#039 The Sabbatical Mindset | Omri van Zyl

Omri van Zyl, guest · [02:57]When I did the Camino, I, I, just after that, I changed my career completely. So I went from a corporate, I worked at Deloitte, so I went from there to Agri SA, and it was unsure where I was going to, you know, end up after that happened, or before, before I took the break. and it's kind of serendipitous because everything just kind of fell in place, I guess, after I took the break. And, the break helped me to reset. I mean, sometimes you're so kind of entwined in your environment and, and, you know, in the expectations you have in yourself and others of, have of you, that you don't really see the wood from the trees. So when I did that, I kind of reset it myself completely, and, I mean, literally, I, I walked 470 kilometers. I, I didn't exercise before that or practice. So, after the first 32 kilometers the first day, the next day I couldn't move. My muscles were so sore and places I didn't even know, you know. So, I took my backpack and I threw everything out. I had two, two underpants, two short pants, a long trouser, and two short ones, and the expensive hiking shoes I had I threw away as well. So, I did that with my Crocs, actually. And the next day I did like six kilometers. I was so, so sore. And then the next day I did, I think, 12, and then I went up, and after the Camino I could walk 30, 40 kilometers a day, no problem. So what that does, it's a, it's a walking and kind of meditating. So, it's extremely, meditative and, and kind of focuses your mind because of the rhythm of the walking. I went on my own, so I didn't know anybody there. I didn't even know how it worked. So I, I made a lot of friends along the way. And it's a bit of a spiritual experience because I used to go into all the little churches, meditate a bit. You know, you'd see people sitting under a tree meditating. So everybody goes there for various reasons. For me, it was just to switch off completely. No cell phone, everything was conversational. You would pitch up at a pension, book it in. Okay, the first couple of days I slept in a, in, in a, orbergue is what they call it, with like 15 other oaks snoring the crap out of me. So I was like, this is not going to work. So I, I put myself into my own rooms. And I met so many people from so many different cultures there, you know. So it was, you know, it was a very enlightening experience. But I had no real idea what I was going to do when I got back. And it's as if the universe kind of conspired to put me in a certain place. And I, I actually got three job offers at the same time. And, and one of them was with Agri-Essay, and I decided to do that. So I became the CEO of Agri-Essay after Deloitte, and yeah, that put me on that journey.

Omri van Zyl, guest · [06:28]I was in a very, very heavy corporate structure. risk and compliance was becoming crazy. I hear it's even worse now. Thank goodness I don't have that at the moment. I think I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a pioneer. I don't like rules, regulations, risk requirements, you know, all of that stuff. And I'm not good at it. I'm not good at admin. So I realized that I spend half my time managing risks. That impede on clear business transactions, and I think that kind of weighed me down because I wasn't playing in my strengths spaces. I was dying, literally. And so I knew I had to do something, and I decided to do the Camino. I've done the Inca Trail before, so that was also a nice experience. I had a couple of camel safaris in my life, so I went into the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Did a camel safari there. I also did the same in the Tar Desert in India. But what that does is it takes your mind and your reality, and it alters it completely, especially if you're in a different country, because you don't really understand the culture, the customs. Promise you backpacking through India for a month was very interesting. I liked it.

Omri van Zyl, guest · [10:51]I said to myself, I'm going to take two years off because I didn't completely know what I wanted to do. And then I said, okay, after that, I want to do something adventurous. So I became a safari guide in Botswana. but not like a jeep jockey. I actually did a, I worked for Caribou Safaris. The first three months they put me under a Land Rover's, bonnet, and I worked in a mechanics workshop. We ate baloney and white bread every day with tabasco sauce on it. I couldn't swing a spanner, spanner to begin with. But there it's an essential skill. I mean, if you can't fix a car when it breaks down on these type of safaris, you spend fourteen days in the bush, deep trouble. So I did the mechanic thing and everybody was laughing at me, but I think I outshined them on the academic front. So I got my professional guides license. I, started guiding. So that taught me a lot about nature, right? So I know the birds, I know the animals. I really know the birds and the animals, not like, you know, guessing is that a carp's a mossy or not. So I, I got my adventure outlet. It's extremely hard work to do that. You take fourteen guests into the bush, they don't know anything. You're surrounded by wild animals. There's no fencing, elephants, lions, leopards, et cetera, hippos, big threat. and it's just you and the guide. And I was like twenty-four years old. I was like, and, and you have these people's lives in your own, in your hands. So I love doing that, but I knew that was not where I wanted to end up. But that taught me a whole different skill set of It taught me nature, but really, I mean, I looked like an animal when I worked there. I mean, I only showered like once a week. It taught me about mechanics. It taught me about people, a lot about people, different nationalities, general, you know, how people are. People are not the same. They're not the same in, in, in Germany as in France or in Australia or in South Africa or in America. And that, that actually kind of internationalized my worldview a bit. yeah, and then I came back and I did my articles and then I ended up working at Deloitte.

