Developing leadership skills is an important part of growing up. Setting the foundation of who You are in the future with credibility Maybe you want to make a difference in your Life, by petitioning for healthier cafeteria lunches or challenge your community to recycle more.  Either way, you’ll need leadership skills to make it happen, and a Private club can help!

Leadership skills do not mean you have to be the leader; it means that you are the skilled person people follow.  A leader is naturally in the position of leadership.  So, if you know the knowledge, you become the leader with credibility.  Years of social programming for Life experience to provide a better life preventing you from being holding back from your true potential

Teamwork

• It may feel like a leader stands alone, but actually, one of the most vital keys to being a good leader is to know how to work with a team as the team will have your back and you will have their support. To use the accumulated knowledge with their assistance to improve whatever needs to be done. Oh Well, the exercise team automatically sends each other’s abilities to assist. You can’t get anything done without the help of others as many hands make light work.  And many brains make significant knowledge and hard work easier with many hands. Remember to let them do the work you do not do the work for them.  Organizing a team to work together as a team is a skill.  Always let them complete their task.  And reward them with thoughtful praise.  Never say that you could have done a better job.  Else they will let you do the job, By yourself.  Losing your leader status in the future.

 

• Teamwork and brainstorming can be hard for some people. A lot of us like to work alone and feel we are more effective by ourselves. However, if you give teamwork a chance, you might be surprised at how helpful other peoples’ ideas can be.  Listen to them and provide them with an opportunity without butting in showing your confidence, writing the bullet point Down from their brainstorming speech for future Direction and research.  To give you an accurate action statement clear and with pauses to action the next stage and allows the team’s knowledge to evolve.  As your pen or typing, the written word is the memories that will never be lost and can be exercised in the future.  Keep a good Daly diary, with your long-term and short-term goals and challenges.  To give yourself direction and focus in life, to achieve the objective of your personally designed Life and lifestyle.  Taking notes of the skills of your team players for the future utilising their superhero skills.

To practice working as a team, there are a few things you could try.  You could sign up to work on a group project in the private club, join a Health team, or become part of an interest-based club, like a u-tube reviewer club or document research club.  Knowledge and research Club, we all worked together for news and media as information is important to know what is coming in the future.  Everything that has ever been done has to be advertised in the media at least six weeks before action.  I Feel the media climate.  Recruiting others through Facebook media and friendship

Find Your Passion

• You will be the best leader you can be when working on something really important to you. There’s no need to try to be the bandleader when you don’t even like playing the drums; find something that matters to you That you can put your Love into it. Love is a rewarding feeling of your experiences and knowledge.

· When you feel passionate about something and share that passion with others, it rubs off on them.  Your enthusiasm for a project will inspire others to follow suit.  Don’t be afraid to show others how excited you are about something. Remember a project can take up to 5 years to fully evolve.  So, plant your seeds and saplings for your future.  Remember to design yourself because you are a young adult in mind, as your mind is now your mind will always be so.  So, design your mind to your best abilities.  Because your mind is your spirit and your spirit holds the memories but needs to be on lock through experiences.

Remember, the real key to developing your leadership skills is staying in the knowledge and being determined to achieve without giving up.  Sometimes, things won’t work out how you want or envision, and that’s okay.  Just keep trying to reach your goals!  Do one step at a time and enjoy every step.  When it becomes too hard, have a rest, and come straight back to it.  As this project could be for a lifetime or just a moment in time.  The skills are obtained through experience and practice.  Either way, it maps your future.

Have Your Say!

How do you feel about being a leader in your life or community?  Please share some of your experiences with our Private club readers!  Here it is some experiences in life that made this man’s life and his experiences.  The first sign of fear exhilarated him, and he understood the raw animal instinct of aggression.  And you survived what a hard lesson received, breakpoint from one second to the next.  Life-saving skills are achieved from playing and acting with each other.  Remember, if you work in an environment that you are familiar with, is it also a jungle.  An urban jungle is the same as a wild green jungle in a manner of speaking of the dangers hide and lurk in the shadows.  Remember to keep your eyes peeled and switched on at all times, and breathe deeply whenever you can Out of the place of your safety zone.  I am pleased to introduce you to Ollie lifetime experiences.  As a foundation you can foresee your future through all these experiences as he tells you his story of his life; I’m sure all of you won’t mind me sharing this with you all.  Ollie is a legend and willing to share his experiences so you can evolve through the evolution of knowledge for a better life in the future.  Ollie’s experiences deserve the respect of his position.  As he shows true leadership qualities.  Please read this more than once, as once you develop the story in your Mind and Then you can see the future of the story in your life, as similar experiences are always happening. Know the path that you are going Down, across, throughout.

Introducing Ollie.

Sir, What do you do?  Yes, my name’s Ollie oblation.  I’m better known for the dish on SAs jades wins on channel 4.  I’m a former UK special forces soldier, okay, so early days you grew up locally to here.  Yes, what was that childhood like in the early days?  You know what?  I can’t; because of the traumatic experience at ten years old, I can’t remember much at all pre-10 year ten years old.  Still, for me, I have been just like any average kid.  You know we went to quite a posh school, up until the age of about seven or eight, but then I had a crazy experience um in Burton on Trent.  Not too far from here and, it was a boiling hot day.  We had a knock on the door.  It was my brother’s best mate James.  He wanted to know if we’re going to go swimming and it was a beautiful day, so my mom was pleased to get us out of the house.  Off we went.

We’re just crossing the river Trent across the bridge.  We saw the big top set up in Burton on Trent, so we’re so excited our walk turned into a run.  Before we knew it, we were at the circus at the big top where we saw this first guy.  We’re like, hey mate, can we look around and he was like yes sure it was 1980 there was no health & Safety.

We walked into the big top tent.  I seemed to get separated from my brother.  James.  There were a few animals around an elephant, a small little monkey.  I was drawn to this area on the other side of the tent, where I could see some light partially coming through the door.  I walked over to it.  As soon as I opened the door, the sunlight hit me in the face blurred my vision.  Then all of a sudden, when my vision cleared, I saw something amazing that just had me in a semi-state of shock, and that was a baby chimp it was sitting on the floor probably about 10 15 meters in front of me now for me I was brought up on Tarzan you know.  That was a cheetah.  Not only was its cheetah that was to me like a little piece of Hollywood.  I have been brought up with cats,  dogs, but this was like a chimp of baby chimp.  Burton on Trent.  Staffordshire, so I moved my way it moved over to it cautiously looked down at this beautiful little chimp.  It stared at me with these big brown eyes.  It was a weird moment.  It was like it was surreal; you know, we connected.  You probably think, yes, you did with the big ears, haha!  Still, anyway, so we connected and, uh, it was the most amazing moment you know it’s, so peaceful the sky was simply perfect it was beautiful nothing else mattered apart from that moment.  It seemed like it was going on forever, but it only lasted a few seconds.  Suddenly, that serenity, the serenity of that moment, broken like a fighter jet cutting through the sky when I heard the raw of something, and I’ll never forget that raw I can still hear that basic to this day.   I looked into the background.  There were some shadows.  There was some like a shadow of a trailer part Open there, but it was all enclosed the whole area.  Something was moving.  It roared again.  Suddenly, those dark, shapeless shadows turned into an excessively big chimp, especially compared to the baby chimp, especially compared to the size of me as a 10-year-old boy.  It was bound over at high speed, making its way towards me at Mach 10, doing the whole sideways chimp thing.  It was roaring; you know it was ferocious.  It wanted to do one thing.  That was to kill me.  Protect its baby.  At that point, I was like a deer in the headlights, but I thought [__] I’ve got to move.  As I felt this chimp pounced straight through the air, it must have been about 24 feet straight over the baby chimp.  All of a sudden, the blue sky turned black.  This thing landed on top of my chest, knocking me over, pinning me flat pinned me to the floor. The animal instinct of violence and aggression started going about attacking me instantly trying to kill, just basically trying to kill me. Roaring in screaming into my face, And mashing its teeth on any think it could. So fast

It was as a drummer in a rock band it was smashing down on its fists onto my chest the first one winded I knocked everything out of me.  Then it started trying to kill me.  At one point, I looked up.  I knew that if I didn’t do anything, I was going to die.  Then I saw blood.  There was blood flying around.  It wasn’t chimp’s blood.  It was mine.  It wasn’t something I thought about at that moment, but I’ve reacted to fight and flight.

I reacted.  I managed to dislocate and dislodge the chimp from my chest.  It gave me probably about a couple of inches to pull my knee up to my chest smashed it in the chest with my foot full force.  It knocked it a couple of feet away that gave me just enough space to scurry away.

Then this chimp got up.  It came on its final attack to kill me.  Uh, just as it got to me, the chain caught its neck.  If it wasn’t for that chain, I wouldn’t be here today.

Now I’m standing there again like to say ten years old, incredibly young.  I’m dripping with blood marks all over me were it, you know, chewed me.  Then the whole place erupted this woman came over.

