What does it really take to achieve our dreams? To envision and design our lives, and then make those dreams happen? It takes constantly checking in with your habits, and constantly pushing the boundaries. It’s making mistakes fast and moving on fast. When you’re building something significant, you’re constantly dealing with stresses, and constantly worrying, ‘Am I doing the right job? Am I okay? Am I developing quickly enough? Can I handle it? Do I have the right people around me? Do we have enough cash to fund where we need to go? Is the team happy? Is this what I’ll continue to love doing?’

It takes being able to deal with too many things piling up at once. If you want to grow by 100 per cent, 300 per cent and 500 per cent, like we have, things pile up regularly. You must get used to mess, uncertainty and things breaking. When you’re that ambitious, you’re never settled. You’re in a constant state of pushing the limits, and it can be very exhausting. You’re a lot more stressed and you’re living with a lot more pressure. But hey, what a ride! You only live once.

There will be times when you’re too under the pump and you negotiate to tame it back for a week or a month — to rejuvenate so you can push hard again. But there will be other times when it’s too much stress, too big of a workload or you’re simply utterly exhausted, and you’ll have to push through to deliver. That’s when you’ll have to dig deep.

Digging deep

We’ve all had those moments. It’s 4 am and you have an early flight. You have deadlines and you’re feeling unwell. The alarm clock goes off telling you to go to the gym and you simply don’t want to. I see so many amazing people push through, such as single parents I employ continuing to evolve their careers. They dig deep all the time and I respect them so much. Digging deep is never easy. It’s the overseas flight where I’m on the ground for three days, and I’ve got to meet a client and do a presentation and look like I’ve got it all figured out. I’m jet-lagged, have barely slept, and I’ve got to make sure that everything is dialled back home, or I’ve got to handle some problems that occurred while I was flying over. Then I’ve got to get up at what is 2 am for my body clock and have as much energy as I normally would if I’d slept well.

I have countless stories like this, where I’ve had to really dig deep. In OTG’s third year we got an overseas charity as a client who needed 10 000 drink bottles. They transferred $25 000 upfront for the drink bottles, we checked that the funds had cleared and then we began manufacturing. At that time OTG’s cash flow was tight, and it was great to have this order come through to ease the financial stress. The charity sent us the details of a freight-forwarding company they had used often — there’s a lot of freight forwarding in our industry, a lot of one-man operators who you pay and they control the cargo ships, and so on. We transferred $13 000 in freight cost to the freight-forwarding company and shipped the drink bottles. We then got a message from the bank to say that the $25 000 transfer was done with a stolen credit card, and we had to pay it all back immediately. We panicked, looked deeper into the freight-forwarding company and realised it and the charity was a hoax. They had run off with the $13 000 ‘freight’ money. I had to negotiate like crazy with the bank to only pay half of the $25 000 back immediately, and pay the rest back in monthly instalments because now the business was really struggling. Moments like these almost sent us broke, and there have been many more. But it was always the way we looked at them that made the change.

Winston Churchill said, ‘Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm’. It took us six months to get our heads back above water — back to where we’d been six months earlier. It was a kick in the gut to not only lose the money but to lose the six months of growth. I had to sell hard, working even harder than before. It was a painfully stressful six months. I was negotiating with all of our internal suppliers, letting them know what had happened. ‘Guys, we’ve had a big problem. Can I pay your bill a month later?’ I was totally transparent, communicating with them so they knew what was happening. And because I’d built my relationship with them over the previous three years, and I’d always done the right thing by them, they understood. ‘Sure thing Mick, that’s fine.’

Through most of this journey I’ve dealt with a lot of pain. I’ve felt totally alone many times. Ultimately, the buck stops with me and my team; it’s all resting on our shoulders; it’s all our responsibility. I have only gotten to where I am today through my commitment to my purpose; it’s my purpose that’s helped me to dig deep every time. To make your dreams happen will be hard, hard work. To live your purpose every day will be painful at times. You’ll have to dig deep. And when you feel like you have nothing left — absolutely nothing — you’ll have to dig even deeper. But when your heart is beating with purpose, when you have a vision and a mission you’re turning into a reality, when you see how you’re touching people’s lives, when you look after yourself with great habits, you’ll find that somehow, you can do it.

