Andy Ferguson - The Nine Rules: The Seduction Of Rest And How To Avoid It

The seduction of rest and how to avoid it

Andy Ferguson

Kingsham Press

First published 2006
by Kingsham Press

Oldbury Complex
Marsh Lane
Easthampnett
Chichester, West Sussex
PO18 0JW
United Kingdom

2006 Andy Ferguson

Typeset in AGaramond

Printed and bound by
Ashford Colour Press
Unit 600, Fareham Reach
Fareham Road
Gosport
Hants
UK

ISBN: 1-904235-53-0 paperback
1-904233-56-5 hardback

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or later invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Ferguson, Andy

To my family, with love

The book is based on the sum experiences in my life so far and I am grateful to the individuals (too many to credit here) who have influenced, supported, encouraged and challenged me on my journey to date.

Nicki, my long suffering wife who took care of just about everything else to let me sit in front of a computer for so long, and Roark, a genuine US Army Cavalry Officer, now retired, who went out of his way to make the connection with Kingsham Press and get the whole thing started, warrant special mention. Chris Wood and John Gough have substantially contributed to Part 3 of this book and I am most grateful for their input. The Board Room contributors have made this their own higher purpose and I owe them a lot.

Above all though I am indebted to the people I meet who, through their own example, remind me daily that its not where you are presently in your lifes journey that matters, but what you do next that counts.

As an inspirational speaker, Andy Ferguson receives regular praise for his challenging, thought-provoking, yet hilarious, presentations. Indeed rather puzzlingly, feedback from a recent conference stated that he was better than alcohol.

Although Andy is often introduced as one of lifes real adventurers, his retort is that: Look, Im an ordinary middle-aged father of two. I just believe that success, once you know what it really means to you as an individual, is entirely possible each and every day of your life.

His recent exploits have stretched from learning from unemployed youngsters, truant schoolkids and pre-school toddlers to teaching and coaching chief executives, entrepreneurs, business owners, undergraduates, sports teams, even a stage magician.

Andy is currently working to make the The 9 Rules accessible to anyone who wants to use it for themselves; from presentations, seminars, workshops; to web-based technology and learning academies.

Like many people I guess, I used to wake up some mornings and think: Whats all this about then? I mean here we are hurtling through space at a whopping 68,000 miles an hour and spinning at who knows what speed on top of a great round ball that for the life of me looks pretty flat, or at least it does from where Im standing.

I didnt ask to be born, didnt get a choice about where I was born either and for a good few years was told what to do and what to think. But little by little I started to find I had more choices. It was so long ago now I cant remember when it all started but I know I was making my mind up fairly young. Will I try this walking thing again or go on crawling? Will I smile at my mum or my dad? Will I spit this out to see that look on their faces; hey it was funny the last time.

Watching my own children grow from babies to toddlers to youngsters has reminded me just how determined you have to be to learn all that stuff. Walking, eating, listening and talking, never mind learning to tie your shoelaces or ride a bike without stabilisers.

Then theres school and the school playground. Meeting new people, walking home for the first time. Not talking to strangers (who is a stranger anyway?), and remembering to come straight home and not get mucky along the way.

Added to that theres the frustration and confusion of not knowing how things work. And Im not talking electric light bulbs here, were talking about growing up. Still I guess finding out about the world was exciting enough to make up for the steep learning curve.

I wonder what it will be like when Im an adult and I know everything?

Travelling, journeys; I guess Ive always loved them. The first ones were fairly short, to about the end of the sofa as far as I can recall, but gradually they got longer and longer.

Now heres a strange thing. I would have said up until about a year ago: Wow Id never have dreamt Id have achieved so much nor had so many amazing adventures.

But now I realise I was wrong. Compared to what I imagined as a child, expeditions to ski the Saharan sand dunes, fly a bi-plane or run around the Alps are pretty run of the mill. What happened to all those huge amazing dreams? Sailing oceans and flying into space.

Ive been around long enough to know that in the grand scheme of things, to say Im insignificant would be making me sound important. I dont need to visit a natural history museum or watch a documentary on the origins of the universe to know my place.

So the journey I found myself on recently seemed to have some urgency; to find out why my life seemed so important to me when all the evidence suggested that it wasnt important at all. I hadnt seen the world in quite that way since I was a child, the excitement of trying to figure out what was going on but also at times being very frightened about what was out there.

Now let me be honest, when I say recently you might think Im talking about a few weeks ago or maybe a month or two, but the truth is were talking years from about 1985 until 2005 to be exact. Okay so I know what youre thinking, Im a slow learner. Just remember some people never get this stuff.

The result of that twenty-year odyssey is the 9 rules. For me its a framework for making sense of my experiences and a tool to plan a successful future. Now you might think that anyone with an ounce of sense would try to make life easier for themselves. Why go around making things any more difficult than they need to be, right? And yet thats the trouble with the 9 rules; they are simple but not at all easy.

If youre eager to know what they are by now, I would advise you to wait. If you can do this, put off the urge to know the answer NOW; I can tell you that you will have a greater chance of following them when we do go there. If I can take 20 years to work this stuff out, you can wait a few more pages.

The folks that already use the 9 rules in their own lives always ask the same question at the start: So why did you make them so hard? Thats a good question and to answer it we need to look at the history of how I got here.

Welcome to the journey and remember, this is YOUR life so turn up for it. As someone once said to me: If you dont care about making a great life for yourself, why would anyone else show up to help you?