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Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the Crucible.

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We're gonna have a really good conversation today.

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I met Eleri a few weeks ago and she's one of these people who has had more stuff thrown at
her than most people get in one or two lifetimes.

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But she has shaken it off, she has stood back up again and she said, come on then and
she's had more stuff thrown at her and she's got back up again and she's smiling.

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She's thriving, she's flourishing and she is an amazing human being.

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And Eleri, thank you very much for being on the show today.

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This is ever so kind of you.

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Thank you.

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very kind of you to invite me actually.

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Thank you.

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Can you give us a, I guess it's gonna have to be an abridged version of aspects of I fall
down, I get back up again, all that kind of stuff.

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I can't remember who sang that, was in 80s, I fall down and I get back up again, it's one
of those Northern Soul things isn't it?

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Well, yeah I suppose I've been on a bit of a journey, in a nutshell, because this could go
on and on and on, I don't want this to sort of dominate, yeah everything was going

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smoothly.

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I've had a few career changes.

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I've been a lawyer, I've been a property developer, I've had various businesses in
between, all enjoyed with varying degrees of success until one fair day when I was busy

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being Midas and away with my little Midas torch and things couldn't go wrong.

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At the same time I should have as being Midas, I was very busy being the world's most
successful alcoholic.

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At the same time, not in denial, I was very aware that I had a major drinking problem, but
you know what, I just didn't want to do anything about it, actually.

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You know, it will become relevant as we discuss this element later why.

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But anyway, whilst I was drinking like an absolute idiot,

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my business was going from strength to strength, know, literally from strength to
strength.

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I whether it was I had that power to sort of deceive or whatever, but I was making more
money than I knew what to do with.

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had a hedge fund, which was actually a feeder fund.

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And things were great on the surface, you know, as is always often the story with many
people who, you know, are alcoholics or in addiction or whatever.

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So one fair day I had a phone call from the, what was then the FSA, the regulatory body
for financial concerns, so the Financial Conduct Authority today, saying pretty much, are

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you sitting down?

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Well firstly, who the hell ever gets a phone call from them anyway?

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And secondly, they never say, are you sitting down?

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So I thought, well, this isn't a harbinger of great news.

31
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So the news was basically that the funds that we've been investing in with our own money,
client funds, et cetera and so forth turned out to be Britain's largest Ponzi scheme.

32
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Well, it sort of would, wouldn't it?

33
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know, because it's me, you know, it almost didn't surprise me.

34
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It's like, well, yeah, well, you know, sort of, know, because I think there's part of me
and you might recognize this, that it's almost like it's not really meant to succeed

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really.

36
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You know, there's that sort of weird the imposter thing there that, you know, so in my
brain, it sort of translated to, okay, you know, it was never meant to last anyway, you

37
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know, but the real problem here was that for the first time in my life, there was no
warning to this.

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There really wasn't a warning.

39
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And, you know, we had a forty two thousand pound mortgage bill to pay every month.

40
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had

41
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nearly 68 by to that properties, which we had to pay the mortgages for.

42
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We had to pay our own mortgage.

43
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We had to pay car fees, school fees, et cetera and so forth.

44
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There was no warning.

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It was like someone had come along and said, well, sorry, all the money that you're going
to get and you'll pay packet at the end of this month, you're not going to get now.

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And it's stopping right now.

47
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And there's no warning.

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It's tapped.

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We're just switching off.

50
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And that's precisely what happened.

51
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So literally.

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from one phone call to literally three seconds later, we couldn't access any of our funds,
couldn't access client funds, we couldn't access anything.

53
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The whole thing was shut down.

54
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Which, you know, is what happens, right?

55
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I'm not saying it's the wrong thing to do because you're the police and you're dealing
potentially with proceeds of crime.

56
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I mean, that's what you have to do, right?

57
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You have to ring fence what you think is potentially the proceeds of crime and try and
save what you can.

58
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So I'm not being critical of the situation, but it's just what happens.

59
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So...

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For the first time in my life, we were left with a situation that we were dealing with,
you know, a minor surplus of say 300,000 a month and having to suddenly find the best part

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of 70,000 pounds with no money to survive.

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So, and that's what we did for the next two years, two, three years, we survived because
of the money that we were getting in from our rented properties.

63
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That was quite tough because we had to really be on the ball there.

64
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you know, financing and looking into, what investigations can we run here?

65
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What actions can we bring against the authorities?

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Because they were being, not so much that they were doing the wrong thing, it was the
speed at which it was being done and the lives this was trashing.

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And I cannot, cannot emphasise that, if there's anybody listening to this.

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in the Financial Conduct Authority, think upon one thing.

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You guys get paid every month at the end of the month and you know that you can pay your
mortgage.

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You think you're doing the right thing for people, but actually keeping them in the dark
and preventing them from accessing their own funds so that they cannot pay their own

71
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mortgages is going to lead to one thing only and that's only going to lead to them losing
their own houses.

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In our case, people committed suicide.

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People's children had to leave schools.

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They had to leave university.

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They lost their houses You know this whole thing took nearly five six years and ended up
in a criminal trial Nothing to do with us, but but it was five years six years of agony

76
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for these people You know and I mean agony and I think people ought to think a bit more
about what happens You these people are victims of crime at the end of the day And I

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didn't see anybody that no government

78
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organisations step in to assist or to maybe create a moratorium for them, a safe space to
enable the process to take its place, to enable due process to take its place and to even

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determine whether any crimes have been committed, such that they would be able to be given
this space just to be able to survive.

80
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I think people overlook that part.

81
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That's the humanity part of it.

82
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And so what happened to us, you know, because we're us, obviously, and we're and
different, we then sort of stumbled along.

83
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So we were lucky we had these properties.

84
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And then three years later, we discovered that people were growing cannabis in them.

85
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Well, of course they were, because again, I just go, well, it's my properties, isn't it?

86
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You know, that's bound to be, you know, why not?

87
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know, I'd entered recovery by then.

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So one of the things that we are taught in recovery is to ask the question, the really
sort of unerring question of, you know,

89
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why not me?

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It's very sort self-effacing, it's a coping strategy really.

91
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So you know that was quite an interesting revolution for me, revelation, well it was a
revolution and revolution because as a lawyer you know I'd always been a bit square I

92
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suppose in my upbringing, I've always been a bit you know toe the line, the law is always
right, you know do the right thing, never lie, tell the truth because you know that will

93
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free you and

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because that's the right thing to do, right?

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Until I came up with a situation where the police actually thought I was behind
everything.

96
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I was Mrs.

97
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Big.

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And I'm thinking, ooh, you know, what is this Mrs.

99
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Big?

100
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This is all sort of weird.

101
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mean, okay, look, I've always been a bit different.

102
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I've always dressed differently.

103
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I've always been relatively outspoken.

104
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I speak various languages, including Russian, which puts me into a sort of very unique
category of lawyers, international lawyers.

105
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And, you know,

106
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I'm relatively good at doing what I do because I get on very well with people and I can
unite people of all different continents, shapes and sizes.

107
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I put that down to my degree, which was Modern Languages and European Studies.

108
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A big part of that is cultural studies and understanding the psychology of different
cultures.

109
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So that's a skill that I've always had and it served me very well.

110
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So the police's view was, well, hang on a minute, you've lost all your money in the hedge
fund.

111
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True.

112
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So you must have done it because how else would you survived?

113
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I'm thinking okay well fair enough then do we have this thing called evidence maybe you
know maybe a stretch too far and then began a this sort of dual dawn of realization of how

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the law really works.

115
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Now that was probably of all of this that was probably the most

116
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disappointing and I'll say that disappointing realization that life doesn't work.

117
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Not only is it unfair, but it doesn't work as it should.

118
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These institutions do not work as they ought to work with the sole objective of finding
the truth.

119
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Not seeking to run.

120
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mean, listen, people may think I'm guilty.

121
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Fine.

122
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That's almost irrelevant here.

123
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What is relevant to me and always has been is

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finding the truth, because finding the truth is important, it's important to humanity, who
we are as human beings, who we are as countries, what our democracy looks like.

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Can people trust us?

126
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Can they really trust in our word?

127
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Those things matter to me.

128
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And then I suddenly realized that, you know, unfortunately, I am I

129
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partner then partner found ourselves in the middle of a conspiracy and conspiracy laws
have been changed and you know apparently you only need to know one person in the

130
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conspiracy and that was it to you know embroil you in a false blame because the conspiracy
the benefit you know the outcome operative outcome you have no idea about now those laws

131
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apparently were changed I thought I might get this my dates wrong but it was around about
97 I think it was a Tony Blair

132
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initiative and it was, you know, looked upon historically designed to try and capture as
many terrorists as humanly possible, bring them all into the wider net and that sort of

133
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thinking.

134
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But obviously what's been happening is those laws are being used time and time again to
grab anybody and anybody who may or may not know somebody.

135
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And of course I knew somebody in the conspiracy, I knew

136
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My property manager was involved.

137
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I, because I'm stupid and I was an alcoholic at the time, decided to have an affair, as
you do.

138
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My mother referred to it as a delightful distraction.

139
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I think she's very Victorian in her, sort of, innocence of life.

140
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But you know, was one of those things that you can only understand this if you're a real
alcoholic, right?

141
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There you are, drinking like an absolute idiot.

142
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You know your life is shit and falling apart in front of your eyes and this random person
comes along and you think well Why not why not have an affair?

143
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You know one of the things I'll call it that people are not aware does to you it distorts
completely Any moral compass you might have?

144
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It's really weird how this happens, and I don't wish you guys to go out there and
experiment just to discover this but any That is true.

145
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You know you you know you haven't omit the mind has an amazing ability to

146
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justify if you like your actions when you know morally and I knew morally what I was doing
was repugnant and wrong and I still on a hold to that now and that is the case.

147
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Anyway I started this affair and I didn't start an affair with just anybody did I started
an affair with the guy who was responsible for running all the cannabis factories in my

148
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properties.

149
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I didn't know that at the time and neither was I complicit in that you know the reality is
I wasn't believed is the truth now leave that aside but that is the truth.

150
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And it transpired that my property manager was involved.

151
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You know, the police knew and were prosecuting him for different things.

152
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So we ended up going to court originally for, you know, the ostensible idea was that, you
know, I'd lost all my money and decided, how am going to survive?

153
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I'm going to make, I'm going to hand over all my properties or majority of them to this
person because I loved him.

154
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grow cannabis for me.

155
00:14:02,317 --> 00:14:04,169
Well, that you know, and I said, well, well, that's great.

156
00:14:04,169 --> 00:14:04,739
That's lovely.

157
00:14:04,739 --> 00:14:05,530
Thank you very much.

158
00:14:05,530 --> 00:14:07,821
Now we've had the Daily Mail headlines.

159
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We actually get down to the observer facts.

160
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Where is the money?

161
00:14:12,866 --> 00:14:17,680
Well, nobody seemed to be that interested in where is the money that seemed to be a
sideline conversation.

162
00:14:17,680 --> 00:14:19,936
Now, don't forget, I'm a trained lawyer.

163
00:14:19,936 --> 00:14:22,994
I do like to deal in fact, something not fiction.

164
00:14:22,994 --> 00:14:24,866
And this is my life we were talking about.

165
00:14:24,866 --> 00:14:30,004
I'm thinking, well, you know, if I'm apparently guilty of all of this, that's fine.

166
00:14:30,004 --> 00:14:32,045
But you do need to proffer some evidence.

167
00:14:32,045 --> 00:14:33,156
Now, it was interesting.

168
00:14:33,156 --> 00:14:35,507
Nobody seemed to be interested in any evidence.

169
00:14:35,507 --> 00:14:42,452
think what it was, think by now, know, my barrister thought I was some sort of internet,
you because I speak Russian, right, clearly, right.

170
00:14:42,452 --> 00:14:45,904
And I certainly must have thought that I was part of a James Bond movie.

171
00:14:45,904 --> 00:14:50,166
You know, I was, of course, I fitted the bill of Mrs.

172
00:14:50,166 --> 00:14:54,340
Obviously Big, you know, and of course she'd have an affair with an Albanian, because why
not?

173
00:14:54,340 --> 00:14:54,880
Well.

174
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who knows why not, except in fact you're a raging alcoholic and you'd probably had an
affair with a post box at that point if it had shown you any form of attention that would

175
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have had any chance of just raising you up from the shitty life that you were in, even
temporarily to make you feel better.

176
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:13,580
But that's by the way.

177
00:15:13,580 --> 00:15:22,730
So anyway, so we were prosecuted, nobody believed that we, know, the question came up
about money and the prosecutor just said, well, know, Miss Coslet is very intelligent.

178
00:15:22,730 --> 00:15:24,700
She would have probably squiddled it offshore.

179
00:15:24,780 --> 00:15:26,972
Well, okay, well, that's great, isn't it?

180
00:15:26,972 --> 00:15:28,382
Isn't that great?

181
00:15:28,643 --> 00:15:32,856
You know, hello, do we need not need some actual evidence?

182
00:15:32,856 --> 00:15:35,767
Is the burden of proof not on you have to prove this?

183
00:15:35,828 --> 00:15:37,399
Then I suddenly did dawned on me.

184
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I thought actually no, it's not is it that's in the textbooks?

185
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That's what you're taught in law school the reality of it and this is where they're very
clever is all they need to do is convince 12 You know people random people

186
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:54,551
the trial bar length went on and on and on.

187
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So, you know, like most of the people, these split into two camps, either, you the
unemployable or those who'd retired.

188
00:16:05,976 --> 00:16:13,259
So we had nobody who, I mean, you any business person on that jury, can guarantee you,
would have gone, hang on a minute.

189
00:16:13,259 --> 00:16:20,252
That's a lovely story that she loved this man and she would have handed all her
properties, but you can't on the one hand have, you know, an area cost that does nothing

190
00:16:20,252 --> 00:16:21,194
for money.

191
00:16:21,194 --> 00:16:22,415
unless it's for money.

192
00:16:22,415 --> 00:16:27,178
And then suddenly she's completely changed her whole identity overnight.

193
00:16:27,198 --> 00:16:31,221
And there is no money and we can't prove money, but she's guilty.

194
00:16:31,221 --> 00:16:34,063
There's something not right about this, right?

195
00:16:34,063 --> 00:16:38,245
And there was something I don't think there's a lot that was right about it from day one.

196
00:16:38,346 --> 00:16:41,768
You know, like, for example, did we actually do it?

197
00:16:42,329 --> 00:16:50,210
For example, you know, I didn't see very much effort being undertaken by the police to try
and really interrogate forensically.

198
00:16:50,210 --> 00:16:52,990
You know, there's a possibility that we've got this wrong.

199
00:16:52,990 --> 00:17:00,670
And then I didn't realise, again, stupid naïveté because I was just naive, that there's
this thing called proceeds of crime.

200
00:17:01,490 --> 00:17:09,110
And I remember then my lawyer saying to me, the first thing he said to me was, you do know
why you're here, don't you?

201
00:17:09,530 --> 00:17:12,530
I sort looked at him sort of quizzically, no.

202
00:17:12,950 --> 00:17:18,750
Well, you're here because you're the only person in this conspiracy that actually has any
assets left.

203
00:17:18,770 --> 00:17:21,074
You're needed for proceeds of crime.

204
00:17:21,500 --> 00:17:26,025
Because when they find you guilty, they will take all of those assets and they will
distribute it.

205
00:17:26,025 --> 00:17:28,185
they will pay for the trial.

206
00:17:28,185 --> 00:17:39,145
And of course, I didn't realise that the proceeds of crime element of all of this is a
period of time, you you'd think, would you not, that the proceeds of crime means exactly

207
00:17:39,145 --> 00:17:50,945
what it says on the box, namely the period of time from which they can show that you have
benefited from a crime, let's say, and it ends upon the period that you stop benefiting

208
00:17:50,945 --> 00:17:52,165
from that crime.

209
00:17:52,445 --> 00:17:54,285
But of course, they changed the law.

210
00:17:54,285 --> 00:17:55,805
So your proceeds of crime...

211
00:17:55,805 --> 00:18:00,904
they can actually go back and take from you things that you were given on the day that you
were born.

212
00:18:00,904 --> 00:18:10,758
So they were able to, of course we were found guilty unanimously because you just needed
to put me in front of a jury when look at my CB and they've decided, yes, of course she's

213
00:18:10,758 --> 00:18:13,829
guilty, she speaks the Russian, this is very strange.

214
00:18:15,090 --> 00:18:23,404
you know, so off they went and basically took the rest of our assets and that was job well
done.

215
00:18:23,404 --> 00:18:24,104
And that was it.

216
00:18:24,104 --> 00:18:28,150
So off we went to prison, which I actually really enjoyed.

217
00:18:28,150 --> 00:18:31,312
contrary to what everyone says, know, because I went with the right spirit.

218
00:18:31,312 --> 00:18:34,444
I thought, well, I can't change this situation.

219
00:18:34,444 --> 00:18:35,905
I am powerless, right?

220
00:18:35,905 --> 00:18:41,499
So there is no point in me fighting an unfair system.

221
00:18:41,499 --> 00:18:43,290
This is not about me.

222
00:18:43,290 --> 00:18:47,993
This is just about, this happens to people all over the world, day in, day out.

223
00:18:48,274 --> 00:18:52,306
For me, the question was, you know, what do I do with this situation?

224
00:18:53,012 --> 00:18:55,414
How can I live my best life here?

