Down Under II

October 7, 2008

I began this trip by flying to Phoenix to deliver the keynote for PI Worldwide, which, in the words of the buyer, was a “grand slam home run.” After meeting the black German Shepherd (see another post here), I flew to LA, boarded a Qantas 747, and flew to Sydney, where I’m 15 hours ahead of New York time.

I had dinner with a friend on Saturday, then flew to Melbourne on Sunday for dinner with the board of the IMC there who, unbelievably, paid my full international fee to address their chapter. (No one here had bothered to tell me they had shifted overnight to daylight savings time and I literally lost an hour, but still made the plane.) No other IMC chapter in the world has had me appear for a day, and this was, in the president’s words, a huge victory. They were able to charge over $1,000 a seat, drew 40 people, and we had an outstanding day. Terrific people.

Back to Sydney Monday afternoon (holding rooms in two different Park Hyatts at the same time, see the accompanying photos of my view of the opera house and bridge), and presented for a day yesterday for Rob Nixon, a member of the Mentor Hall of Fame, who filled the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom with just over 500 people, predominantly from the financial professions. It was a great day, terrific response, and one of the most expensive seminar seats every offered in Sydney, again over $1000. I delivered this having awakened at 2:30 in the morning local time.

Dinner with Rob’s team at Aria last night on the water. Today I’ll begin two days of The Strategist here at the Park Hyatt, where I expected 25 people but have 40. Fedex shipped three boxes out of four, not my idea of a great performance standard. I’ll make do. I seem to be back on a more normal circadian rhythm.

The granddaughters are a roller coaster. Gabrielle is recovering from her infection. Alaina has had an operation, there were some poor indictors, but now things look cautiously better. (http://danielleandjan.blogspot.com/)

In the meantime I learned only this morning that one of my few, long-time good friends, Bill Howe, had a terrible, bizarre grill accident on vacation, and is hospitalized long-term with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. He is 73.

And so I watch an eminently satirical presidential contest between two sides which both leave me cold, and a public mood so bleak that it is causing serious market decline worldwide, creating tremendous uncertainty.

What do you do? You get up, do your best, help people, and then go home and help yourself. In the process, not surprisingly, people have helped you.