Omri van Zyl, guest · [14:57]every time I travel, I realize my current reality is not defined in the world. If you go to China, there's 1.4 billion people. I mean, there's more people in China than all of Africa and America combined. That, that puts you on a completely different mind space. But it's actually so funny, the moment you get into back two weeks later, you, you back into that, I think it's a, maybe a form of classical, conditioning that all, you get back in the seat and you just roll on. And sometimes you have to alter position, and I think that's very scary. It was for me, always scary to change. I mean, we come from a, from a day where people are very loyal, they're very kind of, committed, and that sometimes is a good thing, but sometimes it's a bad thing. So my current job, when I, when I spoke to Russell about it, he said that he would never compromise his freedom, and that, that actually made me think a lot, because you always think that you want to make enough money to get freedom, but you don't think that if you have freedom, you can actually make a lot more money doing that, or if you do something in your sweet, you know, in your sweet spot, or you do something your talents are really acquired to. So that's always the, the dynamic, and I think everybody thinks that. Listen, I need to pay the bills, I need to pay my house, I need to, you know, pay for the kids to go to school. And then, and then when you do, at the end, you know, people talk about retirement and when I retire and whatever, then you've lived your life, right? So there's, it, that's that space in between. So I think, you know, living in that freedom, I mean, incidentally, the guy that studied with me, that was my roommate at, Stellenbosch, I was in Wilgenhof, he's like a flogger. He goes around the country, makes all these flogs. His name is Chris Waite. Makes all these flogs. It's actually, we, our careers couldn't have been more different. He plays the guitar, he makes art, cooks, he does all that type of stuff. So on the one hand, you know, he's got a lot of freedom, but he would never have fitted in in a corporate career, ever. I knew that when he cooked for me and my girlfriend at the time wearing a, a, a skirt, that was like his Really, he's always been a bit of an alternative guy. So yeah, I, I think that's probably the philosophical dilemma that I think most people have, or most all people have.

Omri van Zyl, guest · [25:26]The first thing is, I think for me, was the visualization aspect, thinking about it. In the beginning, you don't believe it, you just fake it. You say, this is what I really want to do. If the sky was blue and I could do anything, and I had so much money, what do I want to do? I want to do this. You put that thing, and you, on your board, and you start imagining it. You start looking at the different angles of it, and what later happens is you reprogram your brain, all right? And then when you reprogram your brain, you attract all kinds of different things. Sometimes you're forced to do it, like in the restructuring, you're forced to do it. I mean, you don't want to get restructured. You're forced to do it through COVID, lots of people got restructured. and then you're sitting there and you're like, what the hell am I going to do now? You know, where am I now? And I think the, for me, what has worked is actually going back to that visualization. I actually do it with golf as well, but it doesn't always come off. You know, I play the 18 holes in my mind before I go to sleep and then I just screw it up the next day. So that, that doesn't always work. But, I think so, so that daily, it's always good to exercise. I'm a healthy eater generally, so it's not like I'm a vegan or a vegetarian or, you know, any of that. But, you know, eating healthy and trying to have a healthy lifestyle. People are different. Everybody likes different things. But I always say, if you imagine yourself at the pinnacle of doing that, what would that look like? What does your environment look like? Where are you sitting? What are you doing? Who are you talking to? You know, all those, those kind of things. So from a daily life perspective, I also think it's important because now if I plan a trip, I mean, I sent a, a message to my wife earlier of a, a island holiday and I've been to Mauritius too many times, but let's say in Zanzibar or whatever, with a baby, of course, that gives you something to manifest, to focus on, to look forward to. Because let's be honest, I mean, in daily life, can I say if you're really, if you're really mindful, you know, every moment feels like nirvana, all that's nonsense. I mean, the Buddhist philosophy is life is suffering. That is the philosophy. So you take out the worst right there and everything that you get is a bonus. That I think is important to have that kind of stuff that you look forward to during the year and then planning events in between because you can't just once a year go and do something you like and then you go back and do something you hate and then you go. So you have to do it continuously. So I said to my wife every month, obviously before she became pregnant or I made her pregnant, every month we want to do something nice. If we go to the Machalisberg, we do something. If we go to the Bushveld, I mean we've got so much stuff to do up here in Cape Town and everywhere. So, so I, I do four things every year. I go and hunt because I love the bush. I go fly fishing. I go to Paternoster, which I love. And what's the fifth one? I wanna go to the ocean and swim in the ocean. So those are the four things that I kind of wanna do every year, and that stimulates me.

Omri van Zyl, guest · [32:47]I think Russell made me think a lot about freedom. What does that mean? I mean, we all have insecurities, we're all different. But if you have the freedom to say no sometimes, you actually gain more power, right? Because we do so much to please and kind of commit to our careers and work in yourself to death and You know, having the, the blue kind of under your eyes or your eyes are really droopy and, but he's actually a bit of a role model to me because he, he works from a place of complete freedom. If he doesn't want to do something, he doesn't do it. If he was, doesn't want to do something, he does it. And if something doesn't sound right to him, he says no. And if something, his yes is his yes and his no is his no type of thing. But he's unique in the sense that he's, he's not trying to please the whole world, you know. He's trying to do something that, that's special for him. And that gives him energy. And I think that's the other thing is what, what actually gives you energy. You need to figure that out and do more of that. And what takes away your energy? Because we always ask that in job applications. I mean, today I've got two. That's why I almost didn't make it. It's that question about what gives you energy, because not, not every environment gives people the same energy, right? And, it comes from, from him and the, the owner and the company philosophy where they, they started twenty years ago with nothing. Today the business is a sixteen billion rand business. I mean, that's in agriculture, that's a serious business. So that's kind of the philosophy of the workplace that I'm now. It's completely different to corporate or, you know, reporting to boards and audit committees and social and ethics committees and transformation committees and, oh, so I did that for long enough. But it, it gives you a sense of freedom to actually do the things that you love more. And, and I think very few employers actually do that, you know. So listen, okay, what is it that you, normally when you get, go, they need to actually appoint people in positions that gives them energy. That's what we do. So, you know, I just wanted to add that, because I think it's important. And if you're doing something that's not giving you energy, you need to take a break, reflect on it, talk to people. I mean, Pranpretorius was my, was my mentor for a long time. He's an extremely, extremely wise guy, and he helped me through a lot of it. So it also helps to have a mentor, to have people you can talk to that have actually gone through what you want to go through or that you are going through.