225
00:18:55,414 --> 00:18:56,895
What can I do to serve others?

226
00:18:56,895 --> 00:18:58,756
What can I do to serve myself?

227
00:18:59,217 --> 00:19:02,700
And I started teaching women to read.

228
00:19:02,980 --> 00:19:04,797
And I absolutely loved it.

229
00:19:04,797 --> 00:19:06,587
I absolutely loved it, Hamish.

230
00:19:06,587 --> 00:19:08,224
It was the best thing.

231
00:19:08,265 --> 00:19:15,490
If I had to name one job that I really loved of all the things that I've ever done, it's
that.

232
00:19:16,392 --> 00:19:21,736
Because it was that you don't often get in life an opportunity to...

233
00:19:22,122 --> 00:19:30,145
You know, some of us talk about, you know, things I never did volunteering in Africa or
anything like that, but friends of mine who have talked about similar things happening to

234
00:19:30,145 --> 00:19:33,656
them where there's nothing transactional here.

235
00:19:33,777 --> 00:19:44,342
There's one person teaching somebody to do something and being able to observe and watch
how that person's life changes in front of your eyes.

236
00:19:44,342 --> 00:19:49,884
From suddenly being realizing, well actually, I can read.

237
00:19:50,132 --> 00:19:53,713
I can understand, I can do these things.

238
00:19:54,593 --> 00:20:05,978
And watching their confidence change, and watching their whole demeanor change, when you
witness something like that, that is definitely from another planet.

239
00:20:05,978 --> 00:20:15,282
Now that is priceless, you cannot put money, and for that, I am grateful that I went to
prison, because I would never have experienced that in my life.

240
00:20:15,282 --> 00:20:23,904
you know, And it's got to have been, you know, it definitely is probably the most
satisfying thing I've ever done in my life.

241
00:20:23,904 --> 00:20:30,379
You know, I met some amazing women, really amazing, and I have to say too, amazing
officers, right?

242
00:20:30,379 --> 00:20:33,501
Because I am a huge fan of prison officers.

243
00:20:33,501 --> 00:20:37,814
I think they are seriously overlooked in terms of the work that they do.

244
00:20:37,814 --> 00:20:39,754
We treat, it was like our home.

245
00:20:39,754 --> 00:20:45,859
It was home for us, you know, and the little gates that we had, the little spats like
families.

246
00:20:45,859 --> 00:20:51,824
We treated it like, it was like being one big family, you know, where we're always falling
out or not falling in.

247
00:20:51,824 --> 00:20:52,760
But, you know,

248
00:20:52,760 --> 00:21:05,948
we really looked out for each other and I laughed like I've never laughed like a jelly
belly you know I laughed because it was like for the first time in a long long time I was

249
00:21:05,948 --> 00:21:15,135
given the grace of a period of time just to reflect for me it was almost like my body and
my head had said right you're not going to stop through your own accord so we're going to

250
00:21:15,135 --> 00:21:16,656
stop you for you

251
00:21:17,608 --> 00:21:20,425
You know, we say, don't we, in things like recovery, we say...

252
00:21:20,425 --> 00:21:29,425
you know, the higher power, for me it's a higher power anyway, it works in mysterious
ways, very mysterious ways.

253
00:21:30,265 --> 00:21:34,945
And don't tell me it doesn't have a sense of humor because it's so sure as hell does.

254
00:21:34,945 --> 00:21:42,205
It might not work in the way we want it to work, but it gives us everything we need.

255
00:21:42,205 --> 00:21:43,705
And it gives us the real opportunity.

256
00:21:43,705 --> 00:21:45,695
So anyway, so that's what happens to me.

257
00:21:45,695 --> 00:21:47,721
I came out prison with nothing.

258
00:21:47,721 --> 00:21:51,161
43 quid discharge grants and suddenly I found myself in a situation.

259
00:21:51,161 --> 00:22:05,881
my god I've got to start businesses again with nothing and the most Important thing that I
learned was that what happens to an individual which is always Subsequently informed my

260
00:22:05,881 --> 00:22:10,841
interest in human beings You're you know, you're no longer this great lawyer.

261
00:22:10,841 --> 00:22:17,033
You're no longer this hedge fund manager You're no longer this property you're no longer
any of that

262
00:22:17,033 --> 00:22:21,293
It's almost like Anno Domini, know, BCAD, you know, that sort of thing.

263
00:22:21,293 --> 00:22:27,633
And, you know, you're now a convict.

264
00:22:27,973 --> 00:22:30,813
And upon release, you are an ex-offender.

265
00:22:30,973 --> 00:22:32,893
That is your identity.

266
00:22:33,513 --> 00:22:36,793
Now, of course, you can shoot, I mean, certainly that's maybe how society views you.

267
00:22:36,793 --> 00:22:40,174
Now, I wasn't playing that game, unfortunately, for society.

268
00:22:40,174 --> 00:22:43,154
Because I, and I had to, you know, it was a tough time.

269
00:22:43,154 --> 00:22:44,832
I made a conscious decision.

270
00:22:44,832 --> 00:22:49,567
I'm going to tell people about my criminal convictions, can hear them sort of rooting
around in the back.

271
00:22:49,567 --> 00:22:54,127
you know, thinking, yeah, whatever, here she comes, the convict, yeah, whatever.

272
00:22:54,127 --> 00:23:02,947
But fine, know, so I've managed to set up businesses as a direct result of coming out of
prison, no help from those who were supposed to help people coming out from prison,

273
00:23:02,947 --> 00:23:05,267
because I was the wrong type of prisoner for them.

274
00:23:05,267 --> 00:23:07,547
I was like a bit too intelligent.

275
00:23:07,807 --> 00:23:15,991
I was the wrong type, because they're still busy in this old 18th century world of,
prisoners have to be poor people.

276
00:23:15,993 --> 00:23:25,897
I'm always fascinated with that, this idea of let's strip people of their humanity, let's
strip them of their dignity, let's strip them of every single congruent asset that they

277
00:23:25,897 --> 00:23:27,988
require to survive.

278
00:23:28,468 --> 00:23:37,352
And let's be really surprised that we have a reoffending rate that's going through the
roof.

279
00:23:37,492 --> 00:23:40,073
Because guess what folks out there?

280
00:23:40,233 --> 00:23:44,893
You too would turn back to crime if you were stripped with nothing.

281
00:23:44,893 --> 00:23:48,212
or down to nothing because that's what we do as human beings.

282
00:23:48,212 --> 00:23:50,679
We are designed to survive.

283
00:23:50,679 --> 00:24:07,139
And that's precisely what I did, Hamish, and I did it because I've got to, you know,
luckily I got into recovery in 2006, 2012, and that saved me because it gave me a

284
00:24:07,139 --> 00:24:17,779
psychological framework and a belief system that sat way above compass morality of the law
or people.

285
00:24:17,779 --> 00:24:20,739
It sat in the universe.

286
00:24:21,471 --> 00:24:31,649
And these laws were universal and it didn't matter to me whether I met people on 12-step
programs or whether I met people who were religious or spiritual.

287
00:24:31,649 --> 00:24:32,280
It didn't matter.

288
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,582
We all had this one thing in common.

289
00:24:34,582 --> 00:24:40,668
We had a true belief in a power greater than us.

290
00:24:40,668 --> 00:24:42,969
And I love the concept to this day.

291
00:24:42,969 --> 00:24:44,629
love that concept.

292
00:24:45,530 --> 00:24:47,821
I'm aware we haven't done much talking.

293
00:24:47,821 --> 00:24:50,372
I've done quite a lot of monologuing.

294
00:24:50,372 --> 00:24:56,985
What was supposed to be the five second or the five sentence highlight as to a diatribe.

295
00:24:56,985 --> 00:24:58,695
So I'm sorry about that.

296
00:24:59,412 --> 00:25:01,833
I think that was wonderful.

297
00:25:02,192 --> 00:25:06,575
you know, you've painted that to be taken anyway.

298
00:25:06,575 --> 00:25:14,407
Injustice, pour me, beaten down, stripped, as you said, beaten, left for dead, and then
expected to, well, who gives a shit?

299
00:25:14,407 --> 00:25:15,918
You know, you're a criminal.

300
00:25:15,918 --> 00:25:19,559
And you've gone, nah.

301
00:25:20,319 --> 00:25:21,679
Not today, thank you.

302
00:25:23,450 --> 00:25:32,215
And you know, that's, that's, that's why I introduced you as remarkable because, know, I
haven't heard all of that story and that, is, that is astounding, but that, you know, none

303
00:25:32,215 --> 00:25:35,326
of that surprises me the way the humors come out.

304
00:25:35,547 --> 00:25:43,181
I love the fact that you were helping people to learn to read, you know, that, that is
wonderful.

305
00:25:43,181 --> 00:25:51,816
And another thing that's three people I've had on the podcast have been to prison for two
for drinking, three for drinking.

306
00:25:51,816 --> 00:25:54,869
Well, God, I mean that to be fair, to be fair.

307
00:25:54,869 --> 00:25:55,887
I mean that...

308
00:25:55,887 --> 00:26:03,288
But they've all said the same thing, you know, I had I was in a box and I had time to
reflect.

309
00:26:03,288 --> 00:26:06,548
I didn't have to deal with all the other stuff.

310
00:26:07,088 --> 00:26:11,108
And in fact, the fourth person, her body broke down and she was in a wheelchair for a
year.

311
00:26:11,108 --> 00:26:11,658
Same thing.

312
00:26:11,658 --> 00:26:12,558
She was in a box.

313
00:26:12,558 --> 00:26:16,548
Her body said, if you're not going to stop, I'm going to stop you.

314
00:26:16,868 --> 00:26:19,228
Arguably, when I went to rehab, I was the same thing.

315
00:26:19,228 --> 00:26:22,674
I was put in a little box where I had to process.

316
00:26:22,674 --> 00:26:28,931
think about things, feel things, tap into that higher power, which I didn't understand
through the AA.

317
00:26:28,931 --> 00:26:30,203
That didn't relate to me at the time.

318
00:26:30,203 --> 00:26:39,040
But the themes there, you know, you have had to, they have had to, we have had to make
sense of something and then turn around and have a choice.

319
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:40,851
You know, am I going to be the repeat offender?

320
00:26:40,851 --> 00:26:41,792
Am I going to thrive?

321
00:26:41,792 --> 00:26:44,125
And you've chosen to thrive as have these other guests.

322
00:26:44,125 --> 00:26:49,008
But that's a hard, really hard decision to make because, you should be bitter.

323
00:26:49,309 --> 00:26:50,250
Most people...

324
00:26:50,250 --> 00:26:52,171
And you what that is?

325
00:26:52,171 --> 00:26:55,474
You see, now this is really interesting for me in terms of psychology.

326
00:26:55,474 --> 00:27:00,078
One of the things that stood against me throughout my trial was that

327
00:27:00,078 --> 00:27:01,230
I wasn't bitter.

328
00:27:01,230 --> 00:27:13,778
I was not willing to point fingers at others when I was invited to do so, whom I could not
say, hand on my heart, that they had done something.

329
00:27:13,899 --> 00:27:18,882
You know, I was going to tell the truth and I was going to stick to my core principle
values.

330
00:27:18,882 --> 00:27:24,907
And I can remember thinking in my cell or the police station actually.

331
00:27:25,313 --> 00:27:27,886
I'm thinking about this really deeply.

332
00:27:28,688 --> 00:27:30,850
That when you plead not to get...

333
00:27:30,850 --> 00:27:34,436
because I was putting myself up there for an eight, ten year sentence.

334
00:27:34,436 --> 00:27:37,368
And the only question that came through my mind was this.

335
00:27:37,368 --> 00:27:45,309
You have to live with your decision for the rest of your life.

336
00:27:45,309 --> 00:27:50,792
And that, you know, and I remember, you to thine own self therefore be true.

337
00:27:50,792 --> 00:27:53,053
And all I had to give was the truth.

338
00:27:53,053 --> 00:27:56,294
I can't control people, places and things.

339
00:27:56,294 --> 00:28:00,775
I can't control what people may or may not think.

340
00:28:00,775 --> 00:28:11,618
I believe in karma now and I know that one day justice will always prevail because it
always does because the universe ensures that it does.

341
00:28:11,618 --> 00:28:18,440
It may not be in the time frame that we want it to prevail.

342
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:19,460
Note.

343
00:28:19,698 --> 00:28:28,713
we all know that's an ego moment, but it does always, if you look back over history, it
does always prevail.

344
00:28:28,713 --> 00:28:32,155
So I know that the truth will come out.

345
00:28:33,036 --> 00:28:44,863
But I also thought that because I have no attachment to material things, believe it or
not, although people are constantly or were constantly saying about me, I don't do

346
00:28:44,863 --> 00:28:46,714
anything if it's not for money.

347
00:28:46,938 --> 00:28:49,259
I'm thinking, well, they just haven't got me, have they?

348
00:28:49,259 --> 00:28:51,290
Because they haven't understood me.

349
00:28:51,290 --> 00:28:52,971
Again, that's not my problem.

350
00:28:52,971 --> 00:28:55,292
That's, you have to let it go.

351
00:28:55,508 --> 00:28:57,573
You have to let that go.

352
00:28:57,573 --> 00:29:03,856
Because it's not, it's the not letting go of that bit that will kill you in the end.

353
00:29:03,856 --> 00:29:08,629
Because it will live inside here and you'll constantly be thinking, but I didn't do it.

354
00:29:08,629 --> 00:29:09,629
Why didn't they believe me?

355
00:29:09,629 --> 00:29:11,440
Why didn't they believe me?

356
00:29:11,632 --> 00:29:25,542
knows why they don't believe me I don't know and it's got nothing to do it's not my
business actually all I can do is put myself into action controlled by a power greater

357
00:29:25,542 --> 00:29:38,470
than me and get the fuck on with it I've been dealt the cards that I've been dealt with if
you've got a higher power in your life that means you've got massive energy in your tank

358
00:29:38,891 --> 00:29:41,432
and you can overcome anything

359
00:29:41,786 --> 00:29:50,802
Because the trick in life I've learned is these were just, let's be honest, I was like an
addictive gatherer of things.

360
00:29:51,403 --> 00:29:57,527
You know, I could have come, you know, I find myself even today falling back into
addictive behaviour.

361
00:29:57,587 --> 00:29:58,648
what are the stats?

362
00:29:58,648 --> 00:30:00,209
You know, how many viewers have you got?

363
00:30:00,209 --> 00:30:01,370
How many clicks have you got?

364
00:30:01,370 --> 00:30:02,100
Who's saying what?

365
00:30:02,100 --> 00:30:03,533
You know, it's addictive behaviour.

366
00:30:03,533 --> 00:30:04,532
It's the same nonsense.

367
00:30:04,532 --> 00:30:06,113
I had to stop doing that.

368
00:30:06,113 --> 00:30:09,386
It doesn't matter how many people join us or don't join us.

369
00:30:09,386 --> 00:30:10,426
Who cares?

370
00:30:10,788 --> 00:30:17,651
What matters is the right type of people join us or don't join us for the right reasons.

371
00:30:18,551 --> 00:30:28,735
And you know, because we're taught from day one that our job in life is to be good, go
through school, have a good job, go to an excellent university and then start the

372
00:30:28,735 --> 00:30:30,536
institution process.

373
00:30:31,256 --> 00:30:40,666
We ought to be taught, and I wish to God I have been taught this, because AA taught me
this, is we should be thinking first and foremost of how can I serve

374
00:30:40,666 --> 00:30:42,379
this planet that I live on?

375
00:30:42,379 --> 00:30:43,902
How can I help others?

376
00:30:43,902 --> 00:30:45,115
How can I contribute?

377
00:30:45,115 --> 00:30:46,783
What can I do to help others?

378
00:30:46,783 --> 00:30:50,066
And I think that's why, you know, there was no bitterness.

379
00:30:50,066 --> 00:30:57,982
I would have been very interested to have seen what would have happened to me had I not
been in recovery, had I not been in an AA and what would, whether that bitterness would

380
00:30:57,982 --> 00:30:59,393
have happened or not.

381
00:30:59,574 --> 00:31:11,204
I never did have that bitterness because I just thought, well, these are people who
unfortunately are seeking a quick outcome for their own gain and benefit because they're

382
00:31:11,204 --> 00:31:15,747
in a system which encourages the points mean prizes.

383
00:31:15,949 --> 00:31:17,580
sort of behaviour pattern.

384
00:31:17,580 --> 00:31:19,090
So I can't blame them.

385
00:31:19,090 --> 00:31:27,664
Every single one of them got promoted and you know, part of the proceeds of crime stuff
gets given to the local prosecuting police force.

386
00:31:27,664 --> 00:31:31,786
But of course, they have to, one day we all have to meet our maker, don't we?

387
00:31:31,786 --> 00:31:38,448
One day we all have to seriously look into, you know, that judge will have to seriously
think, did I do the right thing?

388
00:31:39,149 --> 00:31:43,491
Did I preside over innocent people potentially going to prison?

389
00:31:43,491 --> 00:31:44,375
And if so,

390
00:31:44,375 --> 00:31:45,986
Am I going to atone for it or not?

391
00:31:45,986 --> 00:31:46,566
I don't know.

392
00:31:46,566 --> 00:31:55,479
It's not my business, but you know, everybody will have their opportunity one day to make
their amends or not.

393
00:31:55,759 --> 00:31:58,420
But I don't live in the past.