Recently, I had eight flights and visited five cities and four hotels in two weeks. I spent only 24 hours in my own bed at home in Canberra. A friend — a lovely 29-year-old guy — committed suicide on the weekend before I had to leave. I couldn’t believe it. I was shattered that he was gone. On the Thursday morning, I woke up in Canberra and had an 8 am flight to Melbourne. I had three back-to-back meetings booked in from 10 am to noon. At 1.30 pm I would be giving my fourth presentation for the week, and I would have to nail it. It was the last piece of the puzzle to close our biggest deal yet, with one of Australia’s largest listed companies, and all their executives would be at the presentation. They’d be thinking, ‘Mick has sold us well over the past three months. Now, can he deliver a presentation in front of 200 of our staff, who will be the ones selling his products when the deal goes through?’ I had to tick a lot of boxes. My presentation had to make the executives want to do the deal, and it had to get the buy-in from their salespeople so they would effectively sell our products in the future. To do that I had to make sure I was presenting OTG in a way that wouldn’t look like a threat to them, and would instead look like the opportunity it is. It was full on — there was a lot of light on Mick. It was all up to me to perform well.

At 6 am that morning in Canberra I was thinking about the presentation I had to give in Melbourne that afternoon, which I still needed to prepare for. In a perfect world I would have had all week to prepare for something that crucial, but I’d already taken flights and delivered three different presentations that week.

I went to the gym before my flight, the first time in a while I’d managed to go, which was my own fault. In my overly busy schedule of the previous few weeks I’d struggled to make it happen. At my gym there’s a big TV screen on the wall, showing everyone’s heart rate percentages in the gym. Everyone’s rate is around 60 per cent or 70 per cent, and then mine shot up to 200 per cent. You could almost see my T-shirt rattling, and if you’d felt my chest you’d have thought, ‘Holy shit …!’ It scares people around me more than it scares me now.

I immediately realised that I shouldn’t have pushed myself so hard. I knew that I was overworked and hadn’t had enough sleep. When I look after my body my heart is fine, but now it had gone off into SVT. I stopped what I was doing and headed straight to the bathroom where I could have peace and quiet. I got a towel, wet it, and lay it across my neck. With SVT you have to be calm — panicking makes it worse. I’ve had my heart go off when I’ve been hiking mountains in China without phone reception — a non–English speaking place. I’ve had it go off in 40-degree heat when I was riding my bike on Rottnest Island, just off Perth, again without phone reception. I’ve had it go into SVT when I was snowboarding in Whistler, and going for a run in the European winter. While being really calm I either have to do a Valsalva manoeuvre, which involves breathing really hard into my diaphragm and pushing hard to get my heart to drop back to my normal rhythm, or have a freezing cold shower to shock it back. The third option is kind of dangerous, but they also suggest you can just run hard.

I calmly breathed hard into my diaphragm, and managed to shock it back into its normal rhythm. Now it was 6.30 am and I was utterly exhausted. SVT takes everything out of you and takes more than a day to recover from. Great. I had such a big day ahead.

I got my things and headed home, and then straight to the airport, to find out that my 8 am flight was cancelled. ‘Shit.’ I like energy and momentum; I hate it when a cancelled flight keeps me stuck in an airport when I’m meant to be in another city in meetings. They put me on a 9.30 am flight, and I asked my EA, Deb, to let all my meetings for that morning know I wouldn’t be able to make it. Waiting in the lounge at the airport, I pulled out my laptop and worked on my presentation for that afternoon.

I finally landed and got into Melbourne CBD at 11 am, tired as hell, really lacking my usual GO GO energy. This happens a lot. Adrenal fatigue, and lack of mojo. The past two weeks’ hectic schedule had taken its toll. My friend committing suicide had crushed me. And my heart going into SVT had drained all the last bits of energy I’d had. There was no amount of coffee or food that would help — it was adrenal fatigue and simple exhaustion, both emotional and physical. I began to feel emotionally overwhelmed and unable to think straight, which gets me anxious and in the shits. I was thinking, ‘I’m an amazing guy with an amazing brain. What’s going on? I’m not my usual self. I have to get out of this. I don’t like it’.

