By 
I went to an ACE school my whole life. In general, it is a system where the student has more to remember and has more responsibility than in public schools and it is an environment of high discipline, at least my school was.
(I won’t go into how much or how little I like that system, and what a very qualified psychologist has told me about placing a great deal of responsibility on a child too early in age.)
In 1999 I got kicked out of school, an event I’m pretty proud of, believe it or not. Since then, I have become good friends with the responsible teacher and, although it took him a while to figure it out, now he sees things (read: ridiculous teacher attitudes and endless unnecessary time wasting procedures) in the same way as me.
Anyway, after being “asked to leave” I spent my days waking up at 1pm or later. I argued that since I “work” late at night, it was okay to get up at 1 pm. I spent a large part of the day watching television, not working. I drove my dad’s Mercedes convertible like he was my own. Being paid a salary to work on a side project, my dad and I started encouraging teenagers to become doctors, surgeons, nurses or specialists. I didn’t even come close to justifying that salary.
For years I clung to the possibility that my dad’s project would blow up and we would all be billionaires. Then something interesting happened: I got older. I started to realize that my life was going nowhere. I realized that I had to do something.
I decided to get up early in the morning and work full days on my dad’s project to help him get back on his feet. The next morning I did not wake up. I set the alarm but when it went off I just killed it.
I made a serious decision that the next day I would get up early. I couldn’t do it. The warmth and comfort of my bed was too much every morning. I am a Christian, and one day I was in church and the pastor talked about self-discipline. This was the problem he was struggling with, so I listened carefully.
It didn’t make any difference though, other than reinforcing that it was important and that I needed it. I knew I had to make a change, but had refused until now after years of not having to get up early and do anything. He did not have the strength of character and self-discipline to make the change. And then I prayed, honestly and sincerely, because the simple fact was that I couldn’t do it. I had tried.
A few months later I received a job offer from an old acquaintance. He wasn’t even remotely qualified for the job, but he had a fatherly role in my life, so he was willing to guide me and teach me accounting and financial reporting, etc., things he absolutely knew. nothing and when he told me he would pay me R10,000 a month, I tried my best to act like that was “okay I guess” but inside I was doing somersaults. I told him I would think about it, but they convinced me immediately. R10k a month are you kidding me?
Well, he pushed me to the limit, not beyond. Every morning I would get up at 5am to be in Edenvale by 6am because ANYTHING was better than sitting in traffic and anything was better than getting screwed on for being late. Since I was in the area since 6, I started going to the gym. She might as well do something with the two hours she had to kill before work.
At the gym, my new boss began to show me that I can go beyond the limits I thought I had. I came close to blowing myself up a few times in the gym, but I got fitter and healthier, feeling better about myself.
At work, my boss would yell at me for every mistake. I once forgot to call him after finishing a meeting with a client. He called me and asked how he was doing. I told him and then he asked me why I didn’t call. I told him what I considered a perfectly acceptable reason, I forgot. I mean, people are people, we forget things.
Well he scolded me big time, “Reg, don’t forget. This is the last time you forget anything, never again if you work for me.”
I think you will agree that this is not a reasonable boss speaking. Something funny happened though, I didn’t forget much after that. For the simple reason that I didn’t want his pain to shit on me if he did. Today, in business, I rarely forget the things I have to do.
I hated my job, my life, so much I can’t even tell you. I once cried while driving somewhere, it just became too much.
Do I recommend my boss’s leadership style? Absolutely not. He has been through many employees in the name of building his character by making their lives difficult. He lost all of his employees three times in the last count, leaving him alone. I think his company would be much bigger, happier and more successful than it is today (although it is successful) if he didn’t make life hell for his employees. Aim, It was what I needed at the time in my life when I needed it.
What I mean is that it was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that one day in January, after only six months of working for my boss, I called my close friend Harry Baladakis and on February 1 I handed in my resignation. On the first day of March we launched a team building drum company.
Since that period of my life, I get up early, have a schedule every day, and be productive all day. I am not married at the time of writing this article, so I am not ashamed to tell you that I want an attractive female assistant. Why not kill two birds with one stone, right?
Now, I finish what I start and very importantly, I don’t wait for things to happen, I make them happen. It’s empowering to know that if you want it to happen, you can Make it happen. Novel concept I know! Someone once said, “Reg is trying to start a business,” and I told them without hesitation and with complete conviction, “I’m not trying.”
I made more money in the first year of my interactive drumming company’s existence than I would have made with the salary I received at my job. Between November and December 2009, just a year and a half after I left my job, we made more in those two months than I would have made in an entire year at my job.
As Anthony Robbins always says, I say this not to impress you, but to emphasize the benefits, the value of cultivating self-discipline in your life. It is VITAL for success. It’s a precious character trait to develop, and whenever I’m tempted to sleep in on a weeknight, I just remember what it took to cultivate my self-discipline and that’s enough to make me never want to go through it again. So I better keep it. It’s literally an answer to my prayer.
I look at friends and people I know who are in the same place I was a few years ago, stuck in a place where they believe life owes them life, believing that one day, something will come along and they will be just fine. It’s not going to happen.
You should do something every day that you don’t feel like doing. Some days you will have to do a lot of things that you don’t feel like doing, but do them. If you can, spread them out over a week or so so you don’t lose all inspiration, but do them.
If there’s something you’re always putting off or something you hate doing, do it yourself. first order of the day. If you do it last, you’ll be more easily tempted to put it off until tomorrow.
Something that also helped me is an audio course called ‘The Science of Self Discipline’. It helps with practical steps you can take, but unfortunately the motivation to do so must come from within.