394
00:31:58,420 --> 00:32:00,900
What is in the past is in the past.

395
00:32:02,901 --> 00:32:04,123
They're just things.

396
00:32:04,123 --> 00:32:06,544
I'm more interested in the present.

397
00:32:06,676 --> 00:32:11,376
I'm more interested in enjoying life day by day because life is bloody brilliant, right?

398
00:32:11,376 --> 00:32:12,736
It is bloody brilliant.

399
00:32:12,736 --> 00:32:15,176
It's totally unpredictable.

400
00:32:15,376 --> 00:32:19,896
It's designed to send you completely potty if you let it.

401
00:32:20,116 --> 00:32:26,496
But it gives you the most amazing, amazing opportunities every single day.

402
00:32:26,496 --> 00:32:30,486
All we need to do is open our eyes and get rid of the noise.

403
00:32:30,486 --> 00:32:36,970
If we can get rid of the noise, the dangly golden thing, follow me, follow me, I'll make
you a billionaire.

404
00:32:37,064 --> 00:32:43,827
And if we can actually focus more on what's in here, I learned that it's not an outside
job, it's an inside job.

405
00:32:43,827 --> 00:32:52,810
And that actually all you need in life to survive, and I proved this, I left prison
homeless with 43 quid.

406
00:32:53,610 --> 00:32:58,423
All you really need is a strong belief in a power system which is greater than you.

407
00:32:58,423 --> 00:33:04,103
to be able to rely on it when all else has failed you.

408
00:33:04,723 --> 00:33:08,343
And a strong sense of purpose and self.

409
00:33:08,343 --> 00:33:09,783
Who are you?

410
00:33:09,783 --> 00:33:11,013
Why are you?

411
00:33:11,013 --> 00:33:13,023
And what do you like to do?

412
00:33:13,163 --> 00:33:20,963
Which will lead you to that space of, and you will know when you've got it, you will feel
that you're doing the right thing.

413
00:33:20,963 --> 00:33:22,423
Because guess what?

414
00:33:22,423 --> 00:33:24,583
You will be happy.

415
00:33:25,123 --> 00:33:27,903
And let me tell you one thing, happiness

416
00:33:27,903 --> 00:33:31,310
Trump's making millions all day long.

417
00:33:31,352 --> 00:33:32,446
All day long.

418
00:33:32,446 --> 00:33:34,948
Yeah.

419
00:33:34,948 --> 00:33:35,789
I love that.

420
00:33:35,789 --> 00:33:38,271
Yeah.

421
00:33:39,252 --> 00:33:42,015
You don't, don't really need to qualify that you're spot on.

422
00:33:42,015 --> 00:33:49,231
is isn't it when, when you are doing what you enjoy doing, when you're happy, it becomes
it does it becomes effortless.

423
00:33:49,231 --> 00:33:52,524
It doesn't equal easy, but it becomes effortless.

424
00:33:52,785 --> 00:33:53,965
It's aligned.

425
00:33:53,965 --> 00:34:00,759
mother was a school teacher and every day she loved the tutors and the stewards.

426
00:34:00,759 --> 00:34:01,821
just loved them.

427
00:34:01,821 --> 00:34:03,442
It was like soap opera, wasn't it?

428
00:34:03,442 --> 00:34:05,202
It is a soap opera really.

429
00:34:05,483 --> 00:34:11,567
But you knew and you could see the way she taught that.

430
00:34:11,567 --> 00:34:15,474
time she taught it to a sixth former new, she would bring it.

431
00:34:15,474 --> 00:34:18,593
It was like listening to Lucy Worsley or something like that.

432
00:34:18,593 --> 00:34:21,094
She'd bring it alive.

433
00:34:21,898 --> 00:34:34,972
The joy for her was the carrying the message bit, transmitting that piece of history, that
time in history, different ways of looking at things and watching those kids turn into

434
00:34:34,972 --> 00:34:40,439
critical thinking beings, coming up with their own ideas and daring to think.

435
00:34:40,439 --> 00:34:44,324
Now that for her gave her so much joy.

436
00:34:44,324 --> 00:34:48,328
You could see she wasn't doing it for the money.

437
00:34:48,850 --> 00:34:50,152
That was her life.

438
00:34:50,152 --> 00:34:51,374
And she loved it.

439
00:34:51,374 --> 00:35:00,669
And I can, you know, there's so many teachers that I had as very fortunate who, and again,
came back to this police, not so much the police officers, but the prison officers, 100%.

440
00:35:00,669 --> 00:35:11,495
These were people that were paid very little money, but they had a passion and a
commitment and a dedication that I have never ever, ever seen before in my life.

441
00:35:11,495 --> 00:35:19,181
And I think that, you know, these people were extraordinary, extraordinary human beings
that changed lives.

442
00:35:19,181 --> 00:35:25,613
I want to go back to, because I think this is very important, I want to go back to the
moral compass.

443
00:35:25,613 --> 00:35:31,365
Because I remember saying I have lost my moral compass when I was drinking badly.

444
00:35:32,165 --> 00:35:38,397
I did not know, I don't like right from wrong, I didn't know what was moral.

445
00:35:38,397 --> 00:35:40,308
I had no bearing.

446
00:35:40,308 --> 00:35:42,849
I was a ship without a sail or without a rudder.

447
00:35:42,849 --> 00:35:44,320
I was just existing.

448
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,030
Explain that to me.

449
00:35:46,431 --> 00:35:48,701
How do you find your moral compass?

450
00:35:48,701 --> 00:36:00,615
How do you know here, because it's not really here, how do you know when you are aligned
with your purpose and with what is important and to bring back that sail, that rudder and

451
00:36:00,675 --> 00:36:02,456
ultimately happiness?

452
00:36:03,336 --> 00:36:05,053
What is your comprehension of that?

453
00:36:05,053 --> 00:36:07,023
And you mentioned higher power at the same time.

454
00:36:07,023 --> 00:36:08,818
So maybe bring maybe that is part of it.

455
00:36:08,818 --> 00:36:09,718
don't know.

456
00:36:10,554 --> 00:36:12,695
Well yeah, but it is part of it.

457
00:36:12,695 --> 00:36:22,760
think we're all born not good, not evil, but we all have a feeling, an inbuilt chip that
tells us what's right and what's wrong.

458
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,678
I believe that, know, maybe I'm wrong.

459
00:36:26,058 --> 00:36:28,209
There might be some mutant genes, who knows?

460
00:36:28,209 --> 00:36:33,100
But I think in the vast majority we all know what's right and what's wrong.

461
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:38,562
And the way I try to do it now, I don't always get it right.

462
00:36:38,930 --> 00:36:52,624
is always ask the question behind the question is why aren't you you know try and seek out
the motives why you're doing something and that's a bloody uncomfortable little journey no

463
00:36:52,624 --> 00:37:00,493
no of course i'm not being manipulative of course i'm not trying to get someone to join
silver tree of course i'm not trying to do that well of course i fucking am you know

464
00:37:00,493 --> 00:37:07,458
obviously you know but you know and that's okay as long as the motive is an honest motive
right

465
00:37:07,556 --> 00:37:15,969
But if you're trying to cover it up with, know, there are lots of benefits to joining
Silvertree and loved one friends, which are good benefits, right?

466
00:37:15,969 --> 00:37:25,093
But the hard question that I always have to ask myself is the, what's really driving you?

467
00:37:25,093 --> 00:37:26,554
What's the motive?

468
00:37:26,554 --> 00:37:33,657
Now, this is really important for me because I can easily slip back into what I call
drinking behavior.

469
00:37:33,657 --> 00:37:34,737
And this is what I do.

470
00:37:34,737 --> 00:37:36,948
So I'm very good at that.

471
00:37:36,948 --> 00:37:40,941
covering up the, you know, I'm trying to help somebody.

472
00:37:41,062 --> 00:37:43,263
Right fine, great.

473
00:37:43,263 --> 00:37:50,289
Well you're trying to help somebody Eleri, what you should be doing is just helping them,
giving them the options and letting it go.

474
00:37:51,290 --> 00:37:55,453
So why have you phoned them 20 times and chased them?

475
00:37:56,494 --> 00:38:06,572
and by the way I'm not bipolar but these are conversations that happen in my head right
you know and I have to and I have to self-examine so I have to examine my behaviour.

476
00:38:06,710 --> 00:38:17,855
on a daily basis, often hourly basis, right, because I slip and I'm very open about this
with people I slip into because sales for me is an addiction, right?

477
00:38:18,135 --> 00:38:21,256
It's an, you know, more is one is never enough, right?

478
00:38:21,256 --> 00:38:22,397
More, more, more.

479
00:38:22,397 --> 00:38:24,948
But the funny thing about it is, okay, I've got more, more, more.

480
00:38:24,948 --> 00:38:25,418
I'm them.

481
00:38:25,418 --> 00:38:26,269
Why feel great?

482
00:38:26,269 --> 00:38:27,119
No, I don't.

483
00:38:27,119 --> 00:38:28,379
I more.

484
00:38:28,700 --> 00:38:33,402
You think I sort of noticed by now the parallels after many years.

485
00:38:34,350 --> 00:38:35,851
But that's what I've got to do.

486
00:38:35,851 --> 00:38:38,773
have to ask myself the real true motive.

487
00:38:38,773 --> 00:38:40,774
And I make myself write it down.

488
00:38:40,774 --> 00:38:46,377
And that's horrible because I'm getting away from what the real motive is.

489
00:38:47,158 --> 00:38:53,432
you know, look, it's not like a self-flagellation process here, but it's a process of
discovery.

490
00:38:53,432 --> 00:38:57,597
then you can at least try then to correct your behavior.

491
00:38:57,597 --> 00:38:58,467
That's all we can do.

492
00:38:58,467 --> 00:39:01,398
None of us are perfect, but at least I'm trying.

493
00:39:01,538 --> 00:39:03,879
And I think that's the thing.

494
00:39:03,879 --> 00:39:07,440
then resentment is another one for me.

495
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:17,542
I've got to watch out for that because somebody said, very good friend of mine said to me,
don't let people live rent free in your head.

496
00:39:18,177 --> 00:39:20,223
I thought, what are you really talking about?

497
00:39:20,223 --> 00:39:27,735
And then sort of suddenly the concept has come to comprehend the concept over time.

498
00:39:28,990 --> 00:39:34,063
But resentment can be created by an expectation.

499
00:39:34,063 --> 00:39:41,377
And they say, I he's taught me that resentment is an expectation under construction.

500
00:39:41,858 --> 00:39:47,020
And if you really draw it, really power it, down, that's exactly what it is.

501
00:39:47,061 --> 00:39:54,926
If you go back to your motive, you want to control the outcome of this process.

502
00:39:54,926 --> 00:39:58,637
So you're not coming, as we say, to equity with clean hands.

503
00:39:58,637 --> 00:40:04,969
You're coming with a premeditated outcome that you want to control.

504
00:40:04,969 --> 00:40:08,216
Now these are very, you know, it takes you years to get it.

505
00:40:08,216 --> 00:40:14,842
Well, maybe not, but these are things worth practicing because you will get to the true
source.

506
00:40:14,842 --> 00:40:20,405
You will know instantly what your real motive is and you'll be given an opportunity to
correct it.

507
00:40:20,405 --> 00:40:21,338
Mm-hmm.

508
00:40:21,608 --> 00:40:22,204
Yeah.

509
00:40:22,204 --> 00:40:22,845
trying to do.

510
00:40:22,845 --> 00:40:31,058
And it's hard, it's hard because it goes, it speaks directly often against your ego.

511
00:40:31,058 --> 00:40:37,227
My biggest problem today is my own, well, my biggest problem today, and always has been,
is my ego.

512
00:40:37,227 --> 00:40:41,723
Because my ego is like obviously intergalactic and no nose back, no bounds.

513
00:40:41,723 --> 00:40:49,040
So my problem is that I have to really knock that ego out and just say,

514
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:55,914
Well, my thinking, let's be absolutely honest with you, and actions haven't exactly got me
to some of the best places.

515
00:40:55,914 --> 00:40:59,676
know, some of them might be my fault, some of them might be other people's fault, so what?

516
00:40:59,676 --> 00:41:03,018
But I had a part in it, whether we like it or not.

517
00:41:03,018 --> 00:41:04,679
I had a part in it because I was there.

518
00:41:04,679 --> 00:41:15,473
So it's really watching that ego and learning, and that's why I keep going to my program
stuff, because I'm being reminded on daily basis.

519
00:41:15,473 --> 00:41:21,953
to right-size my goddamn ego and try and get rid of it the best that I can.

520
00:41:21,953 --> 00:41:35,933
Once I can get rid of ego I can allow that higher power, that learning of structuring life
in the right way to come in such that I'm working, I know this might sound bonkers to some

521
00:41:35,933 --> 00:41:44,687
people, this is how I do it, that I'm working in service to something greater than myself
which is purely good that I can trust in.

522
00:41:44,687 --> 00:41:45,717
This thing is good.

523
00:41:45,717 --> 00:41:47,078
It's not bad.

524
00:41:47,818 --> 00:41:51,440
And when I do that, I feel happier.

525
00:41:51,557 --> 00:41:54,141
I don't have any anxiety.

526
00:41:54,681 --> 00:41:55,843
There's no stress.

527
00:41:55,843 --> 00:42:00,525
And I know I'm working for the best possible outcome.

528
00:42:01,406 --> 00:42:04,747
And that is a bloody brilliant place to be in.

529
00:42:05,087 --> 00:42:06,528
No money can buy that.

530
00:42:06,528 --> 00:42:08,088
That is a place of safety.

531
00:42:08,088 --> 00:42:09,989
That is a place of happiness.

532
00:42:10,307 --> 00:42:14,889
You've taken away the negative thoughts and negative feelings because you don't allow
yourself to have those.

533
00:42:14,889 --> 00:42:21,982
If you do have them, you write them down immediately and you deal with them immediately
and you find out where did they come from?

534
00:42:22,102 --> 00:42:24,537
Are they coming from fear within you?

535
00:42:24,537 --> 00:42:29,306
It might be, you know, for example, a huge thing today, fear of financial insecurity.

536
00:42:29,306 --> 00:42:30,162
Hmm.

537
00:42:30,631 --> 00:42:40,076
what if we were to do, and this is what I did when I built my businesses, I had to throw
myself entirely on the mercy of this higher power thing.

538
00:42:40,857 --> 00:42:43,439
And I had to do life completely differently.

539
00:42:43,439 --> 00:42:53,964
Now, there is no way under ordinary circumstances that anybody with my background would
have risen to where I am now, because it just wouldn't have been possible.

540
00:42:54,024 --> 00:42:57,460
So I have to accept that there has got to be some other

541
00:42:57,460 --> 00:43:00,351
involvement in my life that has nothing to do with me.

542
00:43:00,351 --> 00:43:02,652
Everybody says you know how do you do it?

543
00:43:02,652 --> 00:43:07,873
No no no I do nothing by the way that's rule number one.

544
00:43:07,873 --> 00:43:20,327
I obviously haven't done very well on my own steam we know that by the evidence the
evidence clearly demonstrates that therefore this has all been done by something much

545
00:43:20,327 --> 00:43:25,226
bigger than me and only when and in proportion to

546
00:43:25,226 --> 00:43:31,091
when I let that thing into my life and I've managed to shut up and listen.

547
00:43:31,091 --> 00:43:32,071
Really.

548
00:43:33,192 --> 00:43:41,598
That's not to say it tells you, you can have no opinions, but, you know, again, we know
where this sort of stinking thinking leads us to.

549
00:43:41,678 --> 00:43:50,284
I have an opinion and I'm going to, I don't quite agree with that bit of the big book or
that bit of the programme, so I'm going to superimpose my own bit on it.

550
00:43:50,284 --> 00:43:51,304
You know, of course,

551
00:43:51,931 --> 00:43:54,123
You know, this sort of nonsense thinking.

552
00:43:54,123 --> 00:43:56,996
My best thinking got me to the gutter.

553
00:43:57,116 --> 00:43:58,016
But you know what?

554
00:43:58,016 --> 00:44:00,340
My best thinking did give me something.

555
00:44:00,340 --> 00:44:02,862
It gave me a gift of desperation.

556
00:44:03,083 --> 00:44:07,227
And it's through that gift of desperation was I able to start living again.

557
00:44:07,227 --> 00:44:09,830
I was able to rebuild my life.

558
00:44:10,111 --> 00:44:12,334
And it's quite tremendous how quickly it's happened.

559
00:44:12,334 --> 00:44:13,968
It's got nothing to do with me.

560
00:44:14,131 --> 00:44:15,858
Let's be very clear about that.

561
00:44:15,858 --> 00:44:16,832
Nothing to do with me.

562
00:44:16,832 --> 00:44:23,946
I like tremendously the bit where you said you, you know, you have to stop and check.

563
00:44:23,946 --> 00:44:27,728
That is one of, one of the great things about being in recovery.

564
00:44:27,728 --> 00:44:32,391
have to make sure, as you said, am I doing this for gratuitous pleasure?

565
00:44:32,391 --> 00:44:37,494
Am I doing this to numb the fear, to hide, to escape, to repeat the stories?

566
00:44:37,494 --> 00:44:43,577
Am I doing this because, you know, I've actually got to deal with something and it's far
easy to do that with a couple of drinks down my throat.

567
00:44:45,038 --> 00:44:45,762
that.

568
00:44:45,762 --> 00:44:55,845
Personal query every day, every hour is hard, but it's a damn sight easier than going back
to drinking and all that chaos.

