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hello and welcome to this episode of
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Runners only with dom Harvey coming up
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Liam Malone throws himself down after
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the line he's thrown everything into it
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he's done the double I'd suggests the
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200 400. one time I was at a tall Blacks
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game my foot came loose during one of
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these three-point competitions my foot
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spinning around I'm on the court and ah
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it's just like so stuff like that would
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happen all the time Liam Malone from
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Nelson became a household name back in
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2016 when he burst onto the paralympic
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scene in Rio and won gold medals for the
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200 and 400 and a silver medal for the
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100. he was born with a condition that
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meant he was unable to walk properly so
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his parents when he was a toddler made
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the impossibly difficult decision on his
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behalf to amputate his feet I would say
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this podcast is a story but that would
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be BS we do cover a lot of stuff but I
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still think we only scratched the
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surface of the driven unique complex
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hilarious and intimidating Liam Malone
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I've known Liam a bloody long time and
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I'd consider him a mate but but I'm
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intimidated by the guy he just he's
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working on a different level to 99.9 of
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us the dude's crazy in a good way just
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before we crack into Liam I'd love it if
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you could do me a favor if your podcast
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platform allows please rate this podcast
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or write a review for it and if you like
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what you hear please recommend it to a
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friend or two who you think may like it
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word of mouth is in my opinion the most
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effective form of marketing there is of
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course there's no pressure to do any of
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this at all ultimately I'm just glad
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you're here and I really hope you enjoy
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Liam Malone on Runners only
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only
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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Runners only with Don Harvey and Liam
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Malone uh one of the the baddest men in
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the world on the track I want to talk
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about that yeah I think it's hilarious
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that you can ever identify someone in
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the Paralympics as being as being the
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baddest man I think that's ironic but
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what do you mean it's a Paralympics man
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you were the baddest in that yeah you
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asked Oscar Pistorius he was the baddest
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man in another way
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um but you you eclipsed his times you
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started the sport and you just dominated
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and then you just turned your back on it
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uh maybe I explained why I went to the
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Paralympics
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like double amputee
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um the Paralympics changed the way that
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blades could be designed and the
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Paralympics to me should be the
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intersection of technology and Human
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Performance now the Olympics the
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able-bodied Olympics has gotten to a
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point where it's for the most part a
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measurement of genetic potential
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and there's not a whole lot of
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Technology that's involved besides like
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all the countries that are using
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Statewide doping
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they sponsored doping
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um they're doing a good job on the
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technology side but the Paralympics has
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all this um
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has this giant Gap to fill on the
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performance Side by leveraging
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technology but then you end up with this
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massive Delta between developing
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countries and developed countries where
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developing countries have no competitive
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advantage and so then you end up with
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this Delta gap between
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the performance of people with
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disabilities from say a country of from
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African origin perhaps and New Zealand
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where we are experts in using carbon
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fiber to build Rockets sailing ships
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Prosthetics and so the Paralympics
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changed the rules because it was unfair
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but the downside of that was that
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the Paralympics will Plateau in terms of
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how far people with disabilities can
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perform
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so you you got them you got the medals
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you got the records did what you wanted
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to do and then bounced I feel like
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have you got ADHD
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I don't know you were talking to my
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girlfriend before well I I feel like I I
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do but I'm of an age where these things
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were never diagnosed but I feel like you
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were I mean we're recording this at
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seven a.m on a Sunday [ __ ] morning
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I've been trying to pin you down for
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this podcast for months I'd I'd consider
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you like a friend I guess yeah I've
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known you for many years I've tried so
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hard to get on my podcast and I'm a busy
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guy I'm a busy guy but you've got me 7am
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is my favorite time of the day so you've
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got me okay so not only do you have me
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at my favorite time of the day you have
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me at my most important productive time
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of the day my most precious time of the
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day so you yes it has taken a while to
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get my time but I'm giving you the best
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time that I have to give if you got me
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at 4pm I've been up since four so I'd be
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I'd be useless I'd be miserable and
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grumpy what are you doing today though
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so we're doing this podcast now 7am run
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the dog for an hour yeah uh and then I'm
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gonna go work out I've Gotta Give a
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minute garage no I've got a biker gun
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there right you know what a biker goes
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yeah
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um and then I'm gonna go hit the gym
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and then I'm gonna hit the sauna and
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steam room and then I'm going to come
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back and continue building the studio
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that we're in right yeah this is like um
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we're in a it looks like it's a spare
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bedroom but you tend to get into like a
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vlogging or a YouTube Studio yeah right
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right so how are you
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I don't think
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I don't think what do you make well why
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well I have an awesome dog got an
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awesome girlfriend I have an epic job
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and life's going pretty superbly yeah
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but the only the only downside the only
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downside that I don't have is an
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obsession and that's the thing that I
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need is like an obsession and that's the
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one thing just anything you just need
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something to be obsessed about right
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because because of the because of what
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you identified with I don't think I've
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got ADHD but I'm definitely on some form
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of spectrum with
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attention and no because you you talk
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about needing an obsession one like I
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don't know side effect trade or whatever
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of ADHD is a thing called hyper fixation
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so you say you need an obsession maybe
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you need something to hyperfect maybe
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yeah yeah but um
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anyone listening to a lot of people
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listening to this will probably be like
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well you seem like like you do have
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obsessions like the fact that you're
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you've got a gym at home and you've got
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this and you've got that
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maybe I get stuck into building things
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like all of this is mine this isn't even
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medicine so my girlfriend works in media
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but all of this is mine so I built all
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of this today which to be fair I've
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poorly painted The Walls Black to kind
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of make it look cool which it looks dope
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when it's in shot and the rest of the
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room sucks so I haven't when I say I've
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built I've done [ __ ] all but it's going
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to get there it's going to be awesome
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all right well like you just don't do
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anything by halves
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didn't grow my body completely that was
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by half
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okay all right it would be number one I
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mean the most important did you grow
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your whole body note [ __ ] it okay so
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um yeah let's go right back to the
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beginning so you're from now you're from
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stoken Nelson you're born with you're
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born with your legs
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born with your legs and your feet yeah
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um but they you you were saying I've
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seen I've seen video footage of you
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walking as a toddler and you're okay so
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I was born with fibular hemamily it's
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the absence I would usually lie about
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this by the way but like shark attack
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yeah it was sorts of nonsense but
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everyone knows I only to get more
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creative at this point but I was born
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with fabula him Emilia and I guess if
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someone was like thinking about their
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own leg they would have their tibia
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which is their shin bone they would have
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the fibula which they can't really feel
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but it runs down behind the shin bone
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which provides stability to the ankle so
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when I was learning to walk I didn't
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have my fibulas and but I had my feet
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which is bizarre
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and my ankles snapped and rolled inward
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so I learned to walk on the the insides
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of my toes yeah I've seen like a
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handicap footage of you walking as a kid
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online ridiculous yeah cut those things
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off your feet are sort of like a 90
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degree angle yeah
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outwards yeah yeah yeah so you're you
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see your parents made the call when you
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were like two 18 months 18 months so do
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you do you have any recollection of
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having feet or is it just sort of
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subliminally through like seeing old
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footage I have no recollection yeah yeah
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so they they made the call for you
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um fortunately because I've met guys
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whose parents went in the Opera opposite
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direction so the two Pathways is do you
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amputate the legs and hope that
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prosthetic technology gets better or do
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you not amputate the legs and hope that
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medical insertions of steel rods and
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other surgeries get better now I'm at
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this German guy at the Paralympics who
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is now a double amputee his parents
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didn't go down that pathway and then on
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top of that they did not give him
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consent until he turned 18 in Germany to
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make that decision so he turned 18 he'd
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spent his entire life in crutches
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because there's no way you could go
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through surgery after surgery as you
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grow to put in an artificial bone and he
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was essentially a [ __ ] kind of like
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what I'd imagine like I think there's
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like a character in South Park who's
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kind of like that and and so he kind of
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just went around his whole life kind of
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not being able to move through space and
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time and then he got the amputations and
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now he's he's [ __ ] insane he's doing
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diving he's doing rock climbing he's at