Being that exhausted started to awaken my self-doubt. ‘Can I pull off this presentation? How can I get on stage in two hours and be full of energy and nail it? I just don’t think I can do it …’ In moments like this you’ve got to decide: Am I going to do it, or not? I decided I was going to do it. I wasn’t going to cancel our biggest deal yet — a deal that would propel OTG forward like nothing else could! I was lucky I had Michael, my 2IC and Chief Commercial Officer, with me. I turned to him and admitted, ‘I’m completely stuffed. I’m going to really struggle’. He replied, ‘Mate, I’ll be at your back. It’s fine. You’ll nail it. We’re gonna wipe them out’. This is why it’s so important to have great people around you.

I had to dig deep, really deep. I had to rejuvenate myself. I listened to some good music that I like, and then I had a shower to help me feel refreshed and clean after the flight. And I simply forced myself to shake it off. I sang really loudly, did some push-ups and then gazed out the window at the view. I have a favourite saying: ‘You can’t be half pregnant’. You can’t go in there half-assed. I believe in doing things at a 100 per cent. As my chairman says (and has written on my forehead), ‘Never leave anything on the table and leave no stone unturned’. I was going to nail this! I thought about my message and my purpose, and decided that Mick Spencer was going to captivate the audience, delivering an ace presentation. They didn’t know I’d had a bad day, and a big two weeks. They didn’t know I was tired. So I made the decision to really, really dig deep. And I did. I’ve studied NLP and I have some rituals I do to help get my mind in the zone, putting on certain clothes and a certain watch, and not looking at anything on my phone.

The moment I was in the zone, I was on, all in, no looking back. I’d had no sleep and everything else, but I was in the zone. It’s addictive and exhilarating knowing you’re in control — you’re the master of your own destiny, your own mind and body.

I did the presentation, and I nailed it. The deal has since been closed! Afterwards there was a dinner, which I went to so I could speak with all of the salespeople face to face. I was still in the zone, still digging deep, still drawing on energy from somewhere inside. I spoke passionately with every person there that night, staying until the end. The company’s leaders all left between 8.30 and 9 pm, which was well after the dinner had ended and totally respectable. But I went the extra mile, giving it my all, making sure I spoke with everyone, staying until the last person left.

Go the extra mile

Going the extra mile always pays off. Always. For my very first order, I didn’t just deliver those soccer shirts wrapped in plastic. I bought beautiful boxes, I packaged them nicely and I personally delivered them. When I was reaching out to Paul, who at the time was the CEO of David Jones, I didn’t stop when he didn’t reply. I sent him the same message a second time. And, a month later, a third time. I would have kept it up all year if he hadn’t replied. When I didn’t have money for hotels, I didn’t simply not go to expos. I slept in my car and sold hard at the expos. On that Thursday night, after the toughest day of having to dig extra deep, I didn’t go home at 9 pm once the dinner was finished and the other business leaders were leaving. I stayed back until the end, and made sure I had personally spoken and connected with every sales representative. They’re all much more inspired and excited to sell our products because I took the time to personally connect (granted, I don’t yet have kids to go home to, so I still have the luxury of being able to stay out late).

Going the extra mile takes effort, energy and time. It’s why so few people do it, and why you’ll stand out from the crowd if you do. I go the extra mile because what I’m building is bigger than myself. I see OTG as very important for many people. We’re providing jobs and opportunities for 35 staff and for over 1000 factory workers across the seven key factories we use every day. We’re keeping customers super happy. And we’re changing an industry day by day.

***

In 2014, I was on the phone with a client, hoping to close a big order for IRONMAN®. She said, ‘Mick, you know, I think OTG is great, but I don’t know if you know the market well enough. You’ve never even competed in a triathlon, let alone an IRONMAN®, so how can you assure me the product is the right fit for our customer? Who has tested it?’ She was right, I hadn’t, and maybe if I had firsthand experience I would know my market base better. The World IRONMAN® Championships in Kona, Hawaii — the famous, hardest race in the world — had been on TV that Sunday. After watching it I went out and ran 20 kilometres. Until that day I had never run more than 10 kilometres! It had inspired me so much it doubled my running distance. It looked like such an exciting event, and I wanted to be a part of that feeling!