569
00:44:55,845 --> 00:44:56,636
absolutely.

570
00:44:56,636 --> 00:44:58,156
And yeah, it's not fun.

571
00:44:58,156 --> 00:45:01,170
And there's nothing more uncomfortable to admit.

572
00:45:01,170 --> 00:45:02,970
Yes, I am an arch manipulator.

573
00:45:02,970 --> 00:45:05,011
You know, I absolutely am.

574
00:45:05,091 --> 00:45:08,172
However, if I'm

575
00:45:08,776 --> 00:45:12,719
If I'm manipulating to serve, I'm encouraging, I'm empowering.

576
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:14,301
I'm not playing with words.

577
00:45:14,301 --> 00:45:15,732
There's a different energy to it.

578
00:45:15,732 --> 00:45:18,764
You know, I can, I can still use an aspect of that trait.

579
00:45:18,764 --> 00:45:19,835
I'm a people pleaser.

580
00:45:19,835 --> 00:45:21,466
I love helping people.

581
00:45:21,466 --> 00:45:26,110
If I'm doing that for, if I do something for you, then you're going to give me back.

582
00:45:26,110 --> 00:45:28,332
That's, that's the unattractive side of it.

583
00:45:28,332 --> 00:45:29,193
That's the greedy.

584
00:45:29,193 --> 00:45:31,454
That's the yucky side of people pleasing.

585
00:45:31,454 --> 00:45:38,750
But if I'm doing it, as you said, for no, no agenda, you know, I'm in prison teaching
someone to read and you're watching their confidence do.

586
00:45:39,230 --> 00:45:45,293
that that is you know i'm not doing that to get something back from them that's just the
byproduct

587
00:45:45,836 --> 00:45:47,399
And it is a different way of thinking, isn't it?

588
00:45:47,399 --> 00:45:52,740
And it is a different way of being, and it doesn't make sense, but it is really
empowering.

589
00:45:53,466 --> 00:46:03,746
It doesn't make sense because we have been, I think, conditioned to be autonomous.

590
00:46:04,346 --> 00:46:18,446
I think that's one of the most dangerous teachings that we could ever have taught
children, you know, that we are, you know, you will power through, you will get through.

591
00:46:18,446 --> 00:46:23,424
And, you know, there's a time and a place for all of that, but we need other people.

592
00:46:23,608 --> 00:46:28,942
We need to learn to leverage socialization and other people's skills.

593
00:46:28,942 --> 00:46:41,291
You must have seen people, and I'm not one of these, but people who are just brilliant at
getting people to do things and how they operate.

594
00:46:41,452 --> 00:46:45,675
I look at those people and I think, wow.

595
00:46:45,955 --> 00:46:49,848
Now I'd have been screaming within sentence number two.

596
00:46:50,234 --> 00:46:51,454
What do mean you're not doing that?

597
00:46:51,454 --> 00:46:51,764
Why?

598
00:46:51,764 --> 00:46:53,134
These are your orders.

599
00:46:53,354 --> 00:46:55,714
I just don't have the temperament for that.

600
00:46:55,714 --> 00:46:57,394
That's not the thing, right?

601
00:46:57,394 --> 00:47:05,514
But part of life's journey, I think, is recognising what are you really good at and what
are you really not very good at?

602
00:47:05,514 --> 00:47:06,874
So think of it like this.

603
00:47:06,874 --> 00:47:09,694
I always find this quite interesting.

604
00:47:10,554 --> 00:47:16,374
So, you know, we're all shoehorned, sort of in a way, by our own desires or...

605
00:47:16,374 --> 00:47:25,978
or whatever to become the doctors, the lawyers, the whatever it can be, business owners,
this, that and the other and everybody attributes a value to that.

606
00:47:25,978 --> 00:47:37,443
Well let's be absolutely honest, we only attribute a value to it because we think that
that equates to a really good person, a really good career, financially secure and pillar

607
00:47:37,443 --> 00:47:40,164
of salt of the earth and society.

608
00:47:41,085 --> 00:47:42,465
Has that ever worked?

609
00:47:42,465 --> 00:47:44,372
I wonder about this all the time.

610
00:47:44,372 --> 00:47:50,225
Why can't we attribute the same value to a cleaner or a lorry driver?

611
00:47:50,265 --> 00:48:02,072
Because what if that surgeon doesn't really want to be a surgeon really, he'd like to be a
refuse director or a cleaner?

612
00:48:02,892 --> 00:48:13,038
you know, one half the problem in this world is we love to label everybody with things and
we create our own little, we spend loads of times trying to

613
00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:15,513
get rid of hierarchies, we?

614
00:48:15,513 --> 00:48:16,574
Everyone is equal.

615
00:48:16,574 --> 00:48:22,873
And then actually by the same token, we are very busy recreating the hierarchy around
money.

616
00:48:22,873 --> 00:48:27,943
And this is all just bollocks because there is no such thing as money.

617
00:48:27,945 --> 00:48:30,030
It's energy to start with.

618
00:48:30,030 --> 00:48:43,446
And once you realise that money is energy, when you emit at the right energy level and
you're happy and then you're afloat doing what you need to be doing, people will come.

619
00:48:44,247 --> 00:48:45,768
People will come.

620
00:48:45,768 --> 00:48:46,849
That's what happens.

621
00:48:46,849 --> 00:48:48,700
You see this in politics all the time.

622
00:48:48,700 --> 00:48:53,193
Most of them are clearly not in their flow.

623
00:48:53,193 --> 00:49:02,033
We know this with the stupid Labour Party, sorry I'm not going get political, but know,
there they are screaming at the Conservative Party, you know, look at all those freebies,

624
00:49:02,033 --> 00:49:03,313
look at all those...

625
00:49:03,313 --> 00:49:05,253
and they're going to do exactly the same thing.

626
00:49:05,253 --> 00:49:14,734
Which tells me that the motivation, real motivation, behind them wanting to do that job is
not serving, it is power.

627
00:49:14,734 --> 00:49:15,652
Now that is that.

628
00:49:15,652 --> 00:49:28,166
You know, and I wonder sometimes, you know, if in schools we could focus on people doing
things that makes their heart sing and then pay them.

629
00:49:28,166 --> 00:49:30,017
Can you imagine what would happen in the world?

630
00:49:30,017 --> 00:49:33,848
Hey, Mischa, I often imagine this in my little weedy head.

631
00:49:34,568 --> 00:49:37,169
Where everyone was paid the same, right?

632
00:49:37,169 --> 00:49:38,529
Now that would be interesting, right?

633
00:49:38,529 --> 00:49:40,910
Now that would be really interesting.

634
00:49:40,910 --> 00:49:43,442
Everybody was paid the same everybody would have two cars.

635
00:49:43,442 --> 00:49:47,335
We would have two lovely holidays a year You have your four-bedroom detached house.

636
00:49:47,335 --> 00:49:48,156
Don't worry about it.

637
00:49:48,156 --> 00:49:48,696
It's done.

638
00:49:48,696 --> 00:49:49,257
Right?

639
00:49:49,257 --> 00:49:50,258
Everyone's the same.

640
00:49:50,258 --> 00:50:00,126
Yeah, okay, you know You know you want to go off and and build a business then you can
have your mansion, know that that's fine But in the main everybody is the same right and

641
00:50:00,126 --> 00:50:02,227
you know, there's loads of jobs choose from right?

642
00:50:02,227 --> 00:50:08,272
You can be a cleaner you could be a Lorry driver you can be a psychologist a psychiatrist.

643
00:50:08,272 --> 00:50:10,546
You can be a surgeon you can be this

644
00:50:10,546 --> 00:50:12,770
you know, within the job world.

645
00:50:12,770 --> 00:50:14,553
Forget industry for five seconds, right?

646
00:50:14,553 --> 00:50:15,575
Self-made people.

647
00:50:15,575 --> 00:50:17,498
I wonder what would happen.

648
00:50:17,498 --> 00:50:20,063
I really wonder what would happen.

649
00:50:20,063 --> 00:50:22,107
People would then do what they want to do, right?

650
00:50:22,107 --> 00:50:23,167
And that's the problem.

651
00:50:23,167 --> 00:50:28,367
in a world where we've loads of people who are just doing totally what they shouldn't be
doing.

652
00:50:28,887 --> 00:50:40,527
Which means, which tells you why they then try and fulfil that hole in their soul by
seeking out more money, let's say, in the private sector, because they're trying to make

653
00:50:40,527 --> 00:50:41,718
themselves feel better.

654
00:50:41,718 --> 00:50:50,170
Or they seek out alcohol or they seek out food or drugs or reckless abandon just to

655
00:50:50,225 --> 00:50:52,349
and squashed, name but two.

656
00:50:52,349 --> 00:50:53,702
Absolutely, yeah.

657
00:50:53,702 --> 00:51:00,034
Just to put some fun, maybe simple as that, put some fun and some happiness back into
life.

658
00:51:00,034 --> 00:51:00,934
Yeah.

659
00:51:01,357 --> 00:51:03,377
What a harrowing thought, isn't it?

660
00:51:03,377 --> 00:51:10,803
But actually, isn't all this actually so much more simple than we've actually ever thought
about it?

661
00:51:12,044 --> 00:51:18,748
None of this is complicated and the answers are staring us right in front of our eyes.

662
00:51:19,070 --> 00:51:27,856
So we need to seek the motive now of why do our politicians, for example, or people
generally, what are they truly scared of?

663
00:51:28,277 --> 00:51:31,682
And it will come down to, you know this from recovery and I know this,

664
00:51:31,682 --> 00:51:34,153
There'll be fear of insecurity.

665
00:51:34,873 --> 00:51:37,274
my God, what will happen to the school fees?

666
00:51:37,274 --> 00:51:38,795
What will happen to the horses?

667
00:51:38,795 --> 00:51:40,096
What will happen to the luckier?

668
00:51:40,096 --> 00:51:41,196
Because that's what we've built.

669
00:51:41,196 --> 00:51:46,422
We've built a society that pegs itself on how wealthy are you.

670
00:51:46,422 --> 00:51:47,452
Yeah, yeah.

671
00:51:47,452 --> 00:51:47,784
That's it.

672
00:51:47,784 --> 00:51:48,335
What do you do?

673
00:51:48,335 --> 00:51:49,557
First thing you ask somebody.

674
00:51:49,557 --> 00:51:49,978
Yeah.

675
00:51:49,978 --> 00:51:50,629
Nice to meet you.

676
00:51:50,629 --> 00:51:51,430
Hi, I'm Hamish.

677
00:51:51,430 --> 00:51:52,422
What do you do?

678
00:51:52,422 --> 00:51:53,264
I'm a lawyer.

679
00:51:53,264 --> 00:51:53,945
I'll chat with you.

680
00:51:53,945 --> 00:51:54,595
I'm a builder.

681
00:51:54,595 --> 00:51:55,406
well.

682
00:51:56,662 --> 00:51:57,182
Exactly.

683
00:51:57,182 --> 00:52:06,539
And you know what, when I was in Kazakhstan many, many years ago, one of the most
beautiful things that we did there, had a Sunday, sorry, a Thursday evening dinner club on

684
00:52:06,539 --> 00:52:09,360
my veranda, because I had the nicest veranda.

685
00:52:09,401 --> 00:52:13,874
And we had a symposium of the most beautiful people there.

686
00:52:13,874 --> 00:52:18,247
had the head of the, we had the British ambassador and his wife.

687
00:52:18,587 --> 00:52:19,988
We had me.

688
00:52:20,148 --> 00:52:23,450
We had a couple of lorry drivers.

689
00:52:23,451 --> 00:52:25,702
They used to pop in and out, you know, sort of.

690
00:52:25,804 --> 00:52:29,187
who are hilarious because they used to go, you know, they were just lovely.

691
00:52:29,187 --> 00:52:32,670
We had a couple of construction people.

692
00:52:32,670 --> 00:52:34,732
We had the head of Balfour Beatty.

693
00:52:34,732 --> 00:52:45,330
had, we had the point is we had some seriously high end people, very, very, very important
people that in the city of London, you know, the lorry driver and they were never mixed,

694
00:52:45,330 --> 00:52:46,260
right?

695
00:52:46,701 --> 00:52:55,378
And, you know, people like the head of the World Bank and people like that, you know, and
yet you had staffers too, normal people.

696
00:52:55,422 --> 00:53:00,437
and some local people who could speak really good, like in Turkish, who could speak really
good English.

697
00:53:00,437 --> 00:53:11,769
And what I loved about those meetings is all the barriers were brought right down and
these people became human beings.

698
00:53:11,769 --> 00:53:15,971
And suddenly the lorry driver was just as important as the head of the IMF.

699
00:53:15,971 --> 00:53:25,480
They were talking about their annoying kids with their really annoying habits and finding
out that actually what creates us, what keeps us human is the identification.

700
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:31,725
So we focus on what unites us, not what disunites us or whatever the word is, know,
separates us.

701
00:53:31,725 --> 00:53:38,891
And that was just a total amazing, we did that, there for a year and a half, we did that
every Thursday night.

702
00:53:38,891 --> 00:53:43,997
And I'm still in touch with quite a few of them now and they've always

703
00:53:43,997 --> 00:53:54,374
back to me said you know what that was special that we've always remembered that as
because we we were able to talk to normal people they were able to talk to us and we were

704
00:53:54,374 --> 00:54:03,450
able to all find out that actually we're totally the same guess what you know surprise
surprise and yeah that was just lovely

705
00:54:03,450 --> 00:54:14,970
You know, but I think that's the thing that we are now in a world, I think, and this is
sad, of we're constantly trying to divide and conquer is what's happening.

706
00:54:15,470 --> 00:54:16,850
Everybody has to have a label.

707
00:54:16,850 --> 00:54:19,090
You're either ADHD or non ADHD.

708
00:54:19,090 --> 00:54:20,270
You're either this or you're that.

709
00:54:20,270 --> 00:54:21,850
You're identified as a tree or a post.

710
00:54:21,850 --> 00:54:25,370
I don't care whether you're identified as a whatever you are.

711
00:54:25,370 --> 00:54:26,690
Who cares?

712
00:54:26,750 --> 00:54:28,550
Who are you?

713
00:54:28,670 --> 00:54:30,626
And who are you really?

714
00:54:30,626 --> 00:54:31,460
Mm-hmm.

715
00:54:31,460 --> 00:54:33,654
Well, who do you think you are and who are you really?

716
00:54:33,654 --> 00:54:33,967
Yeah.

717
00:54:33,967 --> 00:54:35,675
And are you able to...

718
00:54:35,675 --> 00:54:45,570
really show us who you are because the sort of stuff that I do as you know is all about
you know I do a lot of work with businesses small businesses but startup businesses in

719
00:54:45,570 --> 00:54:55,025
particular to help them get on track and it comes down to what I call what we call the
five S's you know and it's like that cocktail party line that you were talking about you

720
00:54:55,025 --> 00:54:58,778
know you get to stand right on the doorstep of the department store

721
00:54:58,778 --> 00:55:03,171
and say, imagine this is your department store, who are you?

722
00:55:03,171 --> 00:55:05,453
What do you really want to do?

723
00:55:05,453 --> 00:55:14,998
Not what somebody else told you you should be doing, but what do you really want to do?

724
00:55:14,998 --> 00:55:19,752
And the amount of friction you get there is unbelievable.

725
00:55:19,752 --> 00:55:27,899
But I would say to people, you can't work with people, I can't work with you, unless
you're going to be brutally honest and prepared to do the work.

726
00:55:27,899 --> 00:55:35,766
Because if you're not prepared to do that work first you'll never set up a successful
business because you don't really know why you're doing it.

727
00:55:35,766 --> 00:55:45,783
Your mood is operandai will change every single minute of every different day because you
will be so fixated on all the things that's going on out there.

728
00:55:45,783 --> 00:55:49,735
The noise, you'll be following this woman, following that, the next.

729
00:55:50,196 --> 00:55:53,239
You'll be in chaos and you'll be horribly, horribly unhappy.

730
00:55:53,239 --> 00:56:00,267
Again, that comes back to recovery where you've you've had to start making those choices.

731
00:56:00,267 --> 00:56:07,052
You've I mean, I don't remember the the steps in the in the in the big book, the good
book, the big book.

732
00:56:09,556 --> 00:56:11,027
Now that's interesting, isn't it?

733
00:56:11,027 --> 00:56:11,857
Yeah.

734
00:56:13,459 --> 00:56:15,898
Yeah, in the in the in the Good Book of 12.

735
00:56:15,898 --> 00:56:16,790
Yeah.

736
00:56:16,790 --> 00:56:18,791
But you know, have to make amends.

737
00:56:18,791 --> 00:56:21,022
You have to check in and you know, what did I do wrong?

738
00:56:21,022 --> 00:56:21,862
Yes, I did that.

739
00:56:21,862 --> 00:56:22,833
I did that.

740
00:56:22,833 --> 00:56:24,233
I was doing the best I could.

741
00:56:24,233 --> 00:56:26,834
You know, I've said this countless times on this show.

742
00:56:26,834 --> 00:56:37,018
I used to throw empty bottles out of the car while I was driving because that was less
shameful than going home and hearing them going into the tin bit dustbin.

743
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:46,602
I don't do that, but that that action was less painful than going home and being caught
with bottles of booze.

744
00:56:47,062 --> 00:56:48,765
That was the best I could.

