Several years ago, while mid-air, going on vacation I just suddenly felt light headed and a had a flash of stomach cramps that lasted for about an hour – during this time, everyone in the flight was sleeping. So, I squeezed through people and went to the toilet to try and relieve myself from the pain, but the pain just didn’t go away and I just remember thinking “This is it!” After another 30 minutes of sitting on the floor of the toilet – suddenly everything had cleared, pain was gone and I felt relieved.
I didn’t know what had just happened and what I might have eaten that disturbed my system. Anyway, for the duration of the flight and the two-week vacation, the pain never came back again up until a week later when I found myself unable to get up from sitting on a floor for 2 hours with little movement. The next day, I immediately visited my medical doctor, already self-diagnosed that I have kidney problems. The doctor did all the necessary tests for kidney problems and she found that I was clear – but then she pressed my stomach and after that her eyes just showed some concerns – she immediately referred me to the nearest hospital for a sonar scan – luckily, I hadn’t eaten anything that day.
The radiographer was happy that with an empty stomach, the scan would be good. Soon after, she just referred me back to my doctor with no feedback. As I arrived at my doctor’s rooms, she said she had already made a booking with a specialist to see me as I have an AAA! “What are you talking about, what is it, am I too battery powered-up?” The next day, I’d see a vascular surgeon who referred me to a CT scan – when the results came back, I realised that I had two “hearts” – I know I am kind, but not that kind. So, the surgeon explained that my artery had weakened, was bulging up and I have an abdominal aortic aneurysm, AAA, which is beyond (5cm) risk of rapture and that mine is 10cm – I need to go for an invasive operation and will be out for 12 weeks!
“Me, out for 12 weeks! No!”
So, I asked for a second opinion from a cardiologist professor I know and explained my situation over the phone – he laughed and said, “Not a chance! Come to my rooms I work with a vascular surgeon” Confident that I was initially misdiagnosed, only to realise that it was indeed true and on top of that they discovered two more aneurysms. This is strange, the demographics aren’t aligned – I was below 40 and this is known to be found in males over the age of 65. Nonetheless, I was able to get treatment with the aid of modern technology and instead of being out for 12 weeks, I was discharged from hospital within 24 hours. But the catch is that I need to annually monitor my progress and also take the prescribed medication.
I have always been passionate about training and development – and I intended to develop myself through application of innovative methods in this area, but then I realised that there are other enabling pillars to serving this aspect that I need to incorporate in serving in this area. Health is a key factor – without my health, the training cannot happen. Without the relationships, I probably I wouldn’t have been able to get the medical assistance I need. If the medical facilities I was treated in were not run as businesses, I wouldn’t have been able to receive the medical assistance I need.
So, I have been working on a platform that will serve passion of training and development, and also backed by the other important pillars: Health, Education, Relationships and Business (HERB). So the signature GROW programme on our https://selfsift.com platform will be backed by this four pillars. I would be foolish to think it is something that I can carry forward by myself – I know WHERE I want it be in 3 years’ time, that is 31 December 2025 – I want it to be having an at least USD $100 million per annum impact in these 4 HERB pillars. The HOW TOs will have their own champions, who of course need to be aligned with the underlying GROW HERB principles.
Health will look at improving longevity at the cellular level – what makes one’s cells live longer and consequently have a longer physiologically healthier life? Some of the key areas to be focused on will be: blood pressure, blood glucose, blood oxygen and heart rate. Nutrition will also be a key part of this. We will have mechanisms that are as a convenient as possible and do not necessarily force an immediate drastic lifestyle change.
Education needs to move with the times – we will cater from basic education, starting off with Mathematics and then by 31 December 2025 our signature programme, Timeless Skills Training, will be fully implemented. Although predominantly an online platform, this will be highly interactive at affordable rates.
Relationship building is a core skill that goes undermined quite significantly. We believe that mental health is highly driven by the nature of the relationships one has. Although not solely focusing on mental health, this will be for the purposes of developing skills that can help one navigate comfortably in diverse environments.
Businesses run the world economy and the world economy is constantly evolving. We will be the leader in developing businesses in the financial services sector. Although we will serve other industries, we will be the go-to service provider for ensuring entrepreneurs in the financial services sector create sustainable businesses that not only serve their clients well, but also become employers of choice.
Building these pillars is a mammoth task and will not be done in solitude, so we will be onboarding the relevant players at the relevant growth stages. Feel free to send me queries or comments on understanding this further.