I know what you are thinking right now: "When there are a multitude of speakers, trainers, life coaches and various other 'gurus' who are only too eager to have me part with my money in exchange for advice on how to live a better life or run a better organisation, why should I listen to this guy?" Have you ever read a so-called 'motivational' book or listened to a 'motivational' speaker and felt that the author or speaker was missing something, even though you were not quite sure what it was? After reading many 'motivational' books, I had the same feeling and was determined to find out what this missing thing was. 

The short answer to your question of why you should consider listening to me rather than any of the other 'motivational' speakers and trainers out there is that I have found this missing truth and personally experienced the inspiration, the creative action to which it leads and the mind-blowing results that can be achieved when you are acting out of true inspiration, proving the (highly scientific!) formula INSPIRATION X ACTION = RESULTS². I know I can help you and / or your organisation find this truth and the results it leads to. For the long answer, you'll have to read this whole page (I didn't say I was going to make it too easy for you!) 


TESTIMONIALS

But first, you probably want to know a bit more about me and why I can claim to know a 'missing truth' that almost everyone else is missing. Firstly, what I'm not: a millionaire business owner, retired sports star, celebrity, self-styled 'guru' or professional speaker whose only claim to fame is that I have spoken (and charged!) a lot. I'm actually just an ordinary guy who has, through a process of much searching and many VFE's (that stands for Valuable Failure Experiences, in case you are wondering), truly understood this extraordinary missing truth buried beneath the weight of social memes arising out of people's conditioned egoic fears and desires. 

Not only do I know this truth, but I can, at least according to some people who have heard me speak and have read the monthly ezine I send out, explain what it is and how they can apply it to their own lives, families, groups and organisations quite well:  

MORE ABOUT ME

Not only have I read extensively on subjects as diverse as psychology, health and wellness, business, religion, philosophy, science and spirituality (and quite a lot else!) during my 34 years on this planet, I have had a few interesting life experiences that have helped me to crystallise the concepts and theories I have read about into a practical, livable  philosophy that results in both inner peace and external achievements. I read my first 'motivational' book at the age of 12, a classic called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (which you can download free by clicking here, if you are interested) and decided that I wanted to be a billionaire by the time I was 40 as well as the world champion squash player! School at King Edward VII School (KES) in Johannesburg and university, where I studied Business Science at the University of Cape Town, majoring in Finance, Accountancy and Business Strategy, did not quell my optimism, and still dreaming of that world championship title, I went to the UK to play professional squash for nearly 3 years, and traveled quite extensively during that time to play tournaments in the UK, Europe and Africa. 

I came back to SA in 1999 having been told to leave the country by Her Majesty's Customs Service (but that's a story I won't go into now!), and needing to earn money from something other than squash, which is not a very lucrative sport (and that's an understatement!), started my own web development business in 2000. In 2003, an old school friend and I teamed up to create Lifebuild, an online personal development portal. In 2007, I started the Lifebuild Property Investment Network to help people to create financial freedom for themselves through property investment - click here to find out more about this. I am a property investor myself and have been involved in a number of other business ventures - not all successful, I might add - over the last 8 years, so I guess you could call me an entrepreneur as well as an adventurer. I am currently working on launching a community and network that will show people how to become financially free and create wealth in every aspect of their lives by providing them with revolutionary products, services and training to support them in living a far more intelligent and conscious lifestyle, as well as an opportunity to market these products and services and earn a large regular income from doing this. 

Over the last 3 years, I have personally organised, marketed and delivered a series of public talks and workshops around South Africa where I have talked about how to overcome fear and how to become wealthy through investing in property. I have also spoken for companies and organisations in many different industries such as SA Rugby, The Holiday Club, Sportron, Smile Education, Propgroup, Brockhouse Cooper, Rand Mutual Assurance, Wirsam Scientific, Braby's / Ananzi, Transstate, SuperGroup and Sun International (you can click the links to email the people who organised the talks at these organisations to find out what they thought of my talk). 