745
00:56:49,198 --> 00:57:01,898
Hey, it doesn't beat my story of rocking up in my X5, you know, it was like, you know,
yeah, you the token X5, the last possession I had, and actually ramming the goddamn car

746
00:57:01,898 --> 00:57:10,898
full of bottles and then doing, you know, almost like a moonlight flit at one of those,
you know, you know, those things, reason supermarket bottle banks right at the back of the

747
00:57:10,898 --> 00:57:14,298
car park as they used to be, you know, thinking that no one's seen you.

748
00:57:14,298 --> 00:57:18,674
Well, there I was, decanting, you know, hundreds of bottles into this thing.

749
00:57:18,674 --> 00:57:25,456
And then this woman pipes up in a lovely little mini and deposits two bottles.

750
00:57:26,096 --> 00:57:41,101
I'm thinking, hmm, now that's how it probably should be, On a number of different levels,
because what that woman had done was that she had factored her cleanliness routine, if you

751
00:57:41,101 --> 00:57:46,472
like, or housekeeping routine, as part of her life that was important enough.

752
00:57:46,688 --> 00:57:51,740
to see through to the end and do the next right thing.

753
00:57:51,740 --> 00:58:05,067
And that's one of the things that recovery has taught me is to when I'm in a turmoil in my
head, bring it right, right, right, right, right down to the next right thing.

754
00:58:05,067 --> 00:58:05,923
Hmm.

755
00:58:06,273 --> 00:58:12,707
you know, really bring it down to the next right thing and do the action and complete it.

756
00:58:13,008 --> 00:58:17,312
Don't leave it half done, do it completely.

757
00:58:17,312 --> 00:58:18,082
Yep.

758
00:58:18,363 --> 00:58:19,863
Wind it back to the beginning.

759
00:58:19,863 --> 00:58:21,604
I have to do the same thing.

760
00:58:21,604 --> 00:58:23,505
like, it's all gone crazy.

761
00:58:23,505 --> 00:58:26,947
I have to go, you know, right back to what happened at the beginning.

762
00:58:26,947 --> 00:58:27,367
Yeah.

763
00:58:27,367 --> 00:58:30,929
Breathe in, breathe out and repeat.

764
00:58:31,270 --> 00:58:32,710
Take a step forward.

765
00:58:32,710 --> 00:58:36,712
It's literally like sometimes I'm having to relearn to walk every day.

766
00:58:38,674 --> 00:58:41,355
But it does, it gives you that place to start again, doesn't it?

767
00:58:41,355 --> 00:58:44,497
And not make the same mistakes, to see things differently.

768
00:58:44,497 --> 00:58:46,677
And as you said, it's that self care.

769
00:58:46,718 --> 00:58:47,528
Yeah.

770
00:58:48,777 --> 00:58:49,706
and then

771
00:58:49,706 --> 00:59:02,334
I'm journaling, you know, when you feel these negative thoughts come into your head, write
them down, because writing them down is writing them out of your head.

772
00:59:02,915 --> 00:59:14,783
Just very quickly, you might have an acronym for it, know, big black dog, you know, all
fine, no reason, negative energy arrived, you know, fine.

773
00:59:14,783 --> 00:59:15,563
Yep.

774
00:59:15,625 --> 00:59:21,586
It's little coping strategies, isn't it, to replace those coping mechanisms.

775
00:59:21,586 --> 00:59:21,977
Yeah.

776
00:59:21,977 --> 00:59:23,499
Totally, totally.

777
00:59:23,499 --> 00:59:27,880
It's been a fabulous conversation and it is, isn't it?

778
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:31,481
It's being aware.

779
00:59:32,201 --> 00:59:40,213
We have to be a little bit more aware, a little bit more cognizant, a little bit more
curious, a little bit more observing of what's going on around us.

780
00:59:40,213 --> 00:59:42,104
What are we doing, our habits?

781
00:59:43,024 --> 00:59:46,345
But you get used to that practice.

782
00:59:46,345 --> 00:59:47,855
You get used to making that effort.

783
00:59:47,855 --> 00:59:50,236
As you said, you get used to that journaling.

784
00:59:50,388 --> 00:59:52,803
and checking in and saying, am I being a dickhead?

785
00:59:52,803 --> 00:59:53,694
Am I being an idiot?

786
00:59:53,694 --> 00:59:55,367
Am I being manipulative?

787
00:59:56,049 --> 00:59:57,792
Why am I being manipulative?

788
00:59:57,792 --> 00:59:59,576
Why am I being a dickhead?

789
00:59:59,576 --> 01:00:00,091
And then

790
01:00:00,091 --> 01:00:12,823
that is importantly, why am I being as well as that because that's the real reveal that it
will be because of an insecurity, something probably within you isn't right.

791
01:00:12,823 --> 01:00:14,985
Or certainly that's my experience.

792
01:00:14,985 --> 01:00:18,905
It can be like I'm mirroring my

793
01:00:18,905 --> 01:00:33,724
internal emotions onto others through my actions is what I found and that was a big
revelation for me because I've really done the, until I was about five or six years sober,

794
01:00:33,724 --> 01:00:39,040
I'd never really done the hard work on that and that's an area I need to practice.

795
01:00:39,040 --> 01:00:48,152
I mean this is stuff that I need to practice daily and I mean or twice daily and if I am
out of sorts I need to seriously recognize

796
01:00:48,152 --> 01:01:04,133
it, remove myself from the area of tension just temporarily and you know go for a walk
around the block and really meditate on it and the way I do it I just say look this is the

797
01:01:04,133 --> 01:01:13,835
problem I have a problem with this person that person it's probably to do with me you know
this person triggers x y and z in me and I ask my higher power again

798
01:01:13,835 --> 01:01:16,345
like San Tocqueville bonkers, but this is what I do.

799
01:01:16,345 --> 01:01:18,848
I ask my higher power to take that away from me.

800
01:01:18,848 --> 01:01:22,714
And I would say, you know, never has it failed.

801
01:01:22,714 --> 01:01:24,475
Never has it failed, yeah.

802
01:01:24,475 --> 01:01:35,201
As long as I've been willing to do the addressing bit of what's not working and why,
because that's really critical.

803
01:01:35,201 --> 01:01:39,265
You can't just say, you know, I don't like this person.

804
01:01:39,265 --> 01:01:40,555
Please take that away from me.

805
01:01:40,555 --> 01:01:41,506
Well, why?

806
01:01:41,506 --> 01:01:43,055
That's your problem that you don't like.

807
01:01:43,055 --> 01:01:45,208
And God's not going to, know, God, you're high.

808
01:01:45,208 --> 01:01:50,272
Hi-Fi is not going to do for you what you were too lazy to do yourself.

809
01:01:50,272 --> 01:01:54,893
know because there's a process here and it's it's actually a process of sheer discipline.

810
01:01:54,893 --> 01:01:55,687
Mm-hmm.

811
01:01:56,484 --> 01:02:02,538
you know, that once you get into it, it becomes a way of life and it becomes instinctive.

812
01:02:03,584 --> 01:02:05,975
I would say the biggest thing I've learned this year is to slow down.

813
01:02:05,975 --> 01:02:13,278
And that, you know, that gives me that chance to think, but I still struggle to slow down.

814
01:02:13,278 --> 01:02:14,728
I still struggle to make that effort.

815
01:02:14,728 --> 01:02:21,351
But when I do, can, yeah, it becomes, I can actually see things before they happen.

816
01:02:21,351 --> 01:02:25,553
You know, I realized that if I do that again, I'm to get that outcome.

817
01:02:25,553 --> 01:02:30,283
You know, I'm not going to change the outcome doing the same thing unless I start to
change something a little bit.

818
01:02:30,283 --> 01:02:33,034
Yeah, and I have to agree with you.

819
01:02:33,034 --> 01:02:43,730
I've had to do that this year too and learning to slow down has for me been the singular
most difficult thing to do.

820
01:02:43,730 --> 01:02:49,773
But actually they do say this, like in the old adage, slow down to speed up.

821
01:02:50,654 --> 01:02:52,205
And that actually is so true.

822
01:02:52,205 --> 01:02:59,979
So for those who are in any doubt about the verity of what's being talked about and the
efficacy of what's being talked about now.

823
01:03:00,129 --> 01:03:01,761
Think back to your school days.

824
01:03:01,761 --> 01:03:06,643
Off you battled on the bus at 8 o'clock or 8.30 or 7 or whatever it was.

825
01:03:06,943 --> 01:03:10,824
But you're back home by 3.30 or whatever it was usually.

826
01:03:10,824 --> 01:03:13,305
School used to finish at 3.30, right?

827
01:03:13,906 --> 01:03:20,569
Just have a think how much you as a human being actually achieved and learnt.

828
01:03:20,569 --> 01:03:24,307
during that small, relatively small space of time.

829
01:03:24,307 --> 01:03:26,589
You weren't working 16 hours a day.

830
01:03:26,589 --> 01:03:37,512
And that, I've often thought about that and I thought yeah, because the difference was
between now and then is then they made you have processing time.

831
01:03:37,512 --> 01:03:40,705
That was given just as much authority.

832
01:03:40,705 --> 01:03:56,338
as the doing because by not processing and that is the one unifying thing that we are
never given today we are never given sufficient time to process things properly hence

833
01:03:56,338 --> 01:04:07,898
we're always in a rush we're always on to the next thing we're always on to the next and
we don't finish things and when psychologically we do not finish things properly that

834
01:04:07,898 --> 01:04:09,469
leaves our brain

835
01:04:09,879 --> 01:04:11,446
in a state of mess.

836
01:04:11,446 --> 01:04:19,871
So that's one of the best gifts I think you can give to people is to, or we can give to
people is to say to me, learn to slow down, to speed up.

837
01:04:20,332 --> 01:04:28,017
Because what it will do, it will enable you to focus very quickly on the things that
matter, the things that really matter.

838
01:04:28,458 --> 01:04:30,239
Get rid of the noise.

839
01:04:30,599 --> 01:04:34,382
And before you know it, you're focusing on what is important.

840
01:04:34,382 --> 01:04:40,466
And before you know it, your business will be thriving because you will be focusing on the
right things.

841
01:04:40,822 --> 01:04:45,307
because they feel right, not on the wrong things.

842
01:04:46,349 --> 01:04:57,582
And this whole nonsense of, you know, and it might be, you know, get rid of social media
for a while, get rid of it permanently, or choose the channel you want to, you can't be

843
01:04:57,582 --> 01:05:00,397
everywhere all at once, and neither should you be.

844
01:05:00,397 --> 01:05:06,176
tell people I only do LinkedIn I don't communicate in any other way that's okay as long as
people know

845
01:05:06,176 --> 01:05:07,457
It's all about managing.

846
01:05:07,457 --> 01:05:12,539
I mean we are living in this world of techno crap at the moment.

847
01:05:12,539 --> 01:05:16,391
It's out of control but we have a choice.

848
01:05:16,391 --> 01:05:18,982
We don't have to join in with it all.

849
01:05:18,982 --> 01:05:24,484
We know that those who are joining in with it on a daily basis are becoming very ill.

850
01:05:25,005 --> 01:05:25,875
We know this.

851
01:05:25,875 --> 01:05:29,206
The evidence is right in front of our eyes.

852
01:05:30,167 --> 01:05:33,244
So why are we so busy like Lemming is doing the

853
01:05:33,244 --> 01:05:36,094
fear of missing out.

854
01:05:36,094 --> 01:05:37,264
Fear of missing out.

855
01:05:37,264 --> 01:05:41,924
If an idea is a good idea, it will reach its right audience.

856
01:05:41,924 --> 01:05:50,184
The other thing I've learned in business, this is probably one of the hardest things, So,
you know, people you might come up with the best idea in the world, right?

857
01:05:50,184 --> 01:05:52,284
And there's no reason why it should fail, but it fails.

858
01:05:52,284 --> 01:05:53,804
That's just life.

859
01:05:53,804 --> 01:05:59,901
I've stopped trying to control the outcome or what other people think of my business
ideas.

860
01:05:59,901 --> 01:06:01,303
If they can use it, great.

861
01:06:01,303 --> 01:06:06,889
Because I've started to look at it more in terms of if the universe wants it to happen, it
will make it happen.

862
01:06:07,730 --> 01:06:11,195
All I need to do is stay humble and stay in service.

863
01:06:11,195 --> 01:06:13,456
I need to get out of the way.

864
01:06:14,161 --> 01:06:15,900
That's all I need to do.

865
01:06:15,900 --> 01:06:17,101
Nothing else.

866
01:06:18,773 --> 01:06:27,873
And I swear to God, the moment I do not do that, Hamish, things go tits up very, very,
very, very, very quickly.

867
01:06:28,153 --> 01:06:31,093
Because my ego comes back, whoosh, as if it was no...

868
01:06:31,093 --> 01:06:33,983
And that is the same ego that makes me drink, you see.

869
01:06:33,983 --> 01:06:41,338
That is the same voice that goes, you know what, it's been nearly 12 years now, tell you
what, know, one day at a time, why don't you just have a drink?

870
01:06:41,338 --> 01:06:42,864
Yeah, why don't you just have a drink?

871
01:06:42,864 --> 01:06:45,221
Fine, have a drink and just see what happens.

872
01:06:45,243 --> 01:06:47,632
And watch the whole house of cards tumble down.

873
01:06:47,632 --> 01:06:48,757
Thumbnail down, there you go.

874
01:06:48,757 --> 01:06:51,919
I love your thing about school and I just remembered one thing about school.

875
01:06:51,919 --> 01:06:53,710
What do we have a lot of at school?

876
01:06:53,710 --> 01:06:54,990
Playtime!

877
01:06:55,531 --> 01:06:57,812
How often do I put playtime into my day?

878
01:06:57,812 --> 01:06:59,913
Before 9 o'clock and after 6 o'clock?

879
01:06:59,913 --> 01:07:01,874
Yeah, or if I get out for a walk?

880
01:07:02,355 --> 01:07:03,135
yeah.

881
01:07:03,247 --> 01:07:14,147
huge on-play time in junior schools which is so much so that I'm sure you can still
remember some of those you know the games that we used to play in and the excitement used

882
01:07:14,147 --> 01:07:27,547
to feel playing a game of rounders after a bloody dull maths lesson the way that they but
they if you think about it they're managing very short periods of time but what they've

883
01:07:27,547 --> 01:07:30,459
done is they elongated time

884
01:07:30,573 --> 01:07:34,156
such that those are crannulated, the fortress of your memory and they live there.

885
01:07:34,156 --> 01:07:36,768
know, fun that we had in the...

886
01:07:37,223 --> 01:07:41,914
I just don't know what it is, know, but this is the thing.

887
01:07:41,914 --> 01:07:43,415
But it stopped, didn't it?

888
01:07:43,415 --> 01:07:47,610
The moment you went to high school, that fun in many ways stopped.

889
01:07:47,610 --> 01:07:49,330
They stopped teaching us.

890
01:07:49,330 --> 01:07:50,090
Do you remember?

891
01:07:50,090 --> 01:07:55,810
I don't know what they did in your junior school, but I used to love the way they taught
things through projects.

892
01:07:55,810 --> 01:07:58,110
They taught people through projects.

893
01:07:58,110 --> 01:07:59,410
Learn about the Vikings.

894
01:07:59,410 --> 01:08:01,510
You had to build the ship.

895
01:08:01,510 --> 01:08:03,430
You had to paint the things on the water.

896
01:08:03,430 --> 01:08:04,310
There was art.

897
01:08:04,310 --> 01:08:05,890
There was woodwork.

898
01:08:05,890 --> 01:08:09,550
There was a dressing up, putting on a play.

899
01:08:09,590 --> 01:08:14,380
There was learning about their cooking habits, their home habits, their battles.

900
01:08:14,380 --> 01:08:15,674
What did they, you know,

901
01:08:15,674 --> 01:08:22,315
you know, you were sort of living, breathing and exploring it from like a 360 which
created a real interest.

902
01:08:22,315 --> 01:08:27,165
I just wish they did more of that in school today over a longer period of time.

903
01:08:27,165 --> 01:08:35,212
I was joking with a friend the other day, said what they should do is rather than have
economics lessons in the sixth form, said right this is the problem.

904
01:08:35,212 --> 01:08:36,252
solve it.

905
01:08:37,233 --> 01:08:39,313
No right, no wrong answer.

906
01:08:40,574 --> 01:08:47,856
And you know, no books allowed and I don't want any Keynesian or whatever, you know,
series, I don't want series.

907
01:08:47,856 --> 01:09:03,860
I want to hear from your inner mind to the best of your ability how you would solve it and
you have the right to re-change all the boundaries of the world if you want to.

908
01:09:04,012 --> 01:09:06,252
You can change governments.

909
01:09:06,252 --> 01:09:08,232
Nothing is out of bounds.

910
01:09:08,272 --> 01:09:10,801
And I would just love to see what would happen.

911
01:09:10,801 --> 01:09:23,698
And I bet you we would have some really awesome, enduring, life-sustaining and permanent
changes made for the benefit of the planet and the human race.

912
01:09:23,698 --> 01:09:25,530
Yeah, I like that.

913
01:09:26,193 --> 01:09:26,874
I like that.

914
01:09:26,874 --> 01:09:31,243
I can almost see people doing that in a, in a business environment.

915
01:09:31,243 --> 01:09:33,828
You're running a workshop and say, right, here are the rules.

916
01:09:33,828 --> 01:09:34,708
This is what you've got.

