20 Habits That Break Habits

Growing Greatness

Pepe Marais

• Publisher: Tracey McDonald Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781990931727
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

After hitting a brick wall in both his business and personal life in 2006, Pepe Marais discovered his purpose on which he rebuilt all aspects of his life over the course of the next fourteen years. The results of his purposeful approach to life have been nothing short of spectacular and in this, his second book, Pepe once again sets out to deliver on his personal purpose: to bring out the best in those around him.

The life lessons that Pepe provides in 20 Habits That Break Habits are based on Aristotle's insight that we are what we repeatedly do, and that excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit. Through his own experience, Pepe has learnt that there are two kinds of habits: those that limit us and those that liberate us. And in order to eradicate a limiting habit, you simply have to replace it with a liberating one.

Throughout this book, Pepe shares some of his own most limiting habits that held him back over the course of his journey, and the liberating habits he replaced each of them with in order to create a significant breakthrough in his own life. From turning wine into water, to replacing television with the kitchen table, if a book could come with a warning sign, then this one should. Because …

it may just change your life!

20 Habits That Break Habits reflects a deep concern for developing human potential and is in service of your journey towards discovering your own inner greatness.

CHAPTER 15

Adam, Junior Strategist, age 24

Average smoking speed per cigarette: 5 minutes 41 seconds

Average reading speed: 271 words per minute

Chapter length: 5,68 × 271 = 1 539 words

Childhood dream: I wanted to be a professional soccer player.

Most limiting habit: I am addicted to my cellphone.

REPLACE
SCREEN TIME
WITH FACE
TIME

On Friday evening, 21 June 2019, I was invited by Marnus Broodryk, a dynamic young South African entrepreneur, to speak at one of his sme.africa events in the Western Cape. The event took place at Mothership Studios, the home of our country’s most prolific Afrikaans rock star, Karen Zoid.

The setting was beautiful, the recording studio filled with old art deco couches, chairs, carpets, low-hanging antique lights and a small stage, with images projected onto the black wall behind it. It truly felt as if we were in the womb of the mother of all creation.

I was grateful for the chance to share my insights as an entrepreneur, gathered over the 40 years since setting out on this journey as a 12-year-old newspaper delivery boy. Because every time that I am afforded these opportunities to give, it grows me even more in return.

The evening was opened by Karen performing a few of her songs. Marnus followed by sharing five key learnings from his past year over the course of 20 emotionally charged minutes, where he bared his own soul, setting the stage for me to deliver my one-hour keynote.

My talk gave context to my background, my challenging upbringing, the growth journey of our business, Joe Public, our bankruptcy, my turning point in my life, finding my purpose in 2007, applying the principle of purpose to our business and systematically rebuilding our enterprise over the course of the past decade, to becoming a leading force in our industry.

My presentation is an ongoing rhetoric that I advocate broadly on a daily basis: That we are in business to deliver on a purpose far more important than profit. That money may be the lifeblood of business and that without it any business will die, but that we don’t wake up every morning thinking we must make blood.*

At the end of the talk, Marnus in closing announced a little surprise to the audience: ‘Pepe will now perform a song he wrote for his wife Heidi, together with Karen.’

It was an idea Marnus had on my arrival a few hours earlier, and one I couldn’t refuse. Because not only am I a closet rock star, I have also been a closet fan of Karen since meeting her by chance backstage after a Watershed gig, back in 1995. Until that day, I hadn’t personally seen her in 20 years, and the opportunity to perform one of my own songs with her was an added bonus to what was already an incredible evening.

And so we closed with an Afrikaans love song which I wrote many moons ago, long before that moonlit night in the little dorp of Philadelphia, behind the Durbanville koppies.

Ek sit hier op my stoep

ses biere en ’n boep.

My buurman laaik my vrou,

maar sy’s te jonk vir jou.

Ek weet nie wat om te doen nie

maar ek sal meer probeer.

In my huis dra ek die broek,

maar my vrou sy kies die kleur.

Koningin van my hart

hou daarvan om my te tart.

Ek dra jou op my hande,

dan steek jy my in die skande.

Vlamkop van my,

my hart is aan die brand.

Maar as ek myself weer kry

dan eet ek uit jou hand.

Herfsmiddae

in die winterson,

drink ek aan jou

my liefdesbron.

Winteraande,

lang ure,

le ons tussen

vier mure saam.

Lenteoggende

proe jy vars,

met elke sonsopkoms

’n nuwe dag.

Somermaande

langer dae,

om saam te wees

bymekaar.

Gemaak uit my ribbebeen

laat jy my harde bene kou.

Maar ek laat jou nooit alleen,

want jy, jy is my vrou.

Ek weet nie wat om te doen nie,

maar ek sal meer probeer.

In my huis dra ek die broek,

maar my vrou sy kies die kleur.

In my huis dra ek die broek,

maar my vrou sy kies die kleur.

It was another one of those experiences in time that will be filed in my memory bank of special moments.

Yet over the weeks to follow, one key insight shared by Marnus during his presentation kept on playing over and over like a stuck record in my head: ‘The person most successful in future, will be the one least on his or her cellphone in the present.’

__________________

I remember one of our first perks as the founders of our new start-up entrepreneurial enterprise, Joe Public Take-Away Adv...