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the Paralympics
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Halo's a very normal life and so I was
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so lucky that my parents decided to
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amputate you can understand it from both
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sides so like um it's a terrifying
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decision it's an awful decision because
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um I mean you you
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can see that your parents made the right
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decision but you know if you were like
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what the [ __ ] you guys you guys decided
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to cut my legs off yeah and I think no
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parent wants to have a disabled
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absolutely and then beyond that there's
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complexities in having a child with a
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disability when then you have to make
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decisions that have like forward impact
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broad impacts on their child's life and
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so you know if a child's born with say
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some sort of disease that puts them in a
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wheelchair well then
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a lot of the time they might not there
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might not be any other decisions that's
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just the way it is but then for me they
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have an onus of responsibility on the
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outcomes of my life because then that's
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where the challenge lies
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so yeah it would have been hard for them
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[ __ ] hard for them yeah
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um yeah how was that was was that
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challenging like what are the earliest
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so devastating from for them for sure
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but the moment they amputated my legs
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well one like you've seen footage of me
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as a toddler and I'm walking on two
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broken ankles
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so they were already looking at me as a
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toddler going like he's determined to do
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things like I'd Chase balls around him
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whatever the moment they did the
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amputation and I got my first set of
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prosthetics
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I was just like running around I was
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walking and I was I was loving life and
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having
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my amputations for whatever reason it's
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extremely painful constantly not now
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while we're sitting down but anytime I'm
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walking if I was to go out on a night
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out I'd have to go I do get extremely
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drunk because I'm in so much pain that I
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have to drink to counter the pains yeah
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so growing up that was that was always
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tough but I
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been fun regardless
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we're like it's been more fun than had I
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had the squid leg tentacle things yeah
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yeah you know that would have been
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[ __ ] disastrous okay well if it's if
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it's painful just to just to walk and go
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about your daily business then I'm
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guessing like training for events and
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running and running yeah long distance
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long distance is horrible so like I've
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done quite a few half marathons yeah and
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you did you did a marathon I mean you
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you have me out for some advice and then
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you took none of it and you ran a
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marathon with no training and it got me
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and there wasn't because I got to the
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end I was like I should never have done
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it because I was uh because I was an apt
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and that's the reason I thought I failed
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and then I did I trained properly for
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the halves and I went through them like
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119. and I was like ah you know you
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actually have to you can't just roll up
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to a full marathon it's a more enjoyable
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experience if you trade yeah so yeah the
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Hawkes Bay Marathon you did on your
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blade uh with very very little training
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zero training no but you must have done
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some runs no I didn't do any runs I did
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why did a like a 4K because at this at
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this point I hadn't felt the bottom of
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the Soul
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the sole on the bottom of the blade is a
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Nike track pad that gets like super
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glued to the bottom of the blade and you
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can't wear a track pad on the road and
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so I didn't have anything any solution
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to adapt at this point for the the
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marathons I didn't know how I was going
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to be able to run in the end what I did
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for the Hawke's Bay Marathon you know
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those like thick sponges that you might
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wipe down the bench with in your kitchen
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I duct taped a bunch of those to the
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bottom and they lasted like I don't know
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2K and then the rest of it I was just
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like destroying the bottom of my blades
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anyway so I got into this half marathon
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and I was smoking everyone for the first
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not everyone but I was smoking the
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average person and I think I went
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through the first half including stops
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to get duct tape uh more Sponge and
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everything so I probably had like a
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couple of two to three minute stops I
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went through the first half for like an
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hour 30. wow and I was like that's
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pretty good yeah for like not training
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and then I just hit the wall and I was
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done man 2K after that halfway mark on
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that full Marathon it wasn't anything to
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do with being an amputee I just was
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unfit and
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and then on top of that I had extreme
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pain so I had to have a doctor bike
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alongside me feeding me Tramadol and
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nerve blockers so I'd done something to
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the bottom of my stumps and so in
00:13:48
through the first half of this this
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marathon and I'm in like probably the
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top 25 percent
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by the last five kilometers I had an 80
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year old grandmother passed me in the
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back like I think last 50 and she runs
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past me she goes I never thought I'd
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beat an Olympian and I'm throwing up on
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the side of the road and this doctors
00:14:09
with me telling me to give up and I'm
00:14:11
thinking [ __ ] this grandma and uh she
00:14:14
bit me and anyway I get to the end of
00:14:16
this it's really humbling hey yeah it
00:14:17
was a great extremely humbling I get to
00:14:19
the end of this thing after crawling for
00:14:20
parts of it I get through in like four
00:14:22
hours something I run to the end they're
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like how do you feel I feel great
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goddess I feel great in this poor report
00:14:28
I just throw up everywhere in front of
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them and that was my first experience
00:14:32
and last one and done well of the four
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I've done heaps of halves but the reason
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you have to like most people would have
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believed me they would have given up
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yeah I was in so much pain and that's it
00:14:44
you're sort of nasty yeah well you have
00:14:47
to finish stuff like that you have to
00:14:49
get to the end and the next day like the
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bottom like it'd be like the Soul on the
00:14:53
bottom of your heel like ripped off from
00:14:55
the bottom of my stump it was I had to
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take like a week off work and it was by
00:15:01
the way the only reason I did it was
00:15:02
because a bunch of my work colleagues
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were like hey let's all do the marathon
00:15:06
together and then six weeks out I'm like
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have you guys started training they're
00:15:09
like no but we're still doing it and
00:15:11
then then I it was like two days before
00:15:13
and I said hey you guys going down where
00:15:15
are you staying and I was the only one
00:15:16
that entered from work so I got stitched
00:15:18
up so where were you working then I was
00:15:20
working at a company called Soul
00:15:21
machines which is a soul machine Soul
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machines which is a New Zealand
00:15:25
technology startup that is building
00:15:28
autonomously animated digital human
00:15:31
beings and they're built on top of
00:15:33
artificially intelligent natural
00:15:35
language generation engines which would
00:15:37
be the type of technology that would
00:15:40
underpin something like Siri how old are
00:15:43
you now you've already had so many
00:15:44
different careers I've been a runner and
00:15:46
I've worked in technology now you work
00:15:48
at Amazon now and I work with Amazon but
00:15:50
that's that's Amazon web services it's
00:15:52
still within technology okay gotcha
00:15:53
gotcha I want to try and go on some sort
00:15:55
of order here so so you're growing up in
00:15:57
Nelson your parents make the very
00:16:00
difficult but correct Call to
00:16:02
um amputate your feet and your ankles
00:16:04
when you're 18 months old I'm guessing
00:16:06
the technology then for Prosthetics
00:16:07
wasn't that good
00:16:09
pretty similar to what a pirate would
00:16:10
have had for like a well they didn't
00:16:12
write anything they would have had
00:16:13
rubber feet so like wood
00:16:15
fiberglass rubber in combination and
00:16:19
there was like a rubber foot and then
00:16:21
there'd be like a weird wood like
00:16:24
separator that the wind would connect to
00:16:26
the fiberglass anyway the wood between
00:16:29
the foot and the fiberglass uh served it
00:16:32
for like a screw to go through the
00:16:33
bottom of this rubber foot into and the
00:16:36
screw would always come loose so like
00:16:38
one time I was at a either a tall blacks
00:16:41
or a Giants game and you know how they
00:16:43
have like the half court competition or
00:16:46
like the three-pointer competition for
00:16:48
like the kids my foot came loose during
00:16:50
one of these three-point competitions my
00:16:52
foot spinning around I'm on the court
00:16:54
and oh it's just like so stuff like that
00:16:56
would happen all the time
00:16:58
so the technology was useless and then
00:17:00
like every single sport I sucked
00:17:02
swimming Sports start out parallel I
00:17:05
wouldn't kick my [ __ ] feet would
00:17:06
absorb the water and start out Aqua
00:17:09
jogging you know it's just it was one
00:17:11
terrible
00:17:13
set of events to another you would have
00:17:15
been the only without a doubt the only
00:17:17
kid at your school with well fake legs
00:17:18
yeah there weren't a whole lot of us
00:17:22
Nelson's Nelson's not brilliant did they
00:17:24
feel quite lonely what were you like I'm
00:17:26
guessing you were quite popular I mean
00:17:28
you're you're just a normal kid because
00:17:30
I mean my my school was awesome my
00:17:32
friends were awesome my parents treated
00:17:34
me as normal and then
00:17:37
the most important thing is that
00:17:39
nothing's like if you want to be treated
00:17:41
as an equal your legs have to be the
00:17:43
target of jokes if you want to be equal
00:17:45
you cannot put like a kid for whatever
00:17:48
reason and some cotton wool for whatever
00:17:51
characteristic that separates them and
00:17:53
so like yeah early on where my legs are
00:17:57
better jokes and continue to be but like
00:17:58
it was slightly challenging I'd say by
00:18:00
the time intermediate came around us
00:18:02
probably like the case of like the
00:18:04
bullied becomes the bully but like not
00:18:07
so severe were you the bully no one
00:18:10
tells the bully but I was you know like
00:18:12
I was
00:18:16
[Music]
00:18:19
were there moments where I would go home
00:18:22
like after [ __ ] cross-country or
00:18:24
Athletics days and I would you know be
00:18:26
five to nine or ten and I would cry
00:18:29
because you know I wish that I had
00:18:31
really absolutely
00:18:34
what but I think those events are good
00:18:36
to go through
00:18:38
well because I build like resilience
00:18:40
yeah the character and character yes oh
00:18:43
it's it's still rough though we used
00:18:45
like a
00:18:46
self-deprecating like did you get jokes
00:18:49
and before anyone else could were you
00:18:50
there yeah the curtain yeah absolutely
00:18:52
as a as a defense mechanism and also
00:18:54
it's just smart it's kind of like you
00:18:56
see Eight Mile and Eminem
00:18:58
in the rap battle that he wins he goes
00:19:01
it himself harder first before you know
00:19:03
yeah the other guy can and then he
00:19:05
robots the the other guy so it's kind of
00:19:08
like stealing someone's Thunder yeah
00:19:11
that's the way to think about it it's
00:19:12
the same way that like in a debate you
00:19:15
know you would you would look for what
00:19:17
the uh you know counter team would would
00:19:20
hit you with first yeah it does feel
00:19:22
like it's a kiwi thing though like you
00:19:24
need to get in before someone else does
00:19:25
which which kind of sucks in a way I
00:19:27
think it does and it also sucks because
00:19:29
we do it not just in things that
00:19:32
unfortunately we're bad with but things
00:19:35
that we're great with as well have you
00:19:37
made well I just like with success and
00:19:38
stuff I think there's it's just like the
00:19:40
Kiwi attitude right yeah I think you're
00:19:41
right
00:19:42
we're just not downplaying what you've
00:19:44
done correct yeah I absolutely
00:19:46
absolutely uh yeah otherwise it's just
00:19:48
seemed braggy or egotistical or
00:19:50
something exactly your mum your mum got
00:19:52
sick well like when you were 12. yeah
00:19:55
stage three going on stage four bowel
00:19:57
cancer
00:19:59
um [ __ ] you mate you went through some
00:20:01
[ __ ] well I had no idea what cancer
00:20:03
meant like conceptualizing cancer as a
00:20:04
12 year old the first question I asked
00:20:06
was is it contagious so I was like
00:20:08
looking across the table at her like in
00:20:10
part terrified that my mum was going to
00:20:12
die and then in part like can I catch
00:20:14
whatever she has uh and then they had to
00:20:16
kind of like run me through what cancer
00:20:17
was and then go through this explanation
00:20:19
that she was going to have to go down to
00:20:20
Christchurch and undergo all the surgery
00:20:22
have her bowels cut apart get a
00:20:24
colostomy bag it cost me back for those
00:20:26
who don't know is when you go through
00:20:27
bowel cancer they'll typically remove
00:20:29
the part of the bowel that has the
00:20:30
cancer
00:20:31
they will put a hole in the side of your
00:20:34
abdomen and you'll have this bag that
00:20:37
your bowel connects to and like that's
00:20:39
essentially your [ __ ] and then you
00:20:40
have this bag and it's you know socially
00:20:42
awkward it makes sounds it's like having
00:20:44
an ass on the side of your stomach it's
00:20:46
it's does it makes it what sounds does
00:20:48
it like girdling noise
00:20:50
digesting noises right but it's slightly
00:20:52
louder because you don't have the
00:20:54
insulation from the abdomen and so for
00:20:56
her you know that was extremely tough
00:20:58
from a social point of view
00:21:01
I don't want to see an adult go through
00:21:03
those things and then you know I watched
00:21:05
her get cleared of cancer the first time
00:21:07
and you retain so much hope and then the
00:21:10
cancer comes back and you lose that hope
00:21:13
and then it's cleared again you get a
00:21:15
little bit of Hope back you have that
00:21:16
element of doubt and then the third time
00:21:17
actually realized when I whether a way
00:21:19
that I found out she was going to die
00:21:20
was I read this letter from a specialist
00:21:22
that said the cancer had metastasized
00:21:24
throughout her body and was in her vital
00:21:26
organs and so how old were you then 17
00:21:30
17 I was in the last year of school and
00:21:32
I was learning in biology how cells
00:21:34
spread throughout the body and so my
00:21:36
understanding was like I was learning
00:21:38
biology and how cell spread and we were
00:21:40
cancer so relevant so that's usually
00:21:42
like a topic of like case studies and
00:21:45
then you know I'm seeing it play out in
00:21:48
real life and the consequences of that
00:21:49
so that was she was she's she's living
00:21:51
with it for five years six years for six
00:21:54
years yeah
00:21:55
yeah she died when I was 18.
