Next thing he knew he was flat on his back - people milling around, shocked expressions on their faces.

At 8:40am I got a text message - "I was just hit by a car in front of school with people".

My first reaction was, "Huh?" and I immediately rang him. "What’s going on?" "I was just hit by a car" "Are you okay?" "Ambulance is here". "Oh sh*t, how bad is it?"

He sounded fine, but I’ve learned over the years that adrenaline and shock can do that.

"Where are they taking you" "I don’t know" "Find out and I’ll call you back".

So began yesterday with my 17 year old son, Zahan.

I got to the Emergency Ward at Royal North Shore to find him lying in bed with a drip, complaining of a lot of pain in his right leg. They’d taken x-rays, nothing broken, thank God. No concussion, no internal injuries.

Quite a miracle given he’d been hit by a car doing 40km/hr (it was a school zone and fortunately the lady driving was doing less than that.) He’d been hit, gone over the bonnet, smashed the windscreen and bounced back onto the road.

And the amazing thing is that the only thing broken were his headphones! He even got right up, went and collected his MP4 player and sun glasses from the road. Ah, adrenaline to the rescue.

We spent the morning together in hospital, they did a battery of tests and pronounced him fit to go home. He’s a very lucky young man. (I shudder when I think it could have been a 4-WD with a bull bar or a bus - not a normal sedan.)

Now you’re probably wondering how this connects with what I normally write about…

Zahan and I had a pretty interesting conversation while he was lying in Emergency. And it highlighted how beliefs can be formed.

He’s been in a number of scrapes in his life (and who hasn’t). But as he’s come out of most of them pretty much okay, he thinks he’s "invincible". While I sort of gently put that one to bed, telling him he was very, very lucky and that someone "up there" was looking out for him, his response was very interesting.

"Well, I don’t know or believe that anyone’s up there… but maybe I haven’t done everything I need to do in life yet and that’s why I’m not dead."

"…And having got through this, I KNOW I can be a millionaire."

And that one to me is very good example of how we can create our own beliefs and have them run our lives.

For I have no doubt that he’ll do very well in life. Now he’s got even more reinforcement for himself - an "if then else" type structure. "I survived, so I’m destined for greatness" etc.

Now my point here is not to make any sort of judgment on the belief or cause and effect. My point is that most beliefs we hold are irrational. After all, what’s surviving got to do with how well or badly you do in anything?

Unfortunately, this is very often the case though. You can see it everywhere. People have all sorts of excuses for being successful or failures. They may not consciously articulate it, but it’s there.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to self worth. "Do I feel worthy of (money, success, great relationships - you fill in the blank)"

If not, you’ll never have it, no matter what you "publicly" espouse.

And coming back to marketing… you’ll never really do well if you don’t believe "internally" that you deserve to be successful.

And if you suspect this is the case, book yourself in for a session with me - and remove the blocks. Over the years I’ve worked with all sorts of people and had some spectacular results - you can see what some of them have said here.

And my final thoughts? Life is precious. You never know how much of it you’ve got left or when a loved one could be snatched away. Make the most of every day and in the words of Dean Martin, "Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today."

Till next time,

Rashid.

Let me explain with an example…

Some of you would know we have my 17 year old son, Zahan, back living with us after a 5 year hiatus in the US of A. And it’s fantastic having him back. He’s a really great young man.

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The world is full of strife isn’t it…

If you’re not living in a part of the globe where there’s constant carnage and destruction, count your blessings.

However, not all discord happens far away. Unfortunately, a lot happens in families and in business. And when the two are connected, woof, there can be fireworks, love, betrayal and hate.

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I’ll be the first to admit it. I’ve been in this place many times over the last 47 years. And there I would have remained, like so many people in the world except for one thing. Stick-to-it-ivity.

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You know the type - you went into the corner shop (try finding one now) and the owner (who’d been there for donkey’s years) greeted you by name, picked out the best produce for you and made real conversation.

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Back in those days, I worked in IT in a technical capacity and had no idea about marketing.

Our team was dominated by engineers (and I’m one), so in our search for a product, we spoke with lots of inventors, looking for the next big thing.

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How about the pre 9/11 days when airline pilots actually walked through the cabins and greeted the passengers. And if you were bold enough, young enough, or lucky enough, you got to go up front and sit in the cockpit. Boy, try doing that now!

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What if you had prospects ringing you up, asking for more information? People who were already interested in your product or service, actively looking to buy, or at least be in a frame to get more information from you as to how you could help them. How would that feel?

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