1. Got into a sound engineering course without meeting the pre-requisite of being eighteen and having finished high school.

Lesson: you make the rules when it comes to education. Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t study your passion.

2. Met a girl in high school that I thought I would be with for a long time. It turns out, I had a lot to learn and didn’t deserve a girl like this

Lesson: breakups allow you to work on your flaws and come back bigger and better.

3. Started a bunch of businesses with my brother. They all went nowhere except for one. I eventually parted ways, as I was not passionate about what I was doing. Working with family also stressed me out.

Lesson: working with family can be challenging and it’s not for everybody. Try it and see if it’s right for you before going in too deep like I did.

4. Brought a luxury car to show everybody how cool I was. It ended up costing a fortune and only shallow people I didn’t like, cared about it.

Lesson: don’t buy things to impress other people. No one cares about how much money you have. What they care about is who you are, and who you’re becoming.

5. Got depressed and stressed out after the business side of my life collapsed. I felt like a total idiot. There were days when I couldn’t face anybody. I was embarrassed. I felt sick. My doctor told me I would die from stress if I didn’t take a chill pill and relax.

I did what I thought was impossible. I went back and followed my original dream. I decided to start again and put all the toxic people of the past behind me.

Lesson: No one was there to help me because I had to help myself. I rebuilt me and that’s what makes me so proud today. When you take ownership of your challenges and then overcome them, you feel bloody fantastic!

6. Through the rebuilding phase, I discovered a giant named Tony Robbins and fell in love with personal development. I committed to making a change and being better each day. I stopped making excuses and started taking action. I surrounded myself with positive people and read books.
I hadn’t read a book since high school, but I didn’t let that stop me. I took in every positive resource I could find

Lesson: what you feed your mind has a long-term effect. It’s possible to retrain your brain with the right resources.

7. Read Think And Grow Rich.

Lesson: it changed the way I thought. I got to see what successful people do. READ IT!

8. I gave up on the news. I realized I was living in this false world of fear and scarcity. I realized the news made me think everyone was going to harm me and the Earth could cave in at any moment. These thoughts only represented 1% of the actual information out there.

Lesson: turns out the world is a great place. It turns out not every Muslim is holding a bomb or wanting to kill people (I’ve met some good ones).

9. I gave up on racism. Instead, I became a global citizen. Now I’m not fussed where people are from and prefer to see them for who they are above all else.

Lesson: we can easily become biased towards someone’s race because of how ingrained it is in our culture. Choose love, not war. Choose peace, not violence.

10. Went to a Tony Robbins seminar in Sydney. I had no idea what to expect and I really didn’t like flying at that point in my life. I decided to suck it up and overcome my fear.

11. Made a list of every fear I’d overcome. I made a game of it. Pretty soon I was doing some wild stuff.

12. Brought a pair of very expensive Italian leather shoes. They felt amazing and smelt like the leather seats in a brand new Bentley.

Lesson: sometimes it’s okay to do things just for you. These shoes made me feel good every time I wore them and they gave me confidence in my career defining moments. Little reminders of things that make you happy can be a good thing. Just don’t overdo it.

13. Did something crazy and met a man on the other side of Australia. He got me into blogging. I had no meeting booked and no agenda for seeing him. He saw I was real. I saw he was real. That started the whole transformation from fixing myself, to helping other people with their own challenges.

Lesson: the vehicle you use to help people doesn’t matter. It might be blogging or it might be selling bottles of water. All that matters is that you serve people beyond yourself.

14. Said goodbye to my childhood best friend. Drugs consumed the poor man and he refused to change. Sometimes we have to eliminate people from our lives to reach the next level. At the same time, always have it in your heart to forgive if that person does change.

15. Broke up with a girl after nearly three years. I just didn’t enjoy being spoken down to. We ended up being friends and it allowed me to start the search for a woman more my style.

Lesson: you take “you” to every relationship. You must fix you before you can start again with someone new.

16. Jumped on a plane to San Fran with no meeting booked to meet a man that I admired. That one bold decision opened up so many opportunities. When I look back, I have to pinch myself that so much could happen in a short space of time.

I didn’t even have anything in his calendar and then a few hours before the scheduled time, he accepted the meeting.

Lesson: take a chance. Sometimes we know we have to do something and we don’t know why. Our intuition screams at us until we learn to listen to it. Do something crazy once in a while. Almost always, you’ll get a benefit out of it.

17. Took a beautiful woman to a charity ball with no hidden agenda because the event required me not to go solo. She ended up becoming much more than my date and I always thought she would be way out of my league.

Lesson: Treat everyone nicely and if you are a guy, be a gentleman. You never know who you might end up dating as a result.

18. Broke up with a beautiful woman because I didn’t share the same religious values. It was very tough, but a relationship is about two people. If the other person is going to be disappointed, then it’s up to you to do the right thing no matter how hard it is to do.

Do it with care, grace and understanding. Always be there for them and never talk badly about them. Remember they have feelings and treat their beliefs with respect.

Lesson: values in life are important. Religion is something that can split couples apart if it’s not spoken about early on.

19. Got back on the horse and tried the whole dating thing again. It was terrible at the start. Now, it’s not so bad.

Lesson: You’ve got to love yourself first before someone else can love you. Stop doubting yourself and realize you are better than you think you are. Confidence is important (not ego).

20. Published a bunch of articles online until one day I hit the tipping point. I thought no one was reading, but they were. The constant letters and messages every day inspire me. They have given me a reason to exist and a platform in which to build from.

Lesson: always be humble and stay patient.

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