Richard Wright — Iron Man, Father, Cancer Survivor, Inspirational Speaker, Warrior

Oh mix 93.8 some legendary radio for you on a Monday night it is as we do each and every Monday at this time what's involved and my special guest in studio tonight who made it here despite apparent serious grievous bodily harm he says that and as he gets sarcastic he starts to choke Richard Wright hello Richard hello David thanks very much for having me I really appreciate that it's an absolute pleasure I've got to tell you I mean we've been sort of toing and fraying for a little bit getting dates and everything sorted out you've been a fairly busy person over the last little while I'm David it's not really there it's just I absolutely suck at admin that's really no other excuse I really suck I gave you an output anyway that aside you are many many things you're a father you are do you call yourself a motivational speaker yeah I prefer not to inspirational speaker I guess inspiration that story teller that's a good story teller I think that's a transformation transformative story teller I think more anything else I think if I can tell my story and in some way it can help you to look at your own stuff differently then that's a big tick for me okay so so you do that you speak you speak to corporates you've overcome several challenges in your lifetime which we're gonna be be talking about one of them is going to be exactly why you're sitting here with your arm in the sling today but let me just say okay number one I think you are nuts I was wondering what is gonna come out of your mouth there I was I was remembering going radio so there's a whole lot of things I can't say six am I right six Iron Man triathlons no more than that so full Iron Man is 11 now and probably 30 odd top Iron Man events there's some social media stuff you need to update okay thank you full Iron Man's 11 you explain a full Iron Man to me I mean it's just insane so so I love the fact that you say that because because I think whether you think it's insane or whether you think it isn't is going to determine whether you ever gonna do one and whether you think you can do one or you think you can't do one is 100% correct so it's a 3.8 kilometer swim mm-hmm followed by 180 kilometers on the bike and then followed by a full marathon of 42.2 kilometer run but you are a successful speaker can you not afford a car so I think that's the thing is that Iron Man's really defined me it's been that thing that has been the glue that's helped me together it's been a sense of purpose it's I just a whole long story which I'm not gonna get into now about and a childhood where I got bullied a lot and the bicycle became my escape mechanism if I could get to the bike sheds before the bullies got hold of me I could make it out of there if I couldn't had to hide in the school and I think it's called a wimp and crybaby and all sorts of things and I think Iron Man became the see I can do that thing and I'm good at it I'm really good at it and that makes me not what you've what you think I am well I mean if somebody looks at you today I think wimp and crybaby would be the furthest from anybody's mind because let's be honest you're not a you're not a small man you are I don't you're not built like a traditional athlete though in terms of you like shortened very very skinny I'm not quite sure how to take that take it in the personal light so I mean the person you in front of you now is not not what I used to be so there were times when I was skinny lean but as a triathlete you can't be you can't be super thin because you're not just a runner and you've got a I think strength is is really really important well I know it is and putting a day together that is anything from the pros student eight hours to 17 which is what you've got you can't be skinny and and and malnourished yeah and that's what a lot of professional athletes in my opinion look like for so she's he who is quite rounded and yes round is a shape so I'm allowed to say I'm in shape okay let's let's start off with a little bit of who is Richard Wright I mean you know you're you're younger years what led to you ending up where you are today and give us the synopsis because I know it's not something you like to chat about a lot but so it's interesting I think we start our lives off and we are carefully groomed by parents schools society into this one thing that we are going to become for the rest of our lives and my life has not been like that I think I've taken a lot of risks I've done a lot of things differently becomes the head of a lot which is kind of a very weird mix and pretty unique so I was a swimming school for many years called the right stuff swim squad just down the road you had the version active in midrand and that was great that was the coaching background I studied a lot but never finished anything I then got into real estate also in midrand and loved it it was like a fish hitting water for the first time and not to be grateful for in terms of my real estate roots and then started training for Pam Gordon properties and became the national training manager for PGP which position I held for about seven years and also absolutely loved just again if I can in some way coach mentor train people to become better versions of themselves then I'm a happy camper that really does float my boat and that's rather cancer cancer journey very grateful for an amazing job and an amazing family with Pam Gordon properties it really was incredible and the second time I went into remission literally the day after I found out I was in remission I phoned up Andrew Golding and said that's at a matter here I'm resigning it couldn't be a better time and his reply was no you're not and mine was yes I am and we had a sort of two and a half month back and forward until eventually he said no actually you need to go and do