917
01:09:34,708 --> 01:09:37,768
You've got to get A to D any way you want.

918
01:09:38,088 --> 01:09:39,288
Yeah.

919
01:09:39,848 --> 01:09:43,068
And it's got to involve fun or this or that.

920
01:09:43,068 --> 01:09:43,898
You've got to do that.

921
01:09:43,898 --> 01:09:44,240
Yeah.

922
01:09:44,240 --> 01:09:47,781
And what would be interesting in business, right, is this.

923
01:09:48,401 --> 01:10:00,324
And you'd have to tell them, right, and I want you to write down every single negative
thought that automatically came into your head for reasons that you couldn't do this, this

924
01:10:00,324 --> 01:10:00,905
and this.

925
01:10:00,905 --> 01:10:02,985
Because those are just as important, right?

926
01:10:02,985 --> 01:10:14,144
Those will highlight the thinking problem areas or the construction problem areas of how
society has actually been organized.

927
01:10:14,144 --> 01:10:31,286
We can expect a lot of this is an organisational issue in terms of how we have organised
ourselves and until we are going to have the really brutally honest conversation around

928
01:10:31,286 --> 01:10:43,944
these things and I mean brutally honest, primitively honest, back to children basics,
nothing is going to change because we are trying to change society.

929
01:10:44,130 --> 01:10:50,750
and people with pre-known solutions that used to work for other methodologies and other
times.

930
01:10:50,750 --> 01:11:00,545
Now we know, Einstein tells us, this never is going to be successful, it will never work
because we're using tools of the past to cure the present.

931
01:11:00,545 --> 01:11:06,948
and the same person, we say in recovery we say the same thing, the same person will drink
again.

932
01:11:06,948 --> 01:11:08,078
Absolutely.

933
01:11:08,499 --> 01:11:12,101
I've been reading Robert Fritz, his path of least resistance.

934
01:11:12,241 --> 01:11:13,442
What an amazing book.

935
01:11:13,442 --> 01:11:14,713
There's no cure.

936
01:11:14,713 --> 01:11:17,164
There's no solution to drinking.

937
01:11:17,164 --> 01:11:19,526
There's no solution to so many things.

938
01:11:19,526 --> 01:11:21,747
You have to change foundations.

939
01:11:23,548 --> 01:11:25,439
And then, you know, by creating.

940
01:11:25,439 --> 01:11:31,513
And when you start creating, as you said, you look at what doesn't work, you create
something, the energy is different.

941
01:11:31,513 --> 01:11:34,052
I'm not solving, I'm creating.

942
01:11:34,052 --> 01:11:39,942
and that you're bringing magic, you're bringing change, you're allowing it and it's
expansive.

943
01:11:40,654 --> 01:11:47,836
It's hugely expansive and it's also very, very cooperative.

944
01:11:48,376 --> 01:11:50,485
And yet you try doing that.

945
01:11:50,485 --> 01:11:53,418
And I think this is where a lot of people like me just disassociate.

946
01:11:53,418 --> 01:11:57,514
I'm very interested in politics, but I look at them, just despair.

947
01:11:57,514 --> 01:11:59,299
I look at it as a child.

948
01:11:59,299 --> 01:12:01,930
I look at them as children in kindergartens.

949
01:12:01,930 --> 01:12:06,664
It's a very, that type of sort of, it's very, very, very childlike,

950
01:12:06,664 --> 01:12:11,495
You've got to support us for giving you this free-line whipping if you don't you're
expelled.

951
01:12:12,456 --> 01:12:13,556
Well, what is this?

952
01:12:13,556 --> 01:12:23,636
You know, I don't want to be governed by poor, I'll idiotic self-centered and
self-seeking, unevolved individuals because that's unfortunately what we're talking about.

953
01:12:23,636 --> 01:12:29,820
We're talking about an evolved human species with agendas.

954
01:12:30,241 --> 01:12:31,441
This is not good.

955
01:12:31,441 --> 01:12:33,021
It's not good for them.

956
01:12:33,022 --> 01:12:34,942
It's not good for society.

957
01:12:35,186 --> 01:12:37,338
And it's definitely not good for humanity.

958
01:12:37,338 --> 01:12:45,596
Never before have we experienced, I don't think, a time where we've had so much wealth
concentrated in the hands of the Sophie.

959
01:12:45,596 --> 01:12:48,368
Everybody was up in arms, weren't they, about Jeremy Corbyn?

960
01:12:48,368 --> 01:12:50,911
my gosh, my gosh, redistribution of wealth.

961
01:12:50,911 --> 01:12:59,648
I'm not sure anybody's talking about religious repression of wealth, but there were some
very sound arguments, I thought, in his work.

962
01:12:59,648 --> 01:13:05,642
The only problem there was, once again, is ego, if it's not my way or the highway.

963
01:13:05,642 --> 01:13:14,708
What you really need is evolved human beings who are capable of working in consensus with
others, guess what?

964
01:13:14,909 --> 01:13:17,120
For the best outcome.

965
01:13:17,452 --> 01:13:19,883
Yep, not for the party.

966
01:13:19,883 --> 01:13:22,105
not for the party, but for the people.

967
01:13:22,105 --> 01:13:25,708
I would love to see a political situation where you get rid of all parties.

968
01:13:25,708 --> 01:13:27,845
Parties for me is the thing of yesterday.

969
01:13:27,845 --> 01:13:32,373
I can agree with people of all different parties.

970
01:13:32,373 --> 01:13:35,035
I don't fit into a political party.

971
01:13:35,035 --> 01:13:39,258
I never did because I like, I want people, want the best.

972
01:13:39,258 --> 01:13:44,313
If you're truly motivated to help your community, let's come up with ideas.

973
01:13:44,313 --> 01:13:45,414
Yep, isn't it?

974
01:13:45,414 --> 01:13:45,874
It is.

975
01:13:45,874 --> 01:13:55,099
It's if you can only vote for the red because the red is the way, even if the greens way
is even actually better, but I can't vote for the green way because I'm red.

976
01:13:55,099 --> 01:13:56,660
You know, that is just bonkers.

977
01:13:56,660 --> 01:13:58,261
That is not forward.

978
01:13:58,261 --> 01:13:58,910
That is

979
01:13:58,910 --> 01:14:05,776
If you were living on Mars right or whatever, know, they must be looking at us going dear
look at them.

980
01:14:05,796 --> 01:14:20,359
Look at them poor little creatures You know that they're actually because what we're doing
is we are actually self imploding our own body of work We are becoming narrower and

981
01:14:20,359 --> 01:14:26,153
narrower and narrower and the money world is sticking together narrower and narrower

982
01:14:26,245 --> 01:14:29,568
and is seeking to take over the power from the poorer of the poorer.

983
01:14:29,568 --> 01:14:33,952
You know, I've always said to you, there is no need for example, nobody in this world
should be poor.

984
01:14:33,952 --> 01:14:37,555
You know, and that's the end of it, nobody should be poor.

985
01:14:37,555 --> 01:14:47,423
But when you've got an IMF and when you've got a European community and when you've got
all these people who are self-seeking and busy, know, probably they're self-seeking,

986
01:14:47,423 --> 01:14:48,393
that's not fair on them.

987
01:14:48,393 --> 01:14:51,176
You know, they're stuck is what it is, they're stuck in reverse.

988
01:14:51,176 --> 01:14:54,528
They're desperately trying to find ideas about the future.

989
01:14:54,924 --> 01:15:01,414
they're stuck because the ideas are not from things that have gone on their table in the
past.

990
01:15:01,414 --> 01:15:05,574
The ideas need to be fundamental overhauls.

991
01:15:05,574 --> 01:15:07,384
They need to be back to basics.

992
01:15:07,384 --> 01:15:13,224
Take those kids back to the classroom and say there are no rules at all.

993
01:15:13,224 --> 01:15:15,164
You can change everything.

994
01:15:15,844 --> 01:15:20,561
Don't think of the consequences, just think of the outcome and what would happen.

995
01:15:20,561 --> 01:15:22,263
And there's none of that happening.

996
01:15:22,263 --> 01:15:24,905
It's all about control economy.

997
01:15:24,905 --> 01:15:28,908
How can we continue doing what we did before?

998
01:15:28,908 --> 01:15:32,591
How can we continue manipulating what we did before?

999
01:15:32,612 --> 01:15:45,883
You know, and I think that, you know, the proof of the pudding is people are now
disengaged to the degree that you can tell by the amount of people that vote or how voting

1000
01:15:45,883 --> 01:15:46,177
goes.

1001
01:15:46,177 --> 01:15:48,317
mean, you know, hello, seriously.

1002
01:15:48,317 --> 01:15:51,297
Do all of those people who voted for Labour really want the Labour Party in?

1003
01:15:51,297 --> 01:15:53,057
No they don't.

1004
01:15:53,057 --> 01:15:53,887
No they don't.

1005
01:15:53,887 --> 01:15:54,937
They were just fed up.

1006
01:15:54,937 --> 01:15:56,137
It was a protest vote.

1007
01:15:56,137 --> 01:15:59,138
It's like, all of these things are protest votes.

1008
01:15:59,138 --> 01:16:01,938
Because people don't really know what they think.

1009
01:16:01,998 --> 01:16:04,038
Because they don't take time to...

1010
01:16:04,038 --> 01:16:08,318
Because again, they're supposed to be shoehorned into one party or the other.

1011
01:16:08,318 --> 01:16:11,678
That is a wrong way of thinking.

1012
01:16:11,678 --> 01:16:14,706
We need to be encouraged to think...

1013
01:16:14,706 --> 01:16:26,791
ourselves and put forward the best possible idea that will serve our country, serve our
community, serve the world better and work with other people who think like that.

1014
01:16:26,791 --> 01:16:31,534
It's really quite simple, it's not actually as difficult as people may think.

1015
01:16:31,855 --> 01:16:40,745
Yes, there will be ruffles, yes there will be noses put out of joint, but somebody needs
to be brave to create this brave new world.

1016
01:16:40,745 --> 01:16:49,415
Old as Huxleys ubiquitous words, you know, somebody has to take the reins of change now
because we are just surrounded by idiots, sadly.

1017
01:16:49,415 --> 01:16:50,447
Yeah.

1018
01:16:50,447 --> 01:16:53,453
And worse than that, they're unevolved idiots.

1019
01:16:53,453 --> 01:17:00,078
And by that I mean people who are not willing to self-examine their own progress.

1020
01:17:00,078 --> 01:17:07,008
That's where it becomes dangerous to me and be open-minded and humble enough to say, look,
I don't know everything.

1021
01:17:07,008 --> 01:17:08,598
I want to learn from others.

1022
01:17:08,598 --> 01:17:10,258
I'm curious.

1023
01:17:10,998 --> 01:17:13,298
That is a sign of great leadership for me.

1024
01:17:13,298 --> 01:17:15,738
People go, do you know what?

1025
01:17:15,898 --> 01:17:20,538
I know what I know, but I'm curious to learn what you know.

1026
01:17:20,538 --> 01:17:24,531
Because maybe together, and all of us together, we can do something great here.

1027
01:17:24,531 --> 01:17:27,182
I think you've really nailed it on the head, haven't you?

1028
01:17:27,182 --> 01:17:38,527
When you're prepared to be open-minded, you're prepared to listen, you're prepared to have
your own belief structures and ideas challenged and maybe, wow, that's wrong.

1029
01:17:38,568 --> 01:17:48,912
As soon as we realize that what someone else's idea is actually better than ours and we
have that humbleness to go, hey, I like that.

1030
01:17:49,193 --> 01:17:49,826
I know, yeah.

1031
01:17:49,826 --> 01:17:55,333
And that now, you see, that is the thing that I, you know, that's the number one offender.

1032
01:17:55,333 --> 01:17:57,625
That's something I come across now all the time.

1033
01:17:57,625 --> 01:17:59,088
It's like, not invented by me.

1034
01:17:59,088 --> 01:18:09,328
I mean, you can see it from the funders these days, know, Innovate UK is the classic
example, but they wouldn't even know innovation if it hit them on the head because, you

1035
01:18:09,328 --> 01:18:17,898
know, they are not coming at this from the right, you know, according to them, it must be
something with a SaaS balance element to it.

1036
01:18:17,898 --> 01:18:18,848
Why?

1037
01:18:18,848 --> 01:18:21,798
But they can't ever answer the question why and whether it's appropriate.

1038
01:18:21,798 --> 01:18:23,188
It just needs to be in there.

1039
01:18:23,188 --> 01:18:25,988
It's a bit like an A level project.

1040
01:18:25,988 --> 01:18:29,156
And then, it must have an AI component.

1041
01:18:29,336 --> 01:18:29,746
Why?

1042
01:18:29,746 --> 01:18:40,821
know, this is the image, it doesn't actually make my blood, but I don't get cross about
these things anymore, so it's attached, why I've taught myself to.

1043
01:18:40,941 --> 01:18:50,326
Because AI might be the right thing for a certain business, but it might totally not be
necessary for somebody else's business, but neither makes it more or less innovative than

1044
01:18:50,326 --> 01:18:50,876
the other.

1045
01:18:50,876 --> 01:18:55,438
Because innovation isn't putting...

1046
01:18:56,022 --> 01:18:59,974
AI into somewhere just because you've been told it needs AI.

1047
01:18:59,974 --> 01:19:09,720
Innovation is about thinking critically through a problem and deploying a workable
outcome.

1048
01:19:09,720 --> 01:19:14,482
That is innovation, not, it has AI in it.

1049
01:19:14,482 --> 01:19:16,924
That is the antithesis of innovation.

1050
01:19:16,924 --> 01:19:25,128
And that is what is stymieing business today, because unfortunately, and that's where the
bad

1051
01:19:25,536 --> 01:19:33,328
elements come in the bad actors, know, where people say, well, you can only get funding if
you include this, this, this and this.

1052
01:19:33,328 --> 01:19:42,801
So before you know it, things that are funded as so called innovative are not enhancing
our economy and not moving.

1053
01:19:42,801 --> 01:19:47,463
These things need to be measured to the progress of our economy.

1054
01:19:47,463 --> 01:19:52,685
Not on what we think it may be, just because Elon Musk has declared it so.

1055
01:19:52,685 --> 01:20:00,712
It might work, might not work, but the point is it works really well because Elon Musk is
somebody that goes through that evaluative process, by the way.

1056
01:20:00,712 --> 01:20:06,776
know, detailed, and that's why he can tell, you this is why I'm doing this, I'm doing this
because I want to do this, this and this.

1057
01:20:06,776 --> 01:20:08,178
He's very clear about that.

1058
01:20:08,178 --> 01:20:13,075
It's, it's, it's, it's a cognitive way of thinking it's, it's doing it with intention.

1059
01:20:13,075 --> 01:20:17,321
As you said, it's, it's teamwork and yeah.

1060
01:20:17,382 --> 01:20:21,027
Doesn't have to have AI and just because that's the current buzzword and it might work.

1061
01:20:21,027 --> 01:20:21,537
might not.

1062
01:20:21,537 --> 01:20:22,288
Yeah.

1063
01:20:22,464 --> 01:20:25,450
And indeed you might need AI, but it make it less or more innovative.

1064
01:20:25,450 --> 01:20:27,547
It's just that AI is a tool.

1065
01:20:28,668 --> 01:20:29,859
That's all it is.

1066
01:20:29,859 --> 01:20:37,154
It's an implementational tool that if you know how to interrogate and prompt it correctly,
it may work for you, but it may equally not work for you.

1067
01:20:37,295 --> 01:20:39,236
But it's got nothing to do with innovation.

1068
01:20:39,236 --> 01:20:42,198
Innovation is coming up with, it's so simple.

1069
01:20:42,198 --> 01:20:46,100
Think Leonardo da Vinci and developing the helicopter.

1070
01:20:46,604 --> 01:20:48,963
I think it was him, I've probably got this wrong actually.

1071
01:20:48,963 --> 01:20:50,998
For some reason in my brain I'm thinking,

1072
01:20:50,998 --> 01:20:55,291
Did Leonardo da Vinci firstly design the helicopter?

1073
01:20:56,473 --> 01:20:57,093
Yeah, he did.

1074
01:20:57,093 --> 01:20:58,775
Yeah, yeah.

1075
01:20:58,775 --> 01:21:02,117
So, you know, this is innovation.

1076
01:21:02,117 --> 01:21:11,546
These are people who thought beyond what is possible now, that innovation or people who
can, you know, I identify that there is a problem.

1077
01:21:11,887 --> 01:21:14,769
This is how I intend to fix the problem.

1078
01:21:14,769 --> 01:21:17,621
And this is why I need help to fix the problem.

1079
01:21:17,659 --> 01:21:20,409
Not do I or do I not have bloody AI involved.

1080
01:21:20,409 --> 01:21:21,899
That is not innovation.

1081
01:21:21,899 --> 01:21:23,759
That was somebody else's innovation.

1082
01:21:23,759 --> 01:21:27,799
I mean, it's innovative what AI has done, but it's not the be all and end all.

1083
01:21:27,799 --> 01:21:34,069
And it certainly shouldn't be a measure rubric for whether or not you get innovate UK
funding or not.

1084
01:21:34,069 --> 01:21:35,919
I was just absolutely crazy.

1085
01:21:35,919 --> 01:21:40,099
But I'm hearing that from so many sources now.

