JD's Journal
Having roamed this planet for six decades, and after 47 years of full-time employment in a smorgasbord of roles and locations, I'm sharing the gems I've gathered plus the wisdom of other remarkable leaders and innovators who I've encountered along the way. I don't have a clear destination yet, but based on my historical experience, it's certain to be a dynamic and unpredictable adventure. Welcome aboard!
JD's Journal
Aidan Grimes on Legacy, Empowerment, and the Kokoda Spirit
Embark with us as we traverse the emotional landscapes of resilience and self-discovery with Aidan Grimes, a beacon of empowerment whose legacy with Microsoft and Our Spirit is as captivating as the historical Kokoda Track he's crossed so many times. Our spirits soared in conversation with Aidan, whose Dublin upbringing fueled a lifelong passion for nurturing growth mindsets and collective achievements. He weaves tales that link his personal mission to the vibrant stories of the Kokoda Track, where the footprints of WWII soldiers and the "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels" left indelible marks upon those who walk it today.
This episode is a treasure trove of narratives that dance across the themes of empathy, valor, and personal evolution. We explored the rugged terrains of both the Kokoda Track and the human heart, unraveling stories of a mother who beat lung cancer and a young teenager finding his voice amongst a Papua New Guinean community. Our conversation traced the importance of understanding your history, the power of belonging, and the raw potential for growth that adversity often masks. Aidan's insights on the essential training for the Kokoda Track highlighted the symbiotic relationship between physical endurance and mental fortitude, changing lives one step at a time.
Finally, we delved into the nuances of legacy and the profound influence of everyday heroes on our personal journeys, including the touching story of Cleo Dark, a young woman whose Kokoda Track experience helped her emerge from the shadow of personal tragedy. We wrapped up with anticipatory excitement for our next rendezvous, promising a continuation of dynamic stories that stir the soul and remind us of the strength found within our vulnerabilities. Join us for this episode not just to hear, but to feel the pulse of humanity's enduring spirit.
You can learn much more about Aidan and Our Spirit, including how you can experience the Kokoda Track or the many other development programs they provide by going to https://www.ourspirit.com.au/.
Here are some highly recommended materials relating to the topics covered in this podcast:
Hi folks and welcome to the JD's Journal podcast where, every couple of weeks, my guests and I share some of our lives, journey, our successes, our failures, the valuable lessons that we've learned on the way and the resources that we've gathered that have allowed us to survive, prosper and thrive. The opinions and perspectives shared on JD's Journal should be taken applied with your own good judges. Episodes of the podcast are largely unscripted and unedited. I'll do my best to keep things on topic, but you can expect some occasional glitches and a little meandering along the way. I hope, if nothing else, you find that entertaining.
JD:Now let's get this episode started. Hi everyone and welcome back to the JD's Journal podcast, and this is my very first guest spot on the podcast. This is Aidan Grimes, who I've had the pleasure of knowing since the early 90s, actually, when he was the fitness coach at our in-house gym at Microsoft in North Ride in Sydney. There he tried to provide guidance, inspiration, support for the employees who were also trying to balance their crazy careers and their health at the same time, and frankly, had a big challenge.
JD:It was not unusual for breakfast in those days to be a Diet Coke and a Mars bar, and he had the challenge of keeping us honest and challenging us. Aidan established a new organization called Our Spirit in 2004, which was to support the growing demand that he was seeing for adventure, challenges and treks from corporate clients, and since then, crazily, he's led over 120 crossings of the Dakota Trail it's hard to imagine more than anybody else. He's been essentially adopted by the local indigenous tribes and elders there on that trail and he's been recognized by the Australian Return Services League or the RSLs. They're well known, as well as the Papua New Guinea and the Australian government, for his contribution to raising the awareness of the indigenous cultures and also maintaining the legacy and respect for our very heroic diggers in World War II. It's really a great story, and so Aidan did I do a fair job of introducing you mate.
JD:I know I could talk about so much more about what you've done, but anything I missed or anything you want to call out before we start our journey.
Aidan:Yeah, the most important thing to me, john, is and it's great to be here, it's great to reconnect with you Probably the most important thing is that over the years, the different awards that were given to me as part of the citations, I insisted on accepting those awards on behalf of the staff, of anybody trying to make a difference, and that's basically one of the precursors to what I've done. So I believe there's so many people that have been in this space with me on this journey, as you mentioned, so I think it's important to mention that. Yeah, for sure.
JD:No, it's a great call out and it rings so true to the Aidan that I've known for nearly 30 years, or maybe it's more than 30 years, but that is so consistent with the person that I've known over the years and truly I'm not just saying that. You are a person who is incredibly inclusive and incredibly inspiring to those around you, always were and I know you'll always be that way. With that, that's a great segue, actually, to the first question I want to ask you, which is the first question I ask all of my guests and it's the big question, right, so we know what you do?
JD:we've heard a little bit about what you're all about, but what would you say is your greater purpose? What is the reason that Aidan exists on this planet? What would be the legacy that you leave behind?
Aidan:You know what I've no doubt what it is is that my whole life I look back on it and since the years I can remember there's no doubt that it's about showing people what they really can do. So my thing is all about giving people an opportunity to grow, but also supporting them in that opportunity as well. So it's about, I guess, looking at where they are today, where they want to go, and then how do you close that gap?
Aidan:So because in our society we tend to look down on people who say I want to do something or I want to make a difference or I want to make a change. You know it's a hard thing. So it's an important role because ultimately, at the end of the day, you get people that are most honest and probably the most vulnerable too. I kind of liken it to an onion, you know. You peel back the layers of the onion to get to the real core of what that person is and who they really are, and then give them the opportunity to grow, and then from there comes hope as well. So I deal with a lot of different populations, and especially when you're dealing with adolescents, it's a major part of kids, you know. It's giving them the opportunity to have hope, and it's one of the key areas that we're kind of getting lost with at the moment in our society, you know. So these roles are now becoming even more important than ever.
JD:It wasn't accidental that I chose you as the first guest person on this podcast series. I can tell you, aiden. In fact, the episode that came before this episode, I focused on mindset and that notion of possibility that I can't do it yet, but I have the capability to get there, and I think what you described there speaks so well to that whole notion of growth mindset. I'm really curious, you know, when did you realize that that was your purpose, and was there a catalyst for it? Was there something that happened in your life that gave you that mission?
Aidan:Yeah, like when I did. Well, I come from Dublin in Ireland, so you know we were brought up in a society where it was okay to sing and it was okay to dance and it didn't matter if people saw you singing and dancing, it was okay. Whereas, you know, now I discover it's kind of like people don't like the oh who's looking, that kind of stuff, but from there allowed us to see the possibilities. So it was almost like because of the environment that we brought up in. It gave me the opportunity to analyze it as I was going. And so from going to school, you know, playing sport and stuff like that and being very successful at sport as well, it gave me the opportunity to look outside the square, it gave me the opportunity to see. You know that there was other possibilities that you could dream.
Aidan:And again like from the dreaming comes to hope. You know, it gives us the opportunity to say well, well, yes, I can be, because what's the difference between me and somebody who I see as being successful? Well, maybe it's the opportunity, maybe they got the opportunity and I just haven't had it yet. So imagine if you could create a system where you could give people the opportunities, and so from the opportunities then come the opportunity to build motivation into it. And from an early age I was very, very good at getting on with people. I was a very social person and I was good at that. I realized that from a very young age, you know, from playing team sports. I was always a popular member within the team and I was a good kid. But one of the things growing up for me was I didn't realize that I was on the ASD spectrum, so I was actually a spiritual. So it was one of the key areas.
Aidan:As a war, I spent a lot of time analyzing from an early age, so say from about 1112, I was still in psychology and the reason why I was doing that was because I was searching for my own answers. So became this journey, you know. So it was almost like well, facial recognition. I knew nothing about facial recognition, but what I did know was that I used to get 99 out of 100 in exams and stuff like that, and basically what that meant was that well, when you did that kind of stuff you weren't part of a cool crowd. So what I did then was I started dumb myself down so I would only do half an exam and get 50%, but I was a cool kid. So then I started to fit in more and by fitting in more then it kind of developed from there and opportunity, but more importantly, because I was fitting in, I then had influence that keyword influence, you know and so from the influence then I could actually play with these kids, but I could also become part of that group. And then when I have some sort of influence on where that group goes and it was quite amazing to watch that so that's where it kind of started from me from a very, very young age, and then it kind of grew from there.
Aidan:You know, then I was a good soccer player, so I became a professional soccer player for a while and then, you know, eventually one day then I'd come to Australia and of course my life had completely changed. Then, you know, and it opened up so many doors. That opened up the key door for me was education, because in Ireland it was so hard to have access to education good education, tertiary education that was confined to people who had a lot of money and coming from a very working class family, that was never going to happen. So it was only when I arrived into Australia that all these things started to open up and what I saw and what I believed started to come to fruition, which was crucial for me, because what it's done for me is it's instilled with me what to talk, so don't just talk about it.
Aidan:Yes, you can, was the famous words used by Obama, but it's not about that. It's about making a happen. Let's make it happen, and that's always been my thing, you know. So when you introduced me, we were talking about Microsoft, for example, and you know the health and wellbeing of Microsoft. I took that so serious. I took it so serious. It's incredible when I look back on it now, but I still am friends with those people you know, like yourself, 32, 30 years, wherever it is later, and the reason being is because you know where the breakfasts were probably not the greatest things for some people. Eventually I got to them eating Weetabix, you know what I mean. And then I'd go to Christmas parties and all I would get at the Christmas parties oh, and you're not going to believe what I'm doing now I'm eating Weetabix and all I was interested was having a beer.
Aidan:But it was funny. You know, you had so many people coming up to me and their wives have become up to me and saying it's made a huge change in their lives. You know, he's now positive, he's dropped weight, he feels good about himself, he's doing this, he's setting goals, he's like. For me that was just reinforcing my philosophy, but the key for me, john, was keeping that philosophy pure. So don't sell your soul, because when you sell your soul it always has a price on it, and I was absolutely strong on that. No matter who I met, it didn't care. Even when Gates came over that time, it didn't matter, it was still.
