Ep 411 Tony Mowbray - Author Never, Ever Give In, Solo World Sailor, Adventurer

Dream.Think.Talk.Commit. This is Tony Mowbray's formula for Thinking Big and achieving Possibilities. Tony has sailed singlehanded around the world, circumnavigated Australia, done numerous Sydney-Hobart races and numerous other long-distance sailing events.
He is a frequent visitor to the Antarctic by yacht.
Tony is also a man of action. In this podcast, we discuss how Tony, from a non sailing family, got involved in sailing at a young age, the power of mentors and people who believe in you, balancing passions with family life and so much more.

We also discuss in depth his experience in the ill-fated 1998 Sydney-Hobart yacht race, where he and his crew came close to losing their lives. It is the most compelling account of that race I have read and I have read a lot about that race.
His lessons here on decision making, leadership, and his crews will to live and survive despite injury and a formidable opponent in the ocean is compelling, and we discuss this in depth.

Tony's new book, "Never, Ever Give In" is a must read for anyone wanting to do things that seem impossible at first. He truly embraces the mindset, skillset and toolset concept I talk about to accomplish incredible things. 
You can order Tony's book (20 plus years in the making) and find out more about Tony at https://www.tonymowbray.com.au/ and connect with him on LinkedIn.
Tony is also a fabulous speaker, so consider having him along to your next corporate event.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The most successful people in the world all have one
thing in common. They've learned how to think big by
developing a perspective of possibility. And the good news is
we all have the potential to apply the same strategies
to achieve amazing things.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
In our work and lives.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hi, I'm Rob Hartnet and as you're a chief Possibility
officer and host, I'm here to inspire you to become
the star of your world as a person of possibility
through learning how people from all areas of life are
thinking big and chasing down their dreams. We have some
great sports people I talk to and I'm going to

(00:42):
talk to about entrepreneur, a sportsperson, a family guy, a
totally awesome amazing individuals in Australia. And his name is
Tony Mowbray. He's just authored the book Never Give In.
He's sailed around the world non stop and a sister.
That's one of his great stories. But he's joining me today.
We have had about a whole bunch of things. Tony,
Welcome to the show, a.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Mate, Thanks very much. It sounds like someone else, it's
not me. Well, your book is.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Very good, my friend. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
And I think that you and I were just talking
off there a second ago about how you wrote the
book not to be a sailing book, to be, but
to be more than that. And I got to say,
as a sailor and avid sailor, I really enjoyed the book,
and there was lots of familiarity in there, but I
got to tell you what I actually really enjoyed was
all the parts, all the non sailing parts too, and

(01:30):
I really enjoyed those parts about just the struggle on finance,
the sponsorship, the marketing, bringing up a family. I think
I think you did a really good job in getting
us behind the scenes of what it's like three your
career as well. In fact, when it when it finished,
I actually wish it had to kept going because I'm
really hey, And that's why I've got a couple of
questions in there, go what happened next?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
What did you do? So you're a great writer? Toorney said,
well done, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
I appreciate it very much.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
It ended up three hundred and eighty part, but the
original manuscript was one hundred and fifty five thousand words,
and I had no understanding as to the size of
the manuscript. I've paired it back to one hundred and
twenty two thousand, and even then it's three hundred and
eighty pages. So yeah, and I could have kept going.
But look, I people usually see you, you know, when
with the finished product crossing the finish line, with your

(02:18):
raised arms in the air or whatever it might be.
What they don't see is all the graft and the
effort and the hard work behind the scenes quite often,
and so I've tried to lay that out for people
to understand that it isn't all beer and skittles.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah. No, you definitely did a great job. But let's
talk about that. The first question I've got for as
a personal one. You see one of your first cards
you have with a panel band. Do you want to
tell us what's the panel band your head for?

Speaker 3 (02:41):
When I was seventeen, when I was a kid, there
was a fellow that lived a few streets away from us,
and he had a small baker in his backyard and
used to bake pies and sausage trills and pasties. And
I used to go to the football as a kid,
and I'd buy He had this old yellow Holden panel van,
which I think was about a nineteen sixty model, and
I would go over to the football as a kid
and I'd buy a pile or sausage roller out the

(03:02):
back of his van, well lo and behind. When I'm seventeen,
he shut his little bakery down and I bought his
van for three hundred and seventy five dollars.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
And every time I got in it, it's still smart
like a pie's not like it, I reckon. I actually
came across one of those fully rebuilt, decked out it's
being used over a hotel on the Gold Coast. It
was actually their tignature and they had a couple of
surfboards and the like the reason I I've got a
I've got a Sandman tribute panel band.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
So we're all a bit of clectic in that.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I was in a cover a couple of weeks ago
and they've got a whole a museum up there and
I saw a SMN van.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Oh yeah, maybe good a bit. I've got to tell
you of all the cars I buy on the land
Low cars over the years, this car gets more responses
and looks and people come up to you in service
stations and just it brings back so many memories. It
brings back Sammy and people always are smiling, but always
they look at it and they always smile.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Come back. Oh man, this reminds me of Blah blah
blah and the story like.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
My on the world. But you know, a silo boab challenges.
She was a cold forty three with beautiful lines. And
if any of yes Bilers, they know Carl, I will
know what I'm talking about. But every time you'd pull
into a war for a dock or somewhere, people, what.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Sort of is that? Mate? You know?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, yeah, they've just held their beauty for fifty years
they have.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
You know, it's funny about that because there's one down
on the gifts Plan Lakes. It's actually more in the
in the straits between Raymond Island and Painesville and so
cold forty three and my wife said, My wife said, oh,
you had to love a looking bush and really nice
like ow our lines. I said, that's called forty three.
And then she was saying, I want to Tony sail
on around the world. I said, you know the boat
down and she got, oh my god, it's such a
good looking boat, and they totally are. Hey, So tell

(04:39):
me about sailing though, because how did you get into it?
Because your family weren't sailors. How did you get kind
of introduced into into the spoiler recreation of sailing. Yeah,
I was.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Look. I grew up in Belmont, which is right on
the shores of black Book Quarry here and he's just
south of Newcastle. Beautiful part of the world, and I
guess a great, great area for the growth of you know,
budding sailors that go under bigger things. I used to
ride my pushbike past the lake going to school every
day or catch the bus. And you can't help have
some relationship.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
With the water if you live near lake or qui.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
At eleven years of age, my mathematics at school was suffering.
I was only in late primary school, but my mum
used to babysit a couple of young babies for a
fellow called Bob Snape. She sent me to after hours
mathematics tuition and I remember the very first time sitting
in his dining room table and had long skinny thing
in the corner of his room, and my question was

(05:33):
this is actually the first chapter of the book is
called what's that mister Snape? And Bob was a pretty
considered sort of a person. He goes, oh, that's a
spinnaker pile off my yacht that I have to repair.
My eleven year old he is picked up and said, oh,
you've got a yacht, have you?

Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know?

Speaker 3 (05:49):
The very next Sunday, at his invitation, I rade my
pushbike down to the Lake Quirre Yacht Club. Still remember
propping it up against the wall, walk around the corner
of the club to look at his shot, which is
a little twenty six foot swallow class similar to an
etchel or a sailing and except it's a timber plant boat.
And I remember thinking, oh, it's not quite as big
as what I thought it was going to be. And

(06:10):
that started it. And yeah, I was just I was
just hooked virtually from the first minute.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
I saw it. In Vj's a smaller base dingy.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
At eleven, It's like, now I'm in there that this
is having a crack.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
But tell me about that. What what was it that
really you really liked about it? Because some people try
not like it and some people for all sorts of reader.
What was the thrill of the racing or getting on
a boat and there being a bit of freedom.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
What sort of occurred to your behind.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I think it was a combination of things. I think
it was. You know, as an eleven year old just
started to blossom and getting close to being a teenager.
You started to find your own way in the world.
And I've always been a very determined person to go
out and do stuff, whatever stuff is. And I found
I ran into this whole bank of people that I
didn't know existed because we were coal miners, my family were,

(06:56):
so this bank of people that were business people that
you know, and sailing, of course is a great level.
You know, he can be sitting ext for a brain
surgeon and a garbage clicker, yes, and we're all having
front at the same time.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
I found these incredible group of people that I Snapey
introduced me to that I started sailing with. I loved
the furl of the water. Could be a bit autistic
or something, because I just landed the motion and the furling.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
I love the freedom.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
I love this new found thing of being able to
point your bear where you want to go and go there.
That type of thing as a I guess as a
parallel for life. So yeah, there's a whole lot of things.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, getting out of the classroom, yeah interesting.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
And look as I read your book too, and ever
we start for a long time like it looked like
you have you. I came across different boats and with
one boat jumped at him. It was a boat called Fiona.
It was a far forty two and it was originally
you saaled on that, but there was originally a Jock
Staric's boat, the Great America's Cup Sailor and one Design
Sailor from Melbourne was the same boat.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I think, is that right?

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Great?

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Good made of mine. Doug Coulter who's passed away just
a couple of years ago. Now, Doug bought that boat
in the early eighties from Jock and the lake he is.
She was red, white and blue, if you remember, that's.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
It the strips.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, forty two footer and she had a big fat
bumb mine it so when it was light she used
to stick and you couldn't get it to gave, which
was Achilles ear. But no, we did the eighty three
and eighty five Hobarts on her. We were going to
do eighty four, which was a bad year, but we
did the Montecue Island racing her in eighty four as
a lute up race to the Hobart and we got

(08:26):
hammered and ended up getting rescued and did some damage
to the boat. So porol dug his check book set.
I think I'll gave a rest.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
So, yeah, he was really great.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I remember was he presented me with the Trapyo one
down Serrando, which I brought the boat down for a
gator and it was a huge highlight.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Now I got to meet him the.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Next day he was doing other race of Black Area
and WHI chatted and he was such a gentleman, you know,
and even I must have been a fourteen or something
and he just all the time in the world, like
he's one of these guys that when they spend time
with you, I didn't get who you are, that there
are attentions on you and I could ask him anything
about sailing.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, a lovely guy everyone.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
I remember reading Jock at that time and I was
impressed with.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah. Interesting.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Now you did one of the big one of the
big events you did when you sailed around Australia two handed.
What was the attraction of sailing around But some people
had already done it, but I remember you got you
get into it. This I know, I reckon I can
do it. I think you're easily going to try and
charter a boat around the boat, but you end up
buying in the end.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Originally, well, what happened was that we end up doing
Hamilton Island Race week on Doug's more recent boat was
just forty five foot of callt os Fire, and I
was bringing the boat back for lacal Quarry, and I
knew that Doug was going to put the boat on
the market, so I knew that that next chapter was
going to come to a place. And I was sailing
past Earlabart it was nighttime. I remember looking at the
lights thinking, thinking about stuff, you know, and I remember Gleason.

(09:47):
I don't know if you ever heard of John. John
was a pharmacist and as a son called Bill Billy Gleeson.
And I remember reading in a sailing article back in
the mid seventies about how they had sailed around Australia
non stock and it's thirty five. Sort of got me thinking,
and one thing led to another A cap home and
I tracked him down. I rang him. I remember him
telling me that he was working in his what should

(10:09):
have been in his retirement. He think he thought we
had an ass about face. You should work, you should
retire while you're young and then work to pay for
it later.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's not a bad good concept.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, So I spoke with him about the around Australia
trip that they had done and he confided in me
that we four on board, and he said, well, people
think we didn't stop it. We didn't stop here and
there at anchor and things like that. And how I
got carried away sale thirteen eleven months eleven months after
barging through the door at home. We had two young
oh my wife, we had a young daughter, one on

(10:39):
the way. No money, no boat. I got a sponsor
to partially pay for it. I ended up buying a boat,
and which was a forty three called Polaris, which the
sailing listeners would would many remember fondles. She is a
beautiful boat and I had done the seventy five Hobart
on her believe it or I was a twenty year old.
So I bought her, never thinking that I'd ever earned it,

(11:00):
and I owned a little bit of it about five hours.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
In the pulp. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
And so my mate and I, Maurray Morgan, we started
out in Newcastle Harbor in March of nineteen ninety four.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
We turned left.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
We kept turning left, including the bottom of Tasmania, and
fifty four days later we saw back in, having completed
a NonStop circumnavigation of our beautiful country.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I think you did that. That was the better time
than were you thought too?

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Was that right?

Speaker 1 (11:26):
It was only it was fifty four days about it?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (11:29):
I think it was six thousand, two hundred and fifty
miles or something. I mean we just averaged five knots,
you know, I just ate quite long, like we did
some quick days, slow days, but five notts averages. All right,
that gets you.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
There now, now, I like the way you say that
the list is here, that the way you said that
it was only like fifty four to fifty four days,
six six and a half thousand miles on a forty
three foot boat. I mean some people don't go. Don't
go thirty kilometers from Serena to Brighton. Yeah, on much
bigger boats.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
How do you know you're mad when you're mad? You know?

Speaker 1 (11:59):
They said it's crazy, and obviously that got tuned to thinking,
you know, this is that was good and you end
up selling that boat.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
We got back in May of ninety four, and then
through one meet I was approached by my sponsor for
that trip. He didn't pay for everything that they helped
in champ and came to me and suggested that we
might do the fiftieth Hobart in ninety four. I said, mate,
I've got no money. I broke again, but I've just
I've since had a child, another child, you know, da
da da. So he hit the team for some more money.

