My Personal Success Story - Martin
My story starts in 1998. I was a regional sales manager for a large healthcare organisation and was made redundant.
Ever the optimist and a believer in the fact that you never see a “hearse with a luggage rack” I decided to head off and fulfil a lifetimes ambition by heading off on a round the world trip.
Friends thought I was mad “you’ll never get a proper job again at your age” etc - they had a point, I was 36 at the time, but held the belief that a year away would not only be good for the soul but would also lead to something bigger, much bigger!
On the road
Everything started fine in the first 3 months, I trekked across Southern Africa, hiked through the Namibian Desert, canoed in to Angola (all be it very briefly, there was a war on!), was taken by dug out canoe in to the Okavango Delta and lived with the bushman of Botswana, white water rafted the Zambezi and watched Elephants in Zambia!
Unfortunately I was taken very ill on the return leg through Zimbabwe. Dr’s said I may not survive the night, however, despite a temperature of 41 degrees, the 12 bags of intravenous fluids in my first 12 hours did the trick and the world looked a much brighter place the next day.
Eventually I left the hospital and Africa, and finally completed my trip 9 months later via Oz, NZ, Fiji, Canada and the USA.
It was a wonderful time and although I did not find my inspirational business idea, I did secure a job with a company based in California and travelled the world with my job the next 18 months.
Setbacks
Unfortunately despite working my way up to Directorship level, redundancy hit again, and then again and then AGAIN!!! It was now 2003; I had a large mortgage and no job and 4 redundancies under my belt!
Fortunately I had mortgage insurance and used the time to go back to college and study small business management. I knew I did not want to work for someone else again and wanted to take responsibility for my own decisions, also to enjoy the fruits of my labour!
About this time I heard from a friend who I had met and travelled with in New Zealand. We were of similar age, experience and also both redundant.
He too knew that he did not want to work for anyone else ever again and was about set up his own property business. He could understand where I was mentally and the frustration I was feeling. He then suggested that I bought a book he had recently finished reading. He found it very helpful and thought I could benefit from it too.
The book was called “Be Your Own Life Coach”. Not only did I read it, I followed the instructions to the letter. In fact I could not put it down, it was like a cloud had lifted, and a pathway had appeared through the Forest, there was WOOD everywhere!!!!!!
What you really, really want
Part of the book asks you to examine what you really wanted in life. I knew I wanted my own business; I was passionate about travel and somehow wanted to combine the two.
Heard of those Eureka moments? Mine happened at 4.30 one morning, by 6:30 I had the bones of the idea down, and all thanks to thinking of that hospital bed in Zimbabwe. During my illness my backpack was left in a hostel, transient places at best, and I was in Harare not exactly the safest of Cities!.
The idea, we are often told to take photocopies of important documents and details of valuables when travelling, but where do we then keep these safe? Somewhere safe and accessible hmmmmmmmm…?
Then the hard graft started. Months of research, long hours no days off and searching for a team of people that could build on my vision as I have relatively little IT knowledge.
The result……? www.myonlinesafe.com
A solution to the problem: by allowing you to upload scanned images of important documents and valuables in to your own personal online safe. These are then stored on remote secure servers and encrypted to the highest possible security standards available today.
You can then access your own password protected safe 24/7 via any Internet gateway, giving you both peace of mind and printed copies of important documents, if the originals are lost or stolen.
The business has launched today! It has been set up on the net, has gone live in 15 countries and in 6 languages. And although it is very early days, response has been fantastic!….
The reason for the email……….
Thank you
I genuinely wanted to say thank you. I honestly believe that information learned from reading your book has seen me through the long hours, the tough times and to that initial clearing, when I could honestly not see the wood for the trees!
So thank you Fiona, I’ve lost track of the number of people who I have told about your book, but if you are ever looking for a testimonial, send them my way!
To anyone reading this, frustrated, looking to go it alone, hang in there, it will pay off!
Thank you!
Kind regards
Martin Hook
(Founder of myonlinesafe.com)