Aidan:I am who I am, even when Packard tried to wine and dye me. There's just. Over the years there's been so many. And if it doesn't fit with that philosophy of you're never going to own me and integrity is more important to me than anything on the planet. So if it doesn't fit in with that, I say no. I say no and that's why that whole philosophy around what I do has continued to grow and develop so strongly. Because there's no conflict. There's no conflict, it's pure, it's straight. This is where I am today. This is where I want to go. This is how we close the gap. Let's work together and close the gap, and when you see people do that, it's the greatest, greatest feedback. No money on the planet will pay for that. It's the greatest feeling when you see somebody achieve what their life goal has been, and then the realization is incredible. So many success stories.
JD:I love three things that you just talked about there. First of all, you took me right back. I lived in Struffen outside of Dublin for three years, as you know, and I've been telling you that was a closely related community many of them related to each other. But it was dinner parties on the weekend, pretty much moving around the village. And you had to have it for the end of the night.
JD:You were the son, you told a poem or you told a witty story, but everybody got involved and I have to say it was the most incredibly nurturing and fun and non-threatening environment you could possibly be in. So an incredibly fond memory for me and that beautiful thing and I can see how that created that sense of possibility. I can actually step out of my comfort zone, knowing I'm in a safe place, knowing I'm surrounded by friends and family where I can do that, where I can do something that may be a not so great, but it doesn't matter, because it's going to be a great fun, great crack, as they say, and so forth, so that was awesome.
JD:I think the second thing that you talked about there that's so important in terms of who you are from me watching you as an outsider is your ability to meet people where they are, and so, for the listeners who don't know me, fitness is not my gig.
Aidan:I'm not a sports person, never have been.
JD:And Aidan, given his fitness and his focus on fitness, could have been a quite intimidating person for me to deal with. To be honest with you, I think I do encounter that from time to time and that was never the case, I have to say. Aidan has this magical capability of meeting you, as I say, where you are, as a person you are, and it never feels demeaning or threatening in any way. In fact, it's inspiring and Aidan and I I can recall you and I having some great conversations about diet lamb chops comes to mind.
JD:But we do have some great conversations and there's no question that you've had influence on me and my mindset in terms of the things that I did. And I think the last thing that was such a strong part of what you said and I truly believe that is that, along with all of that, you never forgot your values. You've never walked away from your principles and your values, and so, while you will meet people where they are, it doesn't mean that you're going to bring yourself down to their level or move into their space.
JD:From that perspective, it's kind of meet them there and then pull them in the right direction and influence me in the right direction. I think that's your superpower.
Aidan:to be honest with you, aidan, Well, you know, like you say, growing up in Ireland we have a sense of values come through history, right? So my thing has always been if you don't know where you come from, well, then how do you know where you're going? And that's a big thing in this day and age, like, think about that. If you don't know where you came from, well, then how do you know where you're going? And if you don't know, somebody else will tell you. Yeah, that tends to happen. There's always somebody waiting there to tell you this is where you came from. And it's not a fact. So this became a really big thing for me.
Aidan:History, you know, and the history is so important because we've got ancestors who've done so much for us and we're a product of them. What do we like or not? You know, there's been great history, there's been bad history. Whatever it is, it's still history. It still formulates who we are today. And history comes in many formats. We've even got genetic history, you know. So we should be embracing history and learning from it, because if we don't learn from it, we all know it repeats, and it's starting to repeat again in the world we live in.
Aidan:So this was my journey. My journey became this thing around history. I have a massive interest in history and eventually I'd end up on the Dakota track for a few reasons, you know. But one of the greatest things about history, and especially when you're dealing with military history and you talk to some of the people who've been there and been on the pointy end of it, one of the things they'll always say is that look, it's not about me, I survived, I came back, it's about my mates. It's about my mates that never came back. And this is the legacy. You know, we talk about the legacy.
Aidan:So my thing is, and your question to start with you know your legacy, what's your legacy? You know, and I think that's what it's all about it's the legacy that you leave behind, you know. So who is John Dwyer? Who is he? You know. So, when your day does come, when you're the part of the world, who is he? You know what's the legacy that you leave behind, and people need to start looking at this. You know, I liken it to a book, john.
Aidan:So everybody's a book, everyone has a story, everybody is a story, and so within that book, you've got an intro and you've got a conclusion, whether you like or not. So if you build it. There's all the chapters in the middle of the book. There are many, many people that formulate and help you formulate all those chapters as you go through this life. So we're not immune to, you know, to exposure to anything.
Aidan:But at the end of the day, what's scouring is is that it's pretty much history. You base your decisions based on history. Your perceptions are all based on history as well. You know, how do you know that that's a car? Well, because you know it's a car. So it's like well, moving forward. You know, when you talk to people who've been on the pointy end, like I explained, it's like well, they'll always say to you that no matter how hard things are, it could be worse. You know it could be worse. Life could be a lot, lot worse than what we have currently today. People are talking about it, but when I did a Dakota track the first time when I came back, I was smart enough to track down the diggers who had survived.
Aidan:Now a lot of those diggers would become personal friends and become mentors for me in particular. But I remember one particular digger and it was around the story. So the Battle of Isiraba on the Dakota track, arguably the most important battle site in Australian history, not Gallipoli, isiraba and the reason being was was 420 young kids dug into a hillside, and up on the mountains were over 12,000 Japanese and they had mountain guns, so they had artillery. We had nothing and these kids, our kids, had been taken off the streets of Victoria pretty much and basically they had no training. Their uniforms were in tara. They were dug in during these little trenches full of water. Their uniforms were in tara. They'd lost so much weight now they'd been up there over four weeks in action and they knew, or they were told at least, that if they didn't stop the Japanese at that point, on the 26th of August 1942, the Japanese would go all the way to Port Moresby and then perhaps take Australia, and that's what they believed.
Aidan:Whether that was going to happen or not is irrelevant, but when I spoke to the diggers that were there that made it out, they were saying look, we had malaria, we had dysentery, we were on our last legs. We knew there was a good chance, we were going to die. But the reason why we were there was because we were defending our country. We were defending. We didn't care about the king, we didn't care about any of that. We were there defending our country and if we didn't stop them, well then they were going to take our families. And that's what they say to me.
Aidan:And my question then was well, what was gone through your mind as you sat in that trench, that foxhole full of water, no gear, no food for the last seven or eight days? You're on your last legs. You're only a kid, 18, 19 years of age. And he said Spud Bielentorn ran and he said to me. He said well, no matter how hard it was, I always believed my back was covered. My mates had my back and we knew that we had a perimeter and if one of us fell asleep or one of us didn't do our job, well then the Japanese were going to come through and we'd be all dead. But we walked out of there as mates and that thing became a big factor for me, and especially with Australia mateship.
Aidan:Mateship is the most important thing here in Australia. You know, you're the first people to roll up your sleeves when there's a tsunami. You're the first people to roll up your sleeves when there's a bushfire. You're the first people to get out there and organise music festivals when somebody's doing a tough. You know it goes on and on and on. The greatest people in the world Australia is the greatest people.
Aidan:But you know this thing mateship is fascinating but very, very powerful, and when it's pulled together in the right frame and for the right motivations and for the right reasons, it can change anything it really can. But that was my experience of this thing, you know. So that's how it started to grow, because all of a sudden, my ideology around the whole health and well-being thing and yes, you can, and you can close the gap was now met with factual information from people who have been in the pointe, and so my journey then started to explore that. Tell me more. And then it went forward. I went into Stan Bissets and the Ralph Honours of the world, who are all heroes, and then I went across into.
Aidan:Vietnam and other areas of military campaigns. But so it kind of backed up what I was saying. And then from there I was also studying. So I went on to do exercise physiology, you know, at that point as well and so it grew and I've never stopped studying. But the bottom line is is that one of the key reasons why I go to Papua New Guinea is Papua New Guinea is one of the most amazing countries in the world, and the reason being is it shows us and demonstrates to us what we used to have. So it's a flashback. It goes back into when life was simple, when we didn't have all the pluses and the add-ons that we have currently in Australia.
Aidan:Today, when you go to PNG, here's a great story for you. The first time I went to Papua New Guinea, I was up there doing a recce, and I'll never forget it because a little plane, a little twin order, took off into the mountainsides. And the mountainsides are like something you'd see out of Columbia, John, amazing, like mountains, forests. You could disappear easily. I'll never forget it because this little plane came bouncing down onto a runway. Eventually it was a place called Cacoda and there was a guy with me, he was Australian and he got out of plane and we were welcomed by these native people. They were all dressed in feathers and bones through the noses and it was a mind-blowing thing. You got to understand now. I've come from Dublin, so it's not something that you see on the streets of Dublin, right? So these guys come up and the first thing the Australian guy says he says, oh, you need to get a fridge, mate, and then you can have this and you can store food and stuff like that. And I sat back and I was watching and one of the key things that I've learned through my life is observation, the importance of observation, absolutely crucial. Then it was my time and the chief came to me and the first thing I did to him was I asked him what do you need? And he turned around to me and he says well, we don't need anything. How our life works up here is that we plant vegetables and it rains, and as long as those vegetables grow, we can eat and we're all happy. How our culture works more importantly is that those who are strong will go out into the field and become farmers, so they work the farms during the day, and those who are not, they will stay in the villages. They will be the older people and the young kids, but the older people will then pass our way to the younger kids and that's how to keep the culture going. And I was blown away by this.
Aidan:But it was a simple question what do you need? How many times that question would dictate my life. What do you need? It's a simple question, and even in business, you know, it's a simple question to you know, it's the many times you go around and around a bloody circle, isn't it? You know, and all it is is what do you need? What do you need from me? This is what I need from you. It's so simple, but no, we've got to wrap it up, you know. But I think you said that's what it taught me was the simplicity of that. And then later on, of course, I'd learn well, that's a needs analysis and consultants they charge a lot of money for that.
Aidan:But it was fascinating because then from there, the story kind of grew. You know, we spent all this time walking the Dakota track. So when you introduced me, you said 120, it's actually 131. So it's 131 times across the Dakota track and many other areas, but so when you put that into perspective, it's like it's the equivalent of walking four and a half years full time. So four and a half years full time living in tents, mud, rain, cold, dealing with people, dealing with teams, dealing with all sorts of populations, including prime ministers and governor generals I've seen them being there and to deal with that and then trying also sort your own mental issues.
