17. PAUL WATKINS

Our next guest on The Courage to Lead Interview Series is Paul Watson and Author of Lost and Found - why we need adventure. He describes himself as the original nerd. His story is beyond interesting. Paul owned several large pharmacies in rural Victoria and they were very successful. He had the fast cars, the wealth, the house but he did not have a sustainable lifestyle. Paul survived on minimal sleep, striving for more success in wealth and a thriving business model. He lived off fast food and had an account at the local Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. He was conservatively 20 kg overweight. Paul made a decision to change this, which ended with him selling his businesses and eventually being a competitor in little known event called The 6633 Arctic Ultra - a 583 kilometre unsupported solo race deep in the Arctic Circle. This is his story. We explore how Paul became this person. He attributes his journey to creating the discipline in himself to make high quality decisions. His main message is he wants people to have a better story for themselves. I really enjoyed this interview and there were a lot of laughs throughout, I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. I will leave you with a recap of some of the best messages from Paul. Remember we are all dealing with human beings, who have feelings, hopes, dreams and emotions. We are a system. If you develop better human beings, starting with ourselves, we will by design have a better world.