Life Design and Strategy - Chapter 2 Bonus - Imposter Syndrome
ALI TERAI
START | LEARN | ACT
CEO and FOUNDER, Future GOlf
KEynote Speaker, Advisor and Author
From a young age Ali’s relationship with education would best be described as a roller coaster.
After skipping Kinder and missing Grade one due to an unforeseen trip overseas, Ali spent his early years as an outcast due to his lack of knowing popular nursery rhymes and not having the ability to use scissors. Both of these things still haunt him today.
In Grade two things started to change when he became proficient at performing times tables at lightning speed and mastering the popular 90’s board game Connect 4 to a level that could defeat most adults.
You would think these skills would have lead to immense popularity amongst classmates, but they didn’t. Ali spent the remainder of his primary school years (unsuccessfully) avoiding bullies.
During these tough years he found solace in watching the Mighty Ducks and Cool Runnings... every night. Unfortunately, living in Australia didn’t provide many opportunities to pursue his new found passion for ice-hockey and bobsled, however, he did embrace the notion of the underdog and often dreamt about one day transforming himself and exceeding his expectations.
Before starting high school, he made a decision to flip his approach. It was time to rebel against the world; he would go from being the hunted, to the hunter.
At the age of twelve, he would follow in his fathers footsteps and take up some 'questionable' habits.
He would become an elite level smart arse and would revolt against all authority. There would also be a stint with bleached and blue hair. He would spend a large portion of high school life in detention or in the principal’s office. On multiple occasions he was asked to leave school to pursue a trade as school wasn’t for him.
Then in Year 10, through a stroke of luck he became friends with a strange kid named Ben, who was the opposite to Ali in most ways.
Ali was an only child, from a battling family. He swore, smoked, drunk too much, and was reckless.
Ben was the golden boy from a family that resembled the Brady Bunch. He had good values, was healthy, sporty, good looking, reliable, smart and safe.
For some reason Ben and his family decided Ali was worth trying to help. You know the movie The Blindside? Ali was Big Mike and they were Sandra Bullock. Ben and his family opened up an alternative way to approach life.
When AFL Footballer, Jim Stynes came to speak at a school event and he slapped Ali’s hat off his head for being a smart arse, Ali was inspired to change his life and the dangerous path he was heading down.
This lead to an improved academic effort in Year 12. Here are some quotes from Ali’s Year 12 report.
"When and if Ali attends class, he usually disrupts others"
"Ali is too immature for Year 12, he should not be in this class"
"Ali should spend more time concentrating on his studies, rather than coming to class hungover and smoking behind the oval”
Against all-odds, Ali knuckled down and channeled his inner Mighty Duck and was accepted into Monash University, graduating university with a degree in Business and Commerce.
His first 'real' job would be filing student records in alphabetical order at Deakin University which lead to a number of roles at Monash University, which included speaking to over 30,000 secondary school students (strangely enough - about the value of education) and becoming one of Monash's youngest ever senior executives and leading a $300m portfolio by the age of 27.
Ali eventually undertook further study at Harvard University, New York University and Columbia University and has traveled the world learning and spending time with world class performers in a variety of fields.
This resulted in developing a passion for entrepreneurship, which once again changed the trajectory of his life.
Since 2014, Ali has embarked on the the following adventures:
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Founded Future Golf, a passion driven business launched with less than $200 and a FB post, which is now one of Australia’s fastest growing startups and a finalist for the 2019 Telstra Business Awards.
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Founded The Inspire Project, teaching young people Entrepreneurship.
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Consultant and advisor to a number of world class performers and organisations.
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Authored, crowdfunded and published a children’s book called A Little Penguin’s Guide to Life.
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Co-Hosted a Top 50 Ranked iTunes Sports Podcast.
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Founded and Launched - a wallet, travel blog, pop-up burger restaurant, pub-crawl company, professional preparation program and number of smaller golf ventures.
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Performed Stand-up comedy at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Nowadays, Ali loves building passion based businesses and speaking to young people about transformation. He’s distilled the process of what it takes to exceed one’s expectations and to achieve a desired outcome that's aligned with who you are. He shows young people that it’s never too late to change your approach and very little natural talent is required to live a meaningful life.
Ali is most proud of the people in his life: his wife Chantelle, son's Marcel and Romeo, family, team, friends and mentors.
This learning journey has also helped him eliminate a lot of the unproductive habits and routines he had when he was younger.
It's not about being the best in the world. It’s about showing that anyone, regardless of their current situation or background can take a few practical steps and live a life driven by passion, freedom, action and growth.
Ali's philosophy focusses on Three Key Concepts:
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START - Overcoming fears, Embracing Failure and Unlocking our Passions
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LEARN - Growth Mindset, Skills, Mentors, Coaches and Knowledge.
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ACT - Vision, Strategy, Goals, Actions and Habits.
Life's too short, don't leave this world with your dreams still inside you.
PROJECTS
& VENTURES
Future Golf |
CEO and FOUNDER
Our mission is to grow the game of golf by connecting our members with our community.
Since launching in 2014 from a simple FB post we are now one of world's largest golf communities, we have revolutionised golf by offering our members everything from mini golf, X-golf, Topgolf all the way to Australia’s best public and private courses / clubs.
Future Golf is perfect for all golfers from beginner to addict. We pride ourselves on being flexible, accessible and fun.
The future of golf is HERE.
Find out more at www.futuregolf.com.au
THE INSPIRE PROJECT |
FOUNDER
The Inspire Project Teaches young people Entrepreneurship and Life Skills.
The purpose of the Inspire Project Workshop is to teach students entrepreneurship and life skills.
The workshop is an entertaining and engaging presentation, designed to help students follow their dreams, exceed their expectations and ultimately transform themselves.
By the end of the workshop, students will be armed with everything they need to launch a low-risk passion based venture.
BEYOND THE GREENS |
PODCAST HOST
Beyond the Greens is a golf podcast that aims to educate, inform and discuss all things golf.
Each week we chat to a leader in golf and deconstruct what makes them amazing.
Guests include Scott Draper, Paul Gow and Nick O’Hern.
Top 100 ranked iTunes Sports Podcast.
Available on iTunes for free.
Joyburger |
Co-Founder
JoyBurger was an innovative ticketed Pop-Up burger restaurant located in Melbourne. Our concept was simple. The best burger, Once a month.
A passion project by best mates Glen Joyce and Ali Terai that we launched in less than two hours, one night while having a few beers and burgers.
Within 24 hours tickets to our first event were sold out.
With ‘zero’ restaurant experience, we were featured as the 'Pick of the Week' in the Herald Sun and in taste.com.au.
A few JoyBurger posts went viral and reached over 1,000,000 people.
This project proved to us that anything is possible