00:21:58
but she was you know she was an
00:21:59
extraordinarily tough woman and I took
00:22:01
so many things from her so uh her like
00:22:04
two things she had a very rough
00:22:07
upbringing but she was just like a
00:22:10
cleaner at the hospital for the majority
00:22:12
of her life
00:22:13
she began a landscaping business in
00:22:15
Nelson a small business but it took off
00:22:17
pretty rapidly my mum was just like a
00:22:18
wonderful woman with people
00:22:20
just diagnosed with cancer she continued
00:22:22
it and one of the things that she told
00:22:24
me was like don't wait until you begin
00:22:25
to die to like pursue what you love
00:22:27
because she's just like green thumb epic
00:22:29
Gardener our property was always
00:22:30
stunning people always compliment on her
00:22:32
on it and
00:22:34
it was only until she had that
00:22:36
realization that she was probably going
00:22:38
to die soon that she actually took the
00:22:40
risk of pursuing her dreams so you know
00:22:42
always do that the second thing was she
00:22:43
always wanted to live on a farm so we
00:22:45
moved out to a farm after she was
00:22:47
cleared from cancer
00:22:49
and
00:22:50
you know the cancer came back we stayed
00:22:53
on the farm this woman would she's
00:22:54
insane which would have chemotherapy
00:22:56
radiation should have this colostomy bag
00:22:58
she lost all this weight she must have
00:23:00
been like 50 kilos and she would be out
00:23:03
there at 5am in the morning moving cows
00:23:07
yelling at the dogs yelling at the
00:23:09
animals she would be you know watching
00:23:12
my dad and I attempt to try and fix
00:23:14
fences and so her capacity for dealing
00:23:17
with pain was extraordinarily high and
00:23:19
then her capacity to just continue to
00:23:21
work extremely hard was extremely high
00:23:23
and when I was a teenager you know that
00:23:27
um
00:23:28
didn't necessarily have a profound
00:23:30
effect on me but now I look back and I'm
00:23:32
like it's such a shame it's shaped me
00:23:34
for sure and it's also shaped my
00:23:36
tolerance of other people's whinging
00:23:38
because I'm not that empathetic and I'm
00:23:41
not that tolerant to other people
00:23:43
because I've witnessed what oh but both
00:23:47
from her and just like people I've met
00:23:48
in the Paralympics and people have met
00:23:49
through life who have gone 40 reasons I
00:23:52
you know have encountered all of these
00:23:53
people have gone through extraordinarily
00:23:56
tumultuous times
00:23:58
and continue to work extremely hard
00:24:00
that when people whinge and moan I I
00:24:03
don't have a lot of sympathy which is
00:24:05
not a good thing because like a Little
00:24:07
Bit of Sympathy can help people through
00:24:08
things but I'm not I'm not a good person
00:24:11
to I I carry the weight of things I've
00:24:14
known you for quite a few years I've got
00:24:15
nothing but admiration for you if you
00:24:17
would have like wins to me about a
00:24:19
relatively minor problem even if it was
00:24:20
probably significant I don't know if I'd
00:24:22
be that empathetic yeah yeah
00:24:24
I won't tell you about my uh my knee
00:24:26
injury at the moment so so who is in
00:24:29
your family you your mum your dad any
00:24:30
other siblings uh-huh I got a secret
00:24:32
family
00:24:33
yes I what yeah I know it's wild so I
00:24:37
grew up thinking I had a half brother in
00:24:39
Perth and
00:24:41
I moved to Perth when I was 18 right
00:24:42
after my mum died
00:24:45
um eventually found out that my half
00:24:47
brother in Perth was a methamphetamine
00:24:49
addict anyway so he went into rehab I
00:24:51
moved back to New Zealand I went into
00:24:52
University whatever
00:24:55
go to the Olympics I moved to London I'm
00:24:57
working with sewing machines
00:24:59
and I get this phone call from my dad
00:25:00
saying hey I'm coming to London my dad
00:25:02
arrives in London and I'm like all right
00:25:05
that's weird but my dad's always
00:25:06
traveled globally with work he shows up
00:25:08
he shows me a photo of this young kid
00:25:09
I'm like oh have you sponsored a child
00:25:11
and he's like no it's your younger
00:25:12
brother I'm like what and so I had a
00:25:15
secret family that I never knew about
00:25:16
for three years and with a younger
00:25:20
brother and who I now lives at my family
00:25:23
home so you so your dad um had another
00:25:25
family after after your mum passed
00:25:27
correct but never told me about it why
00:25:28
didn't why was it a secret
00:25:30
well from the Philippines and I think he
00:25:34
felt conflicted about it and
00:25:37
for whatever reason he holds on to
00:25:39
things like he still has all my mum's
00:25:41
stuff at home and like it's nice but
00:25:43
it's like I don't know if he just knew
00:25:45
how to bridge it and I'm also
00:25:47
a jaded individual but anyway I have
00:25:50
this beautiful younger brother named
00:25:51
Tyler and he's the most gorgeous young
00:25:54
kid super handsome super charismatic
00:25:56
super bright anyway so I find out I have
00:25:58
this younger brother and I say to my dad
00:26:00
this is while he's telling me have you
00:26:02
told Paul yet who's my half-brother in
00:26:05
Perth yeah he goes why why would I tell
00:26:07
Paul he's not he's not my son
00:26:10
and I'm like huh
00:26:11
and so I find out that Paul's not my
00:26:13
biological half-brother and the same day
00:26:16
that I find out that I've got a new half
00:26:17
brother
00:26:18
even though we you know I still think of
00:26:20
Paul as my older half brother but it's
00:26:22
just one of those family things that's
00:26:24
part of life and it's it'd be easy to
00:26:27
get caught up on but I just think it's
00:26:28
all I think it's all one funny and then
00:26:32
pretty wonderful and we have a great
00:26:33
relationship on on all parties so it's
00:26:35
it's fine and my older brother who you
00:26:38
know sadly got involved in MF
00:26:40
amphetamine he went through rehab he's
00:26:42
out of it and uh he's just written a
00:26:44
book about that journey and he's a
00:26:46
phenomenal guy sir props to him as well
00:26:48
are you good with these things at the
00:26:50
time or is it just the time has passed
00:26:53
30 minutes
00:26:54
um
00:26:55
no 30 minutes I'm jaded a lot of
00:26:59
expletives coming out of my mouth and
00:27:00
then past 30 minutes I'm good to go
00:27:02
right just got to get it out of the
00:27:03
system a little bit so you you know you
00:27:06
lose your mum when you're 18 who's like
00:27:07
one of you you're one of your one of
00:27:09
your cheerleaders one of your biggest
00:27:10
fans one of you you like your North Star
00:27:12
how's that at that age well that was
00:27:14
probably the hardest part like so losing
00:27:16
my mom in combination with at like 12 to
00:27:20
17 as
00:27:21
pretty self-conscious about my
00:27:23
Prosthetics right it's just like natural
00:27:25
selection they're having a disability is
00:27:27
like not good for for mating so like
00:27:30
finding a girlfriend is hard either way
00:27:32
they're in my own mind or in reality and
00:27:34
I think it's both but so I'm super
00:27:36
self-conscious about my legs and and
00:27:38
whatever else and then my mum dies and
00:27:40
that's you know she's a foundation of
00:27:41
confidence for me as a child and I'm
00:27:43
kind of by myself I'm working in Perth
00:27:45
as a forklift driver
00:27:46
not really knowing how to comprehend and
00:27:49
deal with death and mourn someone
00:27:52
so extraordinarily tough and I think
00:27:54
more than anything it would have been
00:27:55
easier
00:27:57
had I been more myself in like the
00:27:59
pursuit of
00:28:00
the pursuit of goals and like just like
00:28:02
the pursuit of obsessing over things but
00:28:05
you know I was just drifting I worked as
00:28:07
a forklift driver not there's anything
00:28:08
wrong with being a forklift driver but I
00:28:09
was just drifting as a courier in a
00:28:11
forklift driver in Perth you have um
00:28:14
I don't know bigger goals or higher it
00:28:17
was just in fact I would happily do
00:28:19
those jobs but the people are surrounded
00:28:21
by in Perth when doing those jobs were
00:28:24
just miserable so they just made it not
00:28:26
very pleasant yeah and um
00:28:28
so that was that was tough it was It's
00:28:31
just tough but it just it passes it does
00:28:34
pass
00:28:35
did you like get any counseling or
00:28:37
anything or how did you how did you do
00:28:39
it
00:28:40
well eventually I dealt with it by
00:28:42
pursuing my dreams and that's what I
00:28:44
think makes life yeah wonderful so it's
00:28:46
lucky you didn't um like really go off
00:28:49
the rails or like you're the guy you
00:28:50
thought was your half-brother or start
00:28:52
taking meth or I don't know yeah
00:28:56
at school right being a child I was
00:28:59
always a dreamer of wanting to go and do
00:29:00
things which were
00:29:02
unrealistic in many senses but I don't
00:29:05
think I ever would have gone down the
00:29:07
complete wrong path for sure at that age
00:29:09
and stage of life like 18 you you could
00:29:12
have a lot to be angry about if you want
00:29:13
if you chose to be like you lost your
00:29:14
mum you had fake legs
00:29:18
[Music]
00:29:19
it's life life's not this night I'm not
00:29:22
you don't get dealt and even hand and I
00:29:24
was very fortunate as a young person to
00:29:26
travel a lot and so I've you know went
00:29:28
to Mexico with my parents and I can
00:29:29
remember seeing this young kid in Mexico
00:29:31
and Tijuana who had no legs from above
00:29:34
the knees begging for money which I
00:29:36
believe you know now is like funded by
00:29:38
the car the cartels on there or
00:29:39
something it's like it's very juvious
00:29:41
but it's a scam it's a scam his leads
00:29:44
are folded underneath him
00:29:46
um
00:29:47
get my ten dollars back
00:29:50
um you can always compare yourself to
00:29:51
someone worse and make yourself make
00:29:53
yourself feel good
00:29:55
um yeah
00:29:57
there is always someone worse offers
00:29:59
yeah yeah
00:30:01
um so yeah I mean I had worldly
00:30:02
experiences that just I've never felt
00:30:04
the need to be angry or like resentful
00:30:07
to the world or feel like the world owes
00:30:08
me anything that's such a good attitude
00:30:10
where does that come from is that from
00:30:11
your mum from your dad both yeah yeah I
00:30:13
mean they're both just hard-working
00:30:15
people like grew up you know with modest
00:30:16
means and
00:30:18
worldly experiences and you know they've
00:30:21
both been through a lot and
00:30:23