Aidan:You know so that occurs as well, because you know I'm a person I'm not oblivious to, I'm not immune to it. I also get challenges, you know, and challenge from mental point of view too, and it's it's, it's a it's, it's hard, you know. So you call on these beautiful words, resilience, you know. So society tends to create these things around. You know resilience, great words, you know, as if it's a new skill. You know mindfulness. You know, like it's a new skill. May, we've been practicing that since the year DOS.
Aidan:But you know mindfulness on the Dakota track is that you stay in the present. So if you don't stay in the present, if you let your head wander or your mind wander up into the clouds, guess what you're gonna? You're gonna fall. It's that simple. You know simple things, simple learnings from nature because of the observation.
Aidan:No use worrying about the top of the hill because you got no control over that. You got control over where you are currently One foot in front of you. That gets you to the top of the hill and then you've got control. Now you're just worrying about as you walk across a raging river on a large bridge. Now you're just worrying about where you don't want to go. You focus on where you want to go, just like life.
Aidan:You sit back in rainforest and put more in on the Dakota track and you see raging rivers and no matter what you do, there's nothing can stop that river. It's like us as human beings, when we discover our life path, there is nothing can stop it. If you're on your life path, there's nothing to stop you, especially if it's fueled by passion. And this is the Irish way. The Irish history is all about passion.
Aidan:Somebody stood up and said no, you know years and years of occupation, you know no. And so, from that point of view, that also helped develop a sense of optimism. Tomorrow can only get better. So that has stood me in good stead, the whole sense of optimism. Because when the hard days come on the Dakota track as they do, there's always that look at how he's developing, look at how she's developing, look at how that little fella's developing, and that's enough reward. So it kind of keeps you going and it fuels the energy cells again to believe and keep going. And then you pick up the pieces when you go back to Australia or whatever. But it's a hell of a learning experience because when people ask me about it they say you know, they're fascinated by first of all what's an Irish man doing on the Dakota track.
Aidan:So if I had a dollop of every time I heard that I'd be very wealthy man. But it's a very simple answer though, because you know, when you go to the man, a cemetery where they're all buried, 98% of the names in that graveyard are Irish, you know. So there's a there's a complete link to it. But, more importantly, that story, when I started, I used to call it the story. That was never told because nobody knew about it. I had often heard people calling it Coca Cola track, you know, and that blew me away. It really did. So that became my journey, but it became more important in my classroom. So it became a classroom for me, you know, and it hasn't stopped.
JD:Well, now it's become a classroom for 131 classes that you've led. So I think that's when you talk about legacy that's incredible and clearly you're not done. You've answered so many of my questions of what you, just what you talked about, which is amazing. So, first of all, thank you for telling the story of our diggers. I think it's such an incredibly important story and I concur with you, frankly, growing up.
JD:I knew nothing about our diggers in the Dakota Trail, and so you inspired me, in fact, to go and have a read and have a look at the videos of that, and the conditions appeared to be horrific. And I think I'll get you to talk a little bit more about the Dakota Trail experience so that you can share that with our listeners, because I think a lot of folks listening, particularly those folks who are listening from outside of Australia, will not know about Dakota Trail.
JD:It seems to me too, I'm a big fan of Paul Ekman, and he's a person who studies the micro gestures. If you've ever watched a series on television called Light of Me was based on the life of Paul Ekman, and when he was studying micro gestures he was curious about whether those gestures were consistent in every culture or whether it was something that was learned and it was actually beginning was one of the places where he went to study it to find out that, in fact, these things are inherently instinctual, regardless of where you come from, and so he was looking for the tribes who'd been isolated by the from the rest of the world for the longest period, so he could study that, and that was one of the places he went. I'm also amused and frustrated by what you describe it, which is so typical of us in the I think in the West in particular to assume, when we go to a different culture, to assume that they need us to change them to our way, because that's the right thing to do, and it drives me bonkers that we do that. We've got civilizations who've been infinitely successful and happy without, frankly, our influence. So I think it's a glad you reminded us that.
JD:I think it's such an important thing for us to learn that sometimes we actually don't have it so good compared to some of these civilizations. Frankly, we can learn a lot from them. I guess true of the Australian indigenous people as well. I was chatting with somebody just yesterday about managing bushfires in Australia and my initial question was so we engage? The people actually understand bushfires in Australia because they actually know how to do this If you do it for 60,000 years. So all those things I think are wrapped up in your story in the way you describe.
JD:What you described Could you do this like, for the sake of our listeners, spend their time describing where the Cacoda is and what the environment is like and what is so important.
Aidan:Yep, great question. For from an Australian point of view. So this was the first time that Australia was on the trend, its own territory. So P&G at that time was under Australian rule, so it was a mandate, mandated territory. So, and given that, you know, papua McGuiny is only a narrow and a half away from Australia at the top end, it became absolutely crucial that it was was garrenson most importantly.
Aidan:And so when the Japanese had launched, on the 7th and 8th of December 1942, the Battle of Pearl Harbor occurred and then. So the Japanese then knew that. Well then, the next stage for them was to isolate the Americans and make sure that they took Papua McGuiny so they could do that and control all the sea lanes. So, from our point of view, was that, because we had a responsibility for it as well, we had two armies at the time. So we had the AIF, which was the Australian Imperial Force, which was basically a Force that was there to support the British Empire. So we're part of that system as well, but we also had territories. So what we did was we created what was called a citizen military force, the CMF, or it was called a militia, and then later it would be called a Chocos. Chocos meaning that these soldiers Would, he would melt in the heat of battle. Now that didn't occur. So the CMF, the militia they were made up of kids, no training, so 18, 19, 20 years of age, and they would be sent up to this place called Papua McGuiny.
Aidan:Now with the Kokoda track. The Kokoda track is a track that runs. Most people think it's 96 K's and it is as the crow flies, but if you put a pair of hiking boots on him it's 128 K's Now because it's up and down and it's huge mountains. But that track became absolutely essential because that was the track that the Japanese decided to land on in 24th to July 1942 after the battle at the Coral Sea and also after the battle of Midway. So they could no longer attack Port Moresby by the sea because we defeated in the Coral Sea and also the Battle of Midway. So the only option now for them to take Moresby was this little track called the Kokoda track that ran across a vast mountain range called the Oman Stanley range and it's got the biggest mountains that you know that in the world. It's mind-blowing, it's absolutely mind-blowing. I've often had people who climb Mount Everest and they've walked the track and we say this is harder than Mount Everest, and Facts will eat us more a sense, and these sense. So there's more altitude on it, then Everest if you add it all up. So it's a crazy setup. It's a crazy track, and why they would have a war on it is beyond anybody. But so what?
Aidan:It was about One stage where the Japanese had landed their supply lines very, very short because the other sea right beside them, which Australians had to carry every single thing across the track. Now, for them to do that, they had to rely on vastly Superior human beings, have asked me we called the fuzzy. Was the angels, which were the pattern who gave you people and they carried all the logistics across the track. Now you got to understand it's hard enough to walk this track and it's hard enough to walk with a backpack, not alone carry a stretcher or carry, you know, ordinance. It's mind-blowing. It's mind-blowing. So it's the ultimate in endurance in more ways than one. It's the ultimate in in human performance, because not only are you dealing with the landscapes, you're also dealing with the fact that there's malaria in there, you're also dealing with the fact that it's humid. It's a hundred percent human. And then you're also dealing with the fact that, you know, during the rain season the rains come, so heavy it it's. I've never seen anything like it in my life and it's mind-blowing.
Aidan:So it was all about surviving all that and then get into the front line and then somehow become a very, very Effective soldier. And, bearing in mind, these kids had no training, they had to adapt to the environment, they had to learn. Like a simple thing in the jungle We've got this thing is called a firefly, and a firefly it lets off a little light in the dark, a blink, blink, blink. And so our young diggers will be sitting out there in a little shell scribe and they used to have a signal word that ran all the way from the start of the track to where they were at the front line and the sensors will be sitting out there, you know. And what the Japanese used to do was the Japanese would come through and a night and cut the wire and then like the plastic and use it as a lantern to see the way through the jungle. And, of course, when the Australian soldier, the young kid, when he saw the firefly, he would think the firefly was the Japanese walking through a lantern and then he'd shoot at him and then give away his position, and then he'd be killed.
Aidan:So it was all about learning to overcome and deal with the jungle, the environment. So you just hit on something very important there a minute ago in regards to native populations and how we trying to change them. But these people have been living with the environment for generations and that's what the digger had to do. He had to learn to live with the environment, and when he learned how to do that, he became successful. Isn't that amazing? So this is where the history came from and this is why the track became so important. It was all about stopping the Japanese from getting all the way across the track to Port Morrisby and then from there they would have been able to isolate all the sea lanes in and out of Australia, therefore the American supply line. So the Americans at that point in time had now started to use Australia. So that was the reason why it became so important and in our history as Australians, if they hadn't stopped them on the track, well then they would have been able to get to Australia, potentially, you know, yeah.
JD:So it is truly hard to imagine and I've never walked the trail not going to pretend that I've been there and done it, you know but I've seen the archival footage of these kids that Aidan's talking about during the Second World War and what they were doing, and I'll share some links.
JD:There's actually some video footage up on YouTube that I can share of that footage. It is it's hard to imagine that the Up to their knees in mud, effectively carrying ordinance and equipment and tents and so forth and sustaining themselves under the worst of conditions it is truly a human feat that they were able to sustain themselves and still fight and defend Our, our sovereignty was incredible and certainly inspiring. Play that forward, aidan, and what I'm hearing is that that journey today is still a journey of learning. It's still a place where people are learning from the environment. They're looking, learning from the local tribes. They're clearly learning from you as well and coming away from this changed in some way. I'm super curious, and you kind of touched on it earlier, but how does a person prepare for this trick and is the biggest challenge a physical challenge or a psychological challenge?