1086
01:21:40,699 --> 01:21:45,459
And again, unfortunately for me,

1087
01:21:45,551 --> 01:21:58,899
back to my recovery, that's an area that I have to step away from because what it does, it
encourages all the bad actors within me, ego-based character actors, to start on the

1088
01:21:59,339 --> 01:22:01,580
retaliatory thing.

1089
01:22:01,580 --> 01:22:04,042
And that's not a good place for my head to be.

1090
01:22:04,042 --> 01:22:06,144
That's just not a safe space.

1091
01:22:06,144 --> 01:22:11,848
just let them do what they're doing and just let them get on with it, stop trying to
control them.

1092
01:22:11,848 --> 01:22:15,190
I think you've brought it back nicely there.

1093
01:22:15,190 --> 01:22:15,751
It is, it?

1094
01:22:15,751 --> 01:22:17,682
There is very little that we can control.

1095
01:22:17,682 --> 01:22:23,536
We control our reactions and our actions and how we respond to people.

1096
01:22:23,536 --> 01:22:28,299
We can't control a lot more.

1097
01:22:28,299 --> 01:22:31,401
When we work from that, it's super empowering.

1098
01:22:32,822 --> 01:22:35,143
Resentment, you mentioned that a while ago.

1099
01:22:35,264 --> 01:22:38,626
For me, that is not an Achilles heel.

1100
01:22:38,626 --> 01:22:40,537
That is chopping my head off at the neck and that's it.

1101
01:22:40,537 --> 01:22:41,828
That's all that's left.

1102
01:22:41,916 --> 01:22:43,667
It's just a terrible place to be.

1103
01:22:43,667 --> 01:22:54,803
it's watching people do stupid things that I think, you know, getting resentful is, a
really slippery slope for me where I can get into that negative behavior, into that

1104
01:22:54,803 --> 01:22:56,314
addictive behavior.

1105
01:22:56,824 --> 01:22:58,405
and yeah, go back around again.

1106
01:22:58,405 --> 01:23:05,469
We're back to keeping an eye on ourselves, being curious, checking in all those really
simple things that just allow us to

1107
01:23:05,469 --> 01:23:13,564
not really care less about if that's going to happen or that's going to happen because
that's beyond our control and from that space we're free aren't we we're free of that

1108
01:23:13,564 --> 01:23:19,667
noise and we can just get on and have fun and slow down a bit yeah

1109
01:23:19,767 --> 01:23:24,948
Because actually, see, this is something I was told in early recovery.

1110
01:23:24,948 --> 01:23:29,648
I remember somebody saying to me, I wish you a really slow recovery.

1111
01:23:29,648 --> 01:23:31,768
And I was like, what are you talking about?

1112
01:23:32,408 --> 01:23:34,828
But now I understand what that means.

1113
01:23:34,828 --> 01:23:37,708
Because the fruits of recovery are fantastic.

1114
01:23:37,848 --> 01:23:41,809
And my AA sponsor said to me once, she said, why don't you try?

1115
01:23:41,809 --> 01:23:43,673
Just try, right?

1116
01:23:43,801 --> 01:23:49,504
Let's see what happens if you were to run your business through AA principles.

1117
01:23:50,085 --> 01:23:54,578
Just literally try it as an experimental area.

1118
01:23:54,578 --> 01:23:56,469
I you like experiments.

1119
01:23:56,589 --> 01:24:01,573
So just take your arms off the rudder and let it run it for you.

1120
01:24:01,573 --> 01:24:05,315
All you have to do is play second in command and do what it tells you to do.

1121
01:24:05,976 --> 01:24:08,098
And just see what would happen.

1122
01:24:08,098 --> 01:24:08,486
and

1123
01:24:08,486 --> 01:24:18,214
I have to be truthful, I started off doing that and it was great and then as soon as I
experienced some success, my hands are straight back on that rudder.

1124
01:24:19,075 --> 01:24:20,957
Straight back, within seconds.

1125
01:24:20,957 --> 01:24:25,881
So my journey in business has been very much this idea of push, pull, push, pull, push,
pull.

1126
01:24:25,881 --> 01:24:32,966
Now I think really at the dawn of my 12th birthday, need to be, I need to make a decision.

1127
01:24:32,966 --> 01:24:36,410
Because they often say it takes you a long time to recover.

1128
01:24:36,432 --> 01:24:46,136
really get to grips with some of these tools properly and to have experimented and tested
things out and I think I'm at that point where I've really got to make a commitment now to

1129
01:24:46,136 --> 01:25:01,593
write you know either because my my AA sponsor has made a lot of money that means stupid
amounts of money and I didn't know that actually until very recently because she doesn't

1130
01:25:01,593 --> 01:25:04,434
talk about it ever

1131
01:25:04,468 --> 01:25:13,041
Which I think is amazing because one of my problems is I think it's a feeling of not being
confident maybe.

1132
01:25:13,041 --> 01:25:16,566
I sort of have a burning need to tell people.

1133
01:25:16,566 --> 01:25:20,367
We haven't really explored that yet so we don't know maybe for another chapter.

1134
01:25:20,367 --> 01:25:26,131
But she said to me, once you can really learn to let go, really let go.

1135
01:25:26,131 --> 01:25:33,706
and realise that your only purpose in this world actually is to be in recovery and to help
other alcoholics.

1136
01:25:33,706 --> 01:25:36,047
That is your only purpose.

1137
01:25:36,968 --> 01:25:43,612
And help others who want to set up in business and help them.

1138
01:25:43,612 --> 01:25:46,451
But don't waste your time helping those who don't want to be helped.

1139
01:25:46,451 --> 01:25:47,809
Yeah.

1140
01:25:47,941 --> 01:25:48,462
Yep.

1141
01:25:48,462 --> 01:25:59,834
Try and learn it from that because I think you would stop the lag, would stop the hanging
on, you'd stop the pain of why aren't they doing this, this is mad.

1142
01:25:59,834 --> 01:26:06,842
You'd stop also wanting it more for them than they want it for themselves.

1143
01:26:06,842 --> 01:26:07,387
Yep.

1144
01:26:07,387 --> 01:26:08,242
Yes.

1145
01:26:08,242 --> 01:26:11,582
because that's a people pleasing trait that I have.

1146
01:26:11,582 --> 01:26:22,522
When you can see it, because I have my gift, if you like, I mean, we talked about, you
know, what is your superpower, but in a way, one of my superpowers is that I can see

1147
01:26:22,522 --> 01:26:24,202
things already completed.

1148
01:26:24,562 --> 01:26:31,652
You give me a business idea and I can tell you within probably two or three seconds
whether it's a go or not a go.

1149
01:26:31,652 --> 01:26:38,427
It's either going to be a copycat business in which case you're going to need a lot of
funding and it's only going to last for four or five, six years.

1150
01:26:38,427 --> 01:26:43,503
or it really is something that is going to knock the socks of people.

1151
01:26:43,503 --> 01:26:46,235
But because I can see it completed.

1152
01:26:46,235 --> 01:26:51,608
And I get very frustrated when I get the excitement of seeing something completed.

1153
01:26:51,608 --> 01:26:58,032
And I think the person presenting it is just like deadpan and doesn't even realize what
they've got.

1154
01:26:58,032 --> 01:27:00,064
But it's none of my business, actually.

1155
01:27:00,064 --> 01:27:11,007
It's a bit like, it's a curse, yet it's a bit like being maybe when you work in energy,
right, and you can see into people's souls, you can see their energy fields and you can

1156
01:27:11,007 --> 01:27:11,967
read them.

1157
01:27:12,047 --> 01:27:14,269
And you'll know whether they're telling the truth or not.

1158
01:27:14,269 --> 01:27:20,560
And then there's that temptation to interject and go, well, actually, that's not really
what you think, is it?

1159
01:27:20,560 --> 01:27:23,191
What you really think is this, this, this, and this.

1160
01:27:24,163 --> 01:27:33,712
And again, I've spoken to a number of people I know who do this and they've all had to
say, we have to discipline ourselves that we do not read people.

1161
01:27:34,574 --> 01:27:36,535
We don't do it because it's so easy to do.

1162
01:27:36,535 --> 01:27:40,080
And for that very reason, what will happen then is you step in.

1163
01:27:40,080 --> 01:27:54,181
Tell me a bit about your business and what you do and how you serve people and how people
can find out more about you and what you do because I think what you do is quite

1164
01:27:54,181 --> 01:27:55,672
remarkable as well.

1165
01:27:55,890 --> 01:28:12,450
I run a business called Silvertree, Silvertree Exchange, so they can find me, you you can
email me if you want to, that's Eleri, E-L-E-R-I, at silvertree.co, and that's a silver

1166
01:28:12,450 --> 01:28:15,230
V-A tree, not E-R.

1167
01:28:15,530 --> 01:28:24,719
And the whole premise of silver is that, again, you know, when we came out of prison, you
know, we had no money, so we had to create our own.

1168
01:28:24,719 --> 01:28:25,990
which is precisely what we did.

1169
01:28:25,990 --> 01:28:33,585
We had skills but no money to deploy those skills.

1170
01:28:33,605 --> 01:28:41,251
So I had legal skills, my partner had, or my ex-partner had amazing, amazing IT skills.

1171
01:28:41,251 --> 01:28:45,135
We had no money to set up businesses.

1172
01:28:45,236 --> 01:28:46,858
So that's how it started.

1173
01:28:46,858 --> 01:28:48,800
So we created this exchange.

1174
01:28:48,800 --> 01:28:50,181
He built it.

1175
01:28:50,963 --> 01:28:56,771
He's a genius with IT and we built this currency system.

1176
01:28:56,771 --> 01:29:07,678
So he built my tech for me for my business, my legal firm, McGuire Mitchell, which enabled
me to start off and get first clients.

1177
01:29:08,279 --> 01:29:14,693
But I paid him by way of this currency that we use, this silver currency.

1178
01:29:14,693 --> 01:29:16,405
And it's very simple, really.

1179
01:29:16,405 --> 01:29:18,206
One silver is one pound.

1180
01:29:18,206 --> 01:29:20,137
So we operate in the UK.

1181
01:29:20,137 --> 01:29:23,970
you know, whatever we charge, I'll just explain it it's basic.

1182
01:29:23,970 --> 01:29:25,872
So the idea is that

1183
01:29:25,872 --> 01:29:30,104
many businesses are not operating at full capacity.

1184
01:29:30,545 --> 01:29:31,515
So there are gaps.

1185
01:29:31,515 --> 01:29:33,276
Now what's spare capacity?

1186
01:29:33,276 --> 01:29:41,871
So if you go to a shop, everything that you see for sale right there in front of you is
actually technically spare capacity.

1187
01:29:41,871 --> 01:29:48,366
Because until it's been sold, hasn't, you know, the person who owns the shop has had to go
out to the wholesalers to buy it all in, right?

1188
01:29:48,366 --> 01:29:50,697
So it's a minus on the ledger.

1189
01:29:50,697 --> 01:29:52,248
So it's fair capacity.

1190
01:29:52,284 --> 01:29:55,608
same thing with an empty table in a restaurant, let's say.

1191
01:29:55,608 --> 01:30:01,185
Every moment of every day that thing isn't sold, people aren't sitting at that table,
that's bare capacity.

1192
01:30:01,186 --> 01:30:07,335
mean a restaurant still has to run, you still have to pay your staff, you still have to
pay for your utility bills.

1193
01:30:07,335 --> 01:30:11,257
So, same with a hotel, know, a spare room.

1194
01:30:11,257 --> 01:30:17,500
Once the opportunity of renting it out that night has gone and nobody's taken it, that
opportunity to sell it has gone forever.

1195
01:30:17,520 --> 01:30:18,420
Right?

1196
01:30:18,480 --> 01:30:22,052
So all it is, is way of looking at things differently, right?

1197
01:30:22,052 --> 01:30:24,064
So you've got your cash business.

1198
01:30:24,064 --> 01:30:28,858
on average that might give you 60 % out of 100 % capacity in a month.

1199
01:30:28,858 --> 01:30:36,345
So you've got 40 % there which you could sell but you haven't sold, right?

1200
01:30:36,345 --> 01:30:37,217
You haven't sold it.

1201
01:30:37,217 --> 01:30:38,457
So what do you do with it?

1202
01:30:38,457 --> 01:30:41,747
What most people do with it was just say, God, well that's shit, isn't it?

1203
01:30:41,747 --> 01:30:42,937
And move on.

1204
01:30:42,937 --> 01:30:47,117
What I'm saying is, there's a clever way to do this.

1205
01:30:47,117 --> 01:30:58,737
If you were to trade that 40 % of their services, so for example, the shop, for example,
if you were to sell that stuff on the Silvertree platform to all, we've got hundreds of

1206
01:30:58,737 --> 01:31:01,547
members now, they would then be able to...

1207
01:31:01,547 --> 01:31:12,824
pay you immediately in our currency silver or it might be a blend of silver and cash it's
up to you but you would be able to sell that stuff out immediately and you would then use

1208
01:31:12,824 --> 01:31:24,512
that silver to buy stuff that you need instead of having to pay cash to enhance your
business and it might be accountancy services might be legal services which is what I do

1209
01:31:24,512 --> 01:31:25,812
it might be

1210
01:31:26,529 --> 01:31:34,349
graphic design service, might be social media services, might be VAs, might be whatever it
is.

1211
01:31:34,349 --> 01:31:38,229
Everybody could be trading in this way.

1212
01:31:38,349 --> 01:31:44,369
And this is the plan, as far as I'm concerned, of how you eradicate poverty.

1213
01:31:44,469 --> 01:31:56,075
Because whilst you are singularly, as a world, tied to this thing called cash, don't
forget, back in Sumatra, when cash was invented,

1214
01:31:56,075 --> 01:32:01,129
Cash was never meant, it was an accounting methodology, that's all it was.

1215
01:32:01,790 --> 01:32:19,163
It was not a social construct, it was not a who are you anyway moment, it was actually a
demarcation of the amount of bails of hay that you were owed in payment is what it was.

1216
01:32:20,525 --> 01:32:25,428
You remember, this was when they went from bartering to essentially cash.

1217
01:32:25,717 --> 01:32:33,223
bartering doesn't work because what happens if I want something but you don't want what
I've got?

1218
01:32:33,764 --> 01:32:37,827
I want what you've got but you don't want you've got a mismatch of needs.

1219
01:32:37,868 --> 01:32:42,972
So that's why money was invented and so why can't we have other forms of money?

1220
01:32:44,494 --> 01:32:53,311
As long as tax has been paid on it to the government which is the right thing to do the
government has no problem.

1221
01:32:53,311 --> 01:33:00,864
with exchanges like this because they like it because they see it as encouraging business,
not detracting from business.

1222
01:33:00,864 --> 01:33:08,247
So that is why I think every business in the world ought to be part of this movement.

1223
01:33:08,247 --> 01:33:14,219
Two, with a view to the more people we get involved, before you know it, Tesco is going to
be involved, right?

1224
01:33:14,219 --> 01:33:15,930
They always get involved in everything.

1225
01:33:15,930 --> 01:33:20,072
You know, Starbucks will be involved, the petrol station will be involved.

1226
01:33:20,072 --> 01:33:23,125
And before you know it, there won't be blooming.

1227
01:33:23,125 --> 01:33:33,029
financial problems because council can pay their staff partly in silver because they can
pay, they can then charge council tax partly in silver.

1228
01:33:33,029 --> 01:33:35,620
They can then pay their contractors partly in silver.

1229
01:33:35,620 --> 01:33:43,253
Before you know it, you've got access to a whole new swath of money, which has the same
value.

1230
01:33:43,253 --> 01:33:44,854
Nobody's doing a tax dodge.

1231
01:33:44,854 --> 01:33:46,815
This is not money laundering.

1232
01:33:46,815 --> 01:33:52,865
This is pure, simple, sensible, basic economics.

1233
01:33:52,865 --> 01:34:08,325
designed to ensure that our economy will be sustainable for the future and when not
governed by what however goes on in Ukraine or the blame in Gaza thing or you know we're

1234
01:34:08,325 --> 01:34:19,959
too volatile to which you intermingled with everybody else so we need to find a way to
become self-stained this is called growing up is what it's called it's evolution

1235
01:34:20,563 --> 01:34:23,826
know, Silvertree isn't the only people who do things like this.

1236
01:34:23,826 --> 01:34:27,759
There plenty of exchanges around the world.

1237
01:34:27,759 --> 01:34:31,262
But why can't we buy property in this currency?

1238
01:34:31,683 --> 01:34:33,904
Why can't we go and buy a car?

1239
01:34:33,965 --> 01:34:46,686
If people, you know, if you pay, I don't know, 20 grand for a car, whatever it is, and
that person needs that 20 grand in silver to go and pay a digital marketeer to do a year's

1240
01:34:46,686 --> 01:34:48,138
worth of content for them.

1241
01:34:48,138 --> 01:34:48,820
Who cares?

1242
01:34:48,820 --> 01:34:50,691
So that's what we're doing.

1243
01:34:50,691 --> 01:35:02,079
it is a digital platform, a cashless digital platform enabling people to trade with our
currency.

1244
01:35:02,079 --> 01:35:08,613
For the benefit, the only benefit to them is to make themselves more cash rich.

1245
01:35:08,613 --> 01:35:10,604
That's the only benefit.

1246
01:35:11,145 --> 01:35:13,872
It is not, you want...