and I think it's just partly genetics
00:30:25
right like just like I got lucky
00:30:27
so your mental Health's always been good
00:30:29
well no like I mean after no like
00:30:31
through I'd say 15 through to
00:30:35
19 probably not yeah definitely not
00:30:38
understandable though they're not good
00:30:39
yeah I mean like self-doubt anxiety you
00:30:42
know after you my uncle and my mom died
00:30:45
within three months six months
00:30:48
somewhere around there
00:30:50
you don't have coping mechanisms
00:30:52
there's a lot going on you don't have
00:30:53
any career path per se like I never
00:30:55
thought I'd go to university or anything
00:30:56
and
00:30:59
that was extremely tough so until the
00:31:02
ball got rolling in a certain direction
00:31:03
I was like life sucks right like in
00:31:07
every capacity possible
00:31:09
so that that was what was up
00:31:11
so yeah and then at that point you're
00:31:13
extremely unhappy you're extremely
00:31:14
miserable but it's like the mental
00:31:17
health thing is and this is just my
00:31:18
point of view like I've never accepted
00:31:20
any form of external help my philosophy
00:31:23
around that is is like the the more you
00:31:25
take externally the more you need and
00:31:28
I'm not saying that's true of everyone
00:31:29
but for me I think that's certainly true
00:31:31
and so like I just had to search deep
00:31:33
within myself and external help as in
00:31:36
like Pharmaceuticals yeah counseling
00:31:37
yeah Pharmaceuticals like I would never
00:31:40
ever I think that's a very slippery
00:31:42
slope and it's an it's extremely easy to
00:31:45
go to like it's easy to pop a pill and
00:31:47
I'm not saying this is not for anyone
00:31:49
else I'm not making recommendations but
00:31:53
it's just an extremely easy path to go
00:31:56
down whether it's mental health or
00:31:57
normal health I think
00:32:00
there's you can always find a a way from
00:32:02
within yeah
00:32:04
wow you're so disciplined aren't you so
00:32:06
so when when the always just pointing to
00:32:09
an Afghan oh calm down you're eating in
00:32:12
Afghan at seven o'clock on Sunday
00:32:13
morning you've got hours to burn it off
00:32:15
mate
00:32:16
um so when did the running come into
00:32:18
your life did you show some sort of
00:32:19
natural Talent at school absolutely not
00:32:21
no well I didn't run for seven years so
00:32:23
after my mum died and I came back from
00:32:25
Perth and went to University I was just
00:32:27
a I was an idiot so I was at University
00:32:29
I was drinking probably three nights a
00:32:30
week I was going to these I I was just
00:32:32
I'll share some like stories with you
00:32:34
okay one night sky came to University
00:32:37
um so like massive University gig
00:32:39
there's I don't know like
00:32:41
a couple of thousand people in the crowd
00:32:43
for whatever reason I'm super drunk and
00:32:45
I get this idea that I'm going to get on
00:32:47
stage with net sky but but I don't just
00:32:49
like run up on stage because immediately
00:32:51
I'm going to get tackled right and so I
00:32:52
run back my University dorm room I grab
00:32:54
my DSLR and I bring it back with a GoPro
00:32:57
on my chest and there's that gap between
00:32:59
the stage and the crowd with the
00:33:00
security set yeah so like they just
00:33:02
allow me to walk up and down there and
00:33:04
I'm like getting the security to take
00:33:06
photos with the crowd as well and
00:33:07
they're pulling Shuckers and like
00:33:08
security guards I build trust with them
00:33:12
and like no one no one is like none the
00:33:14
wiser and all my friends are cracking up
00:33:16
laughing they think it's like the
00:33:16
greatest thing ever and then I get on
00:33:18
stage and take photos and then I go to
00:33:20
get a selfie with knit sky and all you
00:33:21
hear is like he's not allowed to be on
00:33:23
there and like security rusts the stage
00:33:26
and I'm running back through the back of
00:33:27
my like University events venue and I
00:33:30
run out stage and there was this like
00:33:31
fire truck that one of the University
00:33:32
societies had bought and I scale this
00:33:35
fire truck and I'm extremely drunk at
00:33:36
this point I've had a whole bunch of
00:33:37
vodka red balls and I'm 19 I've got no
00:33:39
idea what I'm doing the security guards
00:33:42
surrounding the fire truck and as they
00:33:43
go to run off it like dumb fake legs
00:33:45
they trip and so I fly off this you know
00:33:48
uh fire truck that's like a couple of
00:33:50
meters high can you know land on my head
00:33:53
have this huge concussion
00:33:55
devastating so that was like a dumb
00:33:58
event number one luckily like didn't
00:33:59
severely hurt myself another event
00:34:02
um just extremely drunk and Nelson fall
00:34:05
out of the back of a taxi and I smacked
00:34:06
my head on a curb starts pouring out
00:34:09
with blood I wind up in hospital
00:34:12
uh with a game with a concussion uh in
00:34:16
Perth I Got King hits woke up the next
00:34:18
day at home so this is
00:34:20
yeah yeah wow yeah and so
00:34:24
um was that a car accident and so there
00:34:25
were all these different events and then
00:34:27
it just got to a point I was like I have
00:34:29
to do something to turn my life around
00:34:31
and I had to like give in to the idea
00:34:34
that I had these unrealistic dreams and
00:34:36
Pursuits and I didn't know how to get
00:34:38
there but I had to figure out a way to
00:34:39
make them happen and then there was just
00:34:41
like
00:34:43
um somewhat of a strategy that came into
00:34:44
play which was
00:34:46
what can I do that's unique to me that
00:34:49
is hard to replicate for others but is
00:34:52
actually kind of easy to do and I
00:34:54
couldn't really think of anything and
00:34:55
the short of it is one of my friends
00:34:56
suggested going to the Paralympics and I
00:34:58
just walked into the offices in
00:35:00
Christchurch and said I'll go to Rio in
00:35:02
three years time and I'll win the 100
00:35:04
200 and 400 and they were like maybe aim
00:35:06
for Tokyo in 2020 why because it wasn't
00:35:08
enough of a lead up yeah who couldn't
00:35:10
train for the Paralympics in three years
00:35:12
they're like Oscar Pastorius just won
00:35:13
the able or not one he got to the
00:35:15
semi-finals and they bought it Olympics
00:35:16
yeah and his times are faster than
00:35:18
anyone in New Zealand for the 400.
00:35:20
good luck and the blades you need are
00:35:23
fifty thousand dollars and but I was so
00:35:25
like desperate to succeed at something
00:35:27
so I went back to my University dorm
00:35:30
room I started cold calling and cold
00:35:31
emailing people from the like MBR rich
00:35:33
list to try and raise money for these
00:35:34
blades and um got no yeses and then I
00:35:38
got in contact and met Phil Vine who
00:35:41
used to work at TV3 and he worked on
00:35:43
third degree which was like the
00:35:45
equivalent to Sunday at that point in
00:35:46
time he needed to make a documentary he
00:35:48
flew down he bought down the cameraman
00:35:51
we put this like pitched together to the
00:35:53
New Zealand Public yeah I couldn't run
00:35:54
at this point so I ran in my normal
00:35:56
walking Prosthetics in Christchurch
00:35:57
there was like 60 meters of track left I
00:35:59
ran 50 meters I threw up everywhere I
00:36:01
was wearing stubbies it was just the
00:36:02
whole thing was weird and they put that
00:36:04
to the New Zealand Public and within 48
00:36:06
hours I raised fifty thousand dollars
00:36:08
and that's where my friends University
00:36:10
are like [ __ ] dude you're actually going
00:36:12
to have to do this and I was [ __ ] Pan
00:36:15
the king bro what was I thinking idiots
00:36:19
so I was panicking because well like
00:36:23
what am I what am I doing
00:36:25
real what am I doing I'm just gonna
00:36:27
become an Olympian now yeah what are you
00:36:29
[ __ ] insane
00:36:31
so that's what happened and that's I got
00:36:33
into it but going back to why the
00:36:35
Paralympics made more sense than per
00:36:37
then say like another thing to do you
00:36:39
could like because anyone who's like
00:36:40
goal sitting right you have to come up
00:36:41
with a goal absolutely people are like
00:36:43
how do you choose something and I looked
00:36:46
at doing things like climbing Mount Cook
00:36:47
okay well then let's assess that idea
00:36:49
you climb Mount Cook how much value does
00:36:51
that create now you can think of value
00:36:52
in terms of how much attention you're
00:36:54
going to get how important it is is it
00:36:56
to the people not that important like
00:36:58
what are the consequences or like risks
00:36:59
of going up Mount Cook I could lose my
00:37:01
hands as well to frostbite and now I
00:37:04
look like Patrick Star from SpongeBob
00:37:06
you really want to go down that path
00:37:08
like you're already self-conscious about
00:37:09
getting a good so what do you no so you
00:37:12
can't create that much value the risks
00:37:14
are very high okay start a business do
00:37:15
you have any Capital do you have any
00:37:17
experience do you understand what you're
00:37:18
doing no idea at all going to be a
00:37:20
massive risk I'll probably fail within
00:37:21
six months and I won't make any momentum
00:37:23
incentive structures aren't that great
00:37:25
around it okay let's think about the
00:37:27
Paralympics okay well National success
00:37:29
is like important to the people like
00:37:31
gives like a sense of Pride it attracts
00:37:33
a lot of attention so there's like value
00:37:35
to be found in that what are the risks
00:37:37
well the risks are if I hadn't succeeded
00:37:39
I spent three years of my life in an
00:37:42
environment with these really positive
00:37:43
incentive structures I have a coach who
00:37:45
really cares about me I have my
00:37:47
teammates who you know their integrity
00:37:50
is a reflection of my actions as well so
00:37:52
I have to be accountable to them and
00:37:55
um
00:37:56
and it's relatively easy because not
00:37:59
that many people can go to the
00:38:00
Paralympics you're not gonna like how
00:38:02
fast can you run a marathon uh 257 okay
00:38:05
well yeah could you go to the Olympics
00:38:07
on that [ __ ] no okay
00:38:11
if I told you tomorrow you could go and
00:38:13
become a paralympic champion all you
00:38:15
have to do is amputate both of your feet
00:38:17
you I guarantee you you will win you'll
00:38:20
be able to make a fair amount of money
00:38:21
but I can't tell you it might not be
00:38:22
more than you're making now would you do
00:38:24