(12:29):
We did the fiftieth Hobart and I love that boat.
She was just a beautiful boat, but the reality of
having young family and I'd stretched the rubber band financially
pretty tautly, and it was time and also emotionally, and
I'd burned away fifty So I sold the boat to
John Quinn. Many of the listeners, sailing listeners would remember,
he's the guy that went over the side in the

(12:50):
ninety three Hobart on his j thirty five men. So
John bought the boat from me and then went on
and did some beautiful things with her, and he took
delivery over in January night five, right right, and.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Then so let me we lead it up to the
ninety eight Hibar, the infamous ninety eight Hobar, which was
you know, I've read a reasonable amount about seeing videos
and things, and in fact I even sat through the
presentation of one of the chopper rescue guys, Davison. Yeah,
pretty absent. And but your writing of it was transformational.
It was very different. Well, it was incredible to you.

(13:27):
I mean the way you took us into it. And look,
I did the eighty four as I mentioned to you,
and that had big waves, but it was to me
it was it was that was still nothing and what
you went through during that, And I remember that there
was a couple of things I wanted to I want
to ask you about a ninety hobard and.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
There was huge wins, huge waves.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
I mean we're talking enormous waves and winds, and you
guys ended up going to bare poles and doing everything
you see me and she'd be had a great crew
obviously on board the boat. Is there was there anything
that you had done differently? You know, you went around
the world, you obviously had that in your mind. But
in that ninety would it have been done? Everything done differently?
Would you have gone more ringshaw than outshore? Would you

(14:03):
have kept a storm? I'm trying to as you reflect
on think it's always easy in hindsight, but I'm just
keen to ask you the question.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
Well, and that was a very you know that that
is an excellent question. Look, I don't think there's a
lot that I would do differently, Although as you were
asking that question, I'm thinking to myself because we went
to bear Piles at midday on the Sunday, and we
because of a number every people ask me, what do
you do in a storm? Or no storm is the

(14:31):
same as another storm. No set of sea conditions are
the same as another set, So you have to make
your decisions based on what you're dealing with at the time. We,
because of a number of reasons, we're able to hold
a reasonable sort of course heading towards Tazzy even though
we're under beare pile. Sounds a bit crazy, but we could.
The only thing maybe I might have tried was pulling

(14:52):
away and running with it prior to that and maybe
running a drag right, And I to say, Rob, I've
never ever, ever, ever, ever considered that question, And that's
my answer to that.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
So yeah, that I could think about. But as it.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Is, it's like life. It turned out like it turned
out and saved it.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
There are a lot of other people, but a lot
of trouble too, you know, absolutely, And I think there
were a couple of things in there from people that
are nonstals, But there was one of things I like
about your Bob is there's so much leadership in there.
I mean, I know you do you bring this up
and you're speaking around leadership and teamwork.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
As well, but I think there was so much in there.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
I think one of the points you made there was
while there was a consensus discussion amongst the crew, you
had to make the call. Do we got the bare poles?
You made the call as a leader, and I think
as a leader you have to lead. That's the whole
reason you're there, and you can't just have an opinion
and everybody else. And I thought you were very Yeah,
I thought it was really well put the way you
said that. You know, we talked, we discussed it. We're

(15:47):
great people in the bowband. I decided we're doing this
or I decided we had to leave with that. And
the team's important.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Your destinies in the part of your hand. You know,
it's up to you. Like one of the analogies I use,
or the example I use, is that if you're a
member of a team and you go to the supposed
leader of the team, and it has this great idea
that you think is one hundred percent fool proof that's
going to improve productivity or efficiency or whatever eck it is.
And you lay all this out and the leader sits
there and goes, oh, you know, yeah, I think about that.

(16:13):
And you go back in a week or two time
and they're still thinking about it, and you go back
a third time, and you know the analogy I uses.
They're knitting a cardigan. Do you want one pocket or
two in your cardigan? You know, like yes, it Just
make a bloody decision. It's going to one hundred percent
correct all of the time, but make it. Move forward,
and if the decision proves to be not quite right,
and modify your.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Actions as you go. But make a decision.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Don't practice. Team members just lose respect so quickly for
a team a leader that won't make a decision.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, exactly right.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
I thought that was really good the way you did that,
And I mean that's the whole way you wrote that.
I won't spoiler for listeners because it's it's fantastic the
way you take us through, and also the whole lot
of it. I mean, there was so much involved in
losing the rig and going upside down. I remember a
good friend of mine who's passed away now. He was
in the ninety eight. They're on Bene fifty two and
that did roll, that roll three sixty, and they were

(17:04):
they were stuck, like to kill us up. And he
said to me, he's a pretty gung ho guys that
fortunately passed away now. But he said to me, without doubt,
that was the most frightening, frightening kind of emotional time
he'd ever been when they were just literally sitting on
the cabinet floor not knowing where the world was going
to turn up.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
And you know it can I imagine, yeah, I can't.
You can't.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
You were there just emotionally took took me to the edge,
you know, like I was on the way I described it,
I was on the edge of the precipice looking down
into the chasm, you know. And you know, you may
recall that I was talking there about because I really
just loved my children so much now thirty nearly thirty
four and thirty two. But you know, when you think

(17:48):
about the possibility that you know, the boat might you know,
first of all, you think, oh geez, I think I'm
going to drown, So drowning it's not cancer or nursing
home or whatever. Next floor processes, well, you know, the
boat goes down and me and my seven mates rolling
the water together.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
What happens? Then?

Speaker 3 (18:03):
What do I think about? And then when your mates
are gone, it's just you and your whole thought process,
and then you think yourself, you know, when there's just
me and I'm about to drift away. I hope my
last thoughts. I hope my very last thoughts will be
with my children, and which I detailed in the book
once again, Yes, if I think of my children last?
Which one?

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah? That was? That was crazy? Was I was like, yeah,
you said that.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
That's why I said the book is so compelling that
it was that was incredible, And I were like, I
mean it was about I love the rescue. There was
a classic scene when you were thought that patrol boat
was coming and the guys are working downstairs on the diesel,
get the diesel to go, and I don't remember crew
member of do it? Kay, no freaking away, I'm not
getting this, but you're like, kay, boys, I.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Remember I had I had a warship to warship Newcastle
lobbing over the rise and and the ride search aircraft
doing loots around us. And I had the A B
C Chop, a piloted by Gary Tyshurst, is now above us,
and I thought, I've got an ABC chop or a warship
and the rights if I might say now, I.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Never will you know, you can't possibly miss it. One
of the things you talk about and a lot of
the endeavors you've done, but you have this philosophy.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
I'm read of that because I want to get right.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Which was as the name of a chapter, which is dream, Think, Talk,
Commit and act right. So dream, Think, Talk, commit, and act.
Tell us about that philosophy, and then how you how
you came came about that?