what I think you are called to go and do and and that's to speak full-time and that's when that started and you glossed over this but I mean you are a cancer and I'm gonna use the word I hope it's the right cancer survivor 100% and not not not that there's any kind of nice cancer to get but I mean yours is right up there I mean it's it's brain cancer so yeah it's been it's been quite a road I found out that I had cancer five days after completing an Ironman event I knew something was wrong before the event I'd had the scans I'd had a benign tumor on my pituitary gland since 2004 that was 2015 but had been controlled with medication and it was a little up and down but it was I was fine and I mean I raised did really well in triathlon throughout that but late 2015 trying to train for 2016 Ironman I knew that something was really wrong the symptoms were on steroids I couldn't train and do anything more than one thing in a week and then I wasn't able to do anything so had another scan we found out that the tumor had grown substantially and it was then for the first time that cancer was was mentioned and like anybody the first thing you do is you go and Google and what I found out there was not great in fact I really really had to struggle to even find pituitary cancer and but all everything said exactly the same thing is if this is what you've got you don't have much time left you put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye kind of thing pretty much one of my friends were mentioning offer one of my mentors David patient always used to say the worst thing you can ever do is Google your symptoms he couldn't be more he couldn't he couldn't possibly more right in fact that's one of the things I put into my talks with another example but it's a bliss I got somewhere but anyway um so yeah but again I think that was was so important that I at least started that Ironman I was determined I was gonna go and do it despite the new resurgence warnings despite everybody else saying please don't it was as if if I can get through that event I can't possibly have this cancer and I can't possibly be heading towards a sticky end so it was a long day out and it was it was real mental tenacity I hadn't been up to train much and I knew I was booked in for a lumbar puncture five days after the race because that's the only way of finding out whether you've actually got brain cancer or not so but it was very it was very much a in the back of my head something tells me maybe but surely not yeah it's one of those it can't happen to me the story goes on and it's a fascinating story and as I'm looking at the the clock once again I can see already this is gonna be way too short but we're gonna make the best of it my guest in studio is Richard Wright he is a professional speaker and inspirational speaker I think I find your story incredibly inspirational and it's and it's a story of tenacity and what you can do if you put your mind to it we'll be back with Richard in just a bit my special guest in studio Richard Wright we're talking about being a professional speaker an inspiring individual and somebody who is am I correct in saying Richard this is now third fourth third time third time third time round and it is it was diagnosed before you've done the chemo you've done the radiation so it's been in remission twice before am I correct yeah I know back again to wave hands and say hello correct maybe you have a special type of cancer that likes doing Iron Man so I think yeah I've done a lot of research and I have spoken to a lot of people and I've tried a lot of different kinds of therapy and all sorts of different things that even had a look at the possible psychosomatic causes to something like this and a lot of what I talk about is the power of the mind and self-belief and and and any of the specialists I've ever spoken to has said exactly the same thing that overcoming something like a terminal cancer is 50% what you think and what goes on you met in your mind and 50% modern science and that's 50% they've got complete control of and can do whatever they can and research is amazing and and they're making forward leaps and bounds every single year but the part I can do very little about is what goes on your head mm-hmm but it I mean that's not unique to cancer that's with anything in life but I think and that is what is so valuable look I mean with with cancer obviously there's these other challenges but it's not just with challenges there's people with all sorts of problems and immune disease and all sorts of things and I mean I had I was mentioning to you early on Dr. Dawson Church was I interviewed him last week and that the research done and that is being done at the moment into the power of the mind and what you can do and how you can affect healing within yourself by using your mind and and and you know with with things like meditation and a massive part of it seems to be getting rid of stress now I can imagine if you have any sort of life-threatening illness there's gonna be a lot of stress so you know David that's a part that a lot of people don't even talk about or admit to themselves so but I'm freely gonna tell you is that the depression comes for free and it comes in in track clothes but but you can do very little about that because you so busy trying to fight the cancer and you you girding up to go and do radiation and chemotherapy and you on every single lotion potion cure pull you'll do anything you really can especially when somebody tells you you've got such a limited time to live for the first time I was told six months and how do you how do you even face or overcome the physical part of that when just what goes through your head being told you have six months on this planet that alone is going to sink you so I think that's that's that that became really important for me in that and I pride