I was 38 years old. I had built a veterinary dynasty from scratch in 13 years, straight out of university.

At the time my turnover was four times the national average. Our regional Townsville practices were outperforming clinics in large capital cities across Australia.

If you looked at my professional life, I was a raging success. But peek through the window into my personal life and you would have seen the human toll of a man striving to be the Super Vet.

But here’s the thing – we are human beings living ONE life.

Professional and personal are parts thereof. They are symbiotic in relation to a person’s happiness.

Success, my friends, is only a subjective opinion. Satisfaction and the happiness it underpins is an intensely personal feeling, only derived from a life being well lived.

How many so-called “successful people” lay their head on the pillow at night full of satisfaction?

More often they toss and turn with a head full of worries and anxieties, due to at least one aspect of their lives being a train wreck.

I knew my young son spelt love T – I – M – E and that he had become a “professional orphan” to his father.

So within four years of that conversation I had sold my practices and built a business that allowed me to become a full time Dad and enjoy a six-figure income.

At the time, there were many around me who thought stepping out of one industry into a completely different industry was at best, risky – at worst, madness.

But those were the people who never really understood their own businesses. No matter which industry, we are all in the same business.

My success in both the veterinary practices and my distribution network is due to the fact I understood I was always in the business of people.

I understood leadership and what it took to build individuals into elite teams.

I realised that people had to transition through knowing, to liking and then trusting you. You can’t skip a step and expect people to then follow you.

Every decision I made, every action, was directed by the knowledge that in leadership, people don’t give a stuff about what you know until they know how much you care.

I devoured the science on the human mind and followed the work of some of the greatest leaders in recorded history to serve those around me.

But what I came to realise, through the networking journey, was that my passion was people and if I had a business in a particular industry it narrowed who I got to work with.

It was in this industry, though, I met my now business partner, Juliane Cowan. She shared my passion for empowering people and was the Queen of Systems with a head for business and an eye for leverage. >

As a Mum to four children and partner in an extensive grazing business in North Queensland, her ability to maintain balance is testament to her lazer focus on family and what it takes to maintain deeply connected relationships.

Topcatz was founded from our common mission to empower thousands and thousands of people mentally, physically, financially and spiritually.

Our work with business professionals is usually headlined by our signature two-day program, The Unbreakable Success Matrix.

The messages and teachings never fail to hit home, I think, in part, due to the messenger. I am unorthodox, unusual and have a fierce love for people and an intense dislike of complexity.

As we develop longer-term relationships with businesses who want to maximise workforce potential, we equip their team players with the knowledge and skills to achieve satisfaction and happiness in both their personal and professional lives.

When people come before profit, revenue far surpasses that of businesses for which profit is the bottom line.

We live one life.

If you would like to join Topcatz at their next program in Darwin you can register by heading to topcatz.com.au/Darwin_UnbreakableSuccess  TQ