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Well, and this sounds really crazy how long it is,
but you know, twenty five years and war ago. If
I read without me realizing it, but if I read
one of those words in a newspaper article or a book,
or if you spoke on a conversation, you know, independently
the other four, it would have a certain strength of meaning.
You know, some words are more powerful than others, as
we know. But as a result of some of the

(19:51):
crazy things that have happened in my life. I've strung these.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
See.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
The only thing that's unique to Chiney Maybray is the
order which I've put these five words. Yes, that's all
I got, right, Yeah, the rest of the stuff I've
read from other people or whatever. So, and when I
look at these five words is one entity to me.
They just dovetail in like a piece of finally detailed joinery,
or they blend in like a hen in or a glove.

(20:14):
And I look at the five words as one entity,
they take on a whole new, powerful meaning. And I
then look at this and I think, well, these five
words and people are not the head and agree they
apply to same many aspects of our lives. Could be
having children, rising up through the ranks of business, trying
to lose way, to get your golf ender kept down,
whatever it might be. And the first word is to dream,
and that's where it all starts. And sometimes it stays.

(20:35):
A dream doesn't move on. Sometimes although subconsciously or consciously,
you take it to the next realm where you start
think about it, because the dream might be your own
private dream, and that you take it to your grave
thinking bit that can go on for ages, and then
one day you might be game enough to open your
mouth to the one or two people whose opinion that
you're really.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Going to value.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
And I say it could be your mum or your dad,
your brother, your sister, a peer, whatever, And you say, listen,
sit there, And everyone's done this. Whenever I relate this,
they all nod their head just now and they go
they go, look, I need to talk to you about something,
so you might talk about it.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
And then the example I uses me.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
You know, it's four o'clock in the morning, you've got
that black void of the serving that you're staring at.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
We've all been there, and you're laying there, wide awake,
and it's going around around your head, you know what.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
You've been dreaming and thinking about and talking about. And
you realize that you've been talking about this thing for
sale long that you're starting to bore yourself around you
everyone likes just.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Like you go yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
At that point, we all know that what you've got
to do is either got to shut up or stop
talking about it, or do it. And the walk is
commit and the gift word is act because the old
adage of your ideas won't work true to this day.
So and the commitment phase of it is when I
commit Rob I'm in you when you contact me and
I'll tell you that I'm yes, I'll do this podcast.

(21:55):
I'm in. There's no yeah, No, I've.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Got a beautiful video which you'd like.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
There's a couple of things you mentioned in here, which
just recently Tom Cruise talked about on the Red Carpet
Tom Cruise and they do well. It was just a
look clearly, but there was one bit of Tom Cruise.
I said to Tom Cruise about some of the stunts
he does, was like, how do you do it?

Speaker 2 (22:17):
You man? Whatever?

Speaker 1 (22:18):
And he said, the most important thing I've got to
do is talk firstly.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
So I've got to get out.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Of my own head. So if I stay in my
own head, it's never going to go anywhere. And I'll
talk myself out of it. So as soon as I
come up with the idea, I think about it.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
It's amazing your accronent.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
And he says, then I reach out to people and
I go, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. If you
ever done it, or you did it, I'm just thinking
about a different angle. And he said, if I start
talking to people, I'm outside of myself. I've now got
more heads working on it, and that was the first
one and he really talks about that quite eloquently. Then the
second one was an interview who did on the project recently.
Re talked about once I commit, I'm one hundred percent,

(22:54):
is one hundred percent in and it just the wording
is exactly that. But it's interesting about the first big
talking to other people about it kind of gets it
starts to go on that journey.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, you know the commitment phase. You know one
hundred percent time and people listening now will know that.
You know when you are one hundred percent to commit
it to something, and I don't care what it is.
It could be of marbles player at school, or you know,
making a million bucks or raising beautiful children, whatever the
hell it is. Forget about business for a minute. It

(23:24):
is amazing what people do to help you if you're
one hundred percent boots and all. If you're only ninety percent,
they won't And the activent I use is that if
you're in at the deep end of the pool as
a chance, people are jumping with you. But if you're
not in there first, people won't go first. So the
commitment and you can't hide it you know, when you're
when your boots and all people just know that.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
It's all right. There's that passion. But I have to
ask you a question though, and I'm like you, I
get on and do things or like to think, I
do you obviously do? Why do you see people don't
do that last that that commitment act. So many people
do the dream to think the talk, but they don't
actually act when you're experience what do you think? Are
scared of failure.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Or not achieving? There are a lot of people that
are that have the ability to go within you know,
ninety or ninety one or ninety two percent of the overall.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Possible success of what it is they're set to do.
But it's that.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Band of people that are that can go to one
hundred percent and that takes It's like it's like sailing
a boat. You know, it's relatively easy to get a
boat to within ninety percent of performance. To get that
last ten percent, you're pushing water, you're on edge, the
boat's on edge, you maybe start to break stuff and
that's when you're starting getting into a different wrong.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
I think people are like that as well.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
It's really hard to get that last ten percent of effort.
But if you do bust through the barrier, the rewards
forget about money, but the reward crazy stuff.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Well well, and I think the other thing I talk
to people a lot about is that is that action
precedes passion.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Right.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
You can't be passionate about something that you haven't you
haven't done right like you you went, you wear the
eleven year, I went sailing right, and then because you
acted and got on a boat, you went hang on.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
I really like this, and that's passion.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
So to me, it's always action precedes the passion because
you don't know. I always can't say I'm really passionate
aboutn't done it, yet I'm really passionate about it.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
One of the things, one of the things I've learned
over the years is that you know by accepting your
goals or challenges that you've set for yourself or that
someone else has set for you, whatever the hell it is,
and you've pushed and your shoved in your ground and
you're finally finding your busts through. And the example I
use is, you know, when I'm in the Atlantic Ocean
sailing around the world and it's beautiful southeast trade winds

(25:36):
and it's glorious, some T shirt, whales, dolphins, rainbows, and
at night you're laying there and you're looking at this
jet black velvet sky and there's stars, look like diamond's
going to drip out of the sky alavy. And that's
what I call your personal reward. That's for in the action.
And that's a bit like the passion, you know, that's it.
So that's your own personal reward. They haven't committed and acted,

(25:59):
but you've got to act to get it.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, totally, Yeah, totally. I think there's another interesting blosso.
But I came across recently I actually reckon this is true.
They said that if you try to get people to change,
it's it's when fear of missing out is greater than
fear of failure. Yeah, the fear of missing out is
greater than the fear of failure. And I've done it
a few times myself, for I've known what to do,

(26:23):
knowing I should do it, i haven't quite done it.
But when I've actually realized when I'm about to miss
out on all of a sudden, I've got we think
we're different, but we're all the.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Same, very very much.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
So a couple of let's talk about yourself solo unassisted
around the world in solo Globe Challenger, which was an
amazing thing, and I loved all the build up to it.
I loved the frustration with marketing people that were something
that kind of really resonated in my background, and dram
me nuts and the people you were clearly yeah, we're
all been there again with that some great people. Got

(26:56):
some great people as well who also supported you. Now
I've got I've got one question to ask you this.
I have didn't put this in the script, but I
was thinking about you the other day.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I thought, hang on, Tony.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Tony had this obsession on so many boats and definitely
on during this whole around the world was how long
his underwear could last for? And I had to say,
did you ever approach bonds for a spotorship?

