John Banks is very goals focussed. He shows us the set of attitudes it takes to live to 112.
At a Glance
· Auckland City Mayor
· John chairs 6 international companies in industries as varied as property, technology, learning, health foods and fund management.
· Married to Amanda (Pharmacist) with three children
· John was elected the Member of Parliament for Whangarei in 1981 and re-elected for six terms
· John was a popular broadcaster on Radio Pacific
· In 1999 he was awarded Best Individual Air Personality of the year at the New Zealand Radio Awards.
Is a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary International
· Was awarded the Companion of The Queen’s Service Order for Public Service (QSO) in the Year 2000 New Years Honours.
Here is my interview with John, unplugged, on his goals, his life and philosophies, what drives him and what turns him off. His answers to my questions are frank and useful and straight from the hip. I found him to be prepared, sincere and always looking at the big picture.
I’m only going to live to 112. I don’t have time to associate with people that lower my self esteem.
My life is very regimented. I get up at 4.15am every day. I go to bed at the same time every night, and I eat at the same time every day. I never smoke cigarettes, I don’t drink alcohol and I’ve never taken drugs. My faith, my health and my family are very important to me. I don’t carry grudges, and I don’t hate anyone. My life is about honesty and perseverance.
When I was six, I was so hungry I used to steal the other kids’ lunches at primary school. If you’ve been through that experience, you’re pretty focused.
I give my family two things – unconditional love and a world-class education. They know come hell or high water that their dad loves them and is there for them. That’s all they need. Let’s not make this complex. I am mindful that the number one problem facing this country today is the breakdown in the home and the family.
We have to be careful with our children that they don’t get everything too easy. My kids work for everything, earning pocket money. Everything is by reward and nothing is given to them. One day they’ll get a lot, and you need to prepare them for that.
Quite a lot about the last mayoral election was about proving a point. I have now been in public life for 30 years, and had 12 elections.
I’m not a clever person, but no one works harder than me. No one.
I made a solemn undertaking to my wife on my wedding day that my work comes first and I’ve kept that promise. Work is my life. I have never been on a golf course – life’s too short. I go for a walk.
Most people don’t understand what struggle is. Struggle is when it’s difficult to go to sleep because you’re hungry. Struggle is when you wake up in the morning and you’re more hungry. At primary school, my teacher once asked me, “What are you going to be when you grow up, John?”. I said, “I’m not going to be hungry.”
My faith has underpinned my life. I don’t wear it on my sleeve, because faith is a private thing. A Salvation Army officer was singly the most important person in my life, because when there was no hope, when we were living in a welfare home with no running water, and in a one-bedroom cowshed, he would pick us kids up and shuttle us 16 miles to Sunday school and back. He said, “I’m going to take you to meet Jesus.”
Don’t force your views down the throats of other people. We should treat everyone with respect and dignity, value other human beings and do what is right.
Everyone born in New Zealand has the right to be successful, because this is the land of opportunity. If you can’t make it here, you’re not going to survive in Madagascar. What most people don’t have is a level of commitment – what are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals?
If I wanted to be, I could be the Governor General or the first President. My whole life I’ve had a ‘broken glass and raw meat’ attitude, and I’ve achieved my goals. I have been fortunate to have been a regional and local councillor, an MP, a Minister of the Crown and Mayor of Auckland. I have a single-minded attitude to having a vision, setting goals and winning.
Nine out of 10 people don’t have goals. They don’t understand what a goal is. “I’d love to drive that Ferrari that Banksie has” is not a goal. You have to be prepared to sacrifice. I have daily, weekly and yearly goals, and I worked 90 hours a week for 40 years to achieve them. It’s not difficult, but there has to be fundamental analysis of where you are and where you want to be.
A goal is only a goal if there’s a 50 percent chance of it being achieved. If it’s too easy, it’s not a goal, it’s a benchmark. And if you’re not very, very hungry to reach your goals, you won’t get there. The fundamental framework of setting goals is one word – SMART. Specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused and time-framed. I use that every day.