myself in being the kind of person I don't I'm not one of those people that live in the future in terms of worry about what might happen what could happen that's never been me I think I always trusted my ability to overcome whatever has crossed my path and somehow I'm gonna land on my feet and I guess some people could call it flying buzzy your pants and and I'm happy to own that title and I think that's that's been an amazing thing and it's been something that's really helped me to overcome the cancer yeah but my identity became a cancer warrior I was so determined and so focused on beating the cancer that the cancer owned my ass it really did I kind of gave it all my power and as I said you off air a friend once meant once mentioned to me some of Friedrich Nieske's teachings and his Latin terminology a more fatty which is Latin for embrace your fate or love your fate was it is in fact your life that when we embrace the things or love the things even make friends with as you mentioned off air the things that we can't change somehow that frees us up to actually overcome them well this is the thing and I mean a wise person once said that life is in fact a terminal disease so you know we're all gonna check out of here at one time or another correct you know so and and this is what I found so inspiring about Jews I mean you've taken a very very challenging illness and you went but hang on no no that's not me I am more than that and I think that is what is so inspiring just before we continue though if you'd like to ask a question of Richard right any comments for one three four eight is the SMS line for one three four eight SMSes are charged at one ran fifty otherwise whatsapp as zero eight four eight double two oh nine three eight that zero eight four eight double two oh nine three eight so we have to get on to this because you've been diagnosed brain cancer you were told it was stage four you carried on you did more Iron Man's after that's gone into remission twice it's back and yet today you come strolling into the studio with your arm in a sling you determine to talk about I'm determined to talk about the arm in a sling I want to know what happened so it's kind of embarrassing for me I was a swimming coach as I told you for many years in the swimming school for 14 years pride myself on being pretty good at swimming so I entered this race last weekend the Durban half Iron Man 70.3 and zero training and what I was more worried about anything else was the cancer been through a scare where I've had toxicity chemo toxicity in my lungs and I really been battling with my lungs it was the feeling that the cancer had spread there and I really had been able to do no training at all for about two and a half months and I was interviewed on on live TV and the presenter asked me what my next event was and I sort of stammered something along the lines of Durban 70.3 because I couldn't think of anything else and then into the event with very little time but this wasn't able to train so this is the whole run up to the event was all about Richard are you gonna be okay you haven't done any training you've got cancer your lungs are an issue and that was a real focus that the challenge and the obstacle was that stuff and here I was had a swim I only swam once the pool in the pool the Thursday before the race just to make sure I could still swim and had a great swim I loved it out there it was really cool I was coming into the beach with about a hundred meters to go about 30 minutes on the clock so it was a great swim and as I breathed to my left hand side I saw this big wave and the waves weren't really big so it was kind of freakish suddenly there's a big wave bearing down on top of me and I was about to be dumped and immediately it was like okay stretch out your arm let's try and serve this thing and you might just get it in time and make that dramatic approach that's exactly absolutely sure I planned that look at that and that yeah that didn't happen so the wave literally grabbed my arm and it was you know when your kids and you take somebody's arm you kind of throw them around like a judo throw and then land on the back and then you let the arm go but the waves did that to me and didn't let my arm go so literally I plowed into the sand with my face and kind of my nose and my lip and but I looked I heard my shoulder go under the water and I thought is it broken is dislocated but this excruciating pain and I sort of made it choking out of the wave and I immediately looked down on my arm and my arm wasn't where it should have been it was like way up where it should have been down and I realized instantly okay this I'm pretty sure it's dislocated doesn't feel like it's broken but whatever it is I'm in trouble mm-hmm if you've never had a dislocation in your life before when it happens that pain is something special I said to people before it's probably one of the source things I've ever experienced in my life horrible horrible horrible thing but now you know you would think with having not trained you having that scare before you would have done the sensible thing and this is why I wanted to talk about the sensible thing would have been to go okay guys look I've got an injury I now am not it's a great excuse not to finish this race and you could have gone home and you could have felt vindicated and yet you didn't but I would have gone home without that medal and I would have gone home without the mental victory of finishing the thing and that's what's so important to me about the Iron Man so we'll come back to the triathlon but to me for anybody else to relate to my story it's not about an Iron Man I'm not expecting people when they go through a tough time to go and start an Iron Man I'm not expecting that is not what I'm asking because I for one would never well the fact that you say you never I think you're