Speaker 2 (27:20):
No? I didn't.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
The backstory of that, of course, is that in around
Australia trip for listeners and our benefit, I wore the
same perier of underpants for twenty seven days continuously. Many people,
of course, were disgusted with him as a family shown,
as was my crewmate Mauri Morgan, but I thought I
were as a badge of honor around the world clip.
I thought that I might try and take it out

(27:44):
to a new PB so to speak. Maybe yes, three days,
but of course I wore them much longer than that.
I've still got them. And actually he be sitting on
the floor. Yeah, no, I didn't, and I.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Probably should have.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I just thought about that would have been the greatest
long Yeah. Maybe they wouldn't have done it because they
lasted too long, and I want every one more.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
They weren't thought about.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
So you did all this preparation, You've got sponsorship going,
you were sorted out, You've got a great launch at
all the people there, with a fantastic send off. I
think it's like, on the first or second night you've gone,
if I'm really happy I put those I made up
those second set of runner cables just in case my
runner cables break.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
And then you realize I didn't make them up, but
I left them in my garage.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
I thought, oh my god, how many times have we
all done that? And I thought myself again, it's a
retrospective question, would you have done?

Speaker 2 (28:32):
What can we do differently?

Speaker 1 (28:33):
That's that we make sure that that stuff that's really important,
that we actually went and made them and we thought
about it, and then we just left them behind them
and what goes through our heads just overwhelmed.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
It's a hard question. Like with the steering cables, the
spear set of cables were such an in my opinion,
an integral part to success. In the end, neither but
only just the original set got through. Look how, I'm
big on weakest leaks. I'm big on looking around and
finding your weakest link and working on that so it's
no longer your weakest link. But the trouble is it's

(29:04):
work in progress. Now there's something else that's the weak link,
so you got to find that. I am big on
minimizing risk. I really work hard at minimizing the risk.
But the trouble is people become risk centric, dadn't they?
They just to risk the risk, the risk, the risk.
I remember I did talk once at a conference up
in far North Queensland, and the thought was from a
compliance officer and you gave out a coffee mug as

(29:26):
a matter of her presentation, and inscribed on the coffee
mug was comply or die. What a great praise that is,
you know? So anyhow, look, I all you've got to
do is work as hard as you can make make lists,
kick off the list, yes, the job list going. But
at the end of the day there's always going to

(29:47):
be that old phrase of stuff happens, you.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Know, Yeah, you just miss it.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
And that leads me on to the amazing, amazing thing
you did. And what was amazing at the time.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Was where you were.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
I think you were so you were luck one of
those points in Around the World trip where you were
so far from land and you're at the furthest place
you could possibly be from lan.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, don't email, that's right.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
And you discovered that the shrouds holding the port shrouds
are actually there's a chainplate given way, and you just
covered that by accident. You're into the wandering up and
you put your hand in the part and the puddle
of water and hanging it really shouldn't be there, and
what's going on all of a sudden, it's really poor.
Take us through that because it was about a seven
day repair. I remember correctly on isolating it, finding it out,

(30:31):
and sorting it outtato through the seven days on the
books that.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
It was on day thirty five around the World trip,
And as you say, I wasn't point in Emo which
is the furthest point you can be from land on
this earth. And I was deep in the Southern Ocean,
and this stain is still fitting that bolts into the boat.
That that the wires connected to hold the mast up.
In simplistic terms, it partially filed and oppened up like
a jam tin lid and was about to blow the

(30:58):
deck off and the rigors. I had to come tumping down.
Of course, that's the end of that. Plus I'm that
far from land. Yes, my immediate reaction was I'm going
to lose the mast. Then I thought, okay, let's try
and stabilize it. And then I'm now I think I've
stabilized it. Initially, let's try and stabilize a bit more
so it was an evolutionary task. And then then I thought, no,

(31:19):
I think I might start. I think I may have
stabilized it enough. I'm going to have to go into
Chili to get help to get it worlded up on whatever,
which would negate the attempt.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
I'd be done.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
But then I thought, hang on a minute, no, I
think I can actually because I've got a deta a
long way to go to Chili. Maybe I can actually
get it strong enough to actually sail around Cape Horn,
but now go to the Forkland islands. If I can
get around the Horn with this thing, maybe, just maybe
I can keep working on it and improve it to
the point where it's stable enough to carry on with
the task at hand. So over a seven day period,

(31:49):
it was evolutionary. So how you start out is not
how you end up. Yes, it's going to be at
the start isn't how it always ends up. Most of
we're going to be. So it's very, very interesting. And
eventually I got it to the point that I got it.
You know, there was a lot of I mean, I
cannibalized the bait. I drew a lot of things on.
I cut chain, I think I could change to support it.
I put purchase systems on that was just trussed up

(32:12):
like three breaking arms and two two. But I was
able to sailor and I was able to keep going.
The interesting thing at the end of that Now, in
those days, I was able to communicate with the outside
world by satellite, and I was doing email updates. Early
in that stage, I sent an email update that's something
the effect of it's nearly all over. The Fat Lady

(32:32):
is in the wings, about ready to guard on the
last act, you know. Now, towards the end of that,
once I all fixed it, there were a number of
emails that I received, and you can categorize them into two.
The first one is represented by an email that essentially
said something like, I look at ak Toney, it's a
piece of stainless servant filed. You didn't filed. You did

(32:53):
a good job. You can come in now. Really interesting
how people view things, you know. Yeah, well, I think
coop reactions are different, I guess as a leader, yes,
going back to that nine out abart when you touched
on the leadership aspect, one of the things that I realized,
because we had men with some quite serious injuries, not
all the number were, one of the things that I

(33:14):
recognized in that setting was that because people like to
do what it is they feel they can do well.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, So in that setting, with these injuries.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
They had to revisit their abilities at that point in
time given their injuries, but they all gravitated independently of
each other to do things that they thought that they
could do well in order to make a group effort
to try and keep that beta float to sustain life
on board. Now, as a leader, I observed this and
I thought, geez, Biggles is doing this and whatever whatever.
So as a leader, I saw my rall as to
keep them motivated, to keep doing that ursion, to keep