To cut my fairly long life story short, I have had a few interesting life experiences and some fairly profound realisations on my journey through life so far, the essence of which it would be my great privilege to share with you if you choose to listen to what I have to say. Click here if you are convinced you would like to hear what I have to say, otherwise keep reading to discover the missing truth ...


THE MISSING TRUTH

"So what is this missing truth, and why won't he just let it out?", I know you are asking yourself. The short answer is:                                         

"But that's a question!!" you're thinking. And you're right. You see, questions are the answers! The depth and quality of your questions determines the answers you will get in life. Most of us are content to ask fairly superficial questions like:

"Why won't my boss give me a raise?"
"Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" 
"Why am I always the one who seems to get the blame for anything?" 
"Why do bad things always happen to me?"

Which is why we get fairly banal answers that do not reveal much about life or ourselves and keep us locked in the same repetitive and negative patterns of thought and behaviour that lead to the same poor results we have always experienced, causing the belief that this is just how life is to become even more deeply ingrained in us. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, yet most people do exactly this their whole lives and then (maybe) finally wonder on their death- beds what it was all for. 

Instead of waiting until you are on your death-bed to ask questions like this, why not ask them now? Imagine if you asked and answered for yourself - because no one but you can answer - questions like: 

"Why do I / does my organisation exist?"
"What is my / my organisation's purpose within this world?"
"Why is there so much conflict and unhappiness in my life / organisation?"
"Why do I fear life and everything so much?"

The last question reveals an important truth already - it is FEAR in all its guises and manifestations that is the single reason why you as an individual are not living the life you could live or your organisation is not operating as well as it could. It is FEAR that stops you asking the deeper questions of life and searching for the answers, for your mind has decided that the unknown is a scary place and you would rather stay with what you know and is comfortable - even though it's not really comfortable at all and beneath the polished exterior you project to the world, you are actually deeply unhappy and in pain. Which, as old Albert said, is quite insane. 

Fortunately, the truth and the true wealth that it leads to, is so close to you it is part of you - in fact, the only part that really has any meaning. A simple parable illustrates the point well: 

A beggar had been sitting by the side of the same road on an old box for over thirty years. One day, a particularly relaxed and confident looking stranger walked by.  "Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old hat, as he always did. "I have nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then he asked: "What's that you're sitting on?" "Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I've been sitting on it for years."  "Ever looked inside?" asked the stranger.  "No," said the beggar. "What's the point? There's nothing in there."  "Have a look inside," insisted the stranger.  Reluctantly, the beggar managed to pry open the lid with the help of the stranger, and to his  astonishment, disbelief and sheer delight, he saw that the box was filled with gold coins.

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside a box, but inside yourself and your organisation. "But I’m not a beggar," you are thinking to yourself. If you have not found your true wealth, which is the simple joy of being alive and the deep, unshakeable peace that comes with it, you are a beggar sitting on a chest of gold, even if you have great material wealth. You are begging the world for scraps of fulfillment, validation, security, love and more when you have a treasure within you that not only includes all these things, but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer. 

If what I have said here makes sense to you and you are willing to search for and discover for yourself the missing truth within you and / or your organisation, I invite you to take the next step and contact me about personal coaching for you or speaking or training for your organisation. All it takes is a little willingness, a little courage, and I can help you to find the answers to all the deepest problems you or your organisation now face. 


PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS ...

The problems that currently beset you and / or your organisation may include:

All of these problems are inter-related and stem from FEAR, which in turn arises from the failure by people and organisations to understand who they really are and why they exist at all. To try and solve each problem individually by focusing on changing people's behaviours and imparting specific skills to them simply does not work, as it does not address the root cause of the problem, people's fundamental misunderstanding of themselves and the world. 