I have had a few mentors, but Sir Robert Muldoon was the man who gave me the break and didn’t judge me for the actions of my father.
Don’t work FOR anyone. I’ve never worked for anyone in my life. I believe in working with people with shared values. I’ve never been a manager, I’ve never been a boss, I’m a leader. Role-model leaders have people working with them, not for them.
Recognise how fortunate you are to be born in the South-west Pacific, how great it is to be alive and a human being. I have been blessed – I have had a hugely successful commercial career along with my political life and public service. I have been able to do much more than most people because everyday I set priorities: important, not important, trivial. Each day until 7:30 at night I set out what I want to achieve and tick it off. I know where I’m going. I’m always prepared.
I set aside an hour everyday for quality thinking. On the side of Mt Hobson, there’s a seat with a little plaque on it that says, ‘Life is not about obstacles, they’re only challenges’. I sit on that seat and I look over the city, out to Rangitoto, and I spend an hour doing the most high-quality thinking.
You don’t need more than 6 or 5 hours sleep otherwise you’re wasting your life. People spend far too much time in bed, and a lot of people die in bed. They’re not fulfilled because they don’t understand how to get the best out of their life.
If I’m at a function or a party, someone’s house, and it’s 10.30pm, I’m out of there – I just get up and go. Even if they’re about to serve dessert, I’m out of there. I’ve got to be in bed at 11, because I’m up at 4.15am. It’s discipline. I’m not going to sit around drinking alcohol and blurring my mind. People say it’s boring, but I find indulgence boring.
I don’t have any friend that’s a loser, they’re all successful. From Roman Catholic priests to senior government officials, to people I’ve been involved with in sport, business, industry, commerce, local government. All my friends set goals and achieve them.
My first day at school, my primary teacher told me I had a right to be successful.
My radar screen doesn’t pick up negativities. I have experienced a lot of failure, and you only learn anything from the bad times. Success doesn’t bring learning and a mental change, so you’ve got to have failure to have success. When I was very young, I knew everything. Now that I’m getting older I realise how little I know.
When I lost the previous Auckland mayoralty, my friends were very generous. One of my friends said come and stay with us in London for a week, I’ll pay the airfares, put you up in my home, take you around and look after you. Another friend said come and stay at my home in Honolulu and we will look after you for a few weeks. Some one offered me their villa in Fiji. And one of my friends in Whangarei, a highly successful real estate salesman said to me, I will pay to send you to Sydney on a weeks high level strategic self evaluating course run by a friend of mine called John Wall. So he bought me a first class air ticket on emirates, paid for all my accommodation at the best hotel in Sydney and put me on this course for 4 days. It was so inspiring I bought half the company.
I didn’t need a taxi to get back to the airport I could have walked on the clouds. What this guy had to teach me was profound. And it came at that time where I had taken a heavy hit around the Auckland mayoralty and John had this little company called Business Solutions now Sugar International. He would take high level, high performance Chief Executives and get them to reach out well beyond their limits for 4 days and we all did. Most of them were all Australians and didn’t know who I was, but I left there saying “I’m going to buy this business” I said to John I’m going to get a group of friends and turn this into the biggest training business in Australasia and we have. We are very busy at the moment doing acquisitions and mergers as we want to grow it big and we are very busy around that.
In our next blog we interview Gray Bartlett who shows us what gets him going each morning.
Goalgetting Tips for today
- Create an empowering routine that works for you
- Get rid of habits that hold you back.
- Set aside quality creative and strategic time each and every day
- Never give up -even after a big loss
- Be conscious about giving back to your community
- If you want something badly enough -be willing to sacrifice…a lot.
- Develop S.M.A.R.T goals for yourself, then create action each and every day.
Can you live the same kind of extreme goal focussed life that John Banks does? What is your brand of living? Would you like to live to 112?