(33:45):
doing that thing well, and together we might just survive.
So I guess the you know everyone's got a hot button.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
As a leader, I believe your job is to find
that button, press it and keep it pressed.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
I mean, I think, look, you just's so well said.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
I think as a leader, one thing I say, as
a leader, your job is to developed your people or
I find it hot budet find and find what they do. Well,
that's a revolution to a lot of people, by the way,
to me, it is so many leaders who think it's
about development and then so to find that is a
really good thing to keep them motivating, keep them all
going to the whole team.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
It lifts and as a.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Group when I rounded Kpearn, I burned it so for
fifty days. At that point, you know, all I was
was just a jockey on board me with it. On
that boat were all the people in spirit that helped
me in so many ways over so many years, put up,
gave me money, gave me goods and services, so I'm
just one member of a massive team. Yeah, leaders should

(34:38):
not lose a.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Sight of that.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
No, I agree.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Now, I think I noticed in one of the photos though,
did you after you fix the ports raut, did you
actually then do the same thing on the starboard side
just to prevent it, or did the stardboard sides up
to go as well with I looked at that.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah, now what happened was the port side filed in
the southern acean.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
I managed to jury rig.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
All of that and you got gone after seven days
round of the horn. But then up into the Atlantication,
I was mortified to see the starboard side shroud. Two
of those had what they call stranded. So the wire
rigging is one by nine and experienced, and I had
some rigging farley on that side, but not in the
actual structural aspect of the boat and on the rigging wise, so.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
I had the jury rig days as well.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
So yeah, she was certainly trusted up in the end,
and we eventually got to the finish line.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Fantastic, you know, great.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
I think another part I really liked as well is
when you were Yeah, you organized a great entry eve
when coming in daylight and before your sponsored and from
your body else and and I say, you did a
great job your sponsors and so you were. You were
just sort of mosing around off the coast, and a
couple of your mates went out and came out in
the rib to see you.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
And your whole conversation was at the.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
End of every sentence you went over, which is not surprising,
but it must.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Have been larious at the time.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
Well, I didn't see you know the in one hundred
and eighty days I was one hundred and eighty one
days I was at I saw land for tat of three,
which is people go what the avadible? Three days in total.
The other one hundred and seventy eight versation. I didn't
see him. And bring from the day left of the
day I got back. And the big thing is I
laugh about it. But then it had to be a bloke,
and a really ugly one. I arrived off the entrance

(36:19):
south of Newcastle Harbor of Blacksmith's Beach on the on
the day before, about two thirty in the afternoon, and
a couple of mates were beach inspectors and they were
laying around on the beach doing nothing as they normally do.
They looked out and they saw me and I was
just stooging around washing off time till the next day.
One said that, I think that's MOEI out there. So
they launched the rid came out and I'm down below

(36:41):
next one here, Hey, Mooey, are you there. Jeff may'brien
is a distant relation and tiny steers, so we're having
this conversation. I'm warning and he can't come and touch
the boat. Blah blah. But yeah, every every set day
still to this day, or laugh about out at the
end of each sentence, I'd say, over, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
That's classic. Ye had great celebration. You got back and
it was huge.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean the amount of people it turned out with
unbelievable and the photographs are fantastic and it's just people there.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
I know, it's amazing, isn't that.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Well, that's part of the When I left, there was
probably five hundred and when I set this task for myself,
it wasn't for those reasons. It was it was my
inner spirit to prove to myself that I could do it.
So only five people then when I got back that
would have been okay. But what happened was over the
six months through our website updates, and through various meaty

(37:34):
releases and things like that, people became at one with
the They wanted to be involved, you know, they knew
I was so committed and they wanted to be team
that was having a goal. And so, yeah, thirty thousand
people was beyond my wildest expectations. And still to this day,
twenty four years and a bit later, people come up
to me and go, I was there that day.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
And yeah, this is all before social media. Two.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
I mean, I mean that was a I think there
was a lot of credit to you for doing those
calls to the local radio stations.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
And those teams getting behind you.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
But yes, is all pre pre social media, and you created,
you mutated that you would have been.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Could have been one hundred thousand there. If you had
social media.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
You've been. You would have been. You had been the
first salor influence I reckon of that particular.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
I had a just and every time I run into
someone that was there, that tells me that I really
think him profusely because it just I feel emotional speaking
about it now. It's just such an incredible contribution of
my life and my kids lives from my trust, Like wow,
you know, what a great thing.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
You know, Yeah, I don't think I liked about the
way you tell them that when in the book, if
you talk about the reality of it, you know, I've
not also the challenges that are going on, but also
just the immense boredom sometimes I'm just selling the ocean
for ages and then downstairs and reading the book It's
on self steerings on and you talk about that, and
having read you see what Jess Watson's done and.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Others as well.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
You really really brought to life like what it's like
the day after day, and then the challenges. And also
the interesting thing for me was the shipping side, like
how many boats you came across. All ships are just
completely unmanned, like you tried to call them on radios
and you just go still.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
It was incredible, wasn't it? Still?

Speaker 3 (39:15):
You know, just writing that the last two years, I
really put a massive effort into getting the book finished
and going back into that time and thinking about that
time my life. It still frustrates and angers me that
they just firstly have complete disregard In the Atlantic. It
was just shocking, you know, ninety percent of ships when
Corp wouldn't answer and I call them agents of stealth.

(39:36):
They're just moving through the ocean like almost hunting and
seeking their prey. And if you're down my sleep, they
just run you down. They wouldn't even know they'd done it,
you know.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
No, they wouldn't even know. Tell me when you got back,
what was the biggest challenge back on your back. You're
back into real life. If you will be back with
the family and they'll be great, the boat's there. What
was the biggest challenge for you after the six months
getting getting getting back into regular life.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well, a lot of people would think that you'd curl
up in the fetal position in the corner. But that's
not me. As you might as the listeners might have
gathered by now, I'm a bit extraverted.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I like to have a crack.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
I had spent four years on an asset reduction program
and it worked magnificently. So I had two young children
and my family, and I had to go to work
and earn some money to start to square.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Away the ledger.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
I didn't really have too many significant challenges. But probably
the one thing that springs to mind is that as
you jump ashore and you get back into daily life,
someone gives your maybile phone and you're back in business
sort of thing. And it's still to this still this
to this day, is that when you're because what happens,
you developed this mindset where anything's possible, you know you

(40:47):
can do it. You have to be very careful when
you're dueling with people, but that doesn't come out as
being arrogant or I know it or whatever. I really
had to, particularly in those earlier days, really try and
put a little bit of lit on my exuberants and
deliver it in a certain way, whether it's you know,
we can do this together or whatever.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
I remember sitting there.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
We made a documentary and I remember sitting there Bila
which were owned by Carls, which were a no for
Supermaker based.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
I had a third sponsorship with them.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
We made a documentary and I went to them and
I had a meeting with them and I said, look,
we made this documentary, it's going to be advertised a
hundred times on NBN television. You're going to get your
logo which was really bold and dominant. You're going to
get your logo on there one hundred times. And what
I proposed to do is, well, people can go to
your local area supermarkets buy a copy of the documentary
and all of the profit will go to charity. So

(41:40):
I'm not going to cost you a thing and you're
going to be the good corporate citizen.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
We're sitting in this meeting and the guy said to me,
so when does the documentary come out.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
I said, to be.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
It'll be ready for Luis in six weeks, say you know,
And he looked at me and he said, oh, I know.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
We wouldn't be able to do that. I said, why
is that?