incorrect you only have to look at an Iron Man video and you're telling me that your shape is not a triathlon shape I'm gonna disagree with that what is a triathlon shape not this one I think it's absolutely not a Iron Man but what it is is this where is the place that you go to get your power back where is that place to go where if I can do it in my head if I can do this if I can get this thing right then I can beat whatever else I'm facing that's that place and for me that's what an Iron Man finish line is for me so sitting in the medical vehicle and the DNF me did not finished me straight away pulled my number said that's it your race is done and I was kicking and screaming said no surely we can do something here can't we get this thing back in and with the doctor trying to help me get my wetsuit off and and pulling in my arm and me trying to use my other hand to pull my arm back just excruciating pain and somehow it popped back in and immediately well not quite immediately gave it a couple of minutes and then started to move my arm and I said look at this I can I'm fine the relief is amazing as soon as it pops back phenomenal absolutely phenomenal and can I can I continue there were no there's no way is you bleeding you need the bride man you blood in your face your nose is cut I said no no I'm really really fine can I know we've disqualified you or DNF'd you so we had to get a race referee across and long story short they re-entered me into the race that it really removed my bicycle from the bike racks I didn't have a chip anymore because that had been removed by the wave along with my swim cap and goggles but I was so determined and I think that's the lesson for me is an obstacle something that you see when you take your eyes off the goal and for me I wanted to finish that race that was really important for me mentally to finish that race and it didn't matter and when you focus on that suddenly everything else is inconsequential so it was a sore bike I couldn't use my tri bars it was really painful to be done on my bars but I had a great ride the run was probably the hardest part every single step was sore and I ran until the pain got too too much and then I walked into that kind of recovered a bit and then ran and then walked in that's how I did it if I look back now I'm the same as you is like how the hell did that happen how did you get through that mm-hmm but I think again it's like anything else is like beating Kansas like beating anything it's any obstacle that you have in your life how badly do you want it and what is what do you make your focus yeah well as again that one I was once told is that you know in order to do these kind of things and one must have a compelling vision that's something that you want to do and achieve because otherwise it's it's pretty pointless isn't that with anything David and I think very much so you know and and this is the thing now in my life a lot of the reasons I have for for doing things is I have a sister who was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus she's in a wheelchair and I get up in the morning and I'll complain about my eggs and pains or something and then I'll go but hang on you never hear her complain you never she lives to be able to go to work in the in the morning and I'm like suck it up princess get up and do it so I'm gonna stop you there and I hear you and and you're right I think it's one of the things I hear most often when I speak people come up to me afterwards and say Richard I was listening to you and I sat there thinking wow how trivial my problems are how dare I complain so just like you how dare I complain and I want to I want to take those people outside and beat them because because they're not helping themselves I'll tell you why the minute you do that you're not playing with your own mind you're telling yourself that something that is an issue for you is how dare you it's not an issue but it is an issue I would far rather I would far rather help people to understand how to overcome whatever it is that is an obstacle you don't have to have grade four cancer to have problems in your life you don't have to and it's not it's all relative and it's all relevant and let me let me then maybe give you an addendum to what I said there is yes the one thing you can never do is trivialize somebody else's challenges because what for you may seem trivial for the person that has experienced it at that moment I know I went through a phase and I always used to say I don't understand what the hell people with depression don't understand what the problem is I mean suck it up and says you know shoulders back pick yourself up until it hit me and in that deep down dark cycle there was no way out and when people told me to just snap out of it I was quite prepared to punch him in the teeth for sure because at that stage it was a very real thing for me so perhaps a better way of saying it is people like yourself my sister other people I know are an inspiration to face and conquer your demons so and here's another example I went into Woolies today and my daughter really wanted sick she wanted broccoli chicken and broccoli soup there was none in the shelves David no chicken in those chicken and broccoli soup at Woolies do you know what I went through just in that moment I mean that's first-world problems right but that was a real issue I had to go back to my daughter who second said listen I'm really sorry the soup that you chose out of all the soups we don't have and it was chicken and broccoli so it doesn't matter what it is it doesn't matter what it is are there things you can change in your life yes I can hmm all right well then do something about it yeah so one of my favorite quotes Naomi Judd you're only ever a victim once there after you were a volunteer on the day I was told Richard you've got stage four terminal