‘I’ll tell you what,’ I replied, ‘if I do the event — if I compete in the upcoming Canberra IRONMAN® — will you give me the order?’

She chuckled. ‘Sure, Mick, I promise. If you do the IRONMAN®, you’ll get the order.’

I grinned. ‘It’s a deal.’

It was nine weeks until the IRONMAN® race day in Canberra, and people normally train for six months to do an IRONMAN®. Everyone thought I was mad — I had never even done a small triathlon! It was going to be mentally, emotionally and physically challenging, especially because of my heart condition and my eyesight (my contacts don’t agree with water, so I would have to wear goggles with the risk of them slipping, and then no longer being able to see underwater). I had never swum more than 1 kilometre, and in this specific IRONMAN® I had to swim 3.1 kilometres. I had never cycled more than 100 kilometres, and now I had to ride 130 kilometres. I’d only just run my first 20-kilometre run, and on race day I would have to run 29.2 kilometres — and I’d have to do the three parts consecutively, in 40-degree heat. There was no way I could train my body and gain the endurance needed to compete … or was there?

Nelson Mandela said, ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’. I prioritised training, and made time for it around running OTG. I immediately bought a wetsuit and completed a small triathlon that first weekend. I was starting before I was ready to the max! I would wake up at 5 am to swim before getting into the office, and I’d run or ride every evening — every single day. I put up big posters on my wall: ‘9 weeks to go’, ‘8 weeks to go’, and so on. It also said, ‘Run your arse off. Ride your legs off. Swim your hands off. Eat, sleep, work hard and you’ll make it’. You have no idea just how much you’re truly capable of doing, achieving and making happen in this life. Starting before you’re ready means making a commitment to push yourself beyond your perceived limits. You’re capable of achieving the things you’ve dreamed of … and more.

During those two months of training and working I completely exhausted myself, and after the IRONMAN® I was burned out. But I’d done it! I’d surprised myself, and I was proud of what I’d accomplished. By making that simple promise, that commitment, I was resourceful and found the impossible becoming possible. I learned how to train my body more efficiently. I gained endurance through long-distance training and I pushed myself so far beyond what I thought possible that it changed me forever. The biggest lesson was the uptake of my mind. I was astonished by what is actually possible if you put your mind to it! Similarly to business, if I could complete an IRONMAN® with just nine weeks of training, from never having done a triathlon before, imagine what we can all do if we put our minds to it …

Plus, as a bonus, I got the order! Which taught me a powerful lesson: when you commit to something, or commit something to somebody, it’s not just about you anymore. It’s about something greater. And when you reach your goal, you look back and wonder, ‘If this is possible, then what else is?’

Other people’s rules

Sir Richard Branson once said, ‘You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over’. And remember that Steve Jobs said, ‘everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use’.

All of my life I’ve broken ‘the rules’ in order to get to where I am today. The world was built on other people’s rules. Question them. Break them. Make your own rules. Move fast and break things. Don’t be afraid.

Get it done

I’m a constant lover of the value, ‘Get it done done done’. This is absolutely crucial. Get it done. Take action. I can’t stand hanging around dawdling. I know it can be hard at times to execute your purpose and passions, but who else is going to do it? There are too many people who talk, and too few who actually get things done. I talk, and I back it up with action and results. I love to get up at 4.30 am and be in bed by 11 pm. I get the most out of my days and put my dreams into executable steps that I take action on because I know that nobody else is going to do it for me. You can have support, guidance, people cheering on the sidelines — but you’re the one who has to run your race. Which is good, because the only one who can do it right is you!

You may be thinking, ‘But Mick, you’ve already made it. That’s easy for you to say’. I’ve made it? Not yet. I might be able to support myself and I’m growing my business, sure. But what happens if I stop? Everything stops. My dreams are bigger than where I am right now, and I’m willing to work harder and longer to make a bigger difference. Remember, you’re never half pregnant.