Speaker 3 (41:59):
And I said, it takes at least twelve weeks to
get a product on the shelf. Right, just sat there
in amazement, and I remember saying to it, mate, if
I can say around the world siloe, not stop and unassisted,
you can get a product on yourselves in six weeks. Now,
of course, any people that would be arrogance.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, absolutely, But no, I get the point though.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
I think it's a really good one for the Yeah,
it's yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Just an interesting point you make.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
I had one of my podcasts earlier with a guy
called Lackie Henderson who is an AFL player and he's
been coached by some of the best and I actually
asked him a question because I've noticed this. I said,
why do you think it is a high performance like
you elite sportsman in AFL or Olympians just struggle in
the corporate life. They're also going to go to go
to corporate life, right, and I see a lot of
them going these they just don't last.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
He said that.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
He said, the bottom line is you've kind of been
operating at such a high level that the pursuit of
mediocrity is just you just don't understand it. You just can't.
You just can't connect with it. And he said, you're
an AFL player. You've got a ship ton of money anyway,
so just leave. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
No, I've had a shit ton of money and I
still don't. But I'm going, okay, yeah, but I had
to do that for myself.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
But the frustrations there though, when the money's on the AFL.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
But he said, you've been operating and then the Olympians
don't have a lot of money, right, but they've been
operating at such a high level with a team. And
he said to me, like, I'm in a team where
I'm playing a team and it's and you know, and
he saw about Chris Scott a gel and said Scott,
he told me to do this, and I don't get it right.
I feel really bad, like a Scotty just told me.
I no one should have done. I didn't get it right.
I want to get it right again. So I'm letting
my team down. And he said we go to the

(43:35):
said a lot of companies. It does not like that.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Yeah, you know, yeah, there's a lot of people also,
like before I left the garround the world can't. I
had three primary goals I wanted to achieve and I
got back. One ways to make a documentary, which I
had no idea how to do that, but we ended
up doing that with some nope. Of course, I wanted
to write a book, which it's only taken me twenty
four years to get it finished, but here we are,
it's done. The other thing I wanted to do was

(43:59):
a core but speaker, and I read books prior about
because I love aye achieved by survivor. I read about
people that are gravitated for corporate speaking for you know,
whether they be the flavor of the month or whatever.
But what I found was that and I strongly subscribe
this to live the experience, whatever it is, surviving achieving
whatever is one, or swimming winning a gold medal is one.

(44:21):
It's one skill. But to take that skill and to
transfer it into the written form or the verbal form,
such as on stage in front of an audience or
in a book in a way that people find interesting
and learningful and humorous or whatever it is, that's a
whole different skill set altogether. And I love that stuff.
I love that studious thing. I love learning from other people.
I've been on the phone this morning because I'm into

(44:43):
kayaking at Presence, so people about roof bracks for kayaks.
And I started out two hours ago. It's not how
I finished up in my thinking. I love it.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
And that's and that's another thing. I found a few
things I have about people who think big. Right, I've
got it down to about five things they do. But
one of the them, what as I think big. The
second thing they do is they're really curious. They're crazy curious. Yeah, yeah,
and I think that's you just you know, just just
said that. You know, they're really crazy curious. They're also
optimistic but grateful for where they are. And the other

(45:13):
thing they do is one thing they do is they
have fun. And when the fun stops. They actually change sports,
change careers, change direction. And that's the new You're you
totally embody that haven't you.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Look at when you look at my you look at
the book and you look at all the different thing. Yeah,
I've had and I hadn't realized it until I sat
down and wrote them.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah, wow, you know all I've really got the driver's license.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
That's and I joke about it, but it's true. Yeah,
qualification I have as a driver's license.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
There's a lot of consistent themes though in what you do,
and they really do come coming through and this I
can hear it, and I also saw it.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
In the book. Tell me with the kids.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
Now, did the kids go into sailing or did they
go God that that devil has to took that away
for two longs, so tell them.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Tell us about about two children.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
Have My daughters Holly, she'll be nearly thirty. She's thirty
four in January. My son Jordan is thirty two. Both
of those got into sailing, or more so at a
younger age. Yes, Jordan left school at seventeen. He rang
me I was in Perth speaking to conference and I'd
been trying to nurse him through the end of the
year twelve, but he just started. He was two days
into year twelve and he rang me. He said, Dad,
I'm done hay back one and how we are less

(46:16):
school And he did his off daw yacht masters fantastic.
Before he was eighteen, both of them went off and
worked in super yochts. They met in the Caribbean and
the Pacific doing that. We bought at Jordan came to
Antarctica with me when he was twelve for the first time.
Holly had a fifteenth birthday standing on an iceberg in Antarctica, Patagonia,

(46:36):
Cape Horn, you know, some beautiful things. Jordan started skipping
our sixty foot expedition, but happily call commitment. At twenty
years of age, he started skipping her, taking clients from
around the world around Cape Horn and Patagonia, And when
he was twenty one and a half he skipped it
to Antarctica with seven other people on board without me.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Very capable, not because I was pushing him in anyway.
Shaped for so they still right now, they're both having
a little bit of a sabbatical marriage, you know, partnerships,
all that sort of stuff. But both have got an
extremely adventurous spirit, for which I'm very grateful and so
you And so that's one of the things you touched
on a second to go there.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
But so well after you did come back it en
started doing these expeditions, several trips to.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Antarctica and a lot of different places. Yeah, how did
that come about? How did you come about to launching
that one?