cancer you've got six months to live I was a legitimate victim of cancer the day after that I can't go back to the doctor and say hey just tell me again just tell me again how I've got cancer yeah because that's done I now have a choice as to what to do can I change it no I can't what can I change I can change the way I think I can change my attitude towards cancer yeah wonderful stuff we're talking to Richard Wright my special guest in studio not only has he completed multiple Ironman's half Ironman's he is a speaker of note somebody could well well do with having at your company or event he also does a couple of other things and when we come back I'll be chatting to Richard about that X 93.8 legendary radio it is what's involved this Monday night my guest in studio Richard Wright a cat just said I found that quote quite profound thank you for sharing we just got a number of them so which one which one was it cat because we can say them again we love interaction I get another one wind out oil beds are burning yes would you know that your bed is burning if somebody didn't tell you well maybe not you're asleep well I don't know I don't know but there's the concept for me when somebody tells you something yeah that thought goes in and your your brain is the most sophisticated filtration system on the planet mm-hmm so it can't think for itself so when somebody says David you've got cancer yeah your mind doesn't say no no don't let that's all come in that's a bad thought it says no come in come in and now what it does is filters out all the things that proves to you that you do have cancer and filters up all the things that proves to you that you actually don't have cancer when in actual fact you might not even have any symptoms you might not really feel it but now you're going to feel everything that maybe isn't because your brain is searching because that's what you told it and it's now looking for reasons to do that I think anything the reticular activating system I think that's what it's called it where it filters out and does all these weird and wonderful things but I mean it's something you know people go you got cancer accept it do you don't you where are you there's a lot for that I think I think a lot of people see cancer as a death sentence a lot of people see cancer is this thing that it isn't it's what you allow it it's like anything in your life it's what anything that happens to you in your life you give it the power that it deserves or you don't or even if it deserves some kind of power you can decide what you do or you don't so let's go back to that triathlon I can say I'm doing a triathlon with cancer and I'm doing it with lung issues or and then something else happens to me which becomes an obstacle I just get my shoulder and decide that I'm going to continue the race I can tell you that for the rest of the race I didn't think about cancer again but this is I was about to ask you that exact same question because you were focusing on not anymore the big C but now correct something much more immediate did it change anything for me did it change anything from a can't from the cancer perspective no it didn't so again what you make your focus determines your outcome determines your reality wonderful stuff it was apparently about catches it was all about being a victim the first time and a volunteer oh there was no me judge that's a great quote that one good one so this wasn't enough for you to live with cancer and and to do the things you've done you decided that you need to do something more so you've also got a little project called hashtag give it horns hmm which is on multiple okay it's a very South African saying that give it home which means give it all you got but you've also tell us about that project so I man has also always been about something greater than myself and it's I've been racing for my two little girls my kid in a Bailey and they really are my why it's my reason for everything really in fact when I was told which you're going to die death part wasn't what scared me so much it's a change in your living circumstances and you're no longer living and that's just what it is but the part that I fear the most is leaving my two little girls without a dad that's hectic so they really got my reason my why and and they would write on each one of my hands whatever they wanted to in an Ironman before the cancer and this it was so empowering to look down my hands when I was racing and just remember why I was doing this and also not don't be stupid don't go and do something that's gonna leave your kids without a dad I think that's quite important for me but the Ironman it's always been about more than myself I did too with my ex-ceo Andrew Golding his first two Ironman events and with him and they were amazing again it was doing it for somebody else or with somebody else and there was it was there's something incredible about that that sense of community and sharing so with the cancer I didn't want anything to do with the cancer I think there was still at that phase where I was fighting cancer and I was against cancer and so I picked an organization which I absolutely love it's called the Rhino rescue project and essentially that's devaluing rhino horns and I love that it's taking all the money out of rhino conservation or stockpiling horns it's it's keeping the horn on the rhino it's saving one right around at a time and it's not the world's most expensive exercise and it was such an amazing thing for me to be able to do and that was the give it horns so that was for rhino conservation and that was fabulous so for the first year that was great I love that but then you went to it and did something else was you know when you when you first see it when I first saw the hashtag I was like yeah this is taking a step too far because how do you get from rhinos to unicorns tell me okay