it [ __ ] no exactly so most people can't
00:38:27
go to the Paralympics because they don't
00:38:29
have two artificial disadvantages
00:38:31
exactly but there is this weird
00:38:32
perception that the Paralympics is as
00:38:34
competitive as the Olympics and
00:38:37
therefore it gets this you know not the
00:38:39
same amount of attention as the Olympics
00:38:41
by any means but it is perceived as
00:38:43
being super competitive now I'm not
00:38:45
disregarding the fact that it was
00:38:46
extremely hard to become that level of
00:38:49
an athlete because that's all I did for
00:38:50
three years was train in the morning and
00:38:52
train at night for every single day for
00:38:54
three years to get there and then I had
00:38:55
to think about the technology side
00:38:58
but relative to doing other things it
00:39:00
was the most intelligent thing to do
00:39:01
right I think you're being super modest
00:39:03
about it like your times were incredible
00:39:07
I'm not disregarding that but what I'm
00:39:09
saying is is that was still a better
00:39:12
that was the most sensible thing to do
00:39:14
alongside University in terms of picking
00:39:16
a goal and say starting a business or
00:39:19
anything else gotcha so just going back
00:39:23
like to the next guy thing and the
00:39:24
concussions and whatnot do you do you
00:39:27
think with the benefit of hindsight from
00:39:29
where you are now part of that was you
00:39:30
just being a standy 19 year old or do
00:39:32
you think
00:39:33
lashing out because of your mum just a
00:39:35
standard 19 year old and then on top of
00:39:37
that I'm like I'm extremely extroverted
00:39:39
as it is and I do like attention and so
00:39:41
that when you're in those environments
00:39:43
you are the one that does the dumb yes
00:39:45
when you're drinking the other side of
00:39:47
it is you know we have this massive
00:39:49
tragedy and I guess most western
00:39:52
Societies or in most societies where you
00:39:55
have a giant time loss where kids their
00:39:58
life is wasted between 16 and 24 by
00:40:00
spending their time at high school and
00:40:02
then going to University for the most
00:40:03
part which is just Advanced babysitting
00:40:05
and then a scam and so
00:40:08
and so what university is the scam all
00:40:11
of them well I think unless you're doing
00:40:12
like medicine or engineering or maybe
00:40:14
like some form of computer science or
00:40:16
maybe physics and chemistry be like hard
00:40:18
to say I I don't think it's a good use
00:40:19
of your time yeah I think you can
00:40:20
probably just go straight into the
00:40:21
you've got a degree though right yeah I
00:40:23
do yeah I must agree but I wouldn't
00:40:24
anyone but so you were saying this from
00:40:27
a a position of someone that has has
00:40:29
done it so which I think is um exactly I
00:40:32
mean I never went to University so I can
00:40:33
set this game and people can say tell me
00:40:35
to shut the [ __ ] up yeah exactly and so
00:40:37
but and because
00:40:39
because there's no guaranteed outcome of
00:40:43
those of those things of going to
00:40:45
University or spending your time at high
00:40:47
school wisely which is I guess like
00:40:49
focusing on like subjects that you're
00:40:50
not really sure why you're studying and
00:40:51
then going to University and you for the
00:40:53
most part most people take subjects so
00:40:54
they don't know why they're studying and
00:40:55
they have these kind of abstract ideas
00:40:57
or what they'll do afterwards
00:40:59
because you don't have a dedicated
00:41:00
outcome like you'd be going to the
00:41:01
Olympics most people just spend their
00:41:03
time drinking because like you're just
00:41:05
kind of like partying and you're
00:41:06
drifting and it's like you know you have
00:41:07
to balance the
00:41:09
the boringness of University and
00:41:10
everything else I suppose you're growing
00:41:12
up as well and finding your place in the
00:41:13
world finding your identity first time
00:41:14
exactly but I think there could be a
00:41:16
better use of that time and you still
00:41:18
have have all those experiences and you
00:41:20
can still like party and socialize and
00:41:21
everything but I think it's worse
00:41:24
because
00:41:25
on the other side of it no one's really
00:41:28
doing anything productive with the most
00:41:29
productive time in their lives so with
00:41:32
with what you're doing now working at
00:41:33
Amazon is are you using your degree at
00:41:36
all or no no
00:41:38
absolutely not no your degrees you know
00:41:42
your your degrees
00:41:43
sitting and reading like
00:41:46
reading these textbooks which are like
00:41:47
these retrospective analyzes from people
00:41:51
who have never worked in in a business
00:41:52
so like academics
00:41:55
and uh you create your sales and reports
00:41:57
for them and then they like you're
00:41:59
judged by people
00:42:01
have never really achieved anything in
00:42:03
their life and I just don't think it's
00:42:04
that good and so I think for some people
00:42:06
it's a good use of time like going to
00:42:08
University for me just being like the
00:42:09
person that I am not a good use of time
00:42:11
and so I had like I was valedictorian
00:42:14
and I had two speeches one which was
00:42:16
like not necessarily super critical of
00:42:18
the University but like funny making
00:42:20
jokes kind of like you know you've spent
00:42:22
three years being receiving grades from
00:42:24
people who've you know never achieved
00:42:26
anything in the Life blah blah blah blah
00:42:27
blah and I was like oh you know what
00:42:28
it's way too rough to Reign on
00:42:30
everything right yes yeah I don't want
00:42:32
to rain on everyone else's parade like
00:42:34
it's a moment of you know success for
00:42:35
everyone and people's parents are there
00:42:36
but uh yeah so at 19 you know I was
00:42:38
drinking and and
00:42:39
then I decided to become a paralympic
00:42:42
champion
00:42:43
and
00:42:44
I was lucky that it worked out but even
00:42:46
if it didn't that was still a better use
00:42:49
of time than than anything else because
00:42:51
I would have been healthier like just
00:42:53
all the benefits of
00:42:54
as you know being like an athlete
00:42:57
whether it's a runner or whatever it's
00:42:59
so good for you yeah there's so many
00:43:01
other other yeah good strains and habits
00:43:03
that go along with it so you win gold
00:43:04
and though silver in the 100 gold in the
00:43:06
200 and the 400. I think that's when you
00:43:08
first came to my radar because um you
00:43:10
blew up with your speech afterwards
00:43:12
where you said I'm just a kid from
00:43:13
Nelson that like runs around in circles
00:43:15
and reads books is that the quote Yeah
00:43:16
well I mean that's what I was doing at
00:43:18
the time it was hilarious I mean well
00:43:20
it's just funny as hell right yeah I
00:43:22
mean yeah I was 22 at the time and it
00:43:24
was just long yeah long here yeah that's
00:43:27
that's yeah I didn't I didn't really
00:43:28
want to have long hair but you look like
00:43:30
a like a like an anarchist athlete you
00:43:32
know what I mean well part of it was you
00:43:34
look like a super fat yeah but the part
00:43:36
of it was because when I went to the
00:43:38
Paralympics you do a training camp so
00:43:41
for people who don't really understand
00:43:42
the Olympic cycle you spend three years
00:43:44
and you're kind of like National
00:43:45
competitions maybe you go to Aussie but
00:43:47
then leading into an Olympic Games
00:43:48
you'll go and do a training camp
00:43:50
overseas where you try to get a little
00:43:51
bit better competition you maybe compete
00:43:53
against some of the people you compete
00:43:54
against Olympics
00:43:56
I went to the United States to their
00:43:58
Olympic Training Center to compete
00:43:59
against guys that I'd be competing
00:44:01
against in the Olympics
00:44:03
the Americans as we know don't
00:44:05
necessarily have the wider scope of like
00:44:09
Global views and so their view of New
00:44:11
Zealand athletes was all blacks
00:44:13
performing the Haka and Steven Adams
00:44:16
this big giant right right who has long
00:44:18
hair and a big beard and he's a Savage
00:44:20
so I went there and I wanted them to
00:44:24
think that I was a Savage and so I had
00:44:25
long hair and a beard while I was
00:44:27
training and I would train in the middle
00:44:28
of the day so they thought I was nuts
00:44:30
because the Olympic training centers on
00:44:32
the border of Mexico you know it's just
00:44:34
extraordinarily hot they get to the
00:44:35
Paralympics I shave the beard and then
00:44:37
the Olympic Village is just a nightmare
00:44:39
because it's in Brazil and it really
00:44:40
bankrupted the state of Rio and you know
00:44:43
there's just like the Paralympics is of
00:44:46
course filled with diversity and the
00:44:48
people that they employed and you've got
00:44:49
like Barbers with like three fingers who
00:44:51
are cutting here and I'm like I'm not
00:44:51
letting these people get me you know
00:44:53
what I mean
00:44:54
and so that's that's kind of how the the
00:44:57
long hair came about oh it was it was
00:44:59
really good and you and your times
00:45:01
you've got World Records right yeah
00:45:02
correct yeah beating Pastorius correct
00:45:05
and was he was sort of like a mentor no
00:45:08
no no no you had some conversations yeah
00:45:11
I mean I I talked to him in between
00:45:14
uh uh when he when he was released from
00:45:19
uh his year serving for manslaughter
00:45:21
right I had been at the world
00:45:24
championships in Qatar and talked to one
00:45:26
of his best friends and then he just
00:45:28
like reached out to me offering advice
00:45:30
and I was like
00:45:32
wait someone on trial for murders
00:45:34
offering a stranger on the internet
00:45:35
advice most guys mad anyway and then he
00:45:38
went then so I talked to him while he
00:45:41
was on just before he went back for
00:45:42
being on trial for murder never to hear
00:45:44
from him again we were
00:45:46
strangely like he's one of the only
00:45:48
people that I know who were born was
00:45:50
born with the same disability his mum
00:45:51
died at the same age thereabouts and so
00:45:54
very similar experiences growing up
00:45:56
in terms of sports we played
00:45:58
we had very different views on what the
00:46:00
Paralympics should be you know he wanted
00:46:02
to go to the able-bodied Olympics I'm
00:46:03
like dude you would never have made it
00:46:05
to the airport Olympics
00:46:07
if you had real licks there's no way
00:46:09