Aidan:Okay, that's a really good question, right. So I'm lucky because I come from a background around performance. So when people want to do this, we insist on three months training first of all. Now, that's training Incompensers, not just physical, but it's also mental as well. So what I've been able to do is I've been able to analyze the track and work out exactly what the energy expenditure is on the track. So a typical day on the Dakota track is the equivalent of the Tour de France. So that kind of puts perspective around that. This is the challenge of it, right. So what we do then is that we kind of mirror that and try and but, more importantly, from a psychological point of view as well, we go okay. So these are the kind of challenges that you're going to have from a psych point of view. At the moment, I'm still running a study on resilience and we're actually finding that pre and post, there's a 25 increase in resilient factors. So that's pretty cool. Nobody's ever done that, so I'm doing that with some of the professors that I'm around at the moment, but anyway. So from a training preparation point of view, it's also about the correct information. So what tends to happen is people take on these challenges and they're not prepared for them and they get hurt.
Aidan:Now I actually say no to people. I actually turn around to them and say, look, no, and it amazes people because a bomb on a seat, you're going to make us some certain amount of money, right, so we don't do that. But and again it goes back to you know, values. But the bottom line is is that anybody can do it. And I look back at some of the cases I've had. I've had people were heart transplants, but people with no legs of a people, one leg of the people, do all sorts of challenges, you know, and it goes back to that principle that we started with. It's still the fact is that this is where you are, this is where you want to go and this is how we close that gap. So it's not rocket science. Now I look at some of the populations I've had up there. You know scum.
Aidan:I've had prime ministers, have had governor generals, I've also had the sas, so very fit people, very strong, but they strolled, so nobody's immune to this thing. And the thing and I tell this to everybody all the time is that the track is alive, because when you walk the track, you're walking with ghosts. The ghosts are still there. You can feel it, you can smell it. You can feel it all the time, and last in 2019. I was the one who found the 13 bodies at Tamins crossing, so they've just excavated those last year. So it's alive. So there's nowhere else in the world that you get to walk a track with ghosts.
Aidan:And the thing is, it's such a humbling experience. It teaches you what is possible. It teaches you how lucky you are. It teaches you no matter how hard you think you have it in life it could be worse, you could be getting shot at and then from that, it gives you a comparison study. So then most people who finish it, they'll think, wow, that's the coolest thing I've ever done, what an achievement. And then they use that as a litmus test.
Aidan:Then, moving forward study always have a comparison, and this is essential, especially for adolescents, because at adolescents, if they're unfortunate, if they're with their own family, well, they often put limits on them, you know, and not intentionally, but it's just the way they're programmed, the way they're conditioned. So when those kind of kids get up in those areas, they suddenly realize that, well, no shackles on me, now I can do. Look at this, wow, I've achieved this, I can, I'm here, here I am, and, yes, everything's possible and what he's saying is correct. And then by the time they get to the middle of the track, they now have a plan, because it is hard and you might not be sleeping, for example, so it could be hidden, things like that. And then you've got to come up a way of overcoming those challenges For yourself and then somehow form a state of home. Your space is against that balance In such a way that you're going to be successful. And then somewhere along the way, at day five, you start seeing and believing in yourself. And it's the greatest power, because now you're believing in yourself. It's got nothing to do with me.
Aidan:I present the history passionately, but also there's a message in it, always a message in it, and it's always subtle and I'm watching all the time. But, however, I don't rescue people or refuse to do that, because when you rescue people, what you do effectively is is you're giving them scaffolding, you're giving them a crutch, and then they all walk across the tracks. I would never have made it if it wasn't for you, and that's the worst thing in the world you can say to me. I hate that, absolutely hate it.
Aidan:So my thing is always about you know, you feed the engine, you feed the engine and then look at it, grow, look at it, grow, look at it, grow. No different to nature. You know, you plant a seed. You've got to water that seed to grow. You know, and the thing is with nature and the cacodas, right, nature is a funny one, because when you take a plant away from life, it's got a few choices that can either grow back towards the light or it dies. We're the same.
Aidan:So you can either take on what's necessary to get you through these days, or you stop and you go. I can't do it anymore. But you know what? That doesn't occur because you look around you and there's always something there that kicks your engines, no matter what, and you come out the other end of it a very strong person, like I've had so many people, get to the end of that track and go and make decisions that would change their life. And then I look at them and I see, wow, those people are making incredible, incredible, incredible contributions. You know, incredible. And it goes on and on from every walk of life. Nobody's immune to it, it's, it's amazing, it really is.
JD:I love the empowerment in what you just described. I think it's incredibly powerful and and I again I'm even like a coda, but like it's relatable for me from my journey Went to Kilimanjaro back in 2013 as a 50 year old who, frankly, wasn't as fit as I should have been- but it was interesting to me.
JD:The synergies there in terms of my own experience was Day one, I told myself I'd made a huge mistake and I couldn't do this. And then, day seven, I crested stellar point and made it up to you who or it was. It was game changing for me, no question about it. But the other thing, this other synergy, that thinks very interesting. What you said is that the most humiliating part of the Kilimanjaro climb and others have just described this as well Is when you get that last kind of 500 meters at high altitude. You struggle right, you walk 20 spaces, you have to stop and walk 20 pace. You have to stop and and I had the experience of Lovely little old lady shuffling past me, happy as day Now you find like she was and so you know youth and strength and it was irrelevant in that climb.
JD:It was all about mental model, it was all about mindset and the sense of possibility it was. It was quite interesting and I'm hearing the same, the same thing and what you're describing. There is so much of our Resilience and capability and possibility comes from how we we view possibility, how we view our ability, more than the muscle that we have on our on our bodies.
Aidan:Remarkable stuff um, yeah, sorry, john, just to interrupt you there. It's about self-talk, you know so self-talk is is a programmer, you know so. It's kind of like, well, where does that self-talk come from? And and one of the greatest things I see In the early stages, when they're going through that period, that you just um, you know, pointed out on the Kilimanjaro track, is that in the first two days, when they're finding a hard, they start singing negative songs. And it's funny. And I asked them, I said how come you're singing abba? They go I'm not singing abba. See you where? Oh, so what? I see this.
Aidan:Is it so when you're an athlete right, we all have physical viruses, but immune systems are so strong and keeps them at bay, so we don't get colds and flus when you're an athlete and you're training really hard, you cross, sometimes you cross that line, and then what happens is you're worn down and then these viruses go yes, opportunity, and then you get cold and flu and da, da, da, da, da. Your mind's no different, your mind has got the same thing. So what I'm saying is is that all exposure that people have been to and through their life, it comes through fruition, but they don't know how to release it. So what's happening is through the physical hardship. That's the release button. So the input was through hardship, physical hardship. The release must be through physical hardship too, and I see this especially with kids at risk, street kids in particular. We appeal to them and sit down and we appeal to them at a motion level. They don't understand emotion, it's a waste of time but they do understand physical hardship, because hardship was what happened to me. I was bashed, I was dissed, I was that, and so all these viruses are fed through that physical hardship pathway and so the only release for it is back out the same way it came. So on the Dakota track, when they hear the history, there's a lot of sadness around the history, but there's a lot of hardship about the physical mountains, and so what happens is it becomes a catharsis for these people and they release all these negative emotions and negative programming. So by the time they come to the end of the track, they're new people and they go back and they make choices and they make differences and they don't steal cars anymore.
Aidan:I've seen it so many times. I know it's there. That system is definitely there, and we store everything in our neural system. You know, I can evoke your neural system. Here we are, with miles apart, and I can turn around to you. John, you're not going to believe what happened to me Yesterday. I had a hammer and a nail and I was hitting the nail and I missed it and it hit my tongue. You can automatically feel your tongue going. Oh, that's sore. You know what I mean, but that's your neural system. I'm evoking your neural system. That's what your memories are. Your memories are attached to your neural system. So, if that's the case, well then, when we see, you know, sometimes, when we massage people in the thoracic region, they start crying. Why is that? Well, that's because that's where your emotion is stored, in the thoracic region of the spine, the spine, the biggest column of neural system.
Aidan:It releases it so if you get somebody who's really really good at kinesiology, they can ascertain a memory to a point on your body. That's when you get a really good one, and so we store all that stuff in our body. So there's no point in going to a physical therapist and getting released physically if you don't get the mind work that as well, because the two of them are aligned, they're absolutely aligned. So when bad stuff happens to you, you need to be able to release it from a physical point of view as well as the mind, so that all these different, alloyed therapists need to be working closely together, because that's the answer. That's where it's at.
Aidan:No one is better than the other. It's a combination. It has to be, and I've seen it enough times. So when something bad happens to you, how deep you store that will depend on the intensity of how you see what's happened to you or perceive what's happened to you, and that's what I'm finding. So it's deep within this final system, the neural system. So how do we release that? And in some cases some people can't.
JD:Well, they can. I don't believe any. I don't think nobody can do that. I think neuroplasticity is a real thing and I've seen enough of it. When I was doing my studies in NLP, I saw neuroplasticity at play, remarkably changing people in minutes. Actually quite interesting by basically, as you just described, in reprogramming people, reprogramming thought patterns and building new synapses and so forth.
Aidan:It's quite remarkable and you must be like me when you hear people say well, that's just me, that's just how I am.
JD:I'm like no.
Aidan:No, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody did that. Yes, they become a victim then and they take that on that. They were a victim then. So you're surrounded, you're a victim to your surroundings, you're a victim to your opening. But no, you don't have to be a victim. You can stand up and change it.
JD:How limiting that phrase is. It's so limiting to have that notion that you cannot change so 131 tracks. You have to have had some pretty interesting people along the line and certainly some celebrities along the way. You mentioned it a couple. It's quite particularly interesting that that is a story you want to share.
Aidan:There's been so many Like. I'll give you an example. My latest one was a lady who very, very fit. She woke up one day and she had pains in her chest so she went to see a doctor and eventually they were diagnosed that she had lung cancer. Now, automatically people think, oh, a smoker. No, never smoked Healthy. So she ended up a mother of four kids. So you can imagine what that does to somebody Anyway. So she had to get her lung removed and then went through a process of rehabilitation. She walked the track of me just recently, in November, and to see what that woman went through and hear and listen to the challenges she's faced was outstanding, absolutely second to none.