right I give it horns for rhinos and unicorns so the Christmas after that I was in remission for the first time and I found myself in Port Elizabeth without my girls they were they flew back to their mother on Christmas Eve the 24th and I made some exploratory calls to people to say listen I want to get involved with something on Christmas Day and I landed up at the PE Provincial Hospital in the kids oncology ward and what I found there was was extremely sad but also pretty amazing so there were six kids that were there and each one of the kids was in an isolation ward and their mothers were there pretty much full-time with them because the nurses rely quite a lot their little kids under the age of six and the nurses rely quite a lot on the mothers for I mean you don't want to be in hospital full-time if you're six years old without your mom so the mothers pretty much find themselves living in the wards with their kids although there's no bed there for him there's an armchair which which and they sort of kick up and end up sleeping on what happens is the moms can't work anymore because they they're full-time taking care of their kids and the dads almost always disappear no money coming in from a father figure and the families are left to pretty much fend for the kids in hospital and the mother's and I thought this was just amazing a way to give back that no kids should ever deserve to have cancer I mean it's hard enough as an adult let alone as a kid and every kid deserves in being able to believe in the magic of unicorns and so that was to give it a horns for runners and unicorns so it was it's pretty much raising money to number one provide some fun cool things for kids who literally spend their days in a hospital ward on their own in isolation and number two being able to support their moms and be able to give back to them and I found that a really cool way to race and raise awareness for for the plight of those moms so that's and that's ongoing people go to your website they can still they can still sort of donate and get involved what what is your next can I stop one for one second there unfortunately and this is the very sad part for me so just to link this in quite a lot about being a cancer survivor although I have still got cancer and a lot of people say but you not a survivor you've cancer and I said no but I am a survivor because until the day cancer gets me I'm a cancer survivor and on the day that I die from cancer I'm no longer a cancer survivor but I'm dead and and that's okay but until then anything can happen to me and I think you know you said at one stage that life this thing called life is is a terminal disease and it is that we start dying the minute we start living and you don't have to have stage four cancer or terminal disease or an illness to be terminal and you could get hit by a bus today I could get hit by bus today we live in Johannesburg we live in the world in in 2019 you could be shot you could have an accident anything could happen that can end your life you don't have to have cancer to die and if I die from any other cause I die a cancer survivor and it's the thing I say quite a lot is I can be sitting in an oncology ward having chemotherapy and I can look at the patients coming through the door and immediately I can spot the ones that are cancer survivors and and the ones that are cancer victims it's the demeanor it's in their eyes it's how they hold themselves it doesn't mean that what I can tell you is every cancer victim is going to succumb to cancer because they've decided they're going to they're a victim of it already but if you're a cancer survivor it doesn't mean you're going to survive cancer I've seen some of the strongest most incredible cancer survivors succumb to the disease and that's just what it is but every single one of them will live a longer life they'll confirm the doctors they will have a better quality of life they'll be happy even though they have a terminal disease because happiness is a feeling not a destination it's not I don't have to be in remission to be happy I can be happy while I have cancer so many times so many people say that I will be happy when I will be happy if what's wrong with being happy now and there's always a reason to be happy always always always and I think that's what I found in those kids is is kids handle cancer remarkably well they are happy with so little they're happy because they haven't been jaded with this life and everybody telling them about what happiness is that they know what happiness is happiness is a feeling and but the saddest part for me is that some of the kids who were some of the strongest survivors haven't survived so and I'd love to put this out to the listeners if you know of somebody who is in that sort of plight a mom who's really really struggling just to put food on table back home but having to live in an isolation ward I would love you to put them in contact with me because I'm looking for more people to be able to help with give it horns I think that's absolutely fantastic but this is one of the things I mentioned earlier and I think it might be one of your reasons as well is because you're doing this for so much you've got a bigger why I mean you want to go out there it's a life of service who was it Zig Ziglar who said you can have anything you want in life if you help other people get what they want so I think that's probably because when I see you talking about this kind of stuff I see you talking about your daughters or when you when you're standing in front of people sharing your story you light up you come alive for sure and and then that's also an amazing thing for me so it doesn't matter how I feel in fact I've even been booked by unique speaker bureaus and I'll and a bureau and I'll get a call from from whoever organized the gig just before to say listen are you