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Tom O'Neil: School C failure taught Hadlee valuable lesson

5/28/2015

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Welcome to my regular series entitled "My Light Bulb Moment". This column highlights a "blinding flash of insight", business, cultural and sports leaders have experienced, and how this changed their lives forever.

Sir Richard Hadlee MBE.

Sir Richard is regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers and all-rounders in cricketing history. By the time he retired from international cricket in 1990, he had become the first bowler to pass 400 wickets and had made 3124 test runs, including two centuries and 15 fifties.

Born in Christchurch, Sir Richard made his first class debut for Canterbury in 1971/72 and his test match debut in 1973. On both occasions he had an inauspicious start, with his first delivery on both occasions being dispatched to the boundary. Eighteen years later in his last test match against England, he took a wicket with the final ball of his test career.


Lightbulb moment - Assume nothing and work hard!

"While at school, sport always seemed to interfere with my studies and exams, but school did teach me a valuable lesson that I have never forgotten" Sir Richard remembers. "That lesson has helped me throughout both my life and cricket career.

"In 1967 I sat my School Certificate exams at Christchurch Boys' High School. My way of preparing was to write and rewrite my notes hoping to remember the key points. I sat five exam papers and felt confident that I had passed." The results arrived in the mail and his mother appeared with the envelope on a silver tray.

Sir Richard opened the letter, and to his immense disappointment found he had got close, but failed. "This was embarrassing, disappointing, degrading and frustrating, especially as I was the only boy in the family [four brothers] to have failed School Certificate."

Lesson learned

"Realising that I had automatically expected to pass, I now came to terms with the fact that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to work harder, prepare better and be smarter in the way I did things. The following year I sat six subjects and passed them all [easily]. Lesson learned."

Taking those lessons into his cricket career, Sir Richard's attention to detail in preparation and planning was essential. "I got into good habits, disciplines and routines, and the harder I worked the more successful I became on the sporting field. The rest is history. I guess I have done quite well for being an early failure!!"

If you have had a blinding moment of insight (a light bulb moment), please email me as I would love to hear about it.

• Tom O'Neil is an award winning business speaker and MD of both www.CV.co.nzand www.TomONeil.com . Sign up to Tom's newsletter on his website or contact him at tom@tomoneil.com


Reprinted from my NZ Herald Column at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11449400 
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    Tom O'Neil B.Soc.Sci.(Psych) MNSANZ  MCDANZ

    Tom is an award winning keynote speaker and international careers and personal development author.

    Published and featured in the Harvard Business Review, Economist, TVNZ and TV3, Tom is also a business and careers Columnist for the NZ Herald. You can read some of his most recent articles here...

    Tom has written the ‘The 1% Principle’, published through Harper Collins in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and NZ.  Recently the 1% Principle peaked in the top five business books and the top 21 best sellers on Amazon.co.uk.  

    Tom was brought up in an environment associated to human resources and recruitment and has a degree majoring in social and perceptual psychology. 

    After developing and selling two recruitment consultancies, Tom consulted independently in Human Resources to a number of leading national and international organisations including Sovereign Assurance, South Auckland Health, Auckland City and Morgan and Banks.

    After two short period's doing community support work for his church in the Philippines and India, Tom then joined Deloitte as a Management Consultant specialising in Human Resources.

    Over the last twelve years, Tom has been Managing Director of CV.CO.NZ (NZ) Limited, and has been personally involved in designing high quality career solutions for more than 8,000 clients in over 50 countries!

    Contact Tom O'Neil direct on (0800) 282 669 or email him at tom@cv.co.nz to discuss your career and personal development needs.

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    Gaynor O'Neil MRCSA CRC

    Gaynor is a pioneer within the modern world of recruitment and human resources. 

    Gaynor has successfully built up and sold several successful recruitment and HR consultancies and has written various books concerning career matters, one of them sponsored by a national bank.

    Gaynor is also co-author Selling Yourself to Employers’, published through New Holland Publishers in the U.K., Australia and NZ.   She has also been employed as a weekly columnist for a national newspaper, writing about vocational opportunities.

    Admitted to the Institute of Personnel Consultants in 1981, Gaynor is a Certified Recruitment Consultant. 

    You can contact Gaynor direct at gaynor@cv.co.nz
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