Aidan:Now, with one lung, it meant that we had to treat her pretty specially. We had to take our time on certain areas, especially on the uphill, but at downhill I noticed that she was really really fast. So I encouraged her and then she became her own person. She went. It was almost like a butterfly, and so she would make up the time and catch people and go pass them and then by the time the hill, they'd catch her, but it all come in together. Now you don't understand. The reason why that was important was because now she was an unequal with the rest of society, because one of the hardest things is when you go through that kind of stuff and you can imagine what we'll do. Now, all of a sudden, there she was and hired to because she's a female as well, like, let's face it. But the fact is that she got to that stage where she was now as strong as everybody else, if not stronger in some cases. So she walked the track and she also had to watch out for getting viruses and stuff like that as well, because that could really be a problem. Anyway, that lady grew and grew and grew and grew and she came out at the track for somebody who started off a four for five, five foot, you know, she was about six and a half seven feet and she had grown in such a way that she now believed that she could do anything and no longer was she a victim of what happened to her with this cancer.
Aidan:And I've seen that so many times. I could talk about that until the cows come home. I have seen it. You know where, when you dwell on something, when you're stuck in that moment, that will define you, that can dictate to you as well and you know this. But the bottom line is is that that environmental conditioning can do all sorts of damage to you and you never allowed that to occur.
Aidan:Now that happens in lots of different areas. It happens in your job, in your career as well. If you've got the bad manager, if you've got wrong people around you that convince you it's like a virus and then before you know it you start taking her on in bad relationships. Somebody keeps putting you down, telling you you can't, you can't, you can't. It's not good, it is not good. I think people in the future will start waking up more to this kind of thing. You know that starts seeing it.
Aidan:You mentioned neuroplasticity. You know that the whole area is evolving so incredible. You know that excites me. I'm just studying that all the time. You know I'm just doing my masters.
Aidan:But the thing is it's exciting because we're going to get people who've been downtrodden for so many years and now they have an opportunity, an opportunity to be able to be the best that they can be. You know you have a rose who grows to be a rose. You've got a dandelion who grows to be dandelion. You've got a person. Because of circumstances will never get the opportunity to be the person that they can be. Now we've got to look at that as a society. Now We've got a lot of things going on in society right now and that's reflective of that. We need to look after people. We need to be doing the right thing by people and given them the opportunity to grow.
Aidan:Just because you don't have money doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to go to university. You know, you've got all these doctors here in Australia that are so myopic, they're so in their viewpoints. We need people who are engineers to take on this medicine role, to see outside the square, see what's possible. You know, and we need to look at that, because a lot of these kids come through and I'm going to hit on it now. They come through because they come from wealthy parents and they go on to be doctors. The bedside manners everyone talks about are terrible. That's not acceptable anymore. I don't care, that is not acceptable. But these kids go on because you know they had access to the funding, but out there there are so many other kids that could be just as good if they were given the funding. You know, and that's a breakdown in our society those who have, those who haven't, and that gap has got bigger and bigger, you know.
JD:No question, I can see that every day. I think the other thing that's interesting that you talked about, and something that I'm very concerned about as I look with the folks that I work with as well, is that we've become the society of labels, because they become a society that has to put people in a bucket. And I know when I was in, when I was coaching, that was my business, you know I would often have people come in and say, hey, I'm ADHD or I'm a diabetic or I'm whatever and my question is always great.
JD:What else are you Like? Tell me all the rest of you. And unfortunately, we I think what you described is so true we have this tendency to want to define ourselves by a single dimension, and we're not. We're all multi-dimensional and everybody has a superpower or two. Everybody's a superpower or two, and for me, the inspiration, for example, has been the work that organisations like Lipritage has done, which is basically, to say, people who are on the high spectrum of autism and they have incredibly unique strengths in terms of memory retention and process and so forth, and, as an employer, they have attributes which could be incredibly high value attributes to have in certain roles, and that's the way we need to be thinking about these things. Is that okay? Maybe that attribute isn't their strength, but what are the other attributes that are their strengths, what are their superpowers? And I love that. I think that's very true and we need to be thumb open to considering all the dimensions of a person.
Aidan:Yeah, john, can I give you a story? I'll tell you a story. I had a kid. One day. Police rang me and said hey, you've got to take this kid. He's 14 years of age, take him up to the coldest rack because he's riding with the wrong people, he's getting in trouble, he's going to spend the rest of his life in jail. And I said, okay, look, I'm really interested. I rang one of the organisations of the track that we're doing and I said I want this kid. And they said no, no, no, he doesn't talk, he doesn't know how to socialise, he's a problem. And I said, no, he's the kid I want. And they said well, no. And I said, well, I won't do it then. And anyway, I won.
Aidan:So that kid, when he walked in the first day I'm walking with him, you know and I said to him and I'm not going to use his name, I'll call him Brett I said Brett, when you're, you know, you're 14 now, so you're six, seven, eight. Did you find mathematics easy? And he says, yes, I did. Okay, okay, no worries. So we walked on a little bit more and then I asked him a question you know what's a thousand times, 16 times? And he came out with the answer straight away and I said right, I got you. I was watching him then with the rest of the crew. The rest of the group and they were all his age Didn't want anything to do with him because he wasn't cool, he didn't fit in.
Aidan:And we do that in our society when we've got somebody who's different, we tend to ostracise them. We don't want to know them, john, because we're threatened. We don't want to know, and this is what was happening. So I had briefed the local guys, the Papua New Guinea men that work with me One day. Second day he turned around and he says I. And he said do you mind if I sleep around the fire with the boys? And I said look, you know what? As long as they have no problem with it and you're not causing drama, easy, do it. And we're right. Okay, great. And so he slept around the fire.
Aidan:Now you got to understand the basics. In Papua New Guinea, all they need is love, warmth, shelter and food the basic requirements of life. You need it and you need it as well. So he was now experiencing that the kid was in search of a tribe. Now he had found a tribe that made him feel welcome. And guess what they did? Then they said look, if you want to sleep around a fire with us and you want to be like us, you have to have a job. Your job is you go down the river every day and bring the water back. So he got okay. So now he had a responsibility. From the responsibility he got well done, son, he got recognition. And then, because he had recognition and responsibility, he now had a value. So I built value in him and, more importantly, a sense of belonging.
Aidan:So when we get up into an area on the track where Stan Bissett lost his brother Stan Bissett was a great soldier, a great leader and a very good mentor of mine. I spoke at his funeral we get to the rock where his brother passed away. Stan sang Danny by to him. Now I always sing Danny by at that point because I made a promise to Stan. So I'm singing Danny by and it's quite sad, you know.
Aidan:And when I'm finished I say look, is anybody wants to say anything? And you know what kids are like John. They just go, don't pick me, don't pick me. And they drop their heads no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't pick me, don't pick me.
Aidan:And out of nowhere, this kid stood up on the rock A kid. He never spoken again, or never spoken before. He jumped up on the rock and he lets ain't no mountain high enough, ain't? No, I'm gonna go watch. Going on here and the teacher is looking at me going. What's going on here? And when he was finished he got off the rock and off. He walked up the track and the other kids looked at that and don't. And then what happened then over the next few days was this kid would go forward, leave his bag at the top and come back and help the other kids.
Aidan:Now the kids, then the cool group. They tried to bring him into their little tribe by inviting him in and he would say no, I now have a value, I know who I am and I don't fit in, but I'm happy with that. And the kids all the way across the track, try this, try to pull him in, try to pull him in, try to pull him in. And he was strong enough to go. No, I have a different value.
Aidan:When I got down to the end of the track and I flew back to Brisbane, all the families were there to meet him and I went out the back door, you know. And I was on my way home and I got a phone call from his mother and she said I don't know what you've done, but my child has changed. When he came through customs and he saw me, he ran up to me, put his arms around me he said I love your mom. She said I've never heard that in my life. That's the first time I've ever heard that from my kid. And she's crying and I said well, stay tuned. Five days later she rings me and I said what's he done? And she said he's drawn up a list of all his loser mates and he rang them one after the other and said I can't hang around with you anymore. You're influencing me badly and I'm not like that anymore.
Aidan:This kid went down there next and he got a job. And that kid now I'm not going to tell you who he is, but he's quite well known that kid when I spoke to his mother again I said you know what happened and what story was. And she said no, your kid was autistic and he never got diagnosed because he was different. He was never allowed to fit in. Our society are guilty, we never let him fit in and that's the reason why he was going through all the hardships with the police trying to work his way into a tribe. And when he found his tribe he gave him the strength to recognition, responsibility and a sense of belonging, to find out who he was and how he is. And that kid mate. That's one success story. I can tell you a thousand success stories like that, but it goes back to that whole thing. You know, that sense of belonging, tribal, everybody's in search of a tribe. Where do I fit in? Where do I belong?
JD:I love that story. I absolutely love that story. But I tell you one thing I love about it as well is that I can tell you half a dozen stories in the corporate environment that were just the same, where we had employees who struggled, who were good people at heart but just couldn't find their place and couldn't find their purpose, and all we did was give them the opportunity to matter, to have a sense of importance, to have a sense of respect, and, frankly, that's what humans need, right? All I need to do is to know that I have a place and a purpose and a connection and that when I go home at night, I did something that contributed to the world and I'm a different person. So that's a phenomenal story, but I think it parallels so perfectly in the challenges we have as leaders in the corporate environment.
JD:So many times I've worked with people where the mindset of leadership was that person's that could manage them out Like they're not worth investing in and so forth, and it isn't never true. I've actually the point right now in my leadership journey where I don't think anybody is not worth investing in. We just haven't found their spark yet. We haven't found the place where they belong, and we can find that it's transformational. Thank you so much for sharing that story. I love that. I want to ask you to share another story. So, as we prepared for today, you shared some great content with me which I love and I will share in the show notes. But you shared a story about the 21-year-old Cleo Dark and her story and her journey on the cacodoo.
Aidan:On the cacodoo on the Dakota Trail.
JD:I wonder if you could share a little of that story for the listeners. It's such a great story.