She said, look, we’re going to have to get you looked at.  At that point, she put in a hand.  Around my wrist.  Ash.  Then she turned it over.  She was in a state of shock when she turned it over as she can see that’s a large chunk  missing, but half my arm flesh was hanging out you know that was the worst damage, and there was blood everywhere.  She pretty much fainted; an ambulance came and went to the hospital.  That’s quite a long story.  It went on.  On from there.  Uh, caught gangrene in my arm nearly lost my arm a couple of weeks after that, but that was a shocking experience for me.  Still, for me, that was my first breakpoint, and that typifies the meaning behind breakpoint.  It was that moment where I had to step into the short-term discomfort for any long-term gain.  The long-term gain was leaving that day.  The short-term discomfort was taking the fight to the chimp.  That, for me, although that was my first breakpoint, that’s how people live their lives.  They’re not prepared to step into that discomfort, knowing that the long-term gain is the way wired to the other side of that.   Is how people operate is everyone’s taking short-term comfort whether that’s drugs, drink, relationships job litter picking choices.  All the choices they make they make knowing there’s a level of comfort there.  if you want to achieve anything in life or success at work, in any aspect of your life, you need to take short-term discomfort for long-term gain.  That, as I say, was my first breakpoint.  My book is called breakpoint because my company is called breakpoint, so a lot of thanks to the chimp, looking at it like I know you relate this day-to-day life.  That’s fantastic, but for you, it was a life or death situation.  How does somebody so you’ve learned early on that you can make this decision for long-term gain for short-term discomfort?  How can somebody who’s not facing such a situation make that decision in the same sort of way you did well?  The last thing I want people doing is finding the local circus?  Looking for a chin, it doesn’t need to be about the big stuff you know it doesn’t need to be about these life-threatening situations faced with this day in day out you know everything we do in life is about taking the short-term discomfort you know.  Whether that’s sending an extra email, staying a bit longer at work, whatever it’s like.  Also, let’s relate it to physical exercise or something.  If you want to achieve a goal, let’s say you want to run the London marathon every next year.  You know that every week you’re going to have to do some training to achieve that.  That is enforced every reason you shouldn’t do sites, you’re not going to want to.  When it comes to the point of your trainers going out the door, your mind will tell you.  enforce every reason you shouldn’t do it.  It’s devious.  It’ll tell you to go.  Check your computer do this do that.  That’s when we have to switch this off.  You have to switch the mind off.  Follow the process.  That’s something that I learned from an early age, but something that further enforced in the military you have to follow process follows your heart switch off this which is the program.  through that you will achieve your aim, so if you can take care of the small stuff.  through that know about doing everything, whether that’s washing the dishes before you go to bed at night.  So, you don’t come down to a whole mess in the kitchen whatever it is making your bed in the morning simple things if you can do the simple things the big stuff takes care of itself, we talked when you said early days you said that you went to a not a posh school.  Still, it wasn’t smooth sailing, so what’s that those early days when you’re going into schools to flower?  What were those days if you could explain to the viewers well before the gym after the children, yes after the chimp changed my life, it changed you know that was a pivotal, turning point of my life came from a particularly good family my brother?  Sister was, um, extremely different.  I say I owe it because I have no regrets about it.  Still, it’s because of the chimp experience because that experience changed my childhood trauma is one of the worst kinds of traumas that you can get because it sinks it’s absorbed, so much easier than later trauma.  It obviously affects your life, but from that point from that moment on, my life went haywire you know I was chasing danger everywhere; I could see I had no I was void of consequence, void of emotion.  I just wanted to be on the edge of death.  I know that sounds extreme, but that was the making for me to join the military.  Being the best of the best, but really for me, you know I was at Life I was I lost interest in Life I didn’t see the point of it.  To this day, I don’t see the point of it.  I’ve not changed my mind on that one.  There’s a lot of stuff I learned in Life that is irrelevant, um, but for me, I lost interest at school, and then I wanted to.  You know, it just wasn’t high enough worst kind of traumas adrenaline for me.  You know I was good at my sports.  Stuff like that, but then I started, you know, I was pushing the boundaries a bit too far.  That’s probably one thing I do regret because, of course, it caused my family a lot of, a lot of pain.  Discomfort with that, but yes, we were I was doing stupid stuff like stealing stuff.

Shoplifting and all that kind of stuff, but just not because I needed it, just because it made me feel alive, you know, in, so you decided quite early on that you wanted to go down the military route.  Yeah, I know that you said in your book that you ridiculed for it like a lot of people said you’re not going to do it waste of time you never do it how did you deal with that doubt and what was that like yeah, for me I mean I made that decision early. You know I’ve got a 19-year-old boy who still doesn’t know what he wants to do.  At 14, I didn’t see it at the time, but you know it was quite profound to be, deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  That was to join the royal marines, but for me, you know people can take doubt one or two ways, you know some people get delivered down from someone else.  That makes them crumble, cripples them, stops chasing their dreams, and starts believing the doubt expressed by someone else.  For me, it works differently.  As soon as I hear that, it gives me more energy to prove them wrong.  I’ve always been like that.

You know, even to this day I actually when I’m thinking about doing a project business project, I do want someone to say to me, you can’t do that because it’s like a red flag to a ball.  Still, it’s just how you frame, it’s the same with so many things.  You know some people, if you allow that self-doubt to ruin your dreams, you’re never going to get anywhere in life, but the thing is, as long as you’re passionate enough, as long as you’re coming from the heart.  Not from the head.  Your motivation is pure passion for what you believe.  No one can stop you.  What was it about the marines were the best of the best, you know I wanted to be in the hard fighting unit, you know I didn’t want to learn a trade; I wanted to be at war every day, you know.  That’s not that’s something I’ve changed my view on massively just recently or not recently, but you know.

Still, at that time, as a boy, I didn’t want to.  I wanted to learn to be a soldier.  I wanted to learn how to shoot weapons.  I wanted to know how to attack the enemy.  I tried to conflict every day; for me, the marines were the people going to get me there.  You know I saw, you know around about the Falklands wartime 1982 that’s when I was growing up, and that was a big influence on my life you know I did see if you remember 1980 as well, there was the embassy where the sas went into the embassy in London.  It was phenomenal, but although I knew the special forces were there, I just thought special forces were like carved in marble on a different planet and bought, you know, not cut from a different cloth.  I figured I could never achieve that.  Still, what I thought I could, although I doubted myself, I could accomplish the royal marines, but I knew it was the toughest.  That’s what I wanted, I heard for myself.  It was about the training I went I looked at the movement.  Whose activity was the longest?  It was the royal marines, so that’s in my head.  I thought, well, they must be the best um first day you go down to marines, or I don’t know if it was the first day you go down to marines.  There was a woman who said something to you.  I think she says, what do you think you’re going?  Could you go through that for us?  Yes, no, that was interesting because after that, you know, one thing I’ll say about my mom, I mean I put her through hell.

It was all you know.  I am getting into trouble at school.  I ended up on remand.  At one point, it was only a couple of weeks, but I ended up on remand.  That was unstoppable; I was causing more,  more trouble.  I thought I was going to.  I would think I would have a custodial sentence, thank god I never, but after that point, you know my m, her life was falling apart she, you know.

Although I’ll never forget this, although that was happening here, you know her marriage had fallen apart my dad had left.  She struggled financially, but she still knew I needed support, although she was going through her stuff.  I needed help.  Once she knew that I wanted to join the royal Marines, she did everything she could to help me on that journey, probably to get rid of me, but um, it was amazing. , you know she used to take me to my cross-country events.  My athletics events, but one thing she did is she used to take me to derby.  She used to, uh take me to the career’s office.  It seemed like it was every week, but yes, I was in there.  It was, it was interesting because I was so passionate about being a royal marine commando.  I got in there.  There was a female naval officer.  She sat me down one day.  She said, so let’s say you get in the marines, then what do you want to do once you’re.

I’ve got all the brochures and everything I can remember opening the book.  There was a picture of this special forces soldier well; there’s a picture of a mini-sub.  There was a picture of a combat swimmer special forces combat swimmer going to the sub. Seeing all the glory in the picture.

I went.  I want to do that.  She looked at me.  She just laughed.  She went everyone wants to do that.  Then she closed the book so that for me was like although.  I still thought, you know I could never, you realize it was a dream still.  That was although.  I didn’t possibly you know I thought the journey was too hard to get to that, you know it was still something that held a special place in my head, but that was amplified by her saying that I couldn’t do it you know that seed then sewn that’s he was saying what does it take to be a marine it takes.  I say this with tongue-in-cheek, but it takes an extreme amount of discipline, it takes a lot of motivation it takes a lot of courage.  It takes above all belief, yes, so then you get into the marines.

Did you serve last year in the marines?  Do you have to perform to do the special forces?  Yeah, I went.  I mean, I joined the royal marines.  I got through 32 weeks of training.  It was back in 1989.  I entered up 32 weeks of training passed out finally.  The proudest moment for me was, you know, seeing my m, there.  Her watching me; you learn to pass out and.  get my green beret as a roaring commando; you see where you know, seeing how much trouble I got into as a kid many people leaving the police for like he’ll be back you know they’ve kind of

Written me off already, but I wasn’t.  It must have been it was such a proud moment for my mom that day seeing me pass out as a rumour in commando; from there, I went straight over to Northern Ireland.

.  That was a big one that was probably my biggest shocker, to be quite honest because when I joined, there was a brochure.  In my brochure, there were young men in uniform look pristine.  I just thought, god, all the chicks would love that.

Then I saw another guy who was windsurfing on a little holiday in the Caribbean or somewhere.  Nothing prepared me for Ireland.  You know, I mean Ireland.  Although they called it a conflict, it was a war, it’s a war people are trying to work.  I consider that it’s quite black.  White if someone’s trying to kill you.  You’re going to do what you can to defend yourself.  Kill them if necessary, then that to me is a war.  I don’t care what you call it, but getting out there, you know, northern Ireland. , the first couple of nights, um, we were on a quick reaction force, so anything that happened in the region, we would jump on a helicopter go straight out there deal with it and, I was when I look back now I was 19 years old I mean Jesus I can’t imagine my son at war you know it’s just like I can’t believe I was that young.

Um, that first night we got into something that happened the bomber golf we were straight onto the helicopter straight out. , the ire had, uh driven a truck bomb, or a car bomb into a checkpoint obliterated the whole Czech point it was a 500-pound bomb.  The off the off-coming guard, which was the cold tree.  Guards that it killed about five or six, but I can always remember we got down on the ground, and one of our sergeants got out sergeant Claire.  He was like, um, he’d been to the Falklands.  He was pretty, you know, hardened.  That kind of thing, we were still in a state of shock.  There has been just mayhem everywhere.  I remember he gathered everyone in.  He booted something on the floor, he said, we need to see if we can find any more of these.  We looked down.  It rolled.

As it stopped, it was ahead inside a helmet.  That for me was like that wasn’t windsurfing on a beach, you know I mean that was like my first introduction as a young boy to wear.  That’s where I crossed that bridge.

It was a bit of a shock hell of a surprise actually,  then we had a pretty after that you know we had a rather colourful he tried 19 times to kill us um didn’t succeed but, it was an interesting tour but one thing I did learn on that which kind of changed my view.  I think this was really when I look at it.  It was the catalyst for me to join the special forces.  I can remember looking across the ground one day.  I don’t know why I had it.  It was like an epiphany.  It has been just like something that came into my head.  They used to give us all these sorts of tasks, all these missions every day to go.  Do I sit there one day?  I went there were no tasks there are no missions we bait.  That’s this day.  I still believe that you know we bait.  We’re being put on the ground because they want the ire to attack us.

Then, since that’s where they build their intelligence, you know, the activity creates the intelligence picture, so for me, it was like I just thought I’m just cannon fodder.  It wasn’t sharp enough, it wasn’t the shopping.  It wasn’t the shop shock.  It wasn’t you know I needed to be at the sharp end of this end of the spear, whatever you want to call it.

Uh, so I lost a little bit of interest from that point on.  You know, it’s kind of devalued me I was just felt like cannon fodder, so when we got back from that knowledge, we went on two weeks leave or not two weeks.  It was like six weeks leave, but it got caught cut short.  Then we got called over to Iraq uh operation desert storm, and again that was although we had there were a few things we went to the village we went into some of the towns in the mountains where the Kurds were.  Some there were some atrocities done you know some things that I can’t even describe to this day um done to them to the Kurds up in the mountains so again that was a shock, uh but you know it’s part of the uh part of the education you know it’s part of my indoctrination into that that world but I came back from there you know and although it had height you know certain things happened. It was great.  It wasn’t enough.  It just wasn’t enough.  It got to that point where I started to lose belief in myself and the whole just the thought that I could be in the special forces.  I thought, No, that’s not I’m not prepared to embark on that journey I didn’t believe in myself enough.  I put my noticing to leave at that point.  You know I’d had enough.  I think I had six months left to do even less than that.  I ended up bumping into my former officer from who I served in Iraq.  Uh, he was at my brother’s passport.  My brother passed out as a helicopter pilot.  He was a brainy one.  I saw him there.  He said, what are you up to?  I said, well, I’m leaving; he said, no, you’re kidding me.  I said, yes, I said it’s not for me.  he says mate he says you’ve got something I don’t know what it is, but you’ve got something I believe you’ve got what it takes for the special forces if you leave now you’ll regret that for the rest of your life.  Those words from someone that I respected changed me changed me straight away, you know, inspired me.  Someone gave me a bit of confidence when I lacked it.  That was phenomenal .  that gave me just that little inch of faith to change my whole mindset.  Think.