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Okay, So what happened was that the getting close to
the end of the around the World trip, as I'm
coming across the Great Australian Bite, and the wind was
predominantly from the north. So I'm sitting in the cockpit
looking to the south, and I'm heading towards Tasmania, and
I'm looking at the rise and thinking, I wonderful, I'll
see those southern lights, whatever they are, you know, because
you know every bird in every player, but I don't.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
They're all cape pigeons to me.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
So I remember thinking, I wonder what's over the horizon
for me, you know, in my life? And so I
found myself looking towards Antarctica. I round that Cycle Island lighthouse.
It's early hours in the morning, st dark. Matt's like
I was blinking away and I can still sitting here
and now talking to you.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Now.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
I can still remember turning my head and looking over
my right shoulder back towards the so I thinking, I
wonder what the hell is down there?

Speaker 2 (48:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
In two thousand and three, early two thousand and three,
I committed to finding out. So I prepared Silo Globe
Challenger and I took her down to Morson's Hut south
of Tasmania. It was a seven week expedition. I took
four other people who all had various skills and abilities
that I did possess, like a paramedic, et cetera, and

(48:32):
we went to Morrison's Hut. Incredible experience. We came back
from that. I stood on the dock at the Royal
the Royal Yal Club of Tasmania at Sanity Bay. A
young television report. I put a camera in my face
on a microphone and she's gone, mister Maybray, how didn
Antarctic affect you? And I'm chilled, like I'm just seven weeks.
I'm like I've just been knocked down at five hundred

(48:55):
and fifty drug miles south of Tassy, like I'm killed right.
I looked at the camera and I said, I want
my children to see an iceberg. Right for me, that
said at all, So I knew how to get a
bigger boat. So I bought Commitment in Adelaide in two
a five at an auction. She was in a death rows.
I refirmed it took a year and a half.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Of my life.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
At four hundred and fifty thousand dollars later, on the
fifteenth of October two thousand and six, we started out
of Newcastle Harbor across the Wellington across the Cape Horn,
and we were based over there until about seven years ago,
doing trips to the entarctic dimension of Patagonia.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Fantastic, well, amazing, amazing adventures. I think that's the second
that's the second book. He's just got to You've got
to do this. I'm pushing it now and I know
if you commit you'll do it. But that would be unbelievable.
I think even talking about that, because I honestly, I'm
being honest, where I've finish started like.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Oh man, where's it? Why is he finishing it now?
And it's not.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
It's a decent sized book, as you should talk about it,
but there is there is so much more that you've
got to go and talk about.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Yeah, sure, on Grips and Patagonia, and we twice we
sawed back across the Pacific at Easter Island, Tahoodi and
Bay of Islands and Fiji, like we went. One time
I poured into Fiji. Listeners Mayne the Assaua Islands, which
is out to the northwest, and the southernmost island is
an island called Waya Island w a Ya And in
the southern bay. There's four villages on this island and

(50:21):
unwittingly I anchored in the southern bay went ashore fifty houses,
two hundred people. This is in about twenty thirteen or so.
I bought the boat back to a bit of work
and I just fell in love right paradise. So Karen
and I were involved in that village for about four
or five years, doing other things as well. But you know,
we would take people there on holidays and we'd make

(50:42):
money for them and put money into a bank account.
We painted their church, and we put a solar system
in their school, and fantastic coops of stuff. So all
that's the whole adventure on its own. But just I
think it's a bit like what you said, if you
get bored, you go on something else to do.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
That's and now are you between boats now?

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Yes? Yes, I sold Slo Glab Challenger.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
I reacquired after I around the World trip and after
Wars and Start, and when I bought commitment. I sold
her in six to a fellow who from Sydney who
ended up in the Mediterranean with it, and he was
seven years in the med married a woman American woman
on the way.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
He sadly died.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
I bought the boat back side unseen it was in Italy,
and then went to Italy and startled back home via
the panel. And three years ago I sold her to
a guy in Hobart, Michael, who's the new Custadian.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
So the first time in thirty eight years pretty much.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Right, See between boats, I am well say betraying. Let's
just a carry.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
I don't have a boat.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
You know, I've extended myself a lot over the years,
and I you know, I went to the dark side
six months ago, god forbid, and brought a Caribbean.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
At least he's not ty of racing. Well, I might.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Say, you can raise two blocks of that song as ever.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Saved exactly is right here, exactly right, So Tony tell
us where can people get the book?

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Where do they find out more about you?

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Well, the easiest thing is to go to my website,
which is www. Dot Tonymobra and that's with a W.
Toneymobra dot com dot you and then there's a page
dedicated on there to being able to buy the book
or you can't da various e platforms like Amazon Kindle.
There's a Kindle version out for eleven dollars ninety nine.
And I haven't made this two part of Knowledgest yet,

(52:29):
but I have narrated my own audio book which has
been a great adventure as well, and it's currently I
think on Spotify and some of the other platforms.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Oh brilliant.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Okay, have a bit of a hickup getting it on
Amazon Audible. But if it's not yet, which I don't
think it is, but within a week or two it
should be.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
So there's a whole brand.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
But the website. If you're in Australia and listening to
the website and give me, give me a call, whatever
it like doesn't matter at tual good. I'm just a
bloke from Belmont Mak.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah, are you still speaking channing? You're still doing comper speaking.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Yeah, I'm not as proactive as what I used to
be at my peak with my when I had to
rebuild my asset base. For about six or seven years,
I was that was all I would do. So I
was doing about one hundred presentations a year.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Wow, that's a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Yeah, these days I've scarred right back. So I'm just
I did I've done.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Probably, Like in January, I was in Kuala Lumpur speaking
for a group of three hundred and fifty non English
speaking non English wasn't their first language, that was in truth,
And I did one last Monday night at Port Macquarry.
But I probably do about ten or twelve this year,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Feutiful.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Yeah, And I love that it's and I take it
very seriously being able to have the experience and live
the experience and then have realizations and learnings from that experience,
and then like you know, as well, to be able
to then stand in front of a group of people
and humbly, hopefully I'll say this, humbly to have them
be able to leave that room with something that they

(53:51):
can be their own personal life or their business life.
That's moves so gratifying.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Yeah, It's definitely exciting, and I think you've been also
your ability in mentioning of their earlyism.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Lind had the experience but the able to translate it,
which you obviously can do very well.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
So it's a good lie. Fantastic Taty. Thanks to Meank
so much for being on the show. I really enjoyed
it and definitely I'm looking forward to talking again when
you have the second book.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Out, Rob.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
I absolutely love your enthusias and for what you do
and your life.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Yes for life. Good on here, good Thanks Toney, have
a great data. I hope you enjoyed this episode of
the It's All Possible Podcast.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
You can contact me at Rob.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
At Robhart dot com or my website robharton dot com,
or on LinkedIn. Remember to check out the previous seasons
and episodes of the podcast and the show notes for
more details on this episode's guest.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
For more inspiration, remember to check out the.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
All Possibility Play This on Spotify, which contains a collection upbeat,
positive music I use for inspiration in my life. Performance
Until next time, Live with passion and a perspective of possibility.