Passion & Success

Why is this my job? No wait… that sounds like I don’t like my job. I LOVE MY JOB! What I’m trying to ask is, how did it become my job? I went to University to be a lawyer and a teacher. Yet I run motorcycle events??? Isn’t life funny like that?

I guess more than anything I am really lucky. I have found my passion in life twice already. First, I raced at an international level for nearly ten years. I travelled, made friends, challenged myself, exercised as a job, and had so much freedom. As an athlete, I HAD to train, prep bikes, drive thousands of KM’s, fly to Europe 3 times a year, and sacrifice a lot of other aspects of my life. But because it was my passion, it (almost) never felt like I HAD to. It was that I GOT to.

Since retirement, I have gone full-swing into coaching and running events. There was an overlap of a couple of years but that was a major juggling act. Since 2019 I have just as much passion for this as I did for racing. Yes, I GET to go to cool properties around Australia and ride motorcycles but I also see the other parts of running a business as an ‘I GET to.’ I GET to be in my office most days each week learning, growing, and conquering things like reconciling accounts, creating and marketing events, working with the motorcycle, managing employees and payroll, and replying to the never-ending bombardment of emails. I could be doing it for someone else, or I could be doing it for myself right?

I have the same desire for success in this stage of my life as I did when I was racing, it’s just that success here is a little more subjective. When racing, if you won, there was a clear line in the sand. You got to stand on the podium, hold up your (usually rather tacky) trophy, and thank the people who supported you. Now, success is if people want to use their hard-earned money to come to one of my events, be coached by me, listen to my talk, or purchase some of my sweet sweet merch. And it is also whether people want to watch me on socials (which between you and me, is a hard one to swallow.) I’m a niche product, and a luxury, so millions of dollars coming my way is a tough ask.

But remember how I said that success is subjective? I can flip it and decide for myself what success looks like for me. If I can’t have a million dollars or millions of followers, it’s OK. Because I LOVE what I do. I have found my passion for a second time and I will continue to grow and change in this space, all the while creating opportunities and events for people to enjoy motorcycling.

I am still trying for those millions but that doesn’t define my success. You guys and girls enjoying yourselves and learning at my events, working for myself and having time off to go adventure riding with my pals on a Monday, and choosing who I work with, is what success looks like for me.