Just the thought of you will regret that for the rest of your life they’re powerful words, really powerful words.  If it wasn’t for him saying that, I wouldn’t be sat here today.  I wouldn’t.  I’d be leading a quite different life, whatever that would be, but that was the one turning point I then got back.  I took out my notice to leave.  Within a month or two months, I was down at Hereford, starting special forces selection, one of the young lads.  They’re crazy.  I want to touch on the special forces.  Still, just, uh briefly those first two tours you had already started work on your mindset obviously you’re at war like you’re starting to work on your mood, for me when like as a normal civilian I think if I were in that situation I don’t, I’d be thinking about being at home all the time.  I’m.  you’ve spoken about this like you trained your mind to never go to that place what other things would you do using, your mind.

. How were you using your mind when you were at war to sort of getting through those times?  To be honest, when I look back now, I realized that I think I have always been that way orientated.  I don’t know why it is, but still, to this day, I mean, it wasn’t something I was conscious of.  It’s all about mindset.  It was just something that came naturally to me, but I mean, the thing with war, um the one thing I managed to always, and I’ve always done this for whatever reason is I don’t get lost in the journey it’s always has been the vision of who.  Where I want to be, whether that came to missions, you know, in Iraq or in Northern Ireland, it was about where I wanted to be.  It was the visualization of what we wanted to create the end result.

That, for me, was always the anchor that pulled me forward, so regardless of what happened in here, I’ve always had a mission, a goal we were mission-driven anyway, and we’re always given a mission on the ground.  It was that mission that goal that I would always focus on because if you don’t have a focus on a purpose or a mission.  This is generally in life you will find that you end up becoming a victim of your circumstances, you get lost in the journey something happens something major happens.  You become a victim of your circumstances because you’ve got nothing bigger pulling you through, so really, for me, it’s always been about the fact that I visualize where I want to be when times are tough, when times are hard, when things are going wrong I visualize I’ve got a vision of where I want to be. It’s that one thing that pulls me through.  I don’t get bogged down in the situation, do you think I mean it’s I think that’s again, it’s that thing like being in the circumstances you were in to have that mindset is crazy to do you think that other people can have that or is it something you’ve got to train or something you’ve got to learn you’ve got to train everyone’s got it. Still, the thing is, you’re right.  You go to any event you go to a corporate speaking event or whatever you’ll say right someone will say a trainer will say hands up here who’s got a goal and you’ll get some that put the hand.  Up somebody like half does because they don’t want to look stupid.

Then you get the rest that doesn’t, so they don’t know what people don’t understand.  Right that our subconscious is the ghost driving goal-getting machine.

It will not stop it.  It will not stop until it gets exactly what your dominant thoughts focus on.  It doesn’t matter who you are.  We are all goal-driven, but the thing is, some people have a chosen destination.  Some people leave it to the massive confusion that’s going on inside, which delivers them to something they don’t usually want.  We are, by default, negatively wide.  The reason for that comes down to our evolution as far as development is concerned.  It wants us to keep doing what we did yesterday.  The day before because as far as it’s concerned, that’s held it’s kept us alive until today it doesn’t give a [ __ ] if you’re happy or sad whether it’s a good situation or not it wants to keep us in a repeat habit loop okay, so if you’re thinking negative thoughts.  We do because wired that way; if you’re thinking negative thoughts, you will keep getting more of that you will keep getting more.

More of that.  You have to change your mindset around that.  The only way you can do that is by having clearly defined goals because if you don’t have a clearly defined plan, what are we given to you.

That will be based on what your thoughts are, okay, so we go to the marines.  You’ve gone for the special forces, we special forces selection can you explain what that is because it’s crazy to hear yeah special forces selection is a process by which it’s a process of elimination, there’s a very low percentage of people that pass I think it’s within the sort of three per centum kind of rate 350 started mine I was one of five that gave, but it’s a six-month process where basically yeah you have to be physically strong some people say is it physical or mental for my mind. The body goes together.  One doesn’t come without the other, you know, I mean, you can’t just be physically strongly expected to do anything.  You’ve got to have the mental drive to be able to get you to it, so really even from the outset, you have to have a high level of physical.

 

Ability but you also have to have a mindset that allows you to endure long periods of discomfort without taking the easy way out.  That all comes down to the mind, so really selection is initially it’s a thrash up.  Down the mountains in wales, uh, once you pass that, you lose about seven, thirty per cent or no even more than that about fifty percent of the course just on that phase it’s a couple of weeks.  Then, once you’ve passed that, I mean that is the heavy pack’s miles.  Miles.  Miles each day doing the, you know, increasing the mileage.  I think by the end of it, by the end of two weeks, you’ve covered 100m with massive amounts of kit on your back.  The weapon you then once you pass that you then go out to the jungles, so you learn how to live in the wilderness for six weeks when you’ve got no um no luxuries probably a toothbrush is your best luxury.  Once you pass that phase.  Your kind of once you’ve got through the jungle.  They can pretty much start looking at the people that have reached that far-thinking.  Now we’ve got a credible bunch to play with, once you’ve done that.  You do all your room entry skills; you do all your helicopter training or your building assault skills, all kinds of different planes, trains, automobiles, all that kind of stuff.  Then the final thing you do is your demolitions, your communications last session, or the final phase is an escape innovation across the Welsh mountains.

 

That is a realistic scenario to recreate what it’d be like if you were being chased down by the enemy behind enemy lines, culminating with you being captured.  Then going through resistance to interrogation questioning for 36 hours, which is extremely horrendous, so it’s a six-month process. , it wears out 98 97 thereabouts, so you do all this the first time around.  It was it right at the end, yes, so the last thing two days I had left.  There are certain rules on the SAS uh the final phase no civilian contacts no um, no civilian contacts no buildings, no vehicles now they’re the rules, but you know as a special force soldier you don’t follow the rules.  That’s realistic you know I mean the reason special forces achieve such a high degree of their missions is that they do whatever they need to do to get the job done they don’t follow the rules, so you know when it comes to selection, you know there are rules there, but you break the rules to get the job done. Unfortunately for us, we managed we got a vehicle one night.  Uh, we were almost at the end before we got snatched.  you are going into the bag, which means the 36 hours of uh question. , we’ve been on the run for days you sleep up in the day.

 

You travel at night.  You’ve got nothing apart from world war one fatigue, no socks in your boots it’s freezing, uh it’s pretty horrendous.  You’ve got to cover so many miles every night to get to the next agent, next agent, so one day we got a lift off a farmer, a nice welsh man called Glenn even remember his name.  Uh, he gave us a ride.  He was extremely drunk, and he dropped us off on this hill.  It was in the middle of the night helicopters was flying over with big searchlights in the local area there were dogs you could hear there’s a whole hunt of force out there looking for us.  he stopped to let us out, and he opened his door then we heard a thud.  Then there was nothing.  No one came to open the thing because we couldn’t get the thing open, so anyway, one of the lads kicked the doors open, they flew open, and we just ran into the woods got away.  We’re like yes, got away with it anyway the next day we got called into the next agent contact or rendezvous; it was quite strange because the training team that we’ve been with for the previous six months were there, and they were like you know its usually people you don’t know.

Anyway, they said right, come with us.

 

We had a field interrogation.  It was like where you been.  I was like, oh you know, just doing the escaping invasion stuff, yes.  He says, oh, so you don’t know Glenn, I was like no .  anyway, he named the dog the cat the wife everything.  It was like what he said; you better tell us what you’ve been up to; otherwise, you’re never coming back.  I ended up saying right, yes, we’ve been in a farmhouse, so anyway, we got booted off the course.  What happened is Glenn had fallen out of the vehicle.  Uh, he’d dropped over smashed his head.  Then he went to the hospital.  Said, said to the police that had been beaten up by the sas so because of Glenn we were like thrown off the course two days to the end, so then uh so you decide to do it again which is crazy she decided again.  Then that time wasn’t smooth either, so at what point did you.  Injure yourself from the start.  You know the beginning, which is through the record.  I mean, the decision to go back again.  It was a massive decision.  It wasn’t like you know because you come in such a long way.  You know it’s not just six months.  It’s the journey before that—the emotional stress.  The dynamic pressure to then go I’m going to do that all again it wasn’t that kind of decision for me because I was going to go outside I was going to like to be a civilian, so I was do I go back, or do I give it another go.  Still, I think one thing that happened is that those words echoed again.  If you don’t do it, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life, so that got me back there, but anyway yeah, the first week I was back in the first week on the brick of beacons, I came down the slate track massive pack on my back I was trying to beat the guy in front I was smashing the times. As I came down, I stepped on a slate that slid under my foot.  My foot went 90 degrees.  I could feel all the tendons snap down the side.  I thought[ __ ] uh, I got down to the bottom medics and took my boot off.

 

As soon as they took the boot off, my leg went just came out.  I can remember seeing the training team on the training team walked past.  I just went to the other guys he went finished.  I was like [ __ ] I’m not finished?  I’m not finished.  I can’t allow this to end this journey.  That night I got called in front of the training officer.  You know I was still cracking on.  I was strapped up.  I was in a great deal of pain that night when I got called in front of the training officer and said, uh, I want to take you off the course.  I went why he said because, with that leg, you’re going to fail.  He said, if you fail a march, that means because it has already been once.  He said if you die a train on a medical, or sorry not on a medical, if you fell in protest because you’ve failed a time one of the times you can never come back again.  he said, so I want to let you go on a medical withdrawal which means you can come back.  Do the next course.  I stood there.  I just said no, I’m not doing it.  It almost got heated, you know, it almost turned into an argument where he said, you’re an idiot he says you’re not going to pass.  think for me at that point it was now or never, you know I mean if I went back again I’d have lost interest.

 

It was either now or never.  I prefer to take the risk of failing the time didn’t go away again.  Come back again.  For me, I was like, I’m going to do this.  Uh, anyway said, right, well it’s in your own hands then finally let me out of the office and then the next day honestly it was horrendous I had this strapped up I took loads of roofing I was like dropping briefing all the time just painkillers.  I was in tears.  I was going across the mountains in wales.  I was actually in tears getting the times, but I managed to get the times.  Then over there, you know, over time, it started to strengthen up, but you know, initially, again, it was that short-term discomfort for long-term gain.  You know I wasn’t prepared to take the short-term comfort, but it was that one thing that got me through then.  Then I completed that course, through to the end, which is one of seven what’s, what’s going through your head.  I mean, if you’ve ever had a sprained ankle before, never mind like tear intended stuff if you’ve had a sprained core walking on, it’s near impossible, so what are you?  What is going through your head?  What’s the motto going for your head whilst that’s every single step painful?  What are you saying to yourself?  I’ve just got to try.  Switch off.  You’ve got to try and channel that energy.  The more you focus on the foot, you know.  The more you think about the fall.  The more you’re going to be consumed by the pain of it.  So, it was I was using everything I could remember Nina cherry seven seconds to seven seconds away Nina cherry do you know yes that was going through my head all the time seven seconds away because I knew how close I was to the line.  For me, it was like repeating that song all the way through.

