The Comeback. Shane Hodge
as I know that these are truths.
It was I feel one of the best Speeches I ever gave.
I drove back to an empty house in an empty car with an empty feeling and for days I wondered if I would ever fill that emptiness. I thought a lot about this when I was cleaning out Mum and Dad’s house - over fifty years of memories being ditched into a 40sqm rubbish bin. During the moments of throwing out an unbelievable collection of rubbish including what I think is the largest collection of Tupperware I have ever seen I started to think “Is this what life comes down to” just a bunch of stuff thrown in a bin? Is that the legacy my mum left for her 76 years on this planet?
Then it dawned on me, she left much more than this. My Mum left a huge legacy and it should be shared with as many people as it can be. My Mummy left something that would help me and so many other people.
I made the promise to my Mum that I would have my own comeback, that I would speak again and finally write that book I had always said I would. This Book you are reading is the result, as I had re-learnt so many lessons along the way over the three-month journey with my Mum.
I had the passion of helping people burning again. I truly appreciated my relationships and my own life. I didn’t know it at the time but Mum had rekindled the passion that I had for human potential and development. Many of these life points were lost arriving back in Australia in 2009. I had so many “Gaps” in my life, Children, Relationships, Career, Health, but in the one year after Mum’s passing and remembering the Legacy of the Comeback? My Gaps have been filled with great relationships with my Kids, a successful business, speaking appearances in China and a new home. Yes I had truly moved on and forward in my own Comeback in so many areas but some had so much more meaning than others! You see, Comebacks? Are not always measured with Money. Some of the best Comebacks are measured in smiles.
The Comeback is not a Book that teaches you with worksheets and processes. I wrote earlier I wanted to write the book almost like a chat around a coffee table or sitting on a stool at an old bar. To have the feeling of you and me chatting one on one about life, Love, relationships and I wanted to share with you “The Things that Matter? Are the things that matter.” So here we go, let’s chat and enjoy My Mum’s Gift, Her Legacy -
The Comeback
Back in The Day
Fifteen years ago I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Steven Covey, the Author of The Seven habits of highly effective people. What a great man; he was a guest speaker at a Fireside Chat for the Mormon Church. After his chat I got to spend some time with him. I had told him how much I admired his work and I was surprised when he invited me to be his guest at his seminar the next day. It was pretty expensive so I was excited to not only hear him speak but also not to pay for it ha-ha. I love the book so much and I am a great supporter of all the 7 habits, but one in particular has always grabbed me and that being “ Seek First to Understand before being Understood”. So many arguments and troubles could be solved or not even happen if we kept hold of and practised that habit.
The habit leads me to the reason behind this chat, for you to tally grab hold of the Comeback it’s really important to totally understand not only where I’m coming from but from WHERE I have come from.
In the opening chat Lessons from Chats with my Mother, I wrote the following:
“My name is Shane Hodge in 2009 and after 12 years of living overseas I returned home to the Land of OZ. I returned not really knowing what or where I was going to live or what I was going to do. During the last 12 years I had built Companies, been on TV watched by over 500 Million people in China, heck I even sang the national Anthem for my Government in Kuala Lumpur. I had dined with the rich and famous and the poor and down and out. I had done and achieved so much, but at a cost. For twelve years I had not been a Father, a brother and last but not least I had not been a son, and little did I know that my time had arrived for my own personal….COMEBACK”
Well I thought maybe that would be enough of an overview of my life but in reality it doesn’t tell you much. The question would linger of “What Happened Back in Day?” It’s sort of like when you read the Bible and you all of a sudden go from the Birth of Jesus to when he’s thirty years old and turning water into wine, you always have that thought - I wonder what happened before he was thirty?
What did he do, what was the driver to get him to that next place, what happened? Yes before that time I had been very successful, a great sales career, followed by a successful Training and Motivation Company that had ten of Australia’s top ten Corporations as my Clients. But as you will read later greed and divorce ended that. At that stage in my life I was in desperate need of a Comeback but you will read it was not yet my time.
For me to give a glimpse of “Back in The Day” of Shane Hodge is important for me and for you. I stated that after twelve years I finally got back to Australia. I can remember the day I was so overcome with emotion landing at Melbourne Airport. I seriously wanted to kiss the ground when I got off the plane. It had been twelve incredible years, so much happened good and terribly bad. How did I get there, and why did I stay - two keys to my own Comeback.
I had been overseas only once before, a short trip to the Philippines. Marcos was still in power, Martial Law was still in place so it wasn’t a fun place to be at the time. Funny if I would have stayed a couple more days I would have witnessed the place turning into a sea of Yellow and watched Corey Aquino and the Philippines people make history. Marcos got ousted, Imelda packed up her shoes and the rest is history. I had to wait a few more years to leave our Sunburnt Country again and little did I know what an amazing adventure that trip would begin.
I had always been a little jealous of those people that had jobs that took them all over the world. I always thought what a buzz it would be to fly Business Class, stay at great hotels, eat great food and meet sensational people from other countries. So when the opportunity came to take a position like that, it took about thirty seconds to think it over. The job was based in Melbourne and involved travelling overseas every month or so to negotiate the sale of Wireless networking systems - very cutting edge back in the day so was a great opportunity. I thought no problem with the travelling I could still see the kids each month, visit Mum and dad and all the family and mates not much would change so away I went, at last an International Businessman!
My first trip overseas was to attend a Conference with the United Nations to be held in Bangkok. I was so excited I had heard so much about the place I could not wait to get on the plane.
Well Bangkok was great, sensational people, food, the conference was a huge success and apart from the Traffic which is shocking, and the worst case of food poisoning from a nasty street side Satays, I had a great ten days away and it fulfilled all I had imagined - great hotel, Business class wow I thought I had made it. Then came a call from my Boss in Melbourne.
“Seeing as you’re in Thailand” could you just pop over to Malaysia and do a presentation to Telekom Malaysia. I thought “no problem” and more excitement on the way. What I didn’t think about was it was my son’s Birthday and I had promised I would be back home for the party. Well I thought!! He will understand - plenty of birthdays to come, next year would be Ok and off I went to Malaysia. Another incredible place, awesome food, people and so nice the weather, I was in my element. I had called Luke and explained. He was a little upset but accepted my assurance I would see him in a week or so – “we will catch up, drive go karts son” I said, “all will be great” and I hung up the phone.
Meetings with Telekom went well and I was about to pack my bags and head home and then another call came. “Seeing as you’re in Malaysia, could you just hop on over to Vietnam and do a presentation there, it won’t take long and you can take some extra time and be a tourist when you’re done.”
So far I had been gone almost a month, but I thought “what a great opportunity”. But I also forgot! I was due to ride go karts with Luke, I was also meant to go along with Luke and visit the other kids in Casterton which is about four hours drive from Melbourne. Again I just simply made the call, “Promise” you Luke