Aidan:Yeah, and I see this often, so I've done a huge amount of work. As a matter of fact, it's 18 years with police legacy. So police legacy is an interesting charity because it deals with kids who have often lost their parents in the line of duty. Now build perspective around that. One story that stands out is a kid says to his dad dad, I'm having a hard time, I'm having problems at school, I need to, I need help in my homework. And dad says well, when I get home from work today at 5pm, let's sit down and I'll help you. And, of course, the father goes to work as a police officer. He doesn't come home because he's shot. And then I get those kids and I take them on the Dakota track.
Aidan:Now Cleo's story is an interesting story because she's a phenomenal girl. A phenomenal girl. She, you know, her father committed suicide. He was a police officer in Tasmania. And one of the hardest things when that happens is the reasoning, trying to work out why, why, why, why. And then the next question is why didn't somebody see it, you know? And it goes from there and it builds from there.
Aidan:Now, this is a young kid, you know, at such a young age for her to lose her father. Her father was her, you know, was her rock mentor in the old ways of the month, and so she walked the Dakota track on me hands, like they last year, and she basically decided what she was on the track that she wanted to become a police officer. Now, become a police officer. It required her to be, you know, able to do a certain amount of pushups. It's kind of archaic if you ask me, but she couldn't do one. So along the track we had her doing pushups, so by the end of it she was able to do the required amount of pushups. However, when she was walking the track, she went through all the familiar stories and she went through all the familiar sense of belonging as well that we just spoken about, and she was able to release a lot of the demons that built up on that To such an extent that it gave her clarity. So clarity, so the clarity was important because then she could work out who she was and not be defined by what happened to her father. Crucial, crucial underlined that not be defined by what her father had done, because a lot of them get stuck in that they become a victim because of it. So she overruled that. And then you know, she would come back and then she would apply it to be a police officer, and she's just been accepted. So it's a hell of a story, but it's a dark story.
Aidan:Now I cast your mind back, john, to 2000, the year 2000. And the same thing happened. A friend of mine that he found his young kid committed suicide. So I created this event it was called the Simpson Desert Bike Ride, and I had Microsoft involved in it. You know, Drew Shab and Neil Jackson it's one of the really good people and the holiday watch that we get well, I get 10 teams to cycle across the Simpson Desert. And people said the desert, why the desert? And I said well, the Simpson Desert is pretty much the heart of Australia and this is an event around the heart of Australia. Depression, suicide is a heart of Australia problem, and so the event would mirror what these kids would go through. And so what happened was Microsoft jumped on board, vodafone jumped on board, kpmg jumped on board and before I knew, I had this thing happen where it was all at CEO level, and that was the mark.
Aidan:So there was a lot of wheeling and dealing. I'm not going to lie, I did a few things to get them across the line. Daniel Petrie was really big in it as well. He helped me in nine of a sense. Steve Vamos, he was there, steve was a big pusher of it as well, and so we created this event and anyway. So this event would go across the desert and what I used to do was I used to move the water each day and when I used to give them a briefing in the morning and say, look, it's hollow here and your water is going to be at the 40k mark of the 90k day, and they go, okay, and as you know they love the plan, they get to the 40k mark and the water wouldn't be there, it would be at the 60k mark, and they had a problem with that, a massive problem trying to adjust. So at the end of each day they would have a crack at me, of course, and they say you said that, that, that, and I said yep, and they burn off steam.
Aidan:And then I say to them what do you think goes on with a child's mind when you say that this weekend we're going to go and do something, or tonight we're going to go and do something and you don't. What do you think happens to them? And then lights went on for them. So it was a very simple symbolization of life and so I got away with it, but anyway, the event ended up raising $1.2 million for youth suicide. It was a big thing, huge thing, and so that money were going to make a huge difference, put in certain courses and emotional recognition course where in schools. So it reached about 250,000 kids Australia-wide.
Aidan:But that story was about a bunch of people from lots of different industries. So it was the technology industry and it was also the telecommunications industry and then it was also the banking industry, but it was also a team from the AFL, team from the rugby league and team from the Wallabies and it was about mission matching all these different viewpoints together. Somehow, over the period of six and a half seven days, they commended you around with a solution for what we did and approved that it would work, and especially on the duress. Now, that event was an interesting one because at the time and I think I mentioned this to you I was so involved with raising the money. We were trying everything to make sure the funding was done. So at Microsoft, 65 had been rolled.
Aidan:I used to sleep at Microsoft and nobody knew this.
Aidan:So in the bistro the old bistro I had a key to it and at night time I'd go in there and I'd sleep in it, because I was on the Gold Coast, so I was commuting, and I'd sleep on the old massage bed and then lock the door and that's how I was saving money, so that every single penny would go to the cost.
Aidan:Now Microsoft senior management had it known about it at that time, I'm sure we probably wouldn't be talking. But the thing is they were the teams that I did and they were the extra yards that I had to go to. Well, I felt anyway to make sure that this thing got across the line and certain people over the years had found out about it. And true, sharp, he offered me his place, all that kind of team. But it wasn't about that. It was about the fact was let's make a difference, let's make an honest difference, and it did, and from there a whole thousand other stories evolved from it as well on that journey, and I could tell you some really funny ones, but I don't know how much time you have, but it evolves.
JD:I have a strong sense it's going to be a second episode with you. I've got a really strong sense of catching up and I kind of knew that this would be a great storytelling podcast episode. So you've lived up to every expectation.
Aidan:And it's been fantastic. You're secret about the best I've saved with me, I'll never tell anybody.
JD:But, it doesn't stop me one bit that you threw everything at this. And that is your style completely. I love the metaphor the moving the water metaphor.
JD:as a parent, I have to admit I had some cringe moments there, as you described that. You know for deafie. There were deaf times at parent where I'd made commitments and didn't flow through on it, and I think to bring that home to people in such a way, in that way, is incredibly powerful. So I think it's brilliant that you did that, and I'm sure there was lots of angst, like. I know the folks that you're talking about and I can picture you being on the other end of the table or wherever talking to those folks about the water not being where it was expected. These are people who expect things to the plan to be the plan that screw with the plan. So I'm sure that must have been a very colorful set of conversations.
Aidan:You got to understand. So I've got a team from the AFL right, and there's one day which is an absolute ball breaker, and the reason why I did it was because I wanted them to go over the edge. I want them to go as far as they could to understand that this is what happens to children too. Anyway, so it's dark and it was supposed to. I told them look, it's a, it's a three o'clock finish today, guys. And at nine o'clock at night, in the dark, in the desert, they were still out there on their bikes and most of them are wheeling them now through the sand because they couldn't ride them. And I came up behind them because I was the tail end Charlie, and I come up behind one team from the AFL and Bernie Quinlan, who was a brown law medallist. I'll never forget it because he was Danny goes this is bloody stupid mate.
Aidan:This is the hardest thing I've ever done. Oh, you don't know what you're doing.
Aidan:Blah, blah, blah, blah blah and I went off his dial and I just calmly said, well, put your bike in the back of the car and let's, let's drive to the finish. And he wouldn't, and I let him go again. And you know, and the kilometer down the road he was off again and I pulled up his arm and I said the same thing Well, we're in the back, anyway. So what they did was they got the camp that night and I had already told the caterers look, you know what, these guys are going to be really angry. So just bear in mind, whatever they say, it's not personal, it's just a release of steam and it's okay.
Aidan:So they got into camp and, of course, and they got into their swags that night, and while they were in their swags, right, you got to picture this. It's on the outskirts of Fink. So what it did was I had made these white crosses, yobi, and while they were asleep, I went up onto a hill overlooking where they were sleeping and a hammer did 12 crosses, white crosses. And when they woke up in the morning, you know they're stacking out of swags and knackered, you know they're stacking. Oh, my God, it was so dark last night. We've slept in a graveyard. Oh, no, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. So I'm watching this from a distance and I'm getting exactly the reaction I want.
Aidan:So after I finished eating their breakfast and they're ready for the next day, they come gingerly over to me and of course, bernie comes up to me and says, oh, I'm really sorry about my attitude, and yeah, I was a bit over the top. And I said, nah, don't worry about it, you know, I've been there myself, anyway. So as I'm doing the briefing, you know, I said, look, I know you're all tired, right, and I know let's understand what this thing is about. But those crosses up there they signify that while you're out here on the bicycle, there's 12 kids who just committed suicide. That's what they represent. And of course, you could have heard a penny drop and it, the lights went on for everybody from there on in. And hey, you know, we got down to the end, alice Springs. And yeah, they reckon it was the greatest thing they've ever done, in the greatest event. Even to this day, those people still stay in touch with me and they say I've never had anything like that. This is the greatest thing I've ever done. Yeah.
JD:And a great way to bring it back to reality, isn't it?
Aidan:When you do it.
JD:I think it really and it's important. We lose track of that sometimes. I think it's really important how you did that and the foresight there to do that.
Aidan:That's amazing.
JD:So you've talked a lot about other people's journeys. I'm super curious, you know, with your journey, has it been a significant hurdle or a significant battle that you've had to fight, and how did you overcome it?
Aidan:Yeah, but my ones, my ones are normally when I deal with, say, inertia, and when it's political inertia, I find it hard to deal with. So you'll get people who'll stand in your way and all they're trying to do is get a headline for themselves. Now I find that really hard to deal with because I'm kind of like you know, just get out of the way, let us do it, we'll bring this home. You look fantastic, you'll be the number one person. I don't mind. You know, that's a big block for me and I've had to deal with that and I find that a challenge from a personal point of view. You know, staying fit, making sure. At the moment, you know, I'm struggling with a knee injury, so that's kind of coming back slowly. But these are all the ram for case. People don't see that side. They don't see that you've been doing this for so many years. There's wear and tear in your body. I'm not, you know, I'm not made of some sort of freaking, something else that nobody else is. I'm not. I deal with that, you know, and it means that, well, everyone else is in the pool having tears. I'm in the gym trying to keep my legs really strong so I can continue to live this story. You know, now I'm studying, you know, I'm doing my masters in counselling and I'm really enjoying the frameworks around that, because I want to make a difference. I really want to make a difference with, you know, police diggers that have no, you know, outlet. You know, and I understand them. I also want to make a huge difference in Papua New Guinea with domestic violence. I want to introduce type of therapy into the village is talk therapy, where, instead of bashing somebody with a machete, you actually sit down and talk about it. Now, that came from many, many years ago when I looked at how they used to deal with the problems. You know, you break up into little groups and they build little fires around place and I'll talk with their problems, talk to their problems and then, once they had solution, they bring all the fires to get into one big fire and then a whole hands. I think that's one of the greatest things. But there's a lot of you know. So that's kind of where I'm heading. You know I want to, you know, want to look back at some of as you, as you ask, some of the blockages that have been there.