 

Just the whole vision of getting across the finish line, you know.  Every time I spent time just focusing allowed my mind to go towards pain.  You get consumed by the pain.  You know it’s trying to tell you to stop, so it’s all about disengaging that energy.  Pushing it somewhere else, but it’s a constant battle, so you fight through it.  You, I’ll ruin the end of the story.  You pass, which is unreal, so you get that pass you’re in. you’re in special forces.  So, what happens when you get like where’d you go when your um gets selected yes when I, uh I mean for me going back to 1980 the embassy you know men in black absolutely into a building.  Taking it, you know, taking the building that was just for me was like I wanted that.  That’s what I wanted.  that to me meant special forces.  So, for me.  I the team, I joined.  I mean when you pass sas election.  You then decide whether you go to sas or SBS.  I want to go to thesis.  The SBS is more focused on water.  for me, it had lots more toys, so mini-subs, all that kind of stuff diving you know that that for me was a lot more I had a passion for that for whatever reason, so I went to the SBS you then go off and do more training you have to do

 

All your combat course, you know, learning demolitions, under water.  All that kind of stuff navigation, underwater.  Um, you are focusing on different insertion techniques, uh using, maritime craft.  All that, so there’s a lot of training Then.  Finally, once you pass that, you then go to the SBS to join your team um.

 

That’s it you then selection doesn’t train you to be a special forces soldier.  It gives you some considerably basic skills in the special forces world to join a team.  It’s when you enter a group that you become a special force soldier you’re now able to be

unbelievable but

 

worked with to train up as a member of the special forces team as an operator, so really, from that moment on, it’s almost like you look back.

 

go, Jesus selection was quite easy, not easy.  as in physically easy, but you know you knew what you were doing.  stuff when you join a team.  the training you have to go through, you know.  different skills, different weapons, systems different kinds of technology.  whether that’s communications, GPS equipment, whatever it is, you just it’s constant, constant learning languages learning medical there are loads to take on.  Still, for me, you know the moment I knew I was in the special forces was that was the first operation I went on which was unreal it was brilliant you know because until that point I’ve just been training it wasn’t I just wanted to do the job.  it was like I had a pager, you know I was fully qualified out of pager pages you know, so basically I was on 30 net my 30 minutes notice to move just in the UK, so I couldn’t leave I could leave camp, but I had to be 30 minutes from camp um, so basically I had this pager.  it was a Friday afternoon.  we just left.  I was just out for the week gone for the weekend.  I think it was Friday around about four o’clock or something like that page you went off.  sometimes you have a drill.  You know, if it’s a drill, you have to phone up.  it’s just a drill process, but if there’s a certain code on your pager, it’s happening.  for me, I picked up that page you think it was a drill.  I saw the code.  I was like holy [ __ ] looks like this is real, so I went straight back to camp.  We went straight into a mission brief.  before we knew it, hellos came in.  We got all our kit packed.  on we went up to a ford operating base, closer to the uh the target area.   there’s a place similar to this, like a big open hangar where we mounted all our intelligence.  we went through our set-up, our area for rehearsals.  so, all the time, you’re waiting for the mission to go down.  you were spending that time training up.  using every second spare to get ready for the mission ahead.  of any training, you’re just doing it constantly.  Do you know any updates on intelligence coming in ? Later that night, it was the early hours of the following morning we got the call to go.  mounted onto the helicopters, all dressed in black balaclavas, night vision goggles, short stubby machine guns.  it was just [ __ ] unreal um on that job I was in the helicopter team.  we’re hitting a target out at sea. , we had boats coming up the back of the vessel.  We were the hello team that would go over the top of the vessel.  We were fast, fast rope out straight onto the target.  uh, it was unreal we uh we hit the target probably about just before dawning you know you hit the target just before dawn so that you can smash it in the dark.  then by the time you’ve taken the ship, you’ve got the natural light to be able to do the x fill. , now I can remember looking down from the hello like I wasn’t the first man, but the guys are gone.  The fast rope dropped out you’ve not attached to the fast rub apart from your hands, so you’ve got all your body armour on you’ve got all your ammunition you’ve got grenades you’ve got your machine gun the whole lot.  all that’s keeping you on that rope is your hands .  you slide, you use that to break.  to slow you down.  I can remember looking down at the ships doing this because the seas were that rough.  you had to time it.  The fast road was down there.  it was coming across as you had to time it so that you would l.  on the boat as it was coming over its noon position.  It was hideous any wrong move you’d have been off the side, and so basically, it came to my turn.  I got onto the I got onto the vessel. ,.  then we took the [ __ ] down.  uh, it was amazing.  It was unreal.  then just the next morning, you know, just about half an hour after we took the ship.  uh, all teams were on board.  You know the sun was coming up on the horizon hellos came in.  It just lifted us off.  It was just surreal.  that’s when I knew I was in the special forces.  Is there a mission or a moment that encapsulates what, being special forces? is that you remember yourself, but that is it for me, you know.  it’s like for me, like doing all that specialist skills training, you know.  like the counter for me counter-terrorism.  all that kind of training that’s involved with that is a special forces soldier.  some of the work that we used to do like getting to your target like you know subsurface under the with a rebreather on, so there are no bubbles you know at night getting to your target that to me is special forces are it’s a unique set of skills?  to do it with precision.  the teamwork that you’re working within is like something I’ve never experienced in my life.  ever it’s almost like you’ve got it’s almost like you’re telepathic you’re that trained up with the people around you it is seamless.  just as you think something, you know.  that area is not covered.  Someone is moving to it.  you know it’s just like it’s like a symphony of people, and for me.  you know, doing all that specialist skills, I mean going from a to b to a target.  under the sea at night to hit a target like a ship or whatever it was that for me.  is like special forces that are that is a unique set of skills.  so, you come out of special forces.  How long were you in special fosters for six years?  So, I did 11 years total, so I was five years in the royal marines.  then six years in the special forces, but to be quite honest, you know I was like,  I say this in my books.  You know it didn’t do it for me, you know I mean.  I wanted more of it, you know I was in around the time where there wasn’t the Iraq war well there wasn’t Iraq there wasn’t Afghanistan, so for me, there wasn’t enough of it there was you know we’d have bits and bobs here.  That was just the norm, but I wanted to be a cold face every day.  That’s what I thought was missing, but I knew something was missing that I didn’t feel complete.  for someone you know, if I could look at that as a kid before I even joined, I’d be like that would be everything for me.  Many people think that joining the special forces would be everything if I could do that; that would tick every box.  I would be happy.  I’d never want to leave, but I got there.  it wasn’t like that something was missing.  Do you think that stems from having an unfulfilled appetite for success or wanting more?  No, I know exactly! what it is, but you know this is from hindsight; hindsight never won any wars.  Still, it gives you a good reflection.  for me, this is where people get it so wrong.  We are all chasing an image; I mean, I was chasing an image of a special forces soldier.

 

How that would look, and I forgot the one fundamental thing that is so far more important than that.  That’s a feeling.  It should be the feeling you’re chasing, not the image you know people want the perfect house, the ideal job, all this.  The other is the perfect marriage, but that’s an image in your head.  It doesn’t mean that when you get there.  You’re going to feel that same passion for it.  We all know everyone knows that a lot of the time.  You have this visualization of how something might be, whether that’s going out for the night—going to your favourite club.  It’s always different when you get there, you know what I mean, so if you get too attached to the image of what you want, you’re going to end up being disappointed when you get there, but for me, I hadn’t found my purpose at that point.  I didn’t know anything about purpose at that point.  I didn’t go.  Oh, I haven’t seen my goal.  It’s just something that wasn’t connecting.  For me, it’s something missing; I didn’t know what it was.  I thought I was having mental health problems, you know I thought you or there’s something wrong with you if you can’t enjoy this what you’re doing jumping out of planes at night which you know parachuting through the sky in the dark skydiving.  You know all these things.  I was doing was amazing you know why I wasn’t enjoying that so.  Then your chase for that next thing carried on, so then you went into the private military or yes, but that’s the thing you know.  When I came out, I wanted to do something different I’ve always wanted my own business.  I always wanted to.  I’ve always wanted to create my path.  it’s something I still do to this day because we’re so trained you know I don’t want to follow

Someone’s footsteps I want to create footprints you know I mean that’s with everything I do, so I, you know it was about uh redefining myself you know recreating something new so for me it was about learning about business.  The other and I thought that would be the security industry, so I’ll start the things I started my own security company, you know.  I am providing people for uh VIP security.  Stuff in London and then the Iraq war kicked off.  Then for me, although I said I’d never gone do that, the money was phenomenal.  You know, I look back now.  It’s still like a phenom, you know I was being paid 13000 pounds a month tax-free back in.  I mean, that is just ridiculous,  especially after coming off a military wage.  Still, the thing is, you get drawn to the money.  It was all about the money for me.  It was money.  I was driven by money because of my complete lack of it all my life.  You know, even in the military, you don’t get paid enough.  For me, I’ve gotten an expensive taste, so the military was never going to be good enough for me, but you know for me, it was about chasing the money.  Uh, you know, as soon as the Iraq opportunity came up, then well, it pays loads.  You know what I mean.  That was the drive.  Now you know, looking back now, I call that fool’s goal because it fools you’re full for chasing the dollar, and you know I can go into that later, but you know you when you get to a wreck.  You get to a war zone, you understand.  Why they pay you, so much money uh but yes that was the draw I then went out to I left everything back you know I left my son I left my wife which yes that that marriage was falling apart it seems anyway.  Hence, it was a natural thing for me to accept to go over to Iraq.  It was a shame that my son became a byproduct of that decision, but I’ll live with that, but yes, I went over to Iraq.  That’s where I then set up shop if you want to call it that.  We worked on major infrastructure projects, so we put the first gsm mobile network back into Iraq.  We’re running these big projects we turned up with a small infrastructure of ex-special forces, uh only a few of us.  Before long, we’d recruited an army of 2000 Iraqis, and we’re training them in bodyguard skills weapon skills.  We got them to do all the work for us they were.  They were a local face on the ground, and that’s how we conducted operations.  It was brilliant.  I mean those times in the book, you talk about some of the times.  It sounds crazy like could you tell us some of the stories that were going off at the time?  Yeah, I mean when you look back at now, I mean this is the wild west it was just a recreation about in you know, John Wayne wild west it was just crazy you know the Americans were flooding the place with us dollars you know I was down watching like million-dollar stacks coming off that which they were flooding into, the communities you know, so the big American green green-eyed machine had moved in.  it was just everyone was fighting for a dollar you know everyone was taking their opportunities because they didn’t know where the next lot was coming from,

when things like when a country falls apart, you re everyone is just out for the kill, you know, so those times are crazy I mean the first time I got it was quite early on the first time I got into Baghdad. , oh on my way to Baghdad. , oh sorry, I got into Baghdad, and initially, I was working for ABC news before I did the infrastructure projects.

