Beyond My Wildest Imagination

By Gerald Ebenezer and Grace Ebenezer

This project was a father-daughter collaboration in every sense of the word. Gerald Ebenezer wants to help you see the world in a way that tells a story that fuels you. An introvert by design, Gerald seeks to reinvent himself many times over in this journey of life, and is still learning. Grace Ebenezer is an extrovert, 15 year old who has big dreams and lives life to the fullest. Beyond my wildest imagination challenges each of us to initiate action that matters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Aug 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543753011

Gerald Ebenezer

Gerald spent a large part of his life in the corporate world and left to venture out on his own. His journey took him and his family to New Zealand. The book co-written with his daughter is a reflection of his experience as a corporate professional and freelance coach.

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Copyright © 2019 by Gerald Ebenezer with Grace Ebenezer.

ISBN:                Hardcover                978-1-5437-5300-4

           Softcover                  978-1-5437-5299-1

       eBook                       978-1-5437-5301-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

WHAT IS THE SMALL BEGINNING

YOU CAN INITIATE RIGHT NOW?

It was the beginning of an adventure.

It was March 2017. I was placed in a big room with three thousand highly energised people with a mission, 16,467 km’s away from home. The room was filled by John C Maxwell’s inspiring presence and his dedicated faculty of Paul Martinelli, Roddy Galbraith, Ed Decosta, Christian Simpson and Chris Robinson.

It was in that big room that I first saw and heard Seth Godin speak on taking action and leveraging technology. Seth has this uncanny ability of asking and answering the right questions on everything modern marketing. He has a level of empathy that I have not sensed before, leaving me wanting much more.

I have been an avid reader of Seth’s blog since then, and started my own just by following his approach. This book is a direct outcome of his invitation in Footprints on the Moon to write and ship my work.

My fifteen year old daughter, Grace was instrumental in helping put this work together and added some perspectives of her own throughout these pages. Her perspectives are shown in italics.

Table of Contents

PART ONE - Learning to See

Leadership is not management

Fork in the road

Spur of the moment

Big fish in a small pond

In the heat of the moment

A matter of trust

Rebel without a cause

Best in the world

No one is immune (The shiny object syndrome)

Courage to bail quickly

The One Thing

Never all or nothing

Disappear in a puff of smoke

1 YES equals 100 NO’s

The illusion of age

No. 1 weapon in our arsenal

Too good to be real

Tip of the iceberg

Someone is watching

Where the rubber meets the road

Fight the urge

The right exposure

Game changer

Point of view

PART TWO - Dancing with Fear

Child in control of a car going 100km/hour

Part of the full package

People like us do things like this

The courageous out there

PART THREE - Initiating Baby Steps

Window of opportunity

Almost never about talent

Call us out from the shadows

Get our feet wet

Race to the Top

Best kept Secret

No turning back

Name of the game

Get the job done

Time to let the genius out

The tipping point

Crack the code

Put it on cruise control

Creating a display of our own

Never too late

Give it away to keep it

Few steps ahead

Mind of its own

At least 10000 times

Your one gigantic billboard message

Be an artist

Compounding effect of taking action

Questions for Reflection - Situational Intelligence

Questions for Reflection - Some Ideas

Author’s Note

PART ONE - Learning to See

Putting the cart before the horse

We cannot accept what we are not aware of. We cannot action what we have yet to accept.

This first part is all about learning to see - a collection of twenty-four perspectives that came up for me serendipitously. I invite you to add perspectives of your own that help you where you want to go.

Leadership is not management

There is a clear difference between management and leadership. What is baffling is that we often hire for management and expect leadership.

We recruit out of job descriptions and expect out of the box thinking.

We dictate compliance with standard operating procedures and expect initiative.

We pay for obedience and expect passion and commitment.

We engender distrust with management control and expect loyalty.

Leadership is indeed a choice to see people differently and do things differently.

It’s no surprise that leadership is never really taught, it is actually caught.

I attended a program in the U.K in 2009 where there was a range of activities and each one of us took turns to be the leader. There was an objective for each activity and the