just like his the type of physique that
00:46:11
he has I have it wouldn't have been
00:46:14
possible so yeah I haven't heard from
00:46:15
him since but I do want to fight him
00:46:17
when he gets out of prison so I'd love
00:46:18
to do a you know corporate boxing match
00:46:21
yeah against Oscar because that'll be
00:46:24
the only even fight that I could have
00:46:25
and that would be awesome and you'd want
00:46:27
to beat the [ __ ] out of him yeah but I
00:46:29
mean he'd have that prison experience
00:46:32
yes so it would be extremely tough but I
00:46:34
think I'd have them I honestly thank God
00:46:36
everyone would be rooting for you so do
00:46:39
you know
00:46:40
embarrassing your records on the track
00:46:43
still stand
00:46:44
no it's after they changed the rules if
00:46:46
you like and you it's like kind of
00:46:48
putting new wheels on Formula One cars
00:46:50
okay so they reseed everything so so you
00:46:52
do you do that so that's 2016. and then
00:46:55
you come home and you keep running for
00:46:56
another couple of years one year I was
00:46:58
just injured for a whole year okay
00:46:59
suffered from nerve damage and a
00:47:03
they don't really know what caused it
00:47:05
the speculation is that I had like a
00:47:07
bone fracture
00:47:09
that then healed with like a calcium
00:47:10
rich that caused the Bursa on the bottom
00:47:12
of my stump
00:47:13
um which lasted for like another two and
00:47:16
a half years and I never got it seem to
00:47:18
and then eventually got my leg
00:47:19
reamputated going into uh going into
00:47:22
covert
00:47:24
so was your was your plan to keep going
00:47:27
yeah my plan was my yeah my plan was to
00:47:29
was to like because I was only three
00:47:31
years in there were two things one
00:47:33
biologically was it gonna improve
00:47:35
absolutely like I was increasing
00:47:37
everything like just miserable things
00:47:39
like my PR and squats deadlifts all of
00:47:42
the powerlifting measurements still
00:47:44
rapidly increasing then there's the
00:47:46
technology side right so making all
00:47:48
these improvements on technology I could
00:47:50
have got an insanely faster
00:47:53
especially in the 200 and 400. the
00:47:55
hundreds what was your time for the four
00:47:59
Ty something 40 uh 46. right yeah but
00:48:03
now it's bad like and then in Rio I
00:48:05
wasn't I didn't perform well so I still
00:48:07
won and I wasn't performing at my best
00:48:09
because I hated the village I had I'm a
00:48:12
very sensitive sleeper like I woke up at
00:48:13
4 3 30 this morning I couldn't get back
00:48:15
to sleep just because like the light
00:48:17
downstairs was only coming through our
00:48:18
door
00:48:19
and in Rio they had blinds over the
00:48:23
curtains they had no real curtains so
00:48:25
the light Shone and they had buses that
00:48:27
would go around the village 24 7 and the
00:48:29
bus stop was outside my room and it
00:48:30
would beep every time it came down
00:48:32
because the bus would decompress or
00:48:35
whatever on the airbags for the [ __ ]
00:48:36
wheelchair people and so I had beep beep
00:48:39
every five minutes all night and so I
00:48:41
didn't I didn't actually sleep when I
00:48:43
won my silver I had no sleep I did went
00:48:45
the whole night the night before without
00:48:46
sleeping and I still I still came second
00:48:50
and then the rest of the the two weeks
00:48:52
was just a disaster in terms of being in
00:48:55
a physiological optimal space to perform
00:48:58
so I would have performed a whole lot
00:49:00
better at the Paralympics in a different
00:49:04
environment
00:49:05
well you still you still did okay I
00:49:07
started okay yeah but I could I could
00:49:09
have been I could have been a lot
00:49:10
greater yeah so was it a hard call to
00:49:14
retirement just not frustrated
00:49:16
well they changed the rules I was
00:49:18
injured I was frustrated
00:49:19
um and then you have to forward think
00:49:21
like do you want to be 30 trying to make
00:49:23
that transition it's so much harder and
00:49:26
people like over index both the earnings
00:49:29
that an athlete makes and like just for
00:49:32
I was probably making uh like 300 to 450
00:49:37
000
00:49:38
a year between it's like sponsorship
00:49:41
speaking athlete money all of that you
00:49:43
over index on that because like they
00:49:45
think it's so good at the time but then
00:49:47
it's the life cycle of those earnings
00:49:48
are very low but then you over index
00:49:50
like the importance of being an athlete
00:49:53
and the you know your family is so proud
00:49:55
of you and your friends parents uh talk
00:49:58
parents friends like you yeah that's got
00:50:01
to be intoxicating for the other people
00:50:02
not for me it's like for me I'd already
00:50:04
been through enough hard things in terms
00:50:06
of like losing my mum and everything
00:50:07
else at like the ability to like
00:50:09
distance myself and things it's
00:50:11
relatively easy and separate that and
00:50:12
then also I'm an ambitious guy the
00:50:14
world's full of interesting things that
00:50:16
you can just go out and start tomorrow
00:50:17
like I've Got Friends who've just
00:50:19
started Jiu Jitsu and now they're on a
00:50:20
jiu jitsu Journey or whatever and so
00:50:22
there's always new things to do like you
00:50:24
didn't start running until later on yeah
00:50:27
exactly and so why just why just why
00:50:30
just be an athlete well I I and I had a
00:50:33
guy on the podcast last week Garth
00:50:34
barfoot who's uh yeah from his dad his
00:50:37
barfoot from buff and Thompson and he
00:50:39
started doing triathlons in his 50s and
00:50:41
so didn't do an Iron Man until he was in
00:50:43
his 60s which I think is [ __ ]
00:50:45
remarkable insane but just like I think
00:50:48
that's how you should live and so you
00:50:51
should always find a new thing but you
00:50:53
um
00:50:54
from an ego perspective like being an
00:50:57
athlete like it would be easy for you to
00:50:59
be defined as that guy like you know
00:51:01
Liam alone not really because was like
00:51:02
most of my life I went through like
00:51:04
School my league was falling off and you
00:51:06
know at Uni hours Bing shrinking and so
00:51:07
I wasn't really like tied to any
00:51:09
definition if I'd spent like my entire
00:51:11
teen years being defined as the Blade
00:51:13
Runner kind of like how skiposaurus was
00:51:15
or you know you're a child athlete and
00:51:17
you go through school and then
00:51:19
University you get a scholarship to the
00:51:20
States you make it into the MBA then
00:51:22
what do you do because that's your whole
00:51:24
character but if you're me you've got
00:51:26
that you know experience in a three-year
00:51:29
time period after like the worst year of
00:51:31
your life and so to lose it again is it
00:51:34
hard absolutely but at the same time I
00:51:37
like navigate a change and navigated
00:51:39
those transitions before so I was more
00:51:41
like more adapted to going through that
00:51:44
process mentally because it's a mental
00:51:45
it's a mental adaption what would your
00:51:47
advice be to someone that's thinking of
00:51:48
a career pivot cool yeah um start
00:51:51
learning everything online like spend a
00:51:52
ton of time on YouTube but the way that
00:51:54
you want to think about things from a
00:51:55
career point of view is like earnings
00:51:56
going to be super important right but
00:51:58
earning relative to how much effort
00:52:00
you're putting in and the way that you
00:52:02
want to think about it is you want to
00:52:03
look at the the mean earnings
00:52:07
um relative to effort within an industry
00:52:10
and so like let me export let me expand
00:52:12
on that let me expand on that let me
00:52:13
expand on that so like say you're a
00:52:15
police officer yeah and you might have
00:52:17
the idea of like you're already working
00:52:18
kind of like the legal industry maybe
00:52:19
I'll go become a lawyer right well you
00:52:22
could go to law school and you could you
00:52:23
know spend five years and then like sit
00:52:25
the bar but the reality is then going to
00:52:27
go into a law firm and you're not going
00:52:28
to earn that much money you're having
00:52:30
[ __ ] money for the first few years right
00:52:32
yeah for most of it yeah and then you
00:52:34
kind of have to do this like pyramid
00:52:35
scheme of trying to become a partner
00:52:36
okay and it's extraordinarily you know
00:52:39
but that's kind of how it works and it's
00:52:41
extraordinarily stressful like lawyers
00:52:43
are you know just burdened with the
00:52:46
incredible amount of stress well you
00:52:47
okay so like maybe you go and you say I
00:52:49
want to go into Finance well you're now
00:52:51
going up against a whole you know cast
00:52:55
of extremely bright people competing for
00:52:58
a very narrow Market because the
00:53:00
financialization of the economy has kind
00:53:01
of already occurred there's no longer
00:53:03
any growth in that so what else could
00:53:04
you look at well you would look look at
00:53:06
technology for example you know there's
00:53:08
the joke that uh that you know
00:53:10
technology workers have it so hard
00:53:12
because they start their their work at
00:53:14
10 A.M and finish at 3 P.M and the
00:53:16
reason for that is because you know
00:53:18
these these technology companies around
00:53:19
the world are growing at you know 40 a
00:53:22
year and have done for the last 20 years
00:53:24
and uh so technology is probably the
00:53:27
best place that you can go and that can
00:53:29
you could go into anything if you're
00:53:31
like a people person you can go into the
00:53:32
sales marketing side of things
00:53:34
operations or if you're like a
00:53:37
introverted person you can go into the
00:53:39
like Solutions architects devops
00:53:42
engineering side of things and your pay
00:53:45
is extremely high because there's so few
00:53:49
talented people but that stuff's like
00:53:51
pretty easy to learn like you would not
00:53:54
be suited spending your time at
00:53:55
University you'd be best going on to
00:53:57
like say you want to get a job at Amazon
00:53:59
going on to like Amazon's educational
00:54:01
part of our website and just going
00:54:03
through our resources all our free
00:54:05
courses getting certified and
00:54:07
certificates that we provide and going
00:54:10
down that pathway because it'd be much
00:54:11
shorter and much more relevant so that's
00:54:14
kind of like my general advice is like
00:54:15
try to be less competitive in the things
00:54:18
that you do does that make sense that
00:54:19