1247
01:35:13,872 --> 01:35:24,275
Silvertree billionaires it might be for some people it might not be for others, but that's
the point So I wanted to do something with my partners that was Fundamentally going to

1248
01:35:24,275 --> 01:35:30,406
change the way we do business forever Which is fair to all?

1249
01:35:30,947 --> 01:35:35,068
It's not based on who are your parents in which school did you go to?

1250
01:35:35,288 --> 01:35:43,464
It's not based on How much money have you got in the bank and how much collateral if you
got it's based purely and simply on

1251
01:35:43,464 --> 01:35:46,920
how good at you at doing what you do.

1252
01:35:46,920 --> 01:35:47,225
Simple.

1253
01:35:47,225 --> 01:35:54,701
So I go back, I have a cafe and I want to pay my accountant.

1254
01:35:54,822 --> 01:35:57,204
I sell coffees for silver.

1255
01:35:57,204 --> 01:35:59,386
I pay my accountant with silver.

1256
01:35:59,386 --> 01:36:03,249
He might come, she might come back to my coffee shop and then buy coffees back again.

1257
01:36:03,249 --> 01:36:06,512
it's, simplistically, it's another currency.

1258
01:36:06,512 --> 01:36:08,874
It's like using euros rather than pounds.

1259
01:36:09,415 --> 01:36:10,175
Yeah.

1260
01:36:10,739 --> 01:36:16,779
Nobody needs to be scared of it because it's another currency just like using euros
instead of pounds.

1261
01:36:16,779 --> 01:36:25,569
What we need now to do is to enlarge the scope of people in the audience that know about
it and see that this is as well as not instead of cash.

1262
01:36:25,569 --> 01:36:28,749
It's got nothing to do with taking cash away from you.

1263
01:36:28,749 --> 01:36:29,759
Quite the opposite.

1264
01:36:29,759 --> 01:36:32,579
It adds cash to your purse.

1265
01:36:32,579 --> 01:36:38,439
And of course, the other thing I do as you know is I run Love Entrepreneurs, which is a
fellowship.

1266
01:36:38,734 --> 01:36:39,560
Mm-hmm.

1267
01:36:39,804 --> 01:36:51,071
It's not a business network, it's a fellowship where we share with each other our
experience and our strength and our hope and our knowledge so that we all contribute to

1268
01:36:51,071 --> 01:37:01,978
helping each other become better business people and our secret source there is the Big
Fix where we invite businesses all shapes all sizes to come along and say hey I've got a

1269
01:37:01,978 --> 01:37:03,709
problem I've got an idea.

1270
01:37:03,785 --> 01:37:04,685
What do you think guys?

1271
01:37:04,685 --> 01:37:12,352
know, so we do a like a sort of blend between a dragon's den thing and a, you know, a sort
of live soul mapping.

1272
01:37:12,352 --> 01:37:13,941
And they do that over two days.

1273
01:37:13,941 --> 01:37:22,306
And the idea is that the audience becomes the business owner and they've got to, the
audience has got to solve the problem for the business owner.

1274
01:37:22,426 --> 01:37:25,208
And that's quite, that's quite, quite good fun.

1275
01:37:25,208 --> 01:37:30,899
And one of the solutions we've always got for everybody is, know, you should join
Silvertree because it's a brilliant currency.

1276
01:37:30,899 --> 01:37:34,701
It will reduce your cash expenses dramatically and get you loads of new clients.

1277
01:37:35,162 --> 01:37:43,307
And then the second thing we do in level entrepreneurs, so we do the big fix, then we do
business planning for people and then we get them funding.

1278
01:37:43,548 --> 01:37:49,231
And we use the SEIS mechanism, but we do a blend of silvertree funding.

1279
01:37:49,231 --> 01:37:56,356
So silvertree and us have got a relationship where they will pre-fund a lot of our
business ventures, which is fantastic.

1280
01:37:56,356 --> 01:38:00,999
And we can get people funding very, very, very efficiently.

1281
01:38:01,275 --> 01:38:09,799
Again, I was horrified to learn more about the SEIS scheme and again to learn about the
tax breaks that were happening there.

1282
01:38:09,799 --> 01:38:24,244
Thus, they were only encouraging and attracting people who wanted to invest in businesses
that actually make losses so that they could offset those losses against their forward tax

1283
01:38:24,565 --> 01:38:25,585
income.

1284
01:38:26,005 --> 01:38:29,066
Now, to me, that is a scam.

1285
01:38:29,206 --> 01:38:30,967
That is scandalous.

1286
01:38:31,753 --> 01:38:39,206
because it goes against everything I stand for, namely to help businesses thrive and
survive.

1287
01:38:39,206 --> 01:38:42,538
I'm not interested in helping the billionaires anymore.

1288
01:38:42,538 --> 01:38:44,809
They've got, there's enough stuff out there for them.

1289
01:38:44,809 --> 01:38:58,535
We need to help grassroot businesses who are deserving of our help to find and empower
themselves, to find a way to travel through the morass that is the mess that we have

1290
01:38:58,535 --> 01:38:59,305
today.

1291
01:38:59,305 --> 01:39:04,039
And the only way to do that is to step aside and be different.

1292
01:39:04,200 --> 01:39:10,707
They always say, don't they, if you want to stand out from the crowd, step aside and do
something different.

1293
01:39:10,707 --> 01:39:12,228
Do something different.

1294
01:39:15,690 --> 01:39:20,753
I mean, when I joined Love Entrepreneurs, it was amazing.

1295
01:39:20,753 --> 01:39:28,337
As you said, just to explain a bit more, you invited me and explained my business, what I
want to do, how I want to do it.

1296
01:39:28,378 --> 01:39:31,810
And then, it wasn't intimidating.

1297
01:39:31,810 --> 01:39:33,260
It was questions.

1298
01:39:33,361 --> 01:39:34,581
Had I thought about this?

1299
01:39:34,581 --> 01:39:36,262
I had a dozen people.

1300
01:39:36,322 --> 01:39:39,102
helping me with my business, which was wonderful.

1301
01:39:39,102 --> 01:39:43,982
And then you all scurried off, came back again and said, try this, try this, try this, try
this.

1302
01:39:43,982 --> 01:39:46,662
And just like, and I had to write it down.

1303
01:39:46,662 --> 01:39:55,822
But as you said, you, you you, you gave me that information back and it's, it's a group of
people who are serving other people.

1304
01:39:55,822 --> 01:40:00,502
You know, there's, there's no agenda beyond supporting each other.

1305
01:40:00,502 --> 01:40:03,262
You're not trying to take anything off people.

1306
01:40:04,222 --> 01:40:06,102
I think it's fantastic.

1307
01:40:06,228 --> 01:40:11,244
I'm very glad I found you guys and you know, that's the reason we're chatting the way our
world's bumped together.

1308
01:40:11,244 --> 01:40:21,495
But I think it's a supervision and I'm getting my head around the silver tree because
again, it's the same thing.

1309
01:40:21,495 --> 01:40:24,109
It's a different way of doing something.

1310
01:40:24,109 --> 01:40:36,687
a all it is, mean again it's a tool that is innovative and what you really want is a whole
bunch of people making it their own because of course don't forget, we want or rather I

1311
01:40:36,687 --> 01:40:45,702
want other people to come to me and say well you know why don't we do this, let's do that,
great do it because I'm going to learn from you guys you know the whole point is I don't

1312
01:40:45,702 --> 01:40:50,012
want and this is again the flat structure that I want you know

1313
01:40:50,012 --> 01:40:56,324
I learn just as much from other people as they can learn from me because there's only a
limit to what I...

1314
01:40:56,324 --> 01:40:58,032
I only know what I know.

1315
01:40:58,032 --> 01:41:00,525
I don't know what you know.

1316
01:41:00,662 --> 01:41:03,946
But I do know that together all our ideas will be brilliant.

1317
01:41:03,946 --> 01:41:19,008
But again, I'm noticing, and this is maddening really, that people are so used to being
told what to do by a leader and they're not used to devolved ownership and control.

1318
01:41:19,008 --> 01:41:27,908
things where they actually are and I think this has got something to do with the way
people have been brought up now and that the times that we're living in everybody wants

1319
01:41:27,908 --> 01:41:34,388
everybody always needs to be told what to do whereas what I want to try and do is to
empower people to stop thinking

1320
01:41:34,388 --> 01:41:40,806
let's make this my own, let's integrate this currency into my business and see what I can
do with it.

1321
01:41:40,806 --> 01:41:44,458
You know, let's, you know, it's that sort of thing.

1322
01:41:44,458 --> 01:41:59,176
people, which is why you're seeing that so many businesses now thrive and survive because
of AI apparently and SAS projects because they're being dictated to how to think, what to

1323
01:41:59,176 --> 01:42:01,207
think and what to do.

1324
01:42:01,627 --> 01:42:07,871
Now to me, that is one of the most unhealthy developments that we could ever have because
we've stopped thinking.

1325
01:42:07,871 --> 01:42:10,513
The moment we stop thinking, we stop creating.

1326
01:42:10,513 --> 01:42:11,263
Yeah.

1327
01:42:11,904 --> 01:42:30,880
And you know, winding right back to the beginning, this is something that you've created
from necessity, from a series of unfortunate events, and, not becoming bitter, not

1328
01:42:30,880 --> 01:42:40,447
becoming enraged, not becoming suicidal, not drinking yourself to all those opportunities
you had just to say,

1329
01:42:40,529 --> 01:42:41,699
Fuck it all.

1330
01:42:41,740 --> 01:42:42,811
You haven't done that.

1331
01:42:42,811 --> 01:42:48,665
You've created something, created, you haven't solved a problem, you've created something
brand new.

1332
01:42:49,346 --> 01:42:51,327
And it's got a life of its own.

1333
01:42:52,028 --> 01:42:54,089
It really has.

1334
01:42:54,089 --> 01:43:01,394
that vision, yes, you're suggesting people take accountability and responsibility for
their businesses, for their lives.

1335
01:43:01,415 --> 01:43:02,445
Empowering.

1336
01:43:02,445 --> 01:43:07,759
The day I stopped drinking and empowered myself and got help with it, everything changed.

1337
01:43:07,949 --> 01:43:12,362
I am like you, I'm grateful for that gift of desperation.

1338
01:43:12,643 --> 01:43:17,386
Wasn't so much fun, but you know, at the other side it is remarkable.

1339
01:43:18,828 --> 01:43:21,349
it's, things have to change.

1340
01:43:21,349 --> 01:43:33,578
And I think, yeah, I think what you've shared with us today is really exciting, really,
really exciting and hopeful and empowering and yeah, truly, truly remarkable.

1341
01:43:34,419 --> 01:43:46,199
remembering one thing though, remembering one very important thing, this is not a one-man
job right, this is very much not a one-man job and you know if it wasn't for the structure

1342
01:43:46,199 --> 01:43:54,111
that I the spiritual structure that I have around me you know that gives me all the people
power that I need.

1343
01:43:54,139 --> 01:43:54,919
Yeah.

1344
01:43:55,640 --> 01:43:56,421
Yep.

1345
01:43:56,421 --> 01:43:57,642
Yeah, absolutely.

1346
01:43:57,642 --> 01:44:01,885
It's not charge on by yourself because you can't do that.

1347
01:44:03,468 --> 01:44:06,472
I think this has been a really, really fabulous conversation.

1348
01:44:06,472 --> 01:44:07,916
We could talk all night.

1349
01:44:09,197 --> 01:44:12,342
God for your poor listeners Hamish, your poor listeners.

1350
01:44:12,687 --> 01:44:14,719
I think they will be saying we want a Eleri back.

1351
01:44:14,719 --> 01:44:17,231
She's got so much to tell to share with us.

1352
01:44:18,173 --> 01:44:20,186
Very quickly, where can people find out more?

1353
01:44:20,186 --> 01:44:23,479
You've mentioned where we can find you on silver tree, but where else can we find you?

1354
01:44:23,479 --> 01:44:25,650
Are you on social media or anything else like that?

1355
01:44:25,650 --> 01:44:29,091
I mean, I'm rubbish at social media to be honest with you.

1356
01:44:29,172 --> 01:44:34,074
I would just invite people to WhatsApp me in the first instance.

1357
01:44:34,074 --> 01:44:41,627
I mean the reason I'm rubbish on social media is I have so much stuff I've got to respond
to.

1358
01:44:41,627 --> 01:44:46,500
So in the first instance what I ask people to do is just to contact me on WhatsApp.

1359
01:44:46,500 --> 01:44:51,423
Well, we'll make sure make sure those details are in the show notes and your superpower.

1360
01:44:51,423 --> 01:44:57,317
What what is your superpower from life through life because of life or however?

1361
01:44:58,211 --> 01:45:04,661
I think really, I mean, I did say to you you asked me this at beginning that it would come
to me during the course of this discussion.

1362
01:45:04,661 --> 01:45:07,451
I think I go back to what I actually mentioned it.

1363
01:45:07,451 --> 01:45:11,941
It's that ability to see things that others don't.

1364
01:45:11,941 --> 01:45:15,611
So see completion that others don't.

1365
01:45:15,611 --> 01:45:18,571
So I can see the full project dynamic.

1366
01:45:18,571 --> 01:45:22,291
And I think that is something that is a real skill.

1367
01:45:22,291 --> 01:45:25,851
It's not a skill, it's a power it's given to you.

1368
01:45:25,923 --> 01:45:28,686
It's not something you can develop, you just have it or you don't.

1369
01:45:28,686 --> 01:45:33,890
can innately feel into will something succeed?

1370
01:45:33,890 --> 01:45:43,760
Or I can see something, can, suppose energetically, can feel is this thing likely to work
or not?

1371
01:45:43,760 --> 01:45:47,284
And if so, what does it need in order to work?

1372
01:45:47,284 --> 01:46:01,255
I've yet to be wrong about that, certainly in recent businesses and it needs more
development, more fine tuning and more time spent on perfecting it, but that's it really.

1373
01:46:01,255 --> 01:46:14,236
It's that ability to see things, which means when I work with people to get funding or
when I work with people to do the business element of things, I know if they follow in the

1374
01:46:14,236 --> 01:46:16,107
steps that I've taken.

1375
01:46:16,905 --> 01:46:21,377
or see that need to be taken, they cannot not but fail.

1376
01:46:21,677 --> 01:46:26,309
The problem comes when they take over and start to know better than you.

1377
01:46:26,309 --> 01:46:38,834
And this is a, and I run this like an AA sponsorship thing really, where it's got to be,
yes, it's a two way process, but ultimately I am the teacher, that's why they're paying

1378
01:46:38,834 --> 01:46:39,505
me.

1379
01:46:39,505 --> 01:46:42,506
They are the pupil, not the other way around.

1380
01:46:42,506 --> 01:46:45,737
Because if you, if you,

1381
01:46:45,843 --> 01:46:47,784
swapping it around onto me.

1382
01:46:47,804 --> 01:46:51,845
If you gave me an in, should I take the M4 off your hands?

1383
01:46:51,903 --> 01:47:00,110
And I'd be telling you how to do your job, you know, I'd be, because that's just how I'm,
that's the alcohol, that's the madness inside me, right?

1384
01:47:00,110 --> 01:47:12,246
And so you have to keep it really tight to keep people under control because it's about
time management and imparting that knowledge as quickly and as efficiently as humanly

1385
01:47:12,246 --> 01:47:12,777
possible.

1386
01:47:12,777 --> 01:47:16,130
And it takes time and you have to search out the right kind of people.

1387
01:47:16,130 --> 01:47:27,103
But if they're self-searching, if they're not humble and prepared to listen, not in a,
look, I wield a massive stick, such a way.

1388
01:47:27,103 --> 01:47:38,107
I'm not talking about that kind of, you know, but if they're not prepared to listen to
experience, then I'm not going to work with them because I can't get them the results that

1389
01:47:38,107 --> 01:47:39,128
they need.

1390
01:47:39,627 --> 01:47:42,911
And it's my reputation on the line and I choose.

1391
01:47:43,127 --> 01:47:55,742
I'm quite choice about who I work with because I need to see that, you know, humility
within them of being prepared to listen to what I've got to say.

1392
01:47:55,742 --> 01:48:04,042
You know, I've worked with the partners that we work with now for over 10 years and I know
that they deliver every single time on the button.

1393
01:48:04,042 --> 01:48:04,353
Brilliant.

1394
01:48:04,353 --> 01:48:07,670
Well, I think that is a that is an amazing gift and

1395
01:48:07,670 --> 01:48:08,310
Yeah.

1396
01:48:08,310 --> 01:48:15,342
When people are prepared to learn, prepared to listen and, you know, work from experience.

1397
01:48:15,342 --> 01:48:16,832
mean, that's where you've got that experience.

1398
01:48:16,832 --> 01:48:18,913
I've got that experience in my field.

1399
01:48:18,913 --> 01:48:24,354
You know, we've developed that through blood and sweat and prison and this and that.

1400
01:48:25,755 --> 01:48:31,036
and yeah, I think remarkable, truly, truly remarkable.

1401
01:48:31,517 --> 01:48:35,087
And Eleri, thank you so much for being on the show.

1402
01:48:35,087 --> 01:48:36,448
I've, I've enjoyed this conversation.

1403
01:48:36,448 --> 01:48:37,152
said,

1404
01:48:37,152 --> 01:48:41,056
We could go on all evening, but it is time to stop because we're almost on the two hours.

1405
01:48:41,948 --> 01:48:53,072
but thank you so much for your time, your wisdom, humor, and yeah, definitely being not
normal because it don't work no more.