It's like trying to chop off the nine heads of the Hydra, the monster of ancient Greek mythology that Hercules eventually killed, which is futile, as two new heads grow back in place of the one that has been cut off. To slay the beast of FEAR, its body or source must be seen for what it is, a monster of the mind with no true reality other than that which our minds give it.

I simply help people to correct their perception and perceive truly, and all the heads of the monster die with it. Very simple, really, but as any hero tasked with slaying a monster will tell you, not easy! As with most difficult tasks, the process does take time, but significant headway can be made in even one training or coaching session, especially when people have really had enough of all the problems in their lives and are ready to change. I can guide you and your organisation through the process of learning and growing into a true understanding of yourself and your purpose in the world IF you are willing to open your mind and explore the path I will show you. 

Doing a once-off talk or interactive training session will show you the path, but it will not guide you to walk it continuously, particularly through the rocky terrain that will come. Like a sherpa guiding mountain climbers to the top of a mountain they want to climb, I feel it is my duty to be there to guide and support my clients on their climb up the mountain to make sure they stay on the path and take some of the weight off their shoulders until they truly understand the path they are on and can find the way forward themselves. However, if you simply want to book me for a once-off talk or training session, that is fine, as one talk or training session can help many people to have major break-throughs and realisations, after which you may decide you want my help on an ongoing basis, or not, which is also fine. (As you can see, I try to practise the non-attachment I preach!)


MY PRESENTATIONS AND TRAINING SESSIONS

I can speak about the following topics in a one-hour or two-hour presentation, or as a half-day or one-day training session:

1. How to Overcome Fear and Ride the Wild Tiger of Life

A guy named Tom Payne once said: "We can't fear the past. Fear is a future thing. And since the future's all in our heads, fear must be a head thing." This presentation / training session shows people clearly and simply how to overcome the fear in their heads in all its manifestations, including very practical ways to do that and open themselves up to all the joy and possibilities life has to offer. Fear is the root cause of all problems and all pain that people experience in their personal and professional lives. The talk helps people understand that fear is a mind-created experience that they need no longer choose, and shows them what they can practically think, say and do to set themselves free to be who they were meant to be, experience all the love and joy that life has to offer and 'ride the wild tiger of life' to manifest mind-blowing results in every aspect of their lives, including their work. 

This is an excellent presentation to inspire, motivate and entertain any audience and is recommended if you have a mixed audience of people from different walks of life and / or different departments in your organisation whom you want to inspire to change and perform better.

Key benefit: People will be helped to find the path to eliminating fear from their lives and transforming themselves and their personal performance in every aspect of their lives. This presentation lays the foundation for all future training, and it is recommended that you start any ongoing training process you are planning with this presentation given as a longer  training session of 4 hours. 

2. How to Ride the Wild Tiger of Change 

This presentation shows people how to overcome the fear of change and become the drivers of creative change rather than the reactors to change. Change is the one constant in life, but the resistance to change as a result of fear is the root cause of many of the problems organisations are experiencing today. The session will help people understand that underneath the constantly changing forms of the world, there are unchangeable principles and values that will give them the security they yearn for but will never find in the world, and will explain what these truths are. They will learn very practical techniques to set themselves free from the fear of change so they can become conscious creators of positive change and innovation rather than reactive resistors of change in their lives and jobs, which is riding the wild tiger of change and enjoying the ride! 

Key benefit: People will understand and be able to work in a changing environment far better, and will be encouraged and shown how to become initiators and drivers of creative, positive change and innovation in the organisation.

3. How to Create True Wealth

This presentation shows people how to create true wealth in every aspect of their own lives and within an organisation. The session helps people to understand the principles of creating true wealth in every aspect of their lives and in an organisation, which includes both material and non-material wealth. They will learn that they have the power to create wealth only if they have inner wealth first, as well as the principles and practices they can apply to create both inner and outer wealth in their lives and work, including an entirely new way of looking at money, business, achievement and goal setting. 

