MONACO WORDS OF WISDOM
HM: Do you differentiate your job from your life purpose? GK: A lot of people ask if I like my job, but the problem is there is no difference between my hobby, which is travel ling, and my job. So, I actually haven’ t worked a day in my life. I’ m the only guy you’ ve ever met that runs a super-successful business who’ s never really worked. It’ s what I love doing. Every morning, I wake up and think, oh my god; I can’ t wait to go to the South Pole! I take a trip there, look at the Emperor penguins and then take another trip. I just got back from the base camp at Everest. It’ s amazing because you’ re able to transmit the passion you have for life and communicate to other people. And other people like to do what I like to do, luckily. So that’ s why it’ s been such a successful business.
HM: Have you ever had a life-changing experience? GK: I’ ve had many life-changing events. When I was 17, I was living in Mombasa in Kenya, and I’ d just completed my motorbike trip from Nairobi to Cape Town. My father said to me: « I’ m fed-up with you. You’ re ill-disciplined and you have no future. You’ re going to this wonderful place in England called the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst ». When you get in a troop plane and you wind up in the British military— that’ s lifechanging! [ laughs ]. But it taught me how to run A & K, because it’ s a logistics business. Later, I became a successful polo player, winning the US Open twice and played with the Prince of Wales’ team in England. I had a huge accident in 1996— I’ m lucky to be alive. That was life-changing, because I could never play again. So, then I had to turn all my attention into the business. If I hadn’ t had that accident, I probably wouldn’ t have made A & K such a great company. And there are life-changing moments happening all the time, including the experiences you have while travelling the world: diving in Palau or hiking Mount Everest. Seeing the effects of climate change first-hand is also life-changing. People are always saying, oh is climate change real? CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL. Are the seas rising? Yes, they are. Some of the Solomon Islands— gone. Has the snow melted from Mount Everest? Completely. It’ s black rock. As you go around, you know it is for sure happening.
HM: Do you need to be in harmony with the world? GK: I think you’ re addressing that question to the wrong person. I grew up in Africa. There is no harmony in Africa. When you grow up, you have to survive. I survived the Mau Mau. I survived coup d’ etats. So, my whole life has been surviving. It’ s got nothing to do with harmony. Harmony is when everything is nice and quiet. All my life, I’ ve been on the edge, whether I was a polo player, in the British Army, being locked up in Sudan— there are stories in my book. I was always living on the edge. I never had a chance to sit down and think, « wow, I’ d like to be in harmony ». So, I don’ t have this need for harmony and I don’ t have this feeling of what’ s inside me or what’ s outside me. What I am is what you get. That’ s it. Just get on with life.
HM: What is happiness for you? GK: Happiness is all sorts of things. But for me, happiness is if my company has a positive cash flow and I have a lot of money in the bank. That’ s the first thing. As long as that’ s working, everything else falls into line. If that goes wrong, everything else starts to go wrong. If your company’ s not doing well, and money is an issue, then your personal relationships become an issue, whether it’ s friends or wives. For me, it’ s
Every morning when you get up, « the coffee cup », whether it’ s at half empty or a quarter, you must think it’ s full. I always think the coffee cup is full. That’ s how I approach life.
to be very successful in my business, and then everything else is successful. Obviously, my wife and my family are very important— more important. But you have to have the two together. If one is off kilter, the others will be too.
HM: Do you have a role model, or someone you really admire? GK: When I was really young, I admired a famous general who fought in WWII. General John Frost was the hero of Bruneval and had a movie made about him— « A Bridge too Far ». He’ s my hero. Then there are the inspirational business people I’ ve met, like David Rockefeller, who just died sadly. He was one of my first clients and he took 48 trips with A & K. He was an ama zing man and did so much good around the world, and I thought he was amazing. Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, he’ s a very close friend of mine. We spend a week with him every year. He’ s fantastic. To sit with him on one of his ranches and hear how he loves ecology; how he gave $ 1 billion away to the UN; how he saved the bison. He’ s an amazing, incre dible person in every way— he’ s one of my heroes.
HM: What are your criteria for success? GK: I was a world-class polo player at one time and success for me was winning the US Open. I won it once; I won it twice. I won the World Cup. For me, success is somewhere in my head, winning. I’ m very, very competitive. Whatever I do, I have to win. I have to be the best. There’ s never ever this « oh, let’ s go and have this …» No. It’ s got to be a world-class product and beat everybody else. What I like about being successful is everybody comes up to me and says, wow, A & K is once again the world’ s best tour operator— we’ ve been named that 16 times in the last 16 years. We are the best. And if we ever don’ t win it, then I’ m upset. It is a mental thing. Success is being recognised for doing something great.
HM: If you don’ t succeed at something, how do you feel about it? GK: In life, you will never win the first time, or even the first five times you try something. So, if you don’ t succeed the first time, you sit back, look at what’ s wrong and go do it again. What went wrong? Go do it again. And so on. You never, never, never give up. Keep on trying, analysing what went
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