A partner in crime

We can’t do life on our own. Choosing the right life partner is the best decision I’ve ever made. While building OTG I was also enjoying the single life, dating girls, but none of them were serious. I then met a girl I clicked with, and we dated for 18 months. After the breakup, I was done. I had my company and I didn’t want to think about relationships for a pretty long while.

Three weeks later I bumped into Alicia at a bar. We caught up to reconnect the week later, both curious what the other had been doing over the past five years since we’d seen each at the uni lectures I walked out on. We had a ball hanging out, and for the next few weeks went boating together regularly. It was like nothing had changed — we got on so well.

After a few months, we started dating, and after a few more months, I realised that she’s the girl I want to marry. I proposed to her on a beach in Hawaii in July 2017, and she said ‘Yes!’ She was there at the start of my journey with OTG, and now she’s with me for the rest of it, and for our amazing future together.

I think it’s everyone’s dream to find someone they love. Not only is it special, it’s super powerful when you know your emotional grounding is cemented. We all need grounding; you can’t do everything on your own. I know people who are chasing their careers or business who say, ‘I don’t have time for a partner’, but they don’t realise the risk associated with that outlook. I’ve noticed a huge change in my emotional state now, when I come home to someone I know and trust and love so much. I can do more, I’m more efficient, I’ve got more of a platform to jump off. When I was running the company and single, it was good in some ways, but it meant that work was all-consuming and I was constantly scatted. Having Alicia, who completely understands me and who I completely understand, and who I’m with on this journey of life, makes the whole journey so much better, so much more fulfilling and less stressful. It ultimately doesn’t matter what happens workwise because we will always have each other.

It’s been said that out of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, 80 per cent are still in their first marriage. That says something about the power of a partner in crime — of having their support — especially if you’re taking big risks in your professional life. I love having Alicia’s love, support and grounding to come home to.

Here’s to your success

To get to where I am today, I’ve had to maximise every moment. I’ve faked it until I’ve made it, connected with my purpose and designed my future, believed in myself, and had to trust that the dots would connect. I’ve been coachable, been very conscious about building great habits, promoted OTG constantly and backed my talk with action and results. I’ve faced the tall poppy syndrome and learned how to be unaffected by the naysayers. I’ve been rejected, I’ve moved through fear and self-doubt. I’ve experienced the imposter syndrome often, but haven’t let it steer me off my course. I’ve tried to give 120 per cent each day, lived below my means and sacrificed a lot. I’ve actively learned new things. I’ve networked like mad and negotiated heaps, and used social media to my advantage. I’ve been transparent, sought out great mentors, lived the 4 Ps (Purpose, People, Planet, Profit) passionately, applied street smarts to business, and dug deep constantly.

Nothing on this journey has been easy, but this journey has also meant that I’ve got to have people like Paul (former CEO of David Jones) and Hap (founder of The North Face) as mentors. Not long ago I upgraded my Toyota to an Aston Martin (it’s such a fun car — I love it). Even more exciting is that I’ve been able to watch staff members shine in the culture we’ve created. I’ve been able to give people a better product in one-tenth of the time, with better service. And most exciting of all, I live my dream every day. I’m building my vision. I’m the master of my own destiny — and it’s freaky how cool that feels. And, surprisingly, it’s all happened very quickly, when you consider the amount of time we’re alive.

Though we’ve come somewhat far, we’re still only at the beginning. I really feel like we’re just getting started. Where OTG is today is exciting, but I’m more pumped for the future because there’s still so much more of this path to run down. My ‘success’ has taken time. Everything that’s a success takes time. It’s five or 10 years of blood, sweat, tears and pain for most people to ‘make it’. If someone is a multimillionaire or billionaire, chances are it’s taken them 10 to 50 years of working insane hours and applying the strategies I’ve shared in this book, and more, to get there. The risk with us Millennials is that we see time through a warped, unrealistic lens. We want things quickly. But careers, businesses, relationships … they all take time. Building and creating takes time. You won’t make it in a year. But if you keep hustling and persisting, keep living deliberately and making smart decisions, you’ll make it. I started OTG in 2012, and there’s a long roller-coaster ahead. I’m excited for it. I hope you’re excited for your upcoming roller-coaster ride, too.

Here’s to your success and the next phase — what will be next for you?