Key benefit: People will understand how to create material wealth by first creating inner peace through feeling their underlying unity with all things and people, so they will truly want to serve their customers and others in the organisation, which automatically leads to more sales and creates wealth in the financial as well as all other aspects of life.

4. How to Become a Sales Superstar

This presentation shows poor or average sales people how to overcome the fears that are holding them back from becoming top sales people, and sales people that already perform at a high level how to become sales Super Stars. The session helps sales people to understand that their sales performance starts and ends with them and their own inner confidence, and shows them how they can first become that Sales Superstar inside before they can perform like a Sales Superstar. They will also view selling in an entirely different, more positive, light, and understand how to set and work towards goals in a way that does not lead to fear of failure, disappointment or stress. 

The talk or training will cover practical skills that will complement the new attitude and mindset your sales people will be encouraged to practise when out selling. The approach I teach is based on asking a prospect questions to uncover his or her true personal and organisational needs so that your sales people can show them how your product or service meets their specific needs that they have explicitly stated. This sounds like it should be the most obvious strategy in the world to follow when selling anything, yet like most common sense, it is anything but common - less than 5% of sales people use this approach, and these sales people are inevitably the stars in an organisation. The simple techniques I teach have been developed based on hundreds of hours of practical in-field research and testing that cost millions of Rand to do, so they really work. They also do not rely on slick phrases or clever closes that only super-slick sales people often of questionable integrity ever manage to pull off. 

The amount of time spent on practical skills training is obviously dependent on the amount of time allowed for the presentation or training. The session should be at least 2 and preferably 4 hours or longer to allow enough time to cover these very important practical selling skills adequately.

Key benefit: Sales people attending the session will understand how to sell by first serving the customer truly in a spirit of love so that their customers like and trust them first, then buy from them out of that respect and trust. They will also understand the strategy and practical techniques of how to sell anything effectively.

5. How to Network Your Way to Success

In this presentation, I talk about how we have moved over the last 3 decades from an Industrial Age into the Information and Knowledge Age where old-style industrial-age bureaucracies are fast dying out and knowledge-age networked organisations that are far more efficient and effective in the modern, fast-paced, knowledge-driven economy are winning the game. The session helps people to shift from industrial-age thinking and values to knowledge-age knowing of timeless principles, which will begin the process of changing behaviour, structure, procedures and bottom-line results in your organisation dramatically.

Key benefit: People will understand how and why the world has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, and how they can work with these changes rather than resist them to thrive personally and create an organisation that will thrive in the new knowledge-age economy. 

All of the presentations detailed above can be delivered as a one-hour key note speech, a two-hour training session,  or a half-day or full-day interactive workshop, depending on your unique requirements. I will make the the PowerPoint presentation I use to support the talk available to every member of the audience via the Internet or we can print the slides out and give them in a document to the audience members, which will allow them to review the key points I have made in my presentation after the presentation and will increase their learning from the session. I can also create a presentation or training session for the unique challenge or specific need you have, but if this is the case, the extra work I do in preparing the presentation will be factored into my fee. Please indicate when you contact me which presentation you are interested in me presenting and if you would like me to focus on any particular aspect during the talk. If you would like a customised session on a specific topic, please indicate what that topic is in the message you write. 

Research by Tony Buzan, one of the world's leading trainers, shows that people retain 50% of the information they hear and see, whereas when they say it themselves, they retain 70%, and when they say and do it, they retain 90%. Therefore, an interactive approach, where the audience speaks and takes actions in addition to hearing a speaker speak and seeing what is shown on a screen, is undoubtedly the best approach to maximise the information retention, understanding and its subsequent application by the participants. For large groups and when time is limited to an hour or less, a talk I give to an audience, some times supported by a PowerPoint presentation, is really the only option that can work within the constraints imposed by time and numbers, but for groups of 30 people or less where there is at least 90 minutes allocated for the session, I prefer to use other, more interactive and experiental methods. 