Aidan:There's been a lot of sadness as well, because you see people who you know jump too soon A lot of sadness around, some of the kids who lost their parents, and the parents not understanding the effect it's had on the kids. Like you get a kid who loses their parent in line of duty and then they go to school and then you got a bunch of kids say to that kid well, he was a police officer, he deserved to die. You know that kind of thing and the system still doesn't know how to deal with that kind of thing. Yet you know, and they are ultimately in on my desk somewhere along the way. You know I'm happy. Like you know, I deal with it. And but that to me, yeah, I've sometimes got to walk away and find a space somewhere you know and play the guitar, because if I don't I just go crazy. That's my, you know, everywhere I go is you know, you know, I know you're the same.
JD:Every room in my house. I've got a good Listeners. I've just both picked up the guitars just right beside our desks, Basically it's part of, that's a part of our office. Equipment is in the guitar besides both of us. That just described how it's our therapy. And that's truly, I gotta say, one of my, my significant strategies is between the back to back meetings all day.
Aidan:If I've got a five minute break between two meetings.
JD:I'm playing guitar.
Aidan:So I'm the same on the exact same in every room in my house I go guitar.
Aidan:That's that's my brain, you know. Yeah, it's like there's so many wonderful people out there, there are so many people doing some amazing stuff, yeah, but they're not getting the recognition, you know. So it'd be brilliant if somebody had the. You know the influence Like I look at you know, here's a huge one. I look at the, you know. Look at what's happening with philanthropy at the highest level in the world today. It's been, it's been militarized, you know, in more ways than one. It's been armed, you know. Oh, yes, I'm a philanthropist. Well, however, behind the scenes, I'm getting all of this return, you know, and I'm manipulating or I'm directing where this philanthropy goes, because I've got a self interest in it and therefore, you know so I've got major questions about that, you know. So, when I see the little people getting out there and the meals and wheels and making a huge difference, they're the people that I want to be around. You know not to be huge corporate philanthropy. Well, that's. You know.
JD:it's usually called out and I've done a little bit of work with NGOs as well I get, mostly when I was back in my coaching times and I worked with one cancer organization and one marine life conservation organization In fact, somebody you'll be on a future podcast and I love what they do. I think what they do is quite remarkable, but the thing that always perplexed me was that I asked a question both of them actually, you know what? Are you collaborating with the other cancer NGO that you collect? And it's like no, it's like bitter competition and to me I can't rationalize that.
JD:I want to come back to what you just talked about, because I think there's an important message there, and that is that I think there's a temptation for us at times to look at people who are doing amazing things, like Aidan's doing, and assume that behind the scenes for them is all good and that everything's okay. And I want to, like it's common phrase, to say we've all got our stuff. And the more I've been involved in coaching, the more I've been involved in working with people and talking to people like the conversation today, the more I learn we really do all have our stuff. We're all carrying our own burdens, our own challenges and so forth, and so I just think it's important it doesn't matter who you're talking to, how together they appear, how successful they appear, how amazing they are, they've still got their stuff. And the interesting thing, I've got a podcast coming up on imposter syndrome, and imposter syndrome is going to come up. I think probably in every podcast I do. To be honest with you, at some point it's going to come up.
Aidan:And, it's interesting, the learning for me was.
JD:I used to think I was the only guy who thought I was the fraud and I did for many, many, years and I found out that the VPs I was working with all of that thought they were a fraud and that's why they found out. Everybody's dealing with this stuff. It's really interesting.
Aidan:What I find interesting with that one is who's convincing them. What is convincing them that they're imposter? You know what I mean. So I see that all the time in the industry as well and I deal with it. It's like a lot of people who are this imposter syndrome, but then they're going to have to look at well, okay, so why? What is that system telling you? You're never good enough, and that's a lot of corporate worlds are like that. I had done a presentation there last week to a major corporate organization. I was talking about legacy. You know, my thing is is that everybody's a story. Everybody has a story. Everybody's a book. There's an introduction and a conclusion and along that book, all these chapters are made up of all these different interactions with different people, environment, everything, all that stuff, the experiences. And I guess the crux of what I was talking about was legacy. You know a lot of people are fascinated by my legacy, because a lot of people hear it.
Aidan:But you know what corporations have legacies too. At what point in time to actually celebrate that legacy or recognize it? Even At what point do you actually sit down and recognize the amount of people who've made a contribution, not just in the last two weeks, but over the last 20 years? What about all these good people who sold their souls because they believed in what these people were saying? What about them? When do you celebrate that? You know, when do you actually get to a stage where you go? This is a legacy that we are created. We should be either really happy about it or unhappy, maybe because of where it's gone. You know what I'm saying. So these are things that people need to start examining. They need to start and, especially if you were in the CEO of a company or an organization, you need to look at the legacy, the legacy of your organization. At what point in time do you stand up and say the legacy of my organization is this? So many I would say 90% of them can't do it. It's phenomenal.
JD:You just described the purpose of this podcast beautiful, because the whole notion of this podcast is that everybody, me including, has had a journey and everybody has had impact and everybody has learned lessons that have allowed them to survive and thrive. And that was the intention when I thought about this podcast. The whole intention was I want people to have a chance to tell their story and share their successes and their failures, but the lessons they learned and the things that have allowed them to be resilient. So you just beautifully encapsulated what I'm trying to achieve here. Aiden, thank you all. I'll pay you later. What else is this question? If you had that, it's one of my favorite questions.
JD:If you had that opportunity to go back and talk to the Aiden Grimes at the beginning of this journey, with all the knowledge that you have today and all of you experience. What would you want Aiden to know? Going into this, what would be the thing that would be game changing? That one piece of information.
Aidan:That is a great question. That is a great question If I had to go back in time and have a chat with him. Come sit down now. He was a very easy-going person. He was. You know. Yes, you can.
Aidan:I would say that not everybody are who they seem to be, because that was probably one of the hardest learnings. You know, you've got all these people that come from a different place and made up of lots of different experiences, but there are so many people, like we just mentioned, the weaponization of philanthropy. There are so many people that hide behind our philanthropy and when you delve into it and you look at why, you can see they do not care about philanthropy, they care about themselves. And so I got caught up in that. There was one or two people that would come in and they would convince me. My life is also about being ideas, creating ideas, and then it's also about being around people who steal those ideas, and I get that all the time. I've been able to reason it by saying, well, you can't do everything, so if they do create it and they run with it, so be it. And I see it all the time there's commercialization of another one that's made somebody a lot of money Me money does not keep my engines Now?
Aidan:I wish it did, but it doesn't. And that comes in some packages. That's a great thing. In other words, it's not like COVID absolutely decimated us. There was no travel, we couldn't do the things we do. There was no speaking, no pay, and so people look at that and they say and you mentioned a minute ago the hardships behind people there's been so many hardships in regards to where's the next rent going to come from targeting, you know, and that you've really got to back yourself. You've really got to walk that line, because when you do go out on that limb, sometimes there is no reward, you know, and you've got to be able to see beyond that.
Aidan:And the reward has got to come in a different format. If it's not money, what is it? You know well, it's feel good, and then, is that okay? Is that ego though? You know? So these are the questions that you ask.
Aidan:So it becomes a major journey. I've been lucky because I come out to your end of that, but so I guess that's called resilience in some ways. But there would be a lot of people take that journey on. We'll never survive that, I know that for a fact. But so we talk about the iceberg theory, for example, john, so you only ever see what's built water, you don't see what's below the water, and I guess that's what we're talking about now. You know and I believe that, yeah, there's been a lot of stuff going to it. The hardest thing is is when you know, when I look back in those days, where you know when you get invited to a wedding. Here's a perfect example you know, somebody gets I'm not going to mention the name, but say somebody from Microsoft is getting married they book out you know Honda Valley, and they're all staying in that area where he's getting married.
Aidan:And then you look at well, it's $450, $500 and I'd stay there, or maybe more, and you go. I can't afford that. So what do you do? You'd stay in a local tent, in a local camp and you don't tell them, but that did occur, so. And then you rock up to the wedding and everything's great, and then you're in the moment and everybody's happy da-da-da-da, and then off you go. Now you don't feel bad about it, but it's just there with the kind of realities of it. Like one executive at Microsoft, for example. You know we were talking about holidays and stuff like that and he used to tell me that, well, he was taking his kids to Yosemite in Washington from Sydney and I said, oh great, you know. And he says, yeah, you know. He said it's costing me $34,000 for myself and my wife and my two kids $34,000,.
Aidan:I was thinking what are you flying on, you know? And he said oh well, you know we're flying for his class and you know this is what it's gonna cost. I'm taking frickin' hell mate. So you know what I mean. Even though they wanted me to be part of them, I could never fit in there because they would never allow me past that point.
Aidan:Now I call that the mahogany roll. You're okay as long as you stay in your books, which is what you were talking about earlier. But once you get outside that box, then you're a threat and then they don't like that. They do not like that. So you know that was a part of my ammunition. That I was missing was that affluence, I guess you know. And if I got that then it'd be very, very dangerous because I'd come in over atop of them. But when you don't have that, you're still at a controllable level.
Aidan:I've seen that so many times. Yeah, it's a very, very interesting one. You know how people do that. They put them in a box, you know. And you know to go camping, this same executive would say to me you know, I'm taking the kids camping in the Northern Territory and I say, oh, that's gonna be so good for kids. You know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we've got a mob and a pickin' us up at the airport and they're supplying us with this big huge trailer tent thing. Da, da, da, do, da, da do. And you know, 20 grand later and I'm taking.
JD:Hang on a minute, mate. When are you gonna go?