um, it was around the time that the statue came down of Saddam in the fearless square. , everyone perceived that the war was over, you know, the Americans had uh saved the day.  Uh, the war was over.  As we now see, the war had just begun.  Still, there was this sort of misconception of the security threat at that time in Baghdad or Iraq in general, so because we were so expensive, you know our employees always tried to cut down or reduce staff whenever they could.  I was the team leader at ABC news at that moment in time.  I was asked to do a job that day.  Uh, the assignment was to pick up the oncoming ABC bureau chief from uh Jordan is a 14-hour drive.  There were no flights because of the surface-to-wear missile threat, so it’s the only way you could get there.  Straight away, I said to the current ABC bureau chief I said right yes, we can do the job.  How many can I take with me?  He told one other.  We were picking up 12 people.  I expected to take as many, at least as we’ve got.  Leave one probably one there when it doesn’t take a military tactician to understand.  You don’t have two people looking after 12 you.  It’s usually the other way around, but anyway, because I didn’t want to upset the honey jar, I took the job on.  That next day we drove out, the two of us drove out to Jordan. , now I knew I knew what was happening that day.  What was happening in the oncoming ABC bureau chief was coming into one of his top-line jobs.  The top of his list was to assess the need for security, so I knew this.  I thought I was looking around me.  You know I’d given up everything for that job we all had.  We’re all earning decent cash for once in our lives, a lot of money working for it, but we were making it.  For me, the thought of that ending is not something I could conceive, and for me again, as I say, you know I always visualize the outcome, not the problem the outcome that suits me and, so all the time you know I was driving to Jordan it was 14 hours on and off with the other guy I just sat there.  I was thinking what kind of events would change the circumstances of time and what kind of events would influence that decision about him downsizing the security, so I know I am creative.  I sat there.  My little creative mind had a lot of time to think, so I thought through this scenario time.

Time.  Time again of how the events of the next 24 hours could change his decision.  that involved us getting attacked.  I absorbed this whole concept and immersed myself in how this whole thing would pan out went over .  over it in my head; it gave so much emotion.  Passion to it as if it happened, so any way that night I get to the hotel.  Uh, I’m sat there with my number two.  I’m like.  We’re just having a beer at the top; uh, the package is coming in at three o’clock in the morning for pick-up package being twelve people.  Uh, I sat too.  I had a beer.  I got him one for what I was about to tell him.  I said, ” You know what needs to happen tomorrow.  ” He went well I said we need to get attacked.  I didn’t want to get a tax.  I want to make that clear I don’t want to get shot, but I just said tomorrow, you know I was in a fantasy world.  If you’re going to call it that I said we need to get attacked, I said you imagine this is a scenario we leave the hotel tomorrow morning we get across the border which was always a nightmare we’re driving on our way to Baghdad the hot spot still at that time was Fallujah.  Ramadi is a no-go area, so I said we get between radiant.

Fallujah and.  We’re going to get attacked by the militia the rounds are going to go down we’re going to get them out of it they’re going to see everything that happens we’re going to get them out of it none of our sides gets hurt we’re going to get cars to Baghdad at speed then I said we’re going to get to the compound the doors are going to fly open there’s going to be a hero’s welcome there’s going to be champagne there’s going to cheer there’s going to be everything. Then we’re going to get the contract signed.  He laughed.  I bought myself another beer.  I was serious; I was like, that’s what needs to happen to imagine if that happened .  we talked about it you know we went I went into so much detail that even when the rounds went down in the vehicle, I could smell the cord out from the bullets I could I added emotion to it you know it.  In The end, I could taste the champagne.  I could feel the handshake I added every emotion, sight or every scent every you know, hear taste, smell touch all of them I employed all of that in my journey my visual journey any way we then woke up at three o’clock in the morning next morning package turned up got into the vehicles three vehicles in front of us one vehicle behind it which was ours at that point we never had any weapons because we’re still in Jordan. We made our way to the border as predicted.  We got to the absolute border nightmare that’s predictable just got on the other side of there we then went off probably half an hour after the hop over the border pulled the vehicles over we had what’s known as a case in the military, you call it cachet whatever which is a hole in the ground where we had all our weapons dug in. Hence, we went off to get them dug them all out.  Then we had all our guns, so I had a little mp Kurtz.  It was a beautiful little very handy for vehicle drills, which sits nicely on your lap.  Some people prefer lap dogs.  I like a machine gun, but anyway, um, so anyway, we then got back in the vehicles, so I had my number two, but we’ve got body armour on we’ve got shirts over our body armour all our vehicles are clean skin, so that means or soft skin sorry all our vehicles are smooth skin, so that means the bullets come in they’re not armoured. Civilian.  Uh, anyway, we’re the back vehicle got to number two behind me with an ak-47 and um, that was it on our way to Baghdad anyway it’s probably 10 11 hours in,  we’ve been swapping over.  Stuff.  I forgot about everything.  I was just that tired I was, so tired my head nearly hit the wheel you know I fell asleep had almost hit the wheel I thought [ __ ] I need to spark up some conversation keep myself awake, so I said to the guy in the back Dave in the back he told uh I said mate when we get back we’ll have debriefed then I’m going to get to the gym .  he went yes mate that’s a good idea I’ll do the same as I did that I noticed something flashing the rear-view mirror it was about four o’clock in the afternoon it was dusk.  there are few cars on the road at that time anyway it was a three-lane highway on both sides central reservation here we were on the inside lane closest to the central

 

Reservation doing about 120 k’s an hour.  I noticed this flash in the headline in the rear-view mirror.

 

Anyway, I looked again.  I could see another vehicle was flashing its lights constantly.  I sat there.  I thought I was negating everything it could be.  Trying to make trying to create what I wanted it to be.  At first, I said, hey Dave St. by something is coming up from uh from behind, so we had a look as well.  I said I know.  We both said, look, it’s probably the Americans.  They got closer and closer.  You realize it was a black vehicle black, Mercedes.  There was another vehicle further behind that.  Right away, we know it’s probably not the way it’s not the American military, so then we thought it’s another security company, so we started to think about how we’re going to get out of that lane to allow these people to pass.

 

He got closer and closer.  Then as it got probably about 20 feet behind our vehicle, I saw all the windows go down.  All the windows started coming down, and you could see down the side as I looked, I could see the headdress Arab headdress, you see the slits of the eyes.  as soon as I saw that ak-4ps came out from every window of the car behind us.

 

At that point, I can remember passing the sign that said remade at that point, I was like St. by we’ve got you to know enemy behind,  at that point they let out a burst of fire now if you’ve heard an ak-47 it’s quite intimidating, but when you hear four, it’s like an orchestra from hell. It was like I actually [ __ ] myself, you know.  I [ __ ] myself for more reasons than one.  That’s just the fact that you know in the military when you’re in the special forces, you are invincible you know I mean you can call I can call in a, an, I can call in naval gunfire out at sea for the support I can call in an airstrike.  At that moment, I  sat there thinking I’ve got no one.  I’ve got no one.  I’ve got the responsibility of these 12 people in front; I’ve got the responsibility of the guy behind.  It was all down to me.  I was starting to get overwhelmed at that moment.  It took me to snap out of that because I was lost in it.  How to overcome I was now beginning to freeze.  I start to freeze.  If it wasn’t for just I made a mental you know it’s I think it was that gunfire when I first heard the gunfire I was like you need to do something.  I snapped out of that sort of that freeze.  At that point, it was about forgetting the responsibility of the people in front.  It was about forgetting about the fear that was taking over me.  It was about forgetting about what could go wrong because that’s irrelevant that’s emotional.  Mental rehearsal for what you don’t want to happen, so why engage in it?  I had to deal with that situation.  at that moment, I knew that they were trying to get us to pull over to the side of the road we’ve heard about these attacks before they pull them to the side of the road others kill everyone to take all the stuff you know take all the money these ABC news people had like camera equipment had wads of cash all sorts of stuff which they probably pinged at the customs anyway. Let them know, but at that point, I had to do something.  The cars right behind me always weren’t something I thought about, but I just told the guy to St. by.  Then aggressively, I turned the vehicle into the centre lane, which then left the gap on my left-hand side, which they came alongside.  I then increased speed to box the car in behind the car in front, so I had it trapped.  At that point, I can remember looking down.  I’m driving a car, the mp curtsy across here.  I’ve got my hand on the steering wheel.  I’ve got the closed window there.  I’m looking down.  I see this yanked.  I could tell he was young because I could see his eyes.  he had a headdress all on his ak-47 would slowly come down at me, but there was a moment I connected with his eyes.  I still will never forget his eyes. , I’ve been in scrapes before but never have I been close enough to touch someone before I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.  I didn’t want to do it.  I didn’t want to do it, um.  At that moment, unfortunately for him, his ak-47 was coming onto my head and, so was the guys behind.  It was done or die.  At that moment, I gave the order to open fire.

 

As soon as I did, I pop my weapon straight onto my arm through the closed window, just let a burst go straight into the vehicle as I’m driving at 140 cases an hour.  It was a mental moment, mental moment bullets rained down on their truck which immediately caused them to stop, died a day behind he opened fire at the same time.  Then we increased speed got on the commas to give a contact report.

 

Then increased our speed to Baghdad.  We looked in the rear-view mirror.  The car had gone to the central reservation with all smoke coming out.  bonnet. , I can remember looking up as we’re driving at the speed you know it’s all you’ve got is ringing in your ears from the number of loud bangs.  Stuff in the vehicle I can remember looking forward into the car in front.  There’s the ABC bureau chief that comes to assess the need for security looking out the rear of the vehicle just looking.  I thought that’s done the job anyway we get to Baghdad, the doors open if the story couldn’t get any weirder.  There it is, champagne reception hero’s welcome, and I can remember opening the door.  I can remember hearing this light, almost like change falling on the floor.  I looked down at the bottom.  It was all our bullets from our empty cylinders rolling out of the car.  All the glass from the window I remember looking down.  Then as I looked up, a guy came up to me with a glass of champagne.  I took the champagne.  I tasted the bubbles tasted the taste of the champagne. , I thought holy [ __ ] I’ve been here before it was exactly everything to the letter to the timings to the locations everything.  At that moment, it’s like the ABC bureau chief wants to see you upstairs now when you do that level of retaliation, or you take those actions you know you’re held accountable for those actions you know especially when you work for a company like ABC, so we didn’t know what was waiting for us up at the uh in the bureau chiefs office, so we went up there. Both bureau chief bureau chiefs were in there at that time.  Uh, the oncoming bureau chief just said, look, the actions you took were amazing.  I saw everything out there.  Basically, from that point, they slid papers across the table where we signed the contract for another two years.  Now the reason I tell that story is I don’t take any glory from the actions that I took that day if I am forced into taking those actions.  The way I angle that is the fact that I save people’s lives, you know.  If I didn’t, they would be dead, but that was such a monumental moment for me because it made me realize how powerful visualization is and how powerful positive intent is.  Since that moment, I have used that with passion.  Belief with everything that I’ve wanted to do, it’s taken time actually to build it into my everyday processes, but it’s that monumental moment that changed everything.  It also made me underset.  that our lives are a product of our imagination.  We can create the life that we want if we believe in it if we visualize it.  If people don’t think that theory, you know if they struggle with that which a lot of people do, it’s as simple as creating what you want into your subconscious as I talked about before you know our minds are a ghost driving goal-getting machine that will stop at nothing until it gets what your dominant thoughts focus on that’s what you’re doing so for me you know when I do that I’m planting what I want the goal that I want in my subconscious you would then subconsciously take decisions.

