Mind Games

Kevin Abdulrahman IS the self-proclaimed ‘man inspiring millions’, an ambitious goal for a young hotshot in the business of motivation. But not even he could escape the wrath of last year’s economic meltdown, losing his livelihood as well as his beloved Ferrari – a token gift he had planned on giving away to a lucky reader of his book series.

“It’s part of learning and being young,” he explained.

“You get arrogant and you think you know it all. You take your fingers off the pulse and become complacent.”

His plans changed and so did his mindset, turning towards effectively working to inspire as many people as he could with his knowledge of positive thinking, particularly in the Middle East where his parents come from.

“A big challenge I noticed in the Middle East is that sometimes we feel like we know it all,” he said, “but I always believed that we can still learn from anyone, be it a 5-year-old or a 50-year-old.

The New Zealand author had humble beginnings as he watched his parents struggle to make a better life for him and his siblings. But as a teenager he had an epiphany of sorts as he walked through a local parking lot.

“How come that idiot is driving a Porsche?” he asked himself. “I’m working 80 hours a week and I would look so much better in it.”

“Most kids think that,” he admits, “but no one around me was a good role model of what I wanted to be because no one had the life that I wanted.”

Chasing your goals and relinquishing excuses are some of the premises Kevin writes about in his latest book What Ever You’re Into: 52 timeless winning truths you need to know to have a chance at winning.

In the book he wants people to start planning their life out and stop fearing failure.

“What do you want in three to five years,” he asks?

“Unless you’re a heart surgeon or a pilot, don’t worry about getting it perfect because it will never be. Get it going and you’ll perfect it as you go along,” he advises.

The environment around us, he explained, is one that conditions people to feel humiliated by failure, something that he is working hard to reverse.

“Can you imagine when you were a kid just learning to walk and people telling you to stop because you might fall?” he asked.

“We’d all still be crawling. It’s because as kids we can’t really hear anyone and we carry on doing things.”

His series of books, which includes Winning the game of life, has found success in many parts of the world for its clean, no-nonsense format of storytelling.

“No one needs to give you permission to be great,” he writes, “only you hold that authority. Work your strengths, have a vision of doing something then get out there and make it happen.”

Another passage says, “Life will say no to you at times. Your job is to make sure it’s not easy for it to do so.”

At just 29, Kevin says one of the keys to his own success has been the ineffectiveness of critics to dictate the way he should lead his life.

“I was always sharing my thoughts and ideas with friends without realising that they were going back to their own lives and applying what I said.”

“I’ve lived more than a lot of people.

His new book, Destined To Fail, hits home for most people still reeling from last year’s global financial crisis. The message revolves around the stigma that society places around failure and understanding the value of personal development.

Life requires you to have lessons, so you have to invest in your mind.”