her home has been supported by Hands since 2010.

Khru Prateep Hata is called the Slum Angel, a powerful force for the poor in Thailand. She is recognised across the country, was a former senator in Bangkok, winner of international teaching and humanitarian awards and all of this after growing up in the Klong Thoei slums selling candles to pay for her own education.

I was?privileged?enough to escort each of these amazing women across two separate 800km journeys on this tandem bicycle spending almost 100 hours in the saddle with them. To say these two women are amazing leaders is an understatement. Both were riding despite the lack of training, despite the pain they knew it would cause them personally and in some ways at a large risk to their own health.

Despite this, they chose to ride and I had the privilege of helping them to complete something they probably never thought possible. Here are five powerful leadership lessons I learned from these amazing women.

1: No excuses

Mae Thiew’s 800km journey along the Mekong River was tough on so many levels.?It was the first time either of us had ridden on a tandem bike and it was the first time we had ridden in this part of Thailand. But Mae Thiew was carrying a greater burden on this journey.

Nine years earlier, she was diagnosed with terminal, intestinal cancer and given just months to live.?As the sole fundraiser, director and Mother to 87 children, many of whom have HIV, Mae Thiew has refused to let her cancer beat her. Every morning of the ride she rose at 4am, to undergo a routine of treatments for her swollen and aching body. She wrapped herself in bandages to try and reduce the pain, then dressed and jumped on the bike.

Over every bump she quietly fought the searing pain in her abdomen.?Kilometre after kilometre she refused to give up, pushing hard on the pedals determined to ride into her orphanage and see her kids’ smiling faces. Mae Thiew reminded all of the riders; there are no excuses, we can achieve so much more than we think. Leaders must have the courage to experience discomfort, take risks and push on regardless.

2: Be a role model even when it hurts

Mae Thiew wasn’t doing the ride to inspire us, her fellow riders.?She was riding for the kids. She needed to prove to the children at her orphanage that it doesn’t matter if you are sick, it doesn’t matter if you have lost your parents, if you are sad, if you have HIV or even if you have terminal cancer, you can still accomplish amazing things.

It was her job to set an example for her kids and for us all. Every morning she strode bravely to the tandem bike ready for the challenge ahead. True leaders like Mae Thiew know that vulnerable people need role models and that this sometimes takes suffering. But when we arrived at the orphanage and saw the incredible love and pride the children had for her, I knew that she had carried all 87 children with her each day, along with the memories of the more than 1,000 children she had cared for who didn't make it. The wonder in the eyes of the children, when she rode in, was epic. They had all grown from the experience their courageous Mother had completed along 800kms of hot and bumpy roads, and so had I. For the kids and riders alike, this inspirational effort didn't just give us an example of what can be achieved with hard work and determination, it also impelled us all to give more of ourselves, especially when it is hard.

3: Commit to your values, commit to your goals

The second 800km ride from Bangkok to Khao Lak was spent with Khru Prateep Hata, an amazing lady who has had an extraordinary life.?On one of the notoriously hot and windy sections, Khru Prateep was struggling. As the beating sun was taking its toll on her she told me it reminded her of her childhood. Of the time she spent as a 12-year-old scrapping rust off ships in the shipyards. Khru Prateep worked under these terrible child labour conditions in order to make enough money to put herself through school.

Children like her, who lived in the tough slums of Klong Thoey, Bangkok, didn’t usually go to school.?But after getting her diploma in teaching, Khru Prateep showed how committed to her values she really was. She didn’t take her opportunity to leave the slums, instead, she became the leader of change. She opened an illegal school in the slums, the one baht school.

For many years later she fought the police, government and gangsters in the slums to keep her school alive and keep giving kids a chance at a better life.?Any time I felt a little tired on the bike, I thought of this story. I was committed to riding 1600km in 16 days, but this pales into insignificance compared to devoting your whole life to fighting for the poor and changing the world for the better. As a teacher in the slums, an internationally acclaimed humanitarian and a senator of Thailand, Khru Prateep has been a leader guided always by her values and sternly committed to her goals.

4: The road is long and leaders commit to the whole journey

On the ride, Khru Prateep told me the story of one of the girls she has been helping for the last eight years, Nang.?Nang was sold by her parents when she was around 4 years old and forced by the gangs to beg on the streets. She was horribly abused, regularly they would beat her, burn her with cigarettes and break her nose so she would always look ill and hopefully make more money. At age 12 she was rescued by Khru Prateep and has since been living in an orphanage in Kanchanaburi supported by Hands Across The Water.

But the rescue is merely a pedal stroke on the long road to recovery.?She has undergone many years of psychological and surgical treatment to heal the wounds, many years of intense schooling to catch up on a lost childhood and years of showering Nang in love and affection to rebuild her belief in herself and others. Nang is now a bright, beautiful 20-year-old, but she still carries the scars. It is only the relentless commitment and hard work from Khru Prateep that has given Nang a chance to never go back to her old life. More than this, Nang is just one of the hundreds of children Khru Prateep has helped in Thailand. The vast number of children needing help may seem insurmountable, but this doesn't deter her. With grace, passion and humour, Khru Prateep remains committed. Makes a 1,600km sound pretty easy, doesn’t it?

5: Even the bravest need help

The final lesson I learnt from these amazing women was about humility and trust.?I often pinched myself during the 100 hours of cycling that I had some of the most precious cargo imaginable. However, both of these women, who were so used to being the leaders and being in control, passed their trust on to me to ensure they made it to the end.

They are brilliant leaders, but both happily admit, not brilliant cyclists.?It is in these times when we feel vulnerable that true leaders embrace those around them, take guidance and help when they are not the expert and put their trust, commitment and energy into others to reach their goals. They did this without shame and without question.

This humility is an amazing trait.?One night at dinner, I told Mae Thiew that for me I felt such honour riding with her even when she would put her feet up on the centre bar to rest. I felt like I was carrying the Queen of Thailand back to her home. She laughed and said in Thai “Mai Chai, Ling Ling”… “No, I’m a Monkey”. We all laughed together, spirits heightened, ready to take on another 100km day together not only as a team but as close friends.

Since this ride in 2011, Mae Thiew not only completed the 800km bike ride again by herself, but she has also completed the full 1,600km route solo. She is now a cyclist and even more of an inspiration than I could have imagined when we started our friendship way back in 2010.

In 2024, I will again be cycling 800km into Mae Thiew's home in the northeast of Thailand. If her health permits, she will be joining us again. This time I will cycle beside this heroic leader to continue to raise money for Hands. If you can donate, please do. It is not the cycling that saves the kids' lives, it is the money we raise that creates change in the lives of generations to come.

Please donate here. https://www.handsacrossthewater.org.au/fundraisers/DanielMurray/ride-to-provide-2024

Thanks for this shorter version of Leading with Empathy. If you enjoyed reading about this journey from Thailand, please let me know with a little comment below or share to your network. I need all the encouragement I can get to keep training and preparing for the next 800km journey.

Have a great week,

Daniel