 

Take and Make decisions.  Take actions that reflect your goal in your subconscious.  That was a bit freaky that day because other aspects contributed to that, but almost to me, it was almost like the universe telling me we need to show this guy that visualization works.  It stamped that in stone for me, I think, you think Olli Latin special forces talking about visualization is kind of a strange concept I think it’s amazing it’s you talking about it because it gives it more power the idea that you taste it, you smell it you feel it like we believe here at Mullen rivers in that concept, how do you get, so you’ve been shown it as you say by the universe this works this work how do you get to the point where you were starting to have these thoughts and have these visualizations that you could imagine what’s going to happen in the future. Achieve those things well when I look back right that from that point I spent a lot of time thinking after that I mean after that it was like forget everything that happened in that whole you know the being shot out forget that I’ve been shot at before you know it was like what I spent, so long just thinking about what just happened as in you know the whole visualization thing how it played out. Still, then I look back at my life.  It’s been no different with everything else.  It’s the reason I passed raw marines training.  It’s the reason I did special forces selection, you know.  Did you know I kept on going to the past against all odds?  You know I’ve been doing it all my life, you know, but you know, so it was confirming.  I mean, up until that point, I couldn’t have said I never said before that point you know we can visualize.  We can create the life that we want through visualization.  I’d never said that, but because of that event because it was so prolific because it was so profound to me you know anyone that tells me that it doesn’t work as far as I’m concerned they’re losing out I’ve got I’ve got no advantage telling people this stuff works I’m just telling you from my experience what happened you know but now I you know a lot of this comes down the more. More I see this daily I feel that you know what when it comes to humans, we don’t even know our true power it’s been, so hidden from us by social programming education that we don’t know our true passion.  we have, so much every person on this planet as a gift everyone has the same skills everyone can create the lifestyle that they want.  those amazing that amazing talent has been taken away from us because we’ve been programmed socially

 

Through education, everything you know we.  We’ve lost our power.  How does someone actively do uh work on visualization?  How would you tell the everyday person you start visualizing you begin thinking about?  I mean, everything looks if I want to pass an exam, a lot of people the way we’re going to the way wired.  It comes down to evolution because we’re always looking for the negatives.  We all know that once you create an idea in your head, you always look for things that are going to go wrong.  We don’t sit there.  Focus on how great it’s going to be when we get that, whether that’s starting a new business relationship, whatever it is, whether it’s taking your exams, you always think about the panic of not passing the terror of what could go wrong.

 

That’s what we end up visualizing, you know what I mean, and it’s about just changing that energy to be more positive, so really, it’s the thing with this you’ll get, so many people that disbelieve.  They Will never engage in it, but they only need a little taste until they do it once.

 

Once they’ve got a little taste to know that this stuff does work that’ll change their life forever, you know you guys must know yourself that happens you see once you get a taste that this stuff works, it’s contagious like you wouldn’t believe.  You know I could tell people me.  my partner my fiancé Laura we could tell people stories that they’d no one would believe us no one would believe a word.  you know that the coincidences if you want to call them that they’re not coincidences once you’ve got yourself lined up spiritually once you’ve created that bandwidth that is way away from fear because fear doesn’t allow for creativity.  The opportunities are there already lined up.  A lot of people say in life that, oh well, you know I can’t wait for the opportunities to line up.  They’re already there.  It’s you that forgot to line yourself up.  That’s when you come from a place of belief, when you’re not living in a state of fear.  And unfortunately, at the moment, it’s amplified at moment anxiety is driving society through the news through everything through the current Covid pandemic fear.  Is going society because that’s the only way you can control a society we live in this then you look at the news you look at the newspapers everything is fear.  Still, once you disengage from that, I mean I don’t read any newspapers, I don’t watch the news, I don’t watch tv if I do watch tv it’s very something specific, you know a film, but I’m very conscious about the content that goes into here.

 

You know, once people have a taste of visualization, you know I do.  I do online courses where I get people to sit down.  Meditate for me meditation again people think how this guy from the special forces can meditate that’s Glastonbury hippie stuff meditation for me is my focused attention at an intention it’s my moment for me to visualize create calmness in here.  Be able to imagine what I want, okay.  Once I learn to make that stillness of mind, it allows that clarity of vision to what I wish our heads have seventy thus.  Thoughts are probably more going around each day now.  If you don’t focus on some things that you want out of that 70 Thousand thoughts, you’re going to end up with a load of crap that you don’t want.  That’s the problem with people.  They allow the 70 Thousand thoughts to be like this washing machine of ideas.  They don’t define what they want in life, so that’s why they’re just bouncing like a pinball from side to side, not knowing where they’re going, and that’s decided for them, but it’s just about creating a clear vision intent for what you want.  That for me, you know, is such an important process.  Which came years later that morning routine for me is a life changer, you see.  It’s where I set myself up for each Every day.  I dominate each.

 

Every day, I hear we definitely when you say smell taste everything you’ve lived that moment before it happens we believe that completely like we do with this place.  Stuff like we’ve already been here, we’ve already done it.  When you get it, you’re not surprised by it or anything like that.  It’s just it is meant to happen.  one thing I loved that I think is good for people who haven’t tasted it before is this will help them get out of bed, in my opinion, is when you talk about getting out of your wet get your wet kit.  Getting into your dry kit and how you used to visualize getting into your wet kit in the morning, so can you talk about that.  How you did that jungle training is the fact that you know you operate throughout your daytime.  One great thing about the jungle is the fact as soon as it goes dark that you can’t operate because it’s so dense you know the foliage is so thick, so what you do you set up a harbour position .then you put your hammocks up in darkness.  one the routine you go through every day is you have a dry set kit always you know in your bag, so at the end of the day when you’re when you get into the jungle your body starts to rot you know, so by the end of six you know your feet are rotten you stink the ammonia. Everything from you is disgusting.  one thing your only luxury you do have is that when it is dark, when you’ve set everything up in the dark, it’s pitched black you can’t see a thing.  You’ve set up all your bed, your hammock, your bed system.

 

Everything your overhead cover, the pitch-black you then reach into your backpack.  You pull out your dry kit.  Your dry kit is just like heaven, absolute heaven, so you take your wet kit off, which is stinking.  You put that in a bag, put that away.  Then you put your dry kit on.  It’s unbelievable.  It’s just its luxury beyond anything you’ve ever experienced before, but then the flip side to that is the next morning you know you have to have everything packed away in the pitch black there’s no alarm clocks or anything you know you’re just working on your body clock you have to have everything in your way, so that when the sun peaks it peaks over the horizon, and there’s any aspect of light whatsoever you’re all waiting with your weapons up ready you know ready to go because that’s the most likely time of attack from the enemy, but the thing is to get to that point you then have to pull in your old wet kit from the day before, and in pitch black you have to change out your dry kit put your dry kit in a bag put that back into your backpack. Then you have to put on your stinking wet kit.  It is feral.  You do this every day, every day.  It was the smell.  It’s just intense.  You’re putting on this cold, wet, damp kit.  Every day I just had to me was saying to myself that message.  It was like, oh, I love these Armani’s, these are the best Armor I look, so good in these Armani I wasn’t saying it, but you know that’s going through my head.  That’s the only way I got through it.  I just made it into something else.  It’s all about reframing; you know it’s still cold.

 

It’s still wet, but you know the whole mental game of my focus on the inconvenience.  The discomfort of it had gone, you know.  I did that every day.  It just helped me get through.

 

It’s that messaging with everything you know!  That bleeds into every aspect of your life it’s just how you frame things ah simple way I think to be quite honest I mean it’s like with everything I mean let’s try .  relate this to people taking exams for instance or something like that you know if you’re going to sit there.  Think you know about how much the study is getting you down how much you hate doing what you’re doing the more you focus on that.  As I said to you before, you know you’re not focusing on your goal.  You’re not focusing on something that different that pulls you out of that situation, so lost in your circumstances of that moment you become a victim of them, you know I mean.  The only way that internal messaging is to get yourself through that is it’s like one thing I’ll say about goals is not a lot of times you have big, bold plans.  They should always be gutsy.  It should be something that you doubt your ability to achieve, but the thing is you should have many goals you know I mean a big plan should always you never have a goal that you know you can achieve you have a goal that scares the [ __ ] out of you should always have that, but the plan must be able to break down into small chunks so really it’s about when you’re going through that hard stuff it’s about creating a small short-term goal that gets you from moment to moment to moment, but it’s that whole internal messaging if you sit there. You’re studying for an exam or something like that.  You’re focusing on how [ __ ] this is.  How much time was taken?  How you’re not enjoying it, you aren’t passing it the one thing when you’re talking about visualization; you don’t want to frame this right.  You said you don’t want to get stuck in the picture, yes, but like visual a lot of people, when they think of visualization, they’re going for the image, not the feeling.  How do you define the two?  How do you stay away from getting obsessed with the picture as opposed to the feeling that all comes down to purpose at the end of the day you’ve got to define what your goal is?  The problem is when you’re young.  You haven’t had many experiences in life that means that you need to get out there.  Stop putting yourself start treading, you know to point you throwing yourself into loads of different backgrounds because you need to start defining what makes you tick, so it’s about defining your purpose initially.

You’ve got to step into the short-term discomfort for long-term gain.

 

start doing things in life you know not be not stop following someone else’s

 

Path.  be you know to follow the program, so to speak but.

Then later in life, if you’ve had loads of experiences, it’s about sitting down.  Writing down write down all the things that excited you if you need to define your purpose, what is your purpose in life you know once you do that you specify what you do going back over history what where have I felt really good about myself what have I enjoyed most. Then you’ll start to define your purpose so that it all comes down to purpose.  I mean, for me, I didn’t find my goal until 2011; you know that was when I was rescuing the kids from the child—prostitution slavery in Thailand.  I didn’t think I didn’t see the gift that that would give me, you know, so for me.  You know I wasn’t searching for my purpose.  I didn’t know there was such thing as defining your purpose at that point.  I just thought I couldn’t find anything that would satisfy me.  My life was just haywire, you know.  Then I went over to Thailand.  We were involved in operations rescuing kids from child prostitution slavery, you know.  I am growing them ill infiltrating enemy camps.  Getting the kids out and that for me when I saw these kids then go to the orphanage.