makes a lot of sense was that terrifying
00:54:21
though to like turning you back on that
00:54:22
no no no yeah but you see you said
00:54:25
before like 350 400 Grand a year
00:54:27
whatever you were getting but I knew I
00:54:28
could go and make that elsewhere like I
00:54:30
know that I can
00:54:31
that's yeah that's not that I feel I
00:54:34
don't think that's that hard to make I I
00:54:36
feel like you're one of these characters
00:54:37
so you have like numerous different
00:54:38
careers in your lifetime I feel like
00:54:40
what you're doing now I hope not oh
00:54:42
really no because I don't think you can
00:54:44
get extremely good at something all
00:54:45
right multiple different careers it's an
00:54:47
incredible life Journey zigzagging but
00:54:49
you won't Master anything are you gonna
00:54:50
get bored though you're gonna oh yeah
00:54:52
that's true but I like my work at the
00:54:54
moment is it's so diverse in terms of
00:54:56
number of business businesses that I
00:54:57
touch and the incredible people that I
00:54:59
meet so it's it satisfies sort of a lot
00:55:01
of those notes just like on the topic of
00:55:03
like going and doing new things I went
00:55:04
and did the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
00:55:05
like so oh yeah that's right I forgot
00:55:08
about that yeah yeah sorry
00:55:10
that is big ball stuff but I think you
00:55:13
have to do these things that's
00:55:15
terrifying that's [ __ ] horrifying um
00:55:17
and so anyway most people like the way
00:55:19
that Fringe works is you'll you'll see
00:55:21
yourself the goal of going to Fringe
00:55:23
you'll spend I don't know a year
00:55:25
developing a show the process of
00:55:28
developing a show for a comic is a
00:55:30
process of elimination where they use
00:55:32
rejection as a tool right they're using
00:55:34
the audience to reject jokes that aren't
00:55:36
funny and so like I've seen Chris Rock
00:55:37
for example when he's working on a show
00:55:40
just go up with a giant notepad and he's
00:55:42
reading the jokes off this notepad and
00:55:45
putting ticks and Crosses next to the
00:55:47
jokes that work and don't work I saw
00:55:49
restart me at the classic do the same
00:55:50
thing exactly okay and so then using
00:55:53
that as a filter using the audience as a
00:55:55
filter anyways usually you do it for a
00:55:57
year I did this in like you'd work on it
00:55:59
for a year and you would have a show
00:56:01
then you'd tour the show and then you'd
00:56:02
finish the Tour by going to the
00:56:04
Edinburgh festival and usually you
00:56:06
wouldn't go to Fringe unless you'd been
00:56:07
performing for four years or something
00:56:08
until you're like a really good
00:56:11
Craftsman and whatever you were doing
00:56:12
because it's like Theater comedy all
00:56:15
sorts of Performing Arts
00:56:17
I did it in six months because like one
00:56:20
of the things I think you should ask
00:56:21
yourself is like how can you achieve
00:56:23
what you want to achieve like a much
00:56:24
shorter timeline
00:56:26
this seems to be like a thread in your
00:56:28
life because then you can like think
00:56:30
about what's like the value what are the
00:56:31
valuable actions to take and not get
00:56:33
distracted by all the other nonsense and
00:56:35
anyway so I get to the French Festival I
00:56:37
spend an entire month you spend you do
00:56:39
30 shows you do a show every single
00:56:41
night and um
00:56:43
you face a ton of rejection doing that
00:56:46
and so in terms of like the crowd not
00:56:49
totally yeah totally so like the
00:56:51
interesting thing was is like the
00:56:52
average audience size for the Edinburgh
00:56:53
Fringe Festival I think it's like four
00:56:55
to seven people you are competing
00:56:57
against thousands of other performers
00:56:59
whether it's theater or comedy so it's
00:57:01
hard to get people to your show I arrive
00:57:03
at the venue on the first night the
00:57:05
staff come out and they say
00:57:07
how did you do it I said how'd I do what
00:57:09
they said you've sold out the first week
00:57:12
and at that moment the Scottish
00:57:14
Disability Association Bus shows up
00:57:17
outside the venue
00:57:20
I just looked at the venue stuff and I
00:57:22
said [ __ ] I've got jokes about these
00:57:24
people
00:57:25
the whole show has jokes about these
00:57:26
people the whole first week was disabled
00:57:29
people showing up to my show for me to
00:57:31
make jokes about disabled people and
00:57:32
they were the best audience that I had
00:57:34
the entire time but you you were making
00:57:36
jokes about yourself though no all sorts
00:57:38
of disabled people jokes about disabled
00:57:40
people in the Paralympics talks about
00:57:41
people in the audience all sorts and so
00:57:44
but they were the best audience
00:57:46
themselves because if you want to be
00:57:47
treated equally you have to be able to
00:57:49
laugh at yourself and
00:57:50
they were the best audience that I had
00:57:52
and then they all left after the first
00:57:53
week and then you kind of get you know
00:57:55
the audience size reduced from you know
00:57:56
70 people a night to probably I don't
00:57:58
know 30 or 40 which was still massive
00:58:00
and Fringe
00:58:02
and you get like hey what do people
00:58:03
coming up to afterwards my sister's
00:58:05
cousin's daughter is in a wheelchair you
00:58:08
can't make jokes about them and you're
00:58:10
like oh my God and so so you get that
00:58:15
sort of rejection you get jokes that
00:58:16
just don't land and some night they work
00:58:17
some nights they work some nights they
00:58:19
don't work and it just it just doesn't
00:58:21
matter it just doesn't matter just
00:58:23
doesn't matter the rejection just
00:58:25
doesn't really matter that much did you
00:58:26
let me let me let me let me caveat that
00:58:28
like you've spent time with Madison this
00:58:30
morning my girlfriend we're on dates
00:58:33
five years ago
00:58:34
ended up like blowing me off rejected
00:58:37
comes full circle
00:58:39
she she said it was a game of
00:58:41
persistence on your part exactly I never
00:58:43
give up but never give up so one way to
00:58:45
think about think about is your
00:58:47
willpower versus their willpower and
00:58:49
most people don't have a lot of
00:58:50
willpower
00:58:51
you guys look like you got a great
00:58:53
relationship as well and she she was up
00:58:55
early have you changed her or no she has
00:58:58
driven as she's even more driven maybe
00:59:01
because you're a media person she's a
00:59:03
media person I don't know how you guys
00:59:05
do it because she's up at 4am to go and
00:59:09
do TV so I uh a huge amount of
00:59:13
admiration you know and then you guys
00:59:15
are up at 4am not just to work at this
00:59:17
job you're trying to entertain people
00:59:18
which requires so much energy and like
00:59:22
not Enlightenment but just like keeping
00:59:24
people's attention is so so difficult
00:59:26
especially at this time uh I don't know
00:59:28
how you guys do it
00:59:30
from um from your your time as um as an
00:59:33
athlete were there any skills that were
00:59:34
transferable all of them so you want to
00:59:36
like change your life I think the most
00:59:38
important thing to start with is just
00:59:39
like changing yourself the easiest thing
00:59:41
to do I think is change physiologically
00:59:43
that's why I think just sort yourself
00:59:45
out physically all those principles can
00:59:48
be then applied to whatever you need to
00:59:50
do academically or intellectually so
00:59:53
just like going to beard early
00:59:55
type of food that you're consuming
00:59:59
you know what you do in your spare time
01:00:01
because you're not out binge drinking
01:00:02
some athletes are but you know most
01:00:04
aren't
01:00:05
all of those are just like the
01:00:07
foundation of which you can build other
01:00:09
things on that those are like you don't
01:00:11
need anything else and then just like
01:00:12
persistence and then you know run slow
01:00:14
to run fast you don't go out and try and
01:00:16
break a PR I mean you run fast I see you
01:00:18
all the time on Tamaki Drive you're a
01:00:19
fast runner but you're not out there
01:00:21
trying to run a whatever two-hour
01:00:23
something marathon every single time and
01:00:25
so you learn that through repetition you
01:00:28
know it's not about a one-off you know
01:00:30
effort in order to to make change or to
01:00:33
learn new things it's about just
01:00:35
repetitively doing things and no matter
01:00:37
where you begin you can end up being a
01:00:40
very different person you started out at
01:00:41
30 running I'm pretty sure you were
01:00:43
overweight at the time massively and
01:00:45
what how do you now 49 40 you're 49 wow
01:00:49
I need your jeans but you're like a lean
01:00:51
healthy looking guy you know you
01:00:54
probably you you probably feel amazing
01:00:56
mentally and but that wouldn't have
01:00:58
happened overnight I'm guessing no no
01:01:00
that was a very slow transition and the
01:01:02
reason I started running in the first
01:01:03
place was to lose weight and then just
01:01:05
after a few months I started feeling
01:01:07
mentally good and I stopped obsessing
01:01:09
about the weight and I just didn't even
01:01:10
bother about it and then it just
01:01:11
happened over time of course let's now
01:01:13
relate that to someone who going back to
01:01:15
your example like uh you know people who
01:01:18
want to maybe change careers yeah just
01:01:20
start practicing the things that those
01:01:21
other people do in their jobs
01:01:23
and you just start and just do that
01:01:25
every single day and eventually you
01:01:27
become that person yeah I mean you
01:01:29
you've I mean I think it's obvious I
01:01:30
think fear fear is the thing that would
01:01:32
hold a lot of people back from doing it
01:01:33
but you've like had so much courage
01:01:36
yeah but I've also had so much
01:01:39
like
01:01:41
I've had so many consequences of failure
01:01:44
like okay so like
01:01:46
a primary school uh we had Athletics
01:01:49
stay up at the intermediate that I was
01:01:50
going to there were like 1200 kids there
01:01:52
so my entire primary school and the
01:01:53
entire intermediate that I was going to
01:01:55
be going to 1200 kids they put all the
01:01:57
fat kids and the kid with no legs All in
01:01:59
One race to like make it even right so
01:02:01
it's like KFC versus disability anyway I
01:02:05
mean this this race starts off and I
01:02:08
is I was stoked with that to be fair I'm
01:02:11
at 50 meters in this race I'm in third