OTHER LEARNING METHODS 

For individual coaching sessions or group sessions with smaller groups that take longer than an hour, I prefer to use other methods to help an individual or group to search for and find the answers to the problems they think they are facing themselves. This is very powerful, as it helps them to realise that all the answers to their individual and collective problems lie within them, and it shows them how to use the same process they have learnt without me being there to help them to overcome challenges they may face in future. These methods also increase the amount of information people retain significantly, and truly empower them to make changes in their own lives and as a group rather than being dependent on an 'expert' like me to present solutions to their problems, which they will often resist in any case because what I am saying conflicts with their own internal 'map of reality' they have believed in for so long. Three of these alternative learning methods have been summarised below: 

'Savour the Mystery'

This approach entails giving the participants a Zen koan to think about that is designed to stop them thinking, opening their minds to new ideas that can be capture in a mind map using some software I have that allows one easily to summarise all the ideas in a document or PowerPoint presentation format for distribution to everyone afterwards. For instance,  asking people to ponder statements like, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "What would the time be if all the clocks in the world stopped?" can be used to stop the compulsive thinking of the mind and open the way for them to find the solutions that arise in this space of 'no mind'. 

Intrigued? Mystified? Bewildered? (Or perhaps wondering what on earth I have been smoking!?) In fact, research on highly successful and resilient people shows that the ability to live with, and in fact relish, paradox and ambiguity, is one of their key characteristics, so this technique is backed up by what we can observe really works in the real world. Click here to contact me to find out more about how this unique process can help you understand your life or organisation, your life or organisation's situation and how to move through the current challenges you face. 

'Movie Magic'

Another alternative method of learning is to show people a movie or clips from several movies and then have a discussion facilitated by me after they have seen the movie to draw out the key learning points from the movie. It also has the advantage of being entertaining, so people's attention is captured and held throughout the session, making this method ideal for events that have the dual purpose of being entertaining and educational. Click here if you want to experience 'Movie Magic' in your organisation.

'Story Telling'

We all like stories as they are simple, powerful and fun ways to communicate a message. But do you know that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our lives influence our lives and our behaviour in profound and mostly hidden ways? I can help you and your team members to become aware of the stories you tell yourselves as individuals and collectively as a team or organisation, and how this is affecting you and your results, then help you to re-write the stories you believe in so that your new stories truly empower you and your behaviour and results effortlessly change as a result.

TRANSFORMATION 

I can also facilitate training to initiate and drive a transformation of your team, division or the entire organisation and your collective results along with it. This process, which involves training and individual mentoring and coaching over a period of at least 6 months, will truly revolutionise your business unit or entire business. It will help the people in your business to see the purpose of the business and everyone’s function in the business completely differently, which will lead to a dramatic improvement in your results. If you have truly had enough of the conflict, stress and all the other negative experiences you have to endure in the normal course of working in your business (and your life, for that matter), and are really ready to change and find out how good business and life can be, contact me and let me know that you are interested in talking to me about how you and / or your organisation can transform. I will then give you a call to discuss your unique situation.  


TAKE ACTION

If you are interested in having me speak, train or coach you and / or people in your organisation gain a better understanding of yourself and / or your organisation, and the inspiration, action and mind-blowing results to which this leads, please contact me in one of the following ways:

I will then be in touch with you as soon as possible so we can discuss how best I can help you. I hope you will take this step so I can meet you soon and perhaps be your guide for a while on this ongoing journey of discovery we call life. 

Yours truly

Jonathan Quail

P.S. If you send me an email and ask me to send it to you, I will be happy to send you the PowerPoint presentation I use to support my presentation on 'Overcoming Fear to Ride the Wild Tiger of Life', which will give you a good idea of the content of my talks and my philosophy.

P.P.S. To get 12 free inspirational e-books you can read to help you to start improving your life and your organisation immediately, a free daily quotation sent to you by email and other great resources to help you build your life, click here now!