As Global Ambassador of sportanddev.org and the Swiss Academy for Development, I promote the ambitions of the network, through writing, workshops, speaking engagements, mentoring and facilitating global partnerships.

My History Will Help Your Story!

I have worked in sport and development for over 27 years, starting off as a professional tennis player, and engaging in coaching. Sports has taken me to the highest levels, allowed me the freedom to travel extensively, and meet some of the finest people on earth. I have learned many life lessons, some of which I included in my first book “Sports for Life” (Amazon), after persuasion by my mentor, Greg Moran.

I’m excited to share many of the life lessons that I learned along the way, those that have made me successful, but also the pitfalls that came along, and how to deal with them.

I grew up in a large middle class family of 9 children. Both my parents were teachers, and valued education, placing us in top schools, which they could barely afford, and in which we often survived through scholarship. I loved sport, and played soccer and “bano” with boys on the street, and it remains one of my favorite sports. I was introduced to tennis by a neighbor when I was 8 years old, and later high school, I was selected to be part of a select schools’ program and received proper coaching.Although it was my main sport, I also competed in cross-country running and field hockey. I later went on to compete professionally in tennis, dividing my time between gaining a college degree and competition.

I became a coach after I got married, stopped my career in tennis, and had children. It wasn’t an easy change: those of us who have been through this know that you don’t just stop: you agonize, you get depressed, avoid getting anywhere near a court or watch a match. Our family enjoyed spending time outdoors, and as often happens, I started playing tennis again with friends, and our son Joab (3 years), and our daughter Terry (1 years), quickly picked it up. As they progressed, I chose to learn to be a coach, attending numerous international courses, workshops and certifications around the world, to stay ahead. Joab and Terry went on to earn scholarships to play college tennis in USA, as did many their friends, while I became one of the most successful tennis coaches in Africa.

I was able to translate many of my life lessons in tennis to other sports and, best of all, build a successful mentoring system with more than 7,000 children and 300 coaches training through programs, in tennis, basketball, soccer and rugby, now 27 years later. I also got to give back through non-profit work, when we launched the award winning

Sadili Oval Sports Academy, www.sadili.com. My work in establishing the Girl Power Clubs Africa project provides leadership training to teenage girls, giving them the tools to tackle issues that prevent them from reaching their goals (http://girlpowerclubs.org/) and Ushindi Boys Clubs (https://ushindiboysclubs.blogspot.co.ke/), a rites of passage for teenage boys through mentorship.

Am I done? No, of course not: I’m just evolving: my focus is to share my teachings, to support the thousands of teams and organizations, whether non-profit or business, to recognize the value that sport plays in their lives, to build winning individuals and teams, build staff capacity to run programs, define tools to monitor programs to sustained success, and inspire others to do what I did.

And it starts with one person at a time….one group at a time…one project at a time….and one WIN at a time.

By signing up to join my team, I can promise you on thing: you will change!

You can transform your business to a revenue-producing asset that lets you work as much or as little as you want.

To start off, here are a few areas that I hope you can brainstorm with your team:

This is called creating indicators for success. How about developing only three indicators that will show that you are making steps to success.

Now its time to plan the activities that you will carry out to finally reach your goal.

To perform at your best, you may need to do to make them available. There is sometimes an expense involved, so do include that too.

This is an essential question: it is only through constant learning that you and your staff will grow.