1. Pieter, you had two incidents that changed your life forever. The first, a car crash, took you out of the technical and into a desk job. Tell us about the adjustments you had to make.
Yes, after a devastating head on collision in September 2009 my life took a serious turn. I was unable to work for 4 months due to a crushed right elbow and left knee cap. I had a long and painful road to recovery and even after returning to work I was on light duty. My elbow took a long time to heal, and after about a year of slow and painful recovery I fell and broke it again. In total, it took about two years to get to the point where it is now. Unfortunately, due to the severity of the fracture and the complications during healing I lost all movement of my right elbow. This led to me being declared medically unfit for my job as a boilermaker that I was in at that stage. Also, being right handed, I had to adjust and learn to do many things with my left hand. Even though this was a very tough journey, I learned a lot and grew a lot as an individual. You see a lot of bad things happen to good people, but it is how you respond to those situations that makes the difference. You can either sit and complain about the rotten hand you were dealt or you can face the challenges and grow through it to a place where you can live a full life regardless of what may have happened.
2. Your association with Herbalife also changed your life. How and why?
Well, after I was declared medically unfit for my job, I realized that I needed to take charge of my own life, and not leave it in the hands of someone else. I got involved with Herbalife and through guidance and support of my sponsor, I eventually started to present at the training events for the company. That is when I realized that I really had a passion for speaking, training and helping people. After that I started to pursue many different opportunities regarding speaking and training. This ultimately led to me becoming the first Ziglar Legacy Certified Speaker on the African continent in 2014. Zig Ziglar and his great teachings was so instrumental in my journey of personal growth and it was a tremendous honor for me to be part of continuing his legacy. Through Ziglar Inc. I also met many amazing people that had a profound impact in my life. People like Bob Beaudine, Mike Rodriguez, The entire Ziglar Family, Howard Partridge, Billy Cox and many more. I always remember the words of Jim Rohn when he said you become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Well it’s an honor for me to be able to spend time with great people like this.
3. How do you approach personal vs business coaching?
There are a lot of similarities for me between personal and business coaching. The reason I say this is because some of the biggest reasons for failure in life and business is due to lack of self-belief and lack of meaningful action. When I work with individuals I spend a lot of time in building their self-confidence to a level where they start to believe that they are capable of achieving the things they would like to achieve. Without this belief, they very seldom if ever will be able to achieve their goals. Once they start believing, then we start on putting together an action plan to help them set proper goals and to help them achieve it. No level of self-belief will ever help you achieve your goals if you don’t take action, so we also work on building the discipline to take consistent meaningful action.
With business coaching we do a lot of the same, but I focus more on the culture within the company. It is very important for every individual in the company to believe in the product or service they are selling. If they do not believe in it, they will never give their best to promote it. Secondly, I believe in building a culture of mutual trust and teamwork. Where all the role player within the company feel that their goals and the company goals are aligned and that everybody is working together towards achieving those goals. What I have found with many small companies is that they are so involved emotionally with the product or service that they fail to look at the product or service with the critical eyes of a client. Many times, this leads to them missing opportunities to make small changes to better appeal to the client. Also, many new companies fail due to lack of active, targeted, meaningful and consistent marketing.
Every individual and company is unique, and that is why I never use a one size fits all model, but I spend time with the company or individual to truly understand their needs. Only then do I work on a personalized action plan.
4. Do you have a personal coach and if so, what has he/she done for you?
Yes, I have a couple, but the one that I spend most time with is my friend Mike Rodriguez. Not only is he a dear friend of mine, but he was also instrumental in helping me to become a published author. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be a best-selling author, yet after only a one year I have authored two of my own complete works and co-authored one. Two of which became bestsellers on Amazon on the day they were released. I am currently in the concept stage of two more books that I will hopefully get out within the next year. Being able to spend time with my mentors and coaches definitely helps me to stay on track with where I am going, and to guide me along the way. I always say that it is great if you can learn from your own mistakes, but it is even better if you can learn from other people’s mistakes. Often times, that is what a mentor or coach does, they help you not to make the same mistakes they have. That is what makes a good mentor or coach so valuable, they can help save you a lot of heart ache and money.
