Seminar Video Clips 

I think that we often underestimate the power of belief and the power of persistence. This clip will clearly demonstrate this power. Watch as one man does what should have been, for him, impossible.

Please be patient as it may take a little while for the clip to load, but the wait will be worth it.

Johannes' new house

Just "right click" on the link and then choose "save as" to save the file to your hard drive so you can listen at your leisure.

Johannes is the factotum at a township school Reagile Primary in the Winnie Mandela Park an informal settlement in the Olifantsfontein area in Gauteng South Africa.

I was called in to do an urgent intervention when the school was about to be closed down due to internal strife. The teachers had called for the disbanding of the School Management Team. The unions were at constant loggerheads with the Principal Rose Mzisa and the Governing Body was ready to close the school down. I was to facilitate a grievance meeting to resolve these issues.

Just to give some background this is a community school with some 2,300 pupils and 67 teachers. Due to the lack of facilities they have "hot seat" schooling which means that they run 2 shifts. One lot of pupils go to school in the morning and the next go in the afternoon.

There is not a brick building on the school all the class rooms and offices are either corrugated iron shacks, old prefabs or converted containers. The school was started by each parent donating R5,00 and is only kept going through the generous sponsorships of certain businesses.

I presented my EMPOWER Emotional Mastery workshop on a Saturday in May 2003 and that was so effective that the school has never needed to have the grievance meeting and has in fact thrived since then. When the presentation was over I offered the delegates the chance to air their grievances and the response was overwhelming that they must first go and "introspect" to determine their role in the matter and the Chairperson of the Governing Body said that they had forgotten why they had started the school in the first place. The school was there for the benefit of their children and not for posturing and positioning of the adults.

Johannes was one of the delegates at that session.

This clip is evidence of the power of a made up mind that in spite of your environment you can change.

While watching a presentation is great it cannot replicate the atmosphere that is generated at a live performance so if you would like to have me give a presentation to your organisation or you want to attend a live presentation then please contact me at johan@motivate.co.za.