What happened?
Back in 1992 when I was 45 years old I had accumulated what some people consider a ‘small fortune’. Since I was 18 years old I had set up new businesses ranging from tree felling, commercial shark fishing to property development and international investments. I took many risks and worked hard, made a lot of money at times, and lost a lot as well, going broke twice.
In 1992 I had enough money to ‘semi-retire’ and build a boat and explore the world, particularly some of the remotest and wildest places on the planet. The problem was that the type of boat that I wanted was not available. So…with the help of some clever designers I developed one that would hopefully achieve my objectives…achieve a maximum speed of 30 knots and have a range of 4,000 nautical miles at 20 knots.
This would enable me to reach those remote areas and be able to get out of the way of extreme weather when needed.
It almost worked!
I built the boat and it ‘almost’ did what I wanted…but not quite, although it cost a million dollars more than I expected. So…I decided to build another one factoring in what I had learnt. (Thankfully the next one did achieve what I was aiming for.)
Because of problems with the boat builder on the first vessel I decided to set up a yard to build it myself. On hindsight, not a smart move… the development ‘gobbled up’ money like you wouldn’t believe and soon I had 80 people working on the boat. The ‘nest egg’ that I had, was quickly being used up. So I figured that the best way to restore my position would be to build and sell the boats to other people who had similar objectives to mine…
ie. Crossing oceans quickly and safely and accessing remote parts of the world. The boats were power catamarans 76’ long and 27’ wide. I called them ‘Awesome’ and the market agreed that they were indeed that. So…I started marketing them worldwide and successfully selling them. The yard I set up to build them was in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Fast forward 2 or 3 years!
The logistical difficulties in manufacturing these vessels in Christchurch were immense and so after being approached by a boat builder in San Diego, California who really wanted to build these boats I decided to shift the operation to San Diego. After a planned shut down at my yard in Christchurch during which all my staff was found other jobs locally, I shipped all the tooling of the boats to San Diego.
It was around this time that I began to understand the joke that was often made in the boat building industry…which went like this:
Question: “How do you make a small fortune in boat building?”
Answer: “You start with a large one!”
Well, I only started with a small one, and by this time it has totally ‘vanished’. I had since sold all my property interests, cashed up on everything I owned and even fully mortgaged the family home, and of course sold my boat. However, I was on the verge of making a fortune back, given that I had sales, a fixed price contract to build the boats. So, I was not particularly worried.
I had set up an apartment for myself in Mexico just south of the border and commuted daily to the boat yard and regularly back to New Zealand to see my family. After a few months, one of my sons Lance came and joined me.
Then everything ‘came apart’
- In 1998 I contracted to build an ‘Awesome’ for a customer in Europe and came to an arrangement in which I could borrow his vessel when complete to set a new round the world speed record for a power boat
- The publicity for this attempt was extensive and world wide.
The builders in San Diego were excited about this and were convinced that people would be queuing up to buy these vessels if the attempt was successful. - Based on trust I entered into an agreement with some financiers in New York, not knowing that they were working in conjunction with the builders in a collective attempt to take over the control of ‘Awesome’.
- Using some documents that I had signed I was ‘visited’ at the boat yard by three car loads of US Marshals who attached writs to everything that I owned including customers boats. This was arranged by a large New York firm of attorneys and was designed to get me ‘over a barrel’ as an attempt to give them control and retain me to sell the boats for a modest commission.
Bottom lines…
- They sure had me ‘over a barrel’ as I had no money left to fight them.
- As I was not prepared to work with such unethical people I decided to do what I could to ensure that my customers got their boats and then personally write of a number of years of work and walk away from about $9 million dollars.
You are now probably thinking…well what on earth has this got to do with health?
I will now tell you…
My son Lance and I were then ‘stuck’ in Mexico just south of the border with no money and not much more than the clothes we were wearing. It was at that time my life changed forever…
This is what happened:
While Lance went out scrubbing the bottom of boats to raise money for our food I contemplated the future whilst gazing out to sea sitting on the shore in Mexico.
Everything then became very clear to me.
- If I was going to still do all the things that I wanted in life, I needed more time.
- As I had just turned 51 years of age, it meant that I was going to have to live a lot longer than average. I figured that 120 years was a good figure.
- There was no point in living a long time unless I could do so in perfect health and have lots of energy and maintain a sharp mind.
- If I had continued with my then lifestyle I may have been dead in another 5 years, so maybe the people who did what they did to me out of greed actually did me a favor? (If I ever met them again I would shake their hand and thank them.)
- Money itself was not important…a realization made easy given that I then had none…but it is a concept that I still carry today and when money is compared to health there is no contest. I have since learnt that if you have good health and well being you can be happy irrespective of your financial status.
So, what did I do then?
I had long philosophical discussions with my son Lance and got a better understanding about what he wanted to do. He believed that the future lay in the internet and that he was keen on promoting supplements.
This was 100% in line with my new ‘revelations’ so we made the decision to move ahead together to make both our dreams happen.
Thanks to the support of some close friends who had the faith to lend me money on just a handshake, Lance and myself were able to work towards meeting our objectives by researching the markets, visiting manufacturers throughout the world and finding out what it would take to produce some world class supplements.
During this period I was fortunate enough to become acquainted with one of the worlds leading formulators Dr Munem Dauod whom I mentioned earlier. A strong friendship developed and Dr Munem has been a strong supporter of ours ever since.
After almost 2 years of research, hard work and a fair amount of frustration Lance and I founded the Xtend-Life group which is happily now becoming a leading supplement manufacturer with world-wide recognition with customers in more than 40 countries. We now manufacture what are arguably the most advanced health supplements in the world.
When Lance and I were doing our research we found that contract manufacturing had many pitfalls and in this business the only way that you could ensure that you were supplying the products as claimed was to produce them yourself. This is why we established Natural Products (NZ) Ltd which is a fully owned subsidiary of Xtend-Life.
I know that all this was a bit long winded but for those readers who like to have good accurate background…there it is.
Hopefully you can see clearly what motivated me to change my direction in life...I would do it all over again if I had to. I am sure that you as a reader of my blog will find some benefits in what I have learnt and continue to learn and pass on.