I think I was born a romantic. I used to achieve great joy, picking wild flowers from the side of the road and taking them home to my Grandmother, who I lived with and who I adored and who was the love of my life, along with her daughter, my Mum. 

I’ve always loved to give flowers to ladies - they say so many things I cannot say, with their vibrant, delicate colors and perfume that titillates the senses.

Recently on my annual granddad training pilgrimage to North America, to visit two loves of my life, I experienced moments of joy that I want to share with you.

The eldest young lady, approaching ten, had gone camping for the weekend in a friend’s motor-home, I call it GLAMPING.  It has no resemblance to my Boy Scout camping days in England (two of my best ever holidays). 

This left me with the great joy of being one-on-one with my just eight year old Granddaughter. The week before, with her sister, we had gone out shopping and the little ladies had been given an advance on their monthly allowance, and strict instructions from their parents, not to let Granddad ‘buy anything’.

I was so impressed with their discipline when I offered to make up the price on a desired item.  In one shop they love, I so wanted to act out the scene from ‘Pretty Woman’, where Richard Gere tells the sales clerk, "this lady needs some serious sucking-up."  However I didn’t, as it wouldn’t have worked.

Anyhow, this time there was only the little one, a potential fourth-Dan black belt shopper - like her Nana, my wife.  Incidentally, my weekly excursions with my two little ladies convince me that all women have the DNA for shopping.

We got to the favorite jewellery shop and as much as I know that it is in crass taste, I couldn’t stop the words coming out of my mouth: "This young lady needs some serious sucking up -she has her Granddad's credit card!"

At the next store, Toys-R-Us, I told the granddaughter, "you are in charge, go shopping."  She said "I am in charge".  I think it was her first time experience. The expression of joy, wonderment and happiness were indescribable for me to put into words and are etched in an old man’s heart and it cost me a whole $100.

I couldn’t help but smile, when she went home and said to her mother, ‘Granddad was my credit card’.

Thank you Richard Gere, for that line, and thank you Granddaughter for the gift that you gave to me. I’m sorry Granddad lives many thousands of miles away, and had not seen you for two years. 

Folks, THE POWER OF LOVE IS AWESOME!  Thank you for letting me share these wonderful moments.

Once again, I have had the pleasure of being interviewed by Amanda Morrall for a popular Sunday newspaper. I have attached the article to this blog so others may read it.

In it, I talk about my history, and my secret to turning $20 into several million. I also give some advice to those who struggle with self-doubt.

It is located here: brian martin article.pdf (1.30 mb)

I sincerely hope you find it useful!

As I look at nature and how magically and miraculously it works, it occurs to me that the environment is such an important determinant in what lives and what dies. 

Cactus grows in the desert, willows and ferns thrive in the rain forest. If we put the cactus in the rainforest it rots and dies, and if we put willows in the desert they wither and die. Their environment is not conducive to their wellbeing.

This tells me that environment is the most powerful context in nature.  The same is true in the human context. The environment in which we humans choose to play the game of life is the determinator of whether we live our life being accountable and responsible, or if we live our life being a victim. A victim's life’s view is "they did it to me", "it’s not my fault", and blaming others. 

In my role as a chief executive, I worked hard to create an environment of accountability and responsibility. I have found people like to work in that environment, an environment where they create results that they are proud of. And guess what? They create even better results because of that.  Another phenomenon is, as they became more successful, so did I.

I put a lot of energy into helping people be successful.  I got a lot of pleasure and I still do get a wonderful stimulation watching them challenge themselves. This is a very rewarding experience for me, and that is why I have so many amazing friends amongst my former work colleagues. 

The opportunity for you is to help others to be successful and then the universe somehow gives it back to you. In Asia it is called Ying and Yang.  In the West it is commonly referred to as ‘giving and receiving’.  This is not a new concept and is found in different religions, e.g. in Christianity, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’. The Buddhists, Muslims, Confucians, and many other religions have their unique versions. 

Try it, let me know your results!

Let’s look at what moves people to follow you.  Basically people will follow you, if they perceive that you are on a journey that they want to be part of.  They need to see that it is adding value to their life. 

In 21 years of running leadership seminars and doing executive coaching, it appears from my experience that we human beings have a kind of radio antenna, which I call WIFM.

W hat’s
I   n it
F  or
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My definition of leadership: leaders need to communicate in such a way that people see value in it for themselves in what the leader is communicating. Then they will be willing to commit their time, energy and resources to the leader’s project. 

Communication is a key tool in enrolling people to follow you. People need to see the outcome of your journey, your vision, your aspiration. 

With everything I do, I ask myself three questions with everyone who is involved. 
1) What is my/our purpose (reason) for doing this?
2) What is the outcome I/we want to create?
3)  The time to do it in?

You can use this formula for meetings.  If you use these three points, you will save yourself thousands of wasted hours. How many times have we been in meetings where we don’t even know why we are there? 

If you want people to help you, we have to make the project attractive to them, so that it becomes a ‘want to’. It doesn’t really work effectively if people are ordered by someone - Mum, Dad, older sibling, boss or supervisor.  This then becomes a ‘have to’ the emotional experience is quite different. ‘Want to’ creates positive emotions and ‘how to’ creates negative emotions. 

About 90% of people have a belief that they are lacking the confidence, to get other people to help them. Does this sound like you?

People actually like to help others.  Many people are too shy to ask for help and are afraid to be rejected. Is this you? 

If you practice what I have written above, and are clear about your purpose and vision, the more confidence you will build and have, to enrol others. 

What holds us back in most cases, are our negative experiences, from an earlier time in our lives.

We get rejected, or interpret some comment from a family member, teacher or friend and we take on the belief that this is who we are.

We erect a STOP sign, telling us not to go there. Or ‘AVOID’, so we do not experience the pain. This is what holds us back.

How about you? Where are you stuck and avoid certain situations? 

This stops us from being the best we can be. We develop what I call a comfort zone.

It’s time for you to discover what a talented person you are.  It is time to step out in your LEARNING ZONE.  Let’s go!