Networking Games - Making Profitable Connections. John Rich
in the saying ‘losers let it happen ... winners make it happen!” Malcolm Weatherup, Freelance Journalist.
I was educated in Poland and migrated to Australia some 20 years ago with Civil Engineering qualifications, but worked as a freelance Marketing Consultant. In 1987 I ventured into video and television production starting my own business called the Family Broadcasting Network. In 1992 Rich Challenge was born and my passion for sailing was rekindled.
I was an active, outgoing man, demonstrating ambition, vision and determination in the world of sailing when suddenly I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. A successful operation was followed by almost fatal complications, and it was in those grey times when facing death that I discovered new depths of determination and tactics to turn away from despair and seek new goals and challenges.
Finding the will to fight back against the physical blows I had been dealt, I eventually found myself as a senior crew member on the yacht Time & Tide; an entry in the BT Global Challenge 1996-97 crewed by people with disabilities. I helped this brave crew sail halfway around the world before another severe challenge to my physical health struck. Many others would have thrown in the towel under these circumstances, giving themselves up to despair and anger but I kept on fighting.
In the four years since then I have been extremely successful in business as a management consultant evaluating financial ratings, IT and marketing solutions.
I have spent the last two years as a crew member sailing a 40-foot racing catamaran. Last August I took part in the sea trials on board the newly restored sailing ship, barque James Craig.
My key project now is the Around Australia Yacht Race I’m currently organising as an “adventure for ordinary people with extraordinary dreams”. Amateur participants will race identical yachts through many different weather conditions experiencing the Great Barrier Reef and the tropics as well as the Southern Ocean weather conditions. The experience will be similar to that of sailing around the world, but in a much shorter time frame. It is going to be “the world's longest coastal yacht race”.
Because of my adventures I am in demand as a motivational speaker and am writing a book to help those who face adverse conditions and harbour personal goals. I see strong comparisons between sailing a difficult passage to get from one port to another, the same as facing challenges in business and life.
Early in August, I had to return a book to the National Maritime Museum’s library and found that Business Club Australia had taken residence for the Sydney Olympics in the same building. While there I to spoke to Julie Foster who was the Project Manager responsible for Member and Partner Services and she convinced me to join immediately.
On my way back to my office in North Sydney I started to question myself as to why I had joined the Club. I wondered if it would in fact help me with my Management Consulting business and organising the Around Australia Yacht Race. I needed lots of contacts to secure sponsorship funding for the event and Julie certainly convinced me it was a great deal.
As it turned out I need not have questioned my decision, as during the 21 days I attended some 42 functions, making contacts with over 700 business people and exchanging business cards with them all. It didn’t cost me a great deal to attend those functions, as most were free to members. Sponsors covered the costs of the lunches, afternoon teas, wine, coffee and use of the Club’s office facilities. My overall costs for the 21 days during the Olympic and Paralympic Games at Business Club Australia totalled; $158 Membership, $50 Opening Party, $50 Closing Party and I chose to attend a Networking Breakfast and pay $99 organised by The Warren Centre. $357 was a small investment with a huge potential return.
The Business Club Australia was a unique opportunity never offered before during any Olympic Games and I was so pleased I could participate in this history-making event which will definitely be adopted by other Olympic organising committees in future.
At the Opening Night party on board the Incat I met Lucille Orr, President of the Australian Executive Women’s Network. She and I continued to meet at daily networking functions and by the end of the 17 days of the Olympic Games we found we both wanted to keep the Club “alive” so we decided to join forces and write this networking book.
It took us three days and nights and then Lucille went back to her Adelaide office and I continued to visit Business Club Australia to attend the functions organised for the Paralympics.
Lucille Orr
“Every so often in history an exceptional human being is born: someone who has endless energy, dynamism that never dulls, a leader who can gather people together and lift them to greater heights. Lucille Orr is that rare human being to have surmounted obstacles with the vision to see over the horizon, she’s that shining light who never seems to dull, the beacon who signals that here is a place to gather, to pin hopes and collect ideas. In Lucille we have a catalyst who offers a supportive starting point or a reinforcement of direction: a Network of Inspiration. The Australian Executive Women’s Network extending to so many thousands of women in every corner of this wonderful country is a phenomenon.” Liz Davenport, Australian Fashion Designer.
In 1994 when Australia won the Olympic bid I was living in Adelaide, but wanted to move to Sydney as I knew it would be an exciting time preparing for the games. Luckily the NSW Department of State and Regional Development started its “Women in Business” mentor program in July 1995 and I was invited to live in Sydney and participate as a mentor. This opened many doors for me and helped me promote a book I had just written titled “How to Ask for What You Want and GET IT!”.
By August 2000 I was prepared for the Games to begin, I had written my first Virtual Book titled, “A Million Dollar Business in a $10 Book” and printed fliers and 1,000 business cards to promote my book to the thousands of visitors flocking to Sydney for the Olympic Games. I didn’t know how I would approach people, because I knew everyone would be focussed on the athletes, not on business.
It wasn’t until a week before the Games began that I learned from a businesswoman I was mentoring in Darling Harbour that Business Club Australia existed. When I heard about it I joined immediately and booked into every networking session available, as I had come to Sydney to meet as many international business people as I could during the Olympics.
Every day I went to Darling Harbour to attend the Club functions. The public transport was very efficient and travelling by train the first day I met Gbovega Okegbenro (Sammie) and his colleagues from Nigeria. They were journalists working for Nigerian newspapers and magazines. Sammie told me he wrote for the Sporting Times. He had fun taking photographs with me on the train and I gave him my business cards. The next day he called me and asked if he could assist me in any way, I told him I’d love to visit the Main Press Centre at Olympic Park. “I’ll get you a pass,” he said. Sure enough 24 hours later I was visiting the centre and the same evening Sammie took me to the Media Village where journalists from every country worked all night. They were either working at their computers sending stories all over the world by email, or in the main dining room chatting and eating with fellow journalists from every corner of the globe. It was fun to be part of this non-stop party for one night during the Games.
I gave Sammie one of my books and the next day he told me he had emailed the Government in his country suggesting they invite me to speak to the Nigerian businesswomen. It was exciting and I’m so glad I stopped working for 17 days to just visit Business Club Australia every day.
While at the Club I met international business people working for Austrade who offered to help me officially launch a book I had co-published several years ago in Japan. The book is nine biographies of successful businesswomen in Japan, Australia and USA, titled “Success Stories – Nine Executives Around the Pacific Ocean”. The Australian women in the book wanted to tour Japan but we had never been able to organise it. I was offered the use of the Japanese Embassy as the launch pad.
My lifelong passion has been to “unite the women of the world in the 21st Century” and help businessmen and women share their unique differences in business. I believe Business Club Australia