01:02:13
place my leg begins to come loose I
01:02:15
didn't duct tape it up because my mum
01:02:16
missed my my running race right and
01:02:19
my leg falls off in front of 1200 kids
01:02:21
like flies off I do like a couple of
01:02:23
rolls everyone laughs like how can you
01:02:26
not like if it's [ __ ] funny how can
01:02:28
you not laugh at that I would be in
01:02:30
hysterics everyone was in hysterics
01:02:32
that's a lot of laughter like if you can
01:02:33
make 1200 people laugh cash a check
01:02:36
laughing with you or ain't you it
01:02:38
doesn't matter it doesn't it does matter
01:02:40
it doesn't matter it doesn't matter
01:02:42
either way like without a doubt of
01:02:43
course like I cry because it's
01:02:44
embarrassing and the principal runs over
01:02:47
puts my leg back on
01:02:49
uh my friend's mom Louise makes me
01:02:51
finish the race she's like
01:02:52
she's the most driven person that I know
01:02:54
and I get to the end I get back and then
01:02:58
my mum shows up late for my race with
01:03:01
the role of duct tape and she types up
01:03:04
my legs and she makes me run the 200
01:03:05
right so like there's and the the
01:03:09
it is just like a never-ending series of
01:03:11
stories that I have like that uh where
01:03:14
I've had maximal
01:03:17
embarrassment and it's not that bad
01:03:19
because like the next day you know
01:03:21
someone else embarrasses themselves
01:03:22
they're worried about what everyone
01:03:23
thinks about them and it's just like an
01:03:25
endless cycle of of that and so there's
01:03:28
you know the consequences of failure
01:03:31
aren't as bad as anyone thinks hence why
01:03:33
the fear is typically you know not worth
01:03:38
overweighting too much
01:03:40
yeah man that's such a good attitude
01:03:43
I guess I guess I don't know but I just
01:03:46
I I you know I just what good does you
01:03:49
know just overthinking about things yeah
01:03:51
bring like it never brings any happiness
01:03:53
it doesn't improve the likelihood of a
01:03:55
good outcome and so your males will just
01:03:57
do the thing even if it ends an
01:03:58
embarrassment yeah where are your medals
01:04:00
now from the from the game I mean I've
01:04:02
got one up I've got one upstairs yeah um
01:04:03
and just like my sock drawer uh the
01:04:05
others yeah like I'm not a big fan of
01:04:07
like looking back at things
01:04:09
um even though it was a special time but
01:04:10
the others are just like down in Nelson
01:04:12
in a wardrobe somewhere I don't know
01:04:14
it'd be nice to have them on display
01:04:17
I'm gonna get one of them and I'm gonna
01:04:19
cut the like thing what would you call
01:04:22
it like the thing that goes around
01:04:23
ribbon yeah I'm cutting the ribbon off
01:04:25
because it's orange and I hate it it's
01:04:26
like orange and gold doesn't work
01:04:29
someone with a disability design that
01:04:33
so I'm gonna get that but I'm going to
01:04:35
frame it and have like a nice white
01:04:36
clean slick background or black or
01:04:38
something and I'll put that up on
01:04:40
display but for the most part you're
01:04:41
right I should have done something yeah
01:04:43
um it has been it has been so good
01:04:46
sitting down with you today I've I've um
01:04:47
I've been a fan of yours for years I'm
01:04:49
full of admiration through for
01:04:51
everything you do and everything you've
01:04:53
done
01:04:54
um it has been so bloody difficult and
01:04:56
it's taken so much work to pin you down
01:04:57
though do you do you not really like
01:04:59
talking about yourself
01:05:01
oh you know here's how I would describe
01:05:05
it I'm not trying to discourage you from
01:05:06
doing a podcast like uh and I know
01:05:08
you've written a book and I'm not trying
01:05:09
to hate on you writing about three books
01:05:11
[ __ ] author okay he's like I get people
01:05:13
asking me like oh why wait when are you
01:05:15
gonna write a book I'm like you know
01:05:17
more people should read
01:05:19
I just don't want to put people off
01:05:21
reading if they read my book and so it's
01:05:23
like the same thing people are gonna
01:05:24
listen let that guy he's had no legs
01:05:27
it's been kind of tough they get the
01:05:28
gist
01:05:29
I I don't know this I'm like I don't
01:05:31
think I'm like worthy of being a podcast
01:05:33
of being on like a podcast
01:05:35
what are they going to get from this you
01:05:37
know that's just how I kind of think
01:05:39
about it and then on top of that I'm
01:05:40
just I'm so busy I'm just so busy man
01:05:43
I'm just like I've been I've been away
01:05:44
you know three times a week with work
01:05:46
for the for the last three weeks I
01:05:49
barely see my girlfriend and so
01:05:51
you know it's just a busy time and so
01:05:53
you've pinned me down at the best time
01:05:55
of the day and also you know kudos to
01:05:56
you I've been a fan of yours do you
01:05:58
remember when uh McDonald's we knew you
01:06:00
guys were campaigning to bring back the
01:06:02
McFlurry we spoke on the phone I was uh
01:06:05
15 years old it just got my restricted
01:06:07
license and I called in because you guys
01:06:09
are meant to be not you specifically but
01:06:12
an edge Roadrunner was supposed to be at
01:06:14
the McDonald's in Nelson and it was a
01:06:15
no-show we'd all made signs and I rang
01:06:17
in I said where the hell is The Edge
01:06:19
Roadrunner we're here we want our
01:06:21
McFlurries like hang on and then you've
01:06:23
got someone to come down and we've got a
01:06:24
me and The Edge Road Runner got a photo
01:06:26
with all of my friends from Nelson
01:06:28
campaigning to get the mclares back hang
01:06:29
on pause was that painful by McDonald's
01:06:32
was that was a promotional campaign
01:06:35
a lot of people won't know this but um
01:06:37
the McFlurry there was a period where it
01:06:39
wasn't in New Zealand and we campaign to
01:06:42
brought it back and we McDonald's were
01:06:43
[ __ ] pissed off with us they're like
01:06:45
we've got a marketing schedule mapped
01:06:47
out for the next 18 months we can't
01:06:49
that we can't we can't do it like we
01:06:52
can't bring it forward but um I believe
01:06:55
we were the Catalyst for them bring it
01:06:56
back over they were going oh another
01:06:58
machinery and the you know the snow
01:07:00
freezing machine is always broken yeah
01:07:02
there's some some excuse or whatever but
01:07:03
anyway the mcflurry's back on the menu
01:07:05
now and God bless it so that was our
01:07:06
first correction but if any sense and uh
01:07:09
uh thank you for having me on do you
01:07:10
allow yourself sorry I've just got
01:07:12
another question do you allow yourself
01:07:13
some down time do you have some down
01:07:14
time I mean being busy is good but it's
01:07:16
also good to
01:07:18
my general view was like
01:07:21
um going back to the happiness thing
01:07:22
because I've been in states where I've
01:07:24
like been drifting and being useless and
01:07:27
life has like gone backwards
01:07:31
my general view is like you're either
01:07:33
growing or you're shrinking and so
01:07:36
like that just kind of compels me where
01:07:38
I feel like I need to be doing things
01:07:39
all the time and I feel happy when I'm
01:07:41
doing things because I know that the
01:07:42
likelihood of something bad happening is
01:07:44
less likely yeah there's meds like say
01:07:48
to me from time to time like you need a
01:07:50
chill absolutely
01:07:51
um you know we go to duck Island we go
01:07:53
out for dinner and have a date night and
01:07:55
stuff your dacons an ice cream place so
01:07:58
they're putting in that stuff so good
01:07:59
yeah it's well you know I'll reiterate
01:08:02
um I've I'm full of admiration for you
01:08:04
and I wouldn't get up at 7am on a Sunday
01:08:07
morning to do a podcast with many people
01:08:10
no thanks Tom I really appreciate that
01:08:12
yeah yeah I am you're good dude and um I
01:08:14
I love following your Junior in life
01:08:16
because you got such a great attitude
01:08:17
about things hey like you you and you
01:08:19
you your drive puts other people to
01:08:21
shame it makes me feel like I'm not
01:08:23
doing enough with my own life yeah well
01:08:25
I've got a a boy you should meet who's
01:08:27
uh one of my guys and he will he puts
01:08:31
everyone I know to shame yeah he would
01:08:34
have been up at 4 30 this morning and
01:08:36
and doing something outrageous
01:08:40
what are you doing today why did I have
01:08:43
to come around at seven if what if you
01:08:44
came around at three o'clock I'll be
01:08:45
here I'll be half asleep I'll be
01:08:47
fatigued you're getting me at my
01:08:49
favorite time of the day
01:08:51
where there's like less chaos going on
01:08:52
in the house and it's just it works a
01:08:54
little bit better damn Kanye is a cute
01:08:56
dog look at him why is my dog not your
01:08:58
behavior yeah Ken has been sitting on my
01:09:00
lap this entire time your dog's a
01:09:01
monster like how many kilos 30 kilos 40
01:09:04
kilos 40 kilos 40 kilos of Pure Escape
01:09:06
Artist yeah so he's ended up down at uh
01:09:10
a few of the local Iraqi houses yeah
01:09:13
Madison your girlfriend was telling me
01:09:14
he goes missing like a couple of times a
01:09:16
day and the neighbors feed him and look
01:09:18
after him he loves it you always go to
01:09:20
pick him up and you're gonna growl at
01:09:22
him and he looks so happy you're like I
01:09:23
can't growl at him in front of these
01:09:24
people otherwise they're going to think
01:09:25
he's escaping some you know torturous
01:09:27
home we love him but God he's just
01:09:30
it's four-dimensional chest with that
01:09:31
dog hey um well thank you so much for
01:09:34
your time really appreciate it I'll uh
01:09:36
let you get that workout done and um
01:09:38
yeah really just yeah thank you thanks
01:09:40
Don thanks very much for listening all
01:09:42
the way through this episode of Runners
01:09:44
only with dom Harvey just a quick one
01:09:46
before we leave if your podcast platform
01:09:47
allows please rate this podcast or write
01:09:50
a review for it and if you like what you
01:09:52
hear please recommend it to a friend or
01:09:54
two who you think may like it or even
01:09:56
share it on your social media channels
01:09:58
also any feedback guest tips sponsorship
01:10:01
inquiries or anything else please do get
01:10:03
in touch domharveynz gmail.com is my
01:10:06
email address or you can slide into my
01:10:09
DMs on Instagram domharvey NZ okay
01:10:12
thanks very much hope to see you next
01:10:14
week on Runners only