5. Starting out to write a book is never easy - tell us how you did it and the obstacles you had to overcome.
Like I said, I never thought that I would become an author, but when you think about it, a book can reach people around the world that you may not have reached personally within your lifetime. Also, a book remains long after you may no longer be here. The way I started was by writing down my thoughts and ideas. When I listen to audio books or seminars, I often would make profound realizations about myself and my unique way of seeing things. I would then write these down in order to share it with others at a later stage. Eventually, after spending some time with Mike, he made me realize that by putting my words into a book, I could help people going through the same struggles as myself around the world.
One of the most difficult things I had to overcome was myself. Denis Waitley said that his first book The Psychology of Winning lay in his desk drawers for many years before he published it. Not because the book wasn’t any good, but because he didn’t believe that he was. This is the case with so many of us. We all have a story to share, and there are people somewhere in the world that would benefit from our story, but because we don’t believe in ourselves, we never even try. Lastly, I would say that it is very important to work with a good publisher, or at least a good editor. You may be able to self-publish, but the value that a good editor brings to your book is immeasurable. Rather spend a little bit more and get a good editor, than ending up with a low-quality product.
6. Tell us how your religious beliefs have influenced the direction of your career?
I always had a close relationship with God, and the fact that I am still alive is a miracle. Eight years after my car accident, whenever my doctor sees me, he still says that it’s a miracle that I survived that car accident.
I believe that it is important to have a relationship with God as you would with a close friend. After all, he knows us better than we know ourselves. It is because of this relationship that I want to make a difference in this world. I want to help people to live up to their true potential. People are bombarded daily with images of so called perfectioned, and they are told that they are not good enough, and that is why I believe so strongly in building people up, helping them see their value and be the best they can be. I believe that kindness goes a long way and that all people should be treated with love and respect. In a world filled with negativity, I want to be a sparkle of hope.
7. What do you feel is the single most important ingredient in a business and why?
For me there are two equally important ingredients to building a successful business and career. Those are dedication and persistence. No one will be more dedicated about your business than you are yourself, and if you want to make it a successful business you have to be completely dedicated to it. You can’t allow other things or people to distract you from you mission of building your business. Other people will not understand your vision and will try to side track you. You need to stay dedicated to your business.
The other, persistence, is one of the aspects a lot of people miss. They are committed to the business, but they do not take persistent action to make the business grow. Even the biggest companies in the world still take action daily to make sure that their clients remember them and that they attract new customers. By sitting around and waiting for business to come in, your company will never succeed. You have to take action daily no matter how tough it gets. You need to persevere with your actions through good and bad times.
8. I see you can no longer fly – do you think your life would have turned out differently if the SAAF had accepted you as a pilot?
Unfortunately, due to my injuries sustained in my car accident, I can no longer get my flight medical. This is due to reduced lung capacity, and hence can no longer fly. If I did end up working as a pilot in the South African Air Force my life might have turned out completely different. I probably would never have in in the car accident. Because I am very passionate about all thing military, and especially aviation, I would possibly have been happy for a while, but I believe my adventurous spirit and my deep longing to make a difference in the world would have ultimately inspired me to move. Would I be where I am right now? Probably not. Would I change anything if I could? No, I won’t. I strongly believe that what happens to us shapes our lives and who we become in the future. This is all due to our own choices in how we respond to the things that happen to us. That is why two people can go through similar situations and years later turn out completely different.
If I ever get the opportunity to fly in a fighter plane, I would jump at it, no questions asked, but I will never stop pursuing my goal of changing the world for the better, in whichever way I can.
9. What is the one thing you would like to say to the people out there?
I would say to never give up on your dreams. Find a way to pursue them and realize them. The world is filled with too many people who gave up on their dreams and fell into the trap of merely surviving, trying to make a day to day living. You see, happiness does not come with money alone, it comes by living your purpose and doing something you love to do.
The one thing I hate most is when people tell their friend or family “don’t get your hopes up”. Why shouldn’t they get their hopes up? Absolutely, they should. If more people did get their hopes up and go after it, there would be much greater success stories in the world. Don’t give up after a challenge or failure. Keep hoping, and keeping working hard towards achieving your goals and living your dreams.