Aidan:rough and experience what nature's about. So you know what I'm saying. So you can see what's going on there. They're talking about going. There's still a structure, there's still a scaffolding. I'm still being careful. You know what I mean. But how do you learn? And how are you gonna pass these learnings on to John the Wire? How are you gonna pass these learnings on to the people that are in your organization? Oh no, you've got scaffolding. You haven't learned. You know. So. It's all you know.
Aidan:So I think that kind of gets us across to an area where you know the types of learning that we talk about too, john. In society. There's book learning and then there's the walk to talk, the life learning, the real stuff, you know, and I guess that's where we've gone and it's one of the biggest gains in our society was the commercialization of universities, and now there's so much value in place on a piece of paper as opposed to life experience. I guess that's probably some of my frustrations nowadays is that I'm meeting people with paper who've got absolutely no life experience working in. You know NGOs and Papua New Guinea, and you know they just have no clue. No clue, no common sense.
JD:It's right. It is right and you talked about it with the medical fraternity as well and I think it's very true that often they just haven't experienced it. And there's a facade the facade you talked about the camping is a great example. Right, there's glamping and then there's camping, and there's two different things that shouldn't be confused as being the same thing. I think that's a great lesson. I think you've learned the same trick that I've learned, which is, you know, at the end of the day, work out what motivates a person and then work out how you can work with that. Right, if you can get to the heart of what their true motivation is, beyond the facade, if you can work out what really motivates them, then you can start to work with them. If you can't work that out, then you'll never know what you're gonna get. It's not until you've worked out what motivates them, what drives them, what their purpose is, that you're gonna be able to work with them.
JD:I'm curious you know, you're such an inspirational person. You always have been Aiden, but where does your inspiration come from? Is there somebody that has been a massive influence on the person that you are today?
Aidan:That's a great question as well. So my inspiration comes from people who walk the talk, so people who have done things that are special. So I've been around a lot of good people. However, they've achieved some amazing stuff, but they're not my inspiration. So my inspiration are people who go the stand business of the world. So you know, he made a true Dakota and he hung in there, kept telling the story of his mates, didn't wanna be notorious, it wasn't about him, he just wanna make sure his mates were never forgotten. And he, you know I would see him eventually in the nursing home when he passed away in a spoke with funeral. But those kind of people they inspire me, people who make a difference to society, inspire me.
Aidan:Unfortunately, I now have the ability to see through a lot of the walls with people. So a lot of you know it's a patenting and it's part of being an asperity. You know you can see the patents, so you can see where it's going. You know. And then it's kind of like I see true people very, very quickly, very quickly. So people tend to disappoint that have already built their castle on sand. So you know, the problem with castle on sand is eventually it falls down. So our society has a lot of those kind of people.
Aidan:Unfortunately, our politicians there are a lot of politicians that are like this. You know, there's no moral leadership and that's a big problem. It's all about themselves. So their issues, you know, they don't inspire me. What inspires me is, you know, a kid who decides that they're gonna stand up and do something. They're gonna beat somebody, you know, and they do the hard work that inspires me. People who've had a hard life, you know the single mother that continues to, you know work two jobs and put food on the table, while the CEO up here who talks about his $34,000 flights to Yosemite well, this poor woman, if she had $34,000, she would keep it gone for two years.
JD:You know, it's just yeah it kind of.
Aidan:That's the disappointing thing and what I do as well. I get to see, and you as well, but it's the single mother any day a week, you know, and the kids and those kids grow with value, you know, and I had one on the track recently. I sponsored her and I said you did the track, I'll pay for it. And you know, she told the story back to those kids and that's the reason why I did it was because she had a story to tell them and my mother is the coolest person and my mom's this and my mom, you know, and you can just hear it. You know, but they're the kind of people who inspire me. Yeah, and it's not famous people, because I'm finding behind famous people is always another story, you know, and you just described my mom and she's a major source of my inspiration.
JD:She was exactly the mother you're describing a single mom working to sometimes three jobs, in fact to sustain the family and dealing with, like shielding us from all of the complexity that was going on that she was managing and absolute, frankly, incredibly inspiring towering person. Bless her. She had a major influence on how I look at the world and I think she had a major influence on how my siblings look at the world, no question about it. So I love that.
Aidan:I've got a few questions to go, and these are kind of rapid fire questions, aiden, but I'm curious if you could have only one book that you could read.
JD:You're stuck on a desert island or wherever there's only one book you can take with you that you could read for the rest of your life. What book would that be, and why?
Aidan:It most likely be a coloring in book, and so, and you know why? Because all my life people have tried to make me, you know, stick between the lines, and it would give me just a freedom to go across the lines.
JD:I love it. That is not the answer I expected, but I think it's perfect. I think that's fantastic, all right. Second question is is there a model or a hack or a ritual or a habit that you've adopted that you think has had a significant impact on your confidence or your success?
Aidan:Yes, what I do is self-believe. So when I'm asked to speak I can sometimes be asked to speak in front of 1500 people, and so I often go on stage without preparing it and that spins people out. They just go how do you do that stuff? And I say how I do it is I feel the energy. So before I do anything, I like to feel the energy and that's what it guides me. And I back myself because my filing cabinet is full of lived stories. It is so full of stories, not funny so I can actually pull a story there in and now to suit the audience.
Aidan:And again, that's in some ways. There's not a lot of people that can do that. I understand that, but it spins people out because speaking is people's greatest fear. Apparently it's not mine, but that's what I do. I take the energy. So if I was with you, for example, we'd hug each other, because that's who we are, but in a room I talk to you and then I'd feel it, and then the way I go, and the same goes for anything that I do. I always try and get there early. I try and get myself prepared that way so I can feel it. Yeah, I'm a feeler, I feel things.
JD:I love that you present without prep and I'm kind of one way or the other. Sometimes I do prep and sometimes I don't, and I will be honest with you I think some of the best, most successful ones I've had have been the ones that I haven't been paid for or the ones that have gone off script, where I've kind of felt the audience as you just described, and just gone actually scrap that shit. This isn't the message that they need to hear. What they need to hear is this I love that.
JD:So what I'm hearing is you did zero prep for today, because you actually killed it, so it's not the same.
Aidan:It'll be different again tomorrow.
JD:Love it, we'll just schedule it for tomorrow.
Aidan:We'll do it again.
JD:Two quick questions that go together, these kind of things. So if you've got to do that superhuman thing, maybe have that tough conversation or take on a particular challenge. Where do you get your rocket fuel from? What's your inspiration?
Aidan:My inspiration has got to be my memories. So I tap into that and I know that it's possible. So you've got to understand that my memories come from people who've dealt with debt, people who handed out debt. So, soldiers, sas, on the point again, right through to refugees, I'll give you a quick one.
Aidan:Sorry, last year a team building in a place down near Foster and it was for the Afghanistan soccer team, and so I came in. They were sitting around the table and they had all their food ready. And I came in and I have another mate, he's got a donkey, and the donkey comes in with me, he follows me, and when they saw the donkey they dropped the food, grew up and ran to the donkey and hugged him and they started crying and I was blown away and I said why are you crying? And they said, hey, then we escaped from Afghanistan to Pakistan on donkeys and a lot of our friends, our soccer players, they were shot dead on the donkeys. The donkey represents the symbol of freedom. So when you see and experience stuff like that, there's no words.
JD:That's so powerful. That's so powerful. It makes so much sense when you tell this story. I love that. So let's flip that on his head. So what's your kryptonite? What's the thing that will sap the energy out of you or demotivate you, and how do you avoid it?
Aidan:Yeah, I get tired, like everybody else. The thing that really tires me out the most, I think, is probably stupid people, people who hold positions of power that are saying things are not true. And because they're in a position of power, it's going to take a long time for us to dissolve that.
JD:Yeah.
Aidan:It's a truth so untrue for people that they hurt me. That's where my energy gets sap by a lack of integrity. I can't stand that. That's something that really bugs me. And then somebody who's in the media, who's got a public persona as this person, hold them and you see behind them that they're not even like that, that it's all rubbish, that kind of I don't have a lot of time for those kind of people With me. You've got to walk to talk and you just be yourself. Why try and be somebody else?
JD:Yeah, very relatable and I share your frustration. All right, last question.
Aidan:It's a multiple choice.
JD:You can go either way, right, so I promise to leave people either inspired or hopefully laughing or happy. And so you can either choose a quote that's inspirational for your famous quote, or a quote that you've been is inspirational or your worst dad joke.
Aidan:No, I'm not going to give you a worst dad job, because I've got too many. You'll be here until next week. So what I'm going to give you? I'm going to give you one that I live by, and I've got many right, so I'll give you two of them. How about that? Instead of a bad dad joke, I'm going to give you two of them. So the first one that I live by no use worrying about things that are in your control, because if they're in your control, what's the point in worrying? No use worrying about things that are not in your control, because if they're not in your control, what's the point in worrying? So I live to that one. And then the one that I've trademarked, and that's mine, is humankind be vote.
JD:I saw that on your website and loved it. Like a minute ago I read that humankind be both. I think it's so simple and so powerful. I love that. The first quote, that's awesome. Do you know who that was from?
Aidan:It's probably an Irish guy in a pub and Dublin in many, many years ago. Yeah.
JD:The best source of wisdom that exists is an Irish guy in a pub. Yeah, I love that. Well, this has been everything I could have hoped for in terms of first guest episode. I love the stories that you tell. You are truly an incredibly inspiring individual, which is why I was so committed to having you on at the beginning of the podcast series. So thank you so much for the time, thank you so much for your energy and sharing these tremendous stories and insights. I think, hopefully lots to take away for the listeners. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Aidan:Thank you, sir. You're very welcome, john, and so good to touch base with you after all these years and all the learnings that both of us have had and the journey we've had as well.
JD:Incredible people Must be time for a beer or three. We've got to catch up at some point soon.
Aidan:It would definitely be, and we're going to talk all night. That's what's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. All right, I predict that it's going to be awesome.
JD:All right, ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of this very, very first guest episode of JD's Journal. I think it's been an awesome episode and I'll catch you in two weeks, soon now on JD's Journal. Thanks, folks, have a great week. Thank you.