Then the week later or a couple of weeks later, you have seen these kids, you know, incredibly young kids walking down the street with a Life uniform on in the suitcase.  only weeks before they were about to be sold into some brothel that is [ __ ] rewarding uh yes, I want to touch I want to feel what you were doing in Thailand. , just on uh finding purpose, you know I think some people I’ve had this conversation recently with somebody, we’re talking about meaning.  It says yes, but I don’t want to test that out.  I think I know what I want to do right now; I think what you’re talking about is perfect.  You need to get you to need to live that’s how you how for somebody.  Who’s in that mindset is like.  I don’t know what to do, though what do they have to do well.  You have to start getting experience.  In life, you have to stop pushing the ball whether we travel with us you know everyone will have a passion or a desire to be something you know what I mean whether that’s someone that wants to travel a lot, whether that’s someone that wants to be in business you’ve got to stop pushing the boat out. Start experiencing things you know what I mean, so you’ve got to push the boat.  Some experiences you’re not going to enjoy, but you start noting down the things you’re doing before you know it, you can define the purpose of where you’re supposed to be.  What floats your boat, so yes, you went up to Thailand towards the end of your career.

. Yes, can you explain that?  Also, that I remember there’s a point where for you you’d like you said you’d found your purpose talk us through that that particular occasion no I mean I came back I was in Iraq for six-seven years.  it was getting far too much on top; you know, some of the lads we lost a couple of lads. , it was just in a war zone for six years.  It’s just far too much you are going to have mental health issues.  It’s like going back to, I mean for us, we were going back to a prison every time we came away on leave.

Then we’d go back.  It was like being in prison self-imposed prison.  We used to go out.  Stop, but basically, we had these villas that we’d put steel all on the inside of the house, so every time the bullets went down, we just locked ourselves in.  It was all getting too much.  I had to leave, um, so I left.  Then again, like I did when I first left the special forces I thought I need to get, I’m going to try and redefine myself, so I got into sort of property I need to stay out of war zones all this—the other.  I was getting into property into real estate, and I just got so bored and something.  Then I heard about the grey man, which was an organization that was rescuing kids from child prostitution.  The slavery that was operating in southeast Asia I was introduced to this ex-commando Australian commando that was running the operation, or it was his operation.  asked me to come on board. , you know 1.6 million kids a year in southeast Asia are sold into slavery.  Prostitution by their families now when I heard those stats.

It’s probably a lot more than that, but when I heard those stats for me, you know I complained about not getting a hug from my father as a kid, these kids sold by their parents into a life of slavery.  Prostitution, they know what’s going to happen to them.  I couldn’t get my head around that, so for me, I wanted to be part of helping change these kids’ lives.  You know, I consider myself extremely fortunate for the life I’ve had, although we can sit.  Drip,

Complain about this.  The other, you know, compared to these kids that you know something had to do, so I used my money from Iraq it was all self-funded by me.  Uh, I went over to southeast Asia, and that’s where we started.  You know, initially, we were working in the brothels trying to identify kids and working with the anti-human trafficking department in Thailand.

.  Then when we went in to do the busts, all the staff had changed, so you know they were leaking the information to the brothels.  it was just pointless, so from that point, I then went into I thought you’ve got to get with everything you’ve got to get to the source of the problem forget the stuff. , we went.  Worked with another organization called kosha children of southeast Asia.  We went to the Thai.  Burmese border.  We were a load of camps, where they held kids waiting to be processed by the cartels, um.  so, you know, taken to the fishing villages taking to the clubs.  Taken to the sweatshops, all that kind of stuff so that they would be held in these camps.  So, it’s our job to get into these camps either before the cartels got there.  Or, between the fat time, they’d come up before they took them away.

Intercept these kids before the cartels got back.  So, it was amazingly hairy.  It was the first time in my career that I’d made the decision not to take weapons.  We’d made the decision not to carry weapons which was a big call.  Because it’s what I’ve always relied on, to not take the thing is we if we had had the weapons then we could easily have been identified as deaf.  that could have caused further problems.  So, we made the decision not to.  We got in .  got a load of these kids out, but unfortunately, we had such a good run that our organization back home back in Australia was so proud of what we’d done uh that they went out to the media.  Again, in hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do, but at the time, you know!  We just had a few big wins.  We were in a bit of a euphoric moment.  They put it in the paper anyway.  It caused a massive international incident that was in pieces all over the world.  We were still in-country.  We went on to further operations out there.  Then we got the call to you’ve got to get out as quick as possible then u’s state department had gotten to the Thai government said, look we’re reading a newspaper here we give you millions of dollars every year.  You do nothing.  There’s a four-person team gone in and done more than you’ve ever done.

Uh, so the tiger denied that any such activities were going on.  They stated that the grey man organization was a bogus charity.  That we were milking, you know, putting the money in our own pockets.  Uh, there was a dragnet for us, so it was a rest on site.  We had to escape out of Thailand.  Across the Burmese border back home.  The thing for me the hardest thing for me was the fact that I’d thrown everything into that I thought that was the new life I’d found my purpose would be.  I saw the power of helping other people.  That is such a phenomenal gift when you help people less fortunate than you or just in general anyway.  I think that is something that we have lost the power to harness everyone is like hunting for the most social media followers.

The more followers on Instagram, whatever it is, even in a place of work when you’re working on the same team.  People are fighting against each other because they want the cue just to be better than the other person.  You know we forgot how to work together, we forgot we there are few people that do selfless acts of kindness anymore for someone for no reward.  For me, you know I paid to go over.  There was no reward for helping these kids.

That was the biggest reward in itself.  It was phenomenal.  It does, I mean, that’s something that I would say if you get a chance to read the book like the whole section is amazing.  I mean, the entire book is but yes, such like it’s so sad the way that ended as well,

 

Your conclusion on it as well is that it’s kind of like it’s a bigger problem than Kate than you can solve right now yeah which is sad, uh just talking, so we don’t you know your new venture at the moment what’s that based on is that could you run through that it’s not something I’ve read into at the moment. Especially your newspaper the new book basically on the new book yeah the new book the way my books have gone I mean for me breakpoint was all about setting the foundation of who I am the credibility to be able to talk in further books of what I wanted to put out there you know it creates the foundation you know my I don’t my credibility is my heritage because I’m not just someone off Instagram or whatever that says oh this is what you know it comes from experience. A lot of the lessons I’ve learned have been harsh, but really, it’s about, you know, it’s like a failure in life.  I mean, in my book, you know my breakpoint is about failure.  It’s not about success, but for me, failure is growth, you know, as long as you look at failure as a milestone of development.  What did you learn from it?  How did you move forward from that?  To me is growth.  It’s not a failure, you know, so I think the more you know, the last thing I will ever do is fake perfection.  I want to keep making mistakes all my life because I know I’m working hard when I do that, so really my second book gave me my first book gave me the foundation to be able to write my second book, which does push into the personal development space.  That is battle-ready battle ready is the process that I used when I came back when I did Thailand.  I came back.  I’d fallen apart.  My life was in a is a real mess.  My mental state was horrendous.  It was how battle-ready is about the process that I followed to get myself out of that.  When I look at people having mental health problems, the reason they’ve got mental health problems is that they’ve lost in the circumstances why they got mental health problems they talk about.  Talk about why they called you to know what happened to them.  For me, when you adjust mental health to mental wealth, that’s the moment you stop throwing the line out of that dark hole.  Start pulling yourself out of it.  That, you know, goes back to everything I’ve said about having a goal that’s about creating a plan that is not based on your current circumstances.  Okay, don’t focus on where you want to be focus don’t focus on where you are focus on where you want to be.  It’s about casting the stone to that.

Then following that stone, so battle-ready is the process I followed when I finally got back to the UK in 2014.

 

My life had fallen apart.  I came back to the UK with no money, nothing, but I came back with a vision.  That was the vision to create a globally identified brand.

He was recognized for his positive growth.

 

Development of others .  that was breakpoint .  that was my company.  That was the most powerful thing I came back with, worth more than any money in the bank.  For two months, I put myself into a boot camp I put I isolated myself on my own in a house down in Cornwall where my family are.  I went through mental processes day in day out.  I cut away the drugs; I cut away the alcohol I needed to admit based on clarity, not confusion.  I’d started putting in the visualization because I learned that in Iraq, I couldn’t get any money from the bank to start my business, so I just thought, what else I’ve got to play with .  that was just personal development stuff.  It’s all I had, so I visualized every day I wrote a contract to myself of where I wanted to be I signed it.  I used to repeat that to myself every day.  I used to reiterate that I created goals wrote them down.  Every day, I spent it like a mindset boot camp doing everything listening to podcasts, you know, personal development podcasts, everything.  I did that for two months.  It’s one point you know I was like I had no money I was spending what I had on to get websites done.

 

All this.  I was running out of cash fast.  My family was saying to me; you know you need to, you need to forget this, you know to go back to the security world you know to go.  Do what you guys do that messaging.  I was like, no, it’s a breakpoint, you know it’s I was, so passionate about that idea I was going to stop I wasn’t going to intercept I was forced to stop.  I’d hooked up again with foxy from the show.  Not seen him for 13 years, we both shared the same vision to start breakpoint.  It did get to the point at the end of that two months.  I’m sitting there thinking this doesn’t work.  I was asking you to show me a sign.  I thought that thing in Iraq didn’t mean anything.  It was just a coincidence.  You know there’s no message there.  I’ll start feeling negative.  I had to fight those thoughts.  Emotions.

 

You know I used to sit there visualizing every day about me.  Foxy being on the stage and talking about our experiences.  How people then could benefit from that experience.  Then how we would use that to employ veterans suffering from pts.  How we could help, uh, unfortunately, you know not that’s the wrong way how we could help disadvantaged kids you know but then offer professional services to corporates.  I saw it.  You know I saw the vision of me.  Foxy on a stage, you know loads of people their big audience loving what we said.  Then it was all coming to you know I started to doubt myself, in the end, it was getting out I had to fight that doubt that seeded out was in then all of a sudden out the blue foxy phone.  He said, you know that idea, we’ve got breakpoint.  He said would you like to would you consider doing that on tv.  I was like, you’re [ __ ] kidding me.  He was like a gift from the gods.  I was like, I thought fox he was in the public first; I was like, are you drunk.  He says, no, I’m with the production company now.  Do you want to talk to him?  I said yes.

 

That’s how it started, but for me, when I look at that, I was so intense and so controlled and so disciplined about what I did day.  Diet day in.

Day out, it didn’t deliver to me in the short term.  This was all going,  going,

then it was delivered to me.  I saw me.