okay you know do we need to worry are you going to make it today are you going to make it today and and but that's the gift of doing what I do it doesn't matter how I feel when I climb up on that stage and I stand in front of a bunch of people whether it's that whether it's in front of you whether it's in talking to my kids and I talk about stuff that can change other people's lives and inspire them to be a different better version of themselves I do come alive and and that's my purpose it really is and I think the amazing thing and just before we go is you were telling me about this last time before you you did the last triathlon how it was you literally had decided you're going to just start again now this from a man who does Iron Man's by walking around the block and I think to me there was something very profound in that because it's that whole it's just take one step for today we'll take one step if that's all we can do that's fine is that something that you feel huge so it's living in the present it's called the power of now can I take this next step yes I can I'm fine great can I take the next one yes I can and I think that that's why a lot of people don't do more and challenge themselves more with fear and fear fear is the biggest inhibitor for anything but this fear of it what if I don't finish but what if I don't do 10 kilometer round what if I don't do what just start and if you don't that's okay so the way I speak about it is that a DNF is a lot better than a DNS so in athletic terminology on on the results sheet you see a whole lot of times over one the race and then times sort of get slow and slow and slower and then right down the bottom you see a bunch of names with a DNF next to them did not finish there was this started the race something happened they gave it the best shot and they didn't finish so in other words had I been pulled off the beach and had I stayed there and said this now I've got this dislocated shoulder it's okay I've got a DNF at least I tried at least I started yeah but a DNS or those names right at the bottom of the list and those that did not start I entered this thing I decided I was going to do it but for whatever reason I didn't get to the start line and I think for me and this is part of it no training it didn't matter if on Sunday all I did was start on the beach and if I didn't even finish this swim that's okay yes I'm gonna do everything I possibly can and you're gonna have to pull me off this race but if I don't finish that's okay I started and so that's a big message is just start whatever it is whatever is holding you back just make a start Mel Robbins coined it she called it the five-second rule and I love this she says that your brain is divided into two halves you've got the accelerator and you've got the handbrake and we all have the most amazing thoughts things that can literally change our lives it doesn't even have to be big I think we think of everything's got to be big get you know going to do an Iron Man is big well you don't get to an Iron Man if you don't get up today and walk around the block and then tomorrow maybe walk around the block and then run into the robot and then walk the rest you've got to start somewhere you break it down but what she says is if you don't act on that thought within five seconds your handbrake comes up and your handbrake is literally the excuses you set the alarm in the morning and say okay tomorrow morning I'm going to go and run the long goes off two three four five snooze button and that that is the excuses well I was only gonna have a glass of wine last night and I ended up having the glass that it came in it's a Wednesday I'd rather start in a Monday whatever that excuse is that's the handbrake and you literally will change your life if you have a thought and decide I've got five seconds to act on that thought what's not gonna happen wonderful stuff Richard we've run out of time thank you so so much for coming in tonight if anybody would like to get hold of you I am Richard Wright comm and Richard is spelled the way you would normally spell Richard Wright is W R I G H T otherwise through USB yes absolutely unique speaker bureau the conference room speak to Chanel who's actually in studio with me here thanks for being here Chanel we'll we'll sit and wave it's not a radio wave people just have to take our word for it or Paul or just turn in and they'll take care of all your needs they're at USB.com is it unique speaker bureau.com correct so you can have a chat to them they as well they handle a lot of Richards bookings as he said though if you know of anybody that Matt needs some help some ladies that are by themselves suffering with their children that do in fact have cancer I am Richard writes so that's all one word .com Richard all the best before you go what next where are you going to next I'm gonna be like that television person and I'm going to ask you something just in general I'm not asking you to go to another Iron Man so we're next I I would love I absolutely thrive on having people to speak to and share my story with so I think for me we're next I just would like to find more people who would like to be inspired and like to initiate some change in their lives and I'd love to be booked and I want to continue inspiring my own kids I think probably one of my biggest goals in life is I always want to be a hero in my two daughters eyes and I don't always get that right but I think more often than not and that's a big goal for me so from there to speaking to doing more events that's what makes me happy fantastic stuff Richard right we wish you all the best thank you so much for being with us tonight thank you for having me there we go that was Richard right up next we're going to be talking to peer oh come and apparently we all don't know how to breathe peers gonna be talking to us about that