I went to Stanford University, San Francisco recently, and attended the Graduate School of Business on an Executive Education program. Learning from the best of the best in the Stanford classroom and from Silicon Valley company executives (including for example Google), was amazing - massive learning; awesome experience.
But the biggest take out from the nine days away was not part of the program; it was an 8-mile bike ride through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge.
First, I need to set the scene: Born and raised on the wheat plains of Watchem West, the soft dirt was no place for a bicycle. From the age of 7 a Kawasaki 50 motor cycle was the sensible mode of transport on the farm.
So now I am 55 years old and a small group of friends decides to hire bikes to ride the streets of San Francisco and invites me to join them. My answer? “I have never learnt to ride a push bike, but I’ll give it a go!”
Now I do not recommend learning to ride a bike for the first time in the centre of the city of San Francisco with their steep hills, and traffic on the wrong (right) side of the road, but it was certainly fun.
From a life perspective? Business, leadership, and life is all about pushing yourself to new experiences, stretching the boundaries, taking calculated risks. If water is left in a pool unmoving it will become stagnant, so too with your life, so too with your loans.
Your tomorrow is determined by the decisions you make today. A very simple example: If you have a home or business loan which has not been reviewed for 5 years it is stagnant. Call me. If I can ride the Golden Gate Bridge, you can pick up that phone! And the money I save you may pay for your trip to San Francisco to hire that same bike and ride the bridge yourself.
Daryl Borden, Integrity Finance Australia Ph. 03 9511 8883 ACL 392184