 

Foxy on stage was the biggest stage you can ever want to want to wish for .  that was the platform for the breakpoint.  I mean that that’s amazing; one thing when you talk about it, then I’d love to hear some something more on is the writing yourself a contract, yes.  An adhering to that like what how did what did you write down.  How did you go through it was an official contract; I’ve still got them; I still use them for people.  Is it actually in the book called the promise in my new book?  Really for me, it was creating see when you’ve got years, Years of programming social programming from Life everything.

 

. We end up, you know, the older we get, we become subject to repeat habit loops, you know.  That comes back to, as I said before, evolution; you know, it just wants us to repeat what we did yesterday.  The day early because it kept us alive till today, so we are creating we embrace habit, so really if you want to change that you have to make your today a yesterday to be proud of not only yesterday how you want your future to be, so for me it was about you have to change the blueprint it’s all about changing the subconscious you can’t sort you can’t deal with anything in the frontal cortex all right this is where we think we can solve everything in the front you know frontal cortex that I do you have to plant it in the subconscious

 

so, for me it was about rewriting that blueprint, so the contract for me it was an official document which makes it feel important.  It was for me every morning as I read out that agreement it was my name.  I filled in my name by this day I will have my own business called breakpoint you know I put a date it’s, so important you put a date on their otherwise as far as the universe is concerned a million years is nothing but you have to have a date on where you put your name on it you have put your date in there put your date on there. Then put what your intention is what you want.  It’s just another way of setting a goal.  Then a few bullet points on there about I’ll have doubts, but I have supported you know I have a visionary passion.  Then I signed it with the date on the bottom.  It was a document just for me to go through every day, you know.  Then go to the mirror talk say you people try this right you produce an idea of who you want to be you write that down.  Then you go on you go.  Tell yourself in the mirror read it out to yourself everyone will go I feel like an idiot because that’s your ego, but I tell you now if you don’t know yourself what you’re what you want, how can you expect to achieve it, so as soon as you cross that bridge. Get over your ego.  Forget the thus.  Person audience that isn’t there that changes everything.  That for me was changing that rewriting the blueprint.  This is not something you have to keep on doing.  I’m now naturally that way, so I have to think things but initially, when you have to change your processes.  Get into some discipline gold setting.  It’s very clunky, you know.  I mean, you have to go through these very disciplined processes as I did, so anyway, the point is my second book is that process explained.  The second book is a workshop on how you can do the same thing you know, so I let people follow the exact journey that got me to where I am today.

 

That’s the book battle-ready, I think, like I said, society has led us down, so long down the wrong path, so you’re saying this book is just kind of strip you back.  Then be able to go down.  It’s regaining your power.  My book is about rescuing your power people who people of the majority of people out there don’t think they have any ability they don’t underset.

 

The power that we have, the ability that we have to create, Exactly what we won’t look at was it roger bannister was it ballista the four-minute mile yeah right before he did the four-minute mile everyone said it couldn’t do everyone said no they couldn’t do that as soon as he broke it everyone broke it afterwards why is that because until they knew that a human could break that their minds couldn’t allow it to conceive. That makes you underset.  That you know it’s all locked in here people just don’t underset.  that we’re socially programmed to create limitations.  We will only actually go outside of those limitations once we know someone else can achieve it.  It’s been proved you see a lot of people will only want to do will state goals only if they know they can achieve them because they’re scared of looking stupid, so much ego plays in here their egos rule people.  It’s holding them back from the true potential I think is like us; I mean, I’ve said this before.  I’ll say it again on that it’s, so it’s almost strange to hear you say that for coming from where we perceive military guys to be like to listen to you say about this visualization.  Stripping back the ego .  that sort of stuff, it’s amazing to hear uh I I’m excited for this to go out as well I want to throw some words at you it’s not quick to fire it’s just whatever you think when it comes to mind yes.  The first one I want to start with because I know you spoke about it quite a lot is doubters feel sorry for them at the end of the day allow that to give you power not don’t allow their doubt to be contagious you know what I mean there’s two ways you can go you can go left. Right on that one doubt can allow them almost to let that seed of doubt be contagious but reframe that I think I’m going to prove you wrong quitters quiz quitters sorry quitters I don’t know I was going to say losers[Laughter] quitters don’t quit don’t ever quit you know persistence beats resistance you know that for me quitters is a failure you know but also underset. That failure is, you know, success is a series of failures.  Hence, people that quit, the only people that fail, are people that left you to know if that stops you from achieving your goals.  You know you have been unable you’re embracing failure the hard path is the only path you know at the end of the day you have to push through that short-term discomfort for any long-term gain.  That is the ethos of the breakpoint, but nothing comes easy.  Many people say that there were so many obstacles in the path that obstacles are the path, OK you get.  It is always short term.  You know it’s a case of just pushing through that short-term discomfort.  Embrace the discomfort.  That’s where you grow.  Success is a series of failures.  Success is a series of let-downs.  You’ve got to keep on achieving anything that I have to commit to success in life; you must fail.  Keep on failing.  Always when you start faith, always know that if you’re failing throughout your life, as long as you’re not repeating the same failures that you’re growing at the same time, you’ve spoken about this, so I’m excited to say this one ego here you go ego is a big one.  Ego is the one thing that will hold you back from anything you know; one thing you’ve got to learn to be is an emotional observer.  That’s not just for the ego that’s with everything; that’s aggression with every kind of emotion that’s with fear.  Once you learn to observe your emotions such as ego, I mean I’m not egoless we’ve all got ego it serves a purpose in some circumstances.  Still, I know through any situation I know when ego’s coming in, I could stop it before it gets there you know what I mean, but that has become that is because I am an observer of my emotions it’s the same with everything if I can explain that in probably a little bit better is the fact that you imagine a fast-flowing stream when you’re consumed by your emotions you’re in that fast-flowing stream when you can become an observer of your feelings you’re stood on the side of the riverbank choosing which emotions you want to align with but really. The way to do that, you know, because that can sound quite confusing is about breathes recalibrate deliver OK.

 

That is not acting on instinct straight away all the time.  It’s about in a pressured situation cortisol increases in our system which confuses the only way you can deal with that is through breathing OK to lower deep cortisol breaths allow clarity.

 

Not confusion .  then you can make the right decisions but saying that you have to do that within five seconds, would you, yes whilst we’re on that the uh the breathing technique that you spoke about, would you be able to explain that?  I think I could help quite a lot of people typically an oppression situation .  they do teach this in special forces in some countries now but breathe it’s all down to your breathing you know what happens when we go into a pressured situation that could be a negotiation in business it can be being shot out it can be being attacked by a monkey whatever it is your breathing becomes erratic it’s your fight or flight response starting to take over OK but what happens through that is your cortisol level starts to increase. That confuses us again like well our heads can only handle five to nine pieces of information at any one time in a stressful situation it’s only one to two, so really in that moment by first of all controlling your breathing you breathe that allows that clarity of thought you then focus only one to two things that matter at that moment in time that’s triage in the situation, so that’s what we call recalibrate is getting rid of things that don’t matter like that situation I was in when I was in Iraq.  I was being shot!  I was going 140 k’s an hour I was driving the car, I had to shoot you know!  All that stuff is going on.  If I didn’t have a control pattern of breathing at that moment, I’ve lost it, but that’s recalibration.  Then once you recalibrate, get rid of everything that doesn’t matter.  You focused on what you need to do.  That’s when you deliver, so breathe quick breaths, control breaths recalibrate to focus on what you need to.  Then provide the action well is it, four seconds in like I could have.  Still, it depends on the situation the last thing you want to do is if you know you’re going into a problem well, I know I’m going into a pressured situation.  Whatever it is, you can start that box breathing.  It’s cool, so live in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four grips for four.  It’s that control pattern OK when you’re in a city when you find yourself in a situation you don’t get the luxury of that time you know what I mean you’ve got to act.

 

Still, you’ve got to focus on having a controlled, uh pattern of breathing now; one thing to do is make sure that you breathe out OK first because that sends a message to your head that the situation is OK.  It just sends them messages that are just a shortcut, but then you need to get into a pattern of breathing, but if you’re about to be killed, don’t start going on.  Mindset is everything you know.  It’s mindfulness.  Everyone’s got to underset.  That nothing happens in your physical world, or everything happens in your physical world as a product of your mindset.  You know, until you’re mentally prepared, you’re never physically ready, so whatever it is you’re doing, I mean.

 

If you want to know what you think about it, look at your life.  That’s what you think about; if you’re going to improve, you need to improve your thinking.  There was one thing this is away from something I forgot to ask about.  it might be completely irrelevant to what you spoke about.  I think it was in the marines, the grey man, the mentality of the grey man.  It just reminded me when you when he was on about the project in Thailand.  When I heard you describing the grey man, I thought that an everyday person could benefit from that.  It’s not about the bravado, or it’s about, like that guy in the corner.  As you described it, the guy in the corner, do you think that is beneficial to be an ob. that observant person?  I guess being the grey man is how you need to deal with everything.  I mean, I learned this more than anything on special forces selection.  You know if you’re right at the front.  The thing is, with special forces selection, you’re not looking for the fastest.  The strongest you’re looking for is the person that gives the most, but you know there’s one thing about being the grey man.

 

That’s they’re the people that you look at, you know.  That’s they’re the people that you know.  Are the interesting characters, you know, the ones at the front?  Get themselves highlighted, you know.  That’s all about ego, so they’re ego-driven.  But the person that can reserve themselves.  Sit in the pack.  Not be the worst but not be the best.  Just taking the information in the centre of the group, they’re the ones that will deliver at the end of the day.  You know it’s not the people that need to be seen to be at the front I love I love the idea of it, the concept of it as well like there’s just something about it that’s unbelievable is that, so is that what the project named after in Thailand.  Yes, it was.

 

We just started again, so like I said in the book, you know we had to us had to, discuss.  The grey man I’ve just started it in the uk now, so gray man rescue is we’re looking into rescue kids, so it started up again that’s amazing yeah, is there anything I really I’m, so happy about what we’ve covered is there anything that you would want to you want to cover at all, one meter square one mixed square one meter square elite performance psychology right this is because everything at the moment you’ll see soon but one meter square I’ve got to be careful what we’re saying here because everything’s getting rebranded one meter square let me mention about one meter square though what it what it’s all about you know one meter square you know in pressured situations, especially in the special forces but you know in any pressured case what you have to do you know when all around you is falling apart you have to forget about everything on the outside world you have to bring it down into one meter square OK focus on your immediate environment .  that is making sure that everything in your environment is still moving forward it still has moment, . That wants me to square psychology.  That’s what me.  Foxy talk about a lot, so there are big things to come with a one-meter square I’m excited to hear, I do I genuinely recommend like we have people on all the time I read the book this weekend, absolutely loved it, so I’m going to be going for the new book for sure.  Still, I genuinely recommend there’ll be a link in the description to go for all the stuff, really good material.  Oh, thank you so much for coming on do appreciate it so much.  Yes, it’s going to be amazing to release this, so thank you very much.  Yes, wicked, that was a lovely man that was a that’s probably one of me.

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