Hollywood Actor, Motivational Speaker, Best-Selling Author

West Interviews Kurek Ashley

Speakers:
West: West Loh
Kurek: Kurek Ashley

West: Welcome! It’s West here. And I want to personally thank you for visiting my site. You can get more great audios, videos and interviews with wealthy and successful people at my website at www.westloh.com.

So let’s get straight into it. I hope you enjoy the recording.

Welcome, folks! And I want to thank you for joining me on this call. Today I’ve got a really special guest on the call. His name is Kurek Ashley. And let me just tell you a little bit about Kurek before I get in to say ‘good day.’ Kurek doesn’t consider himself to be a motivator simply because motivation wears off. And what Kurek provides is a whole range of success strategies that people can use long-term.

Now Kurek’s been involved with some elite, elite people including Natalie Cook who’s won the gold medal at the Olympic games. He’s also been integrally involved in the Brisbane Bronco’s success. He’s still the world record holder in the firewalk. Kurek.

Kurek: As far as I know, West. I don’t really follow it any more. I think there was an attempt it was last year in Sydney—and he wound up going to the hospital and almost had his feet amputated. So I don’t know who’s trying. If they got it, good for them.

West: At one stage, he held that record. And he’s been involved in a lot of Hollywood movies so he’s brushed shoulders with the best of them. I’ve also had the pleasure of being to Kurek’s house in Brisbane when he was in Brisbane and he took the time to show me all the people he’d been associated with, and of course his new Harley Davidson at the time. So I want to extend a warm welcome to Kurek. Thank you for joining us on the call, Kurek.

Kurek: Thanks for having me, West.

West: No problem. Kurek, why don’t you start by giving us a bit of a brief on your background—I know you’ve been through a whole heap of challenges—but can you sum it up in, say, three or four minutes just to give our listeners a bit of understanding where you came from?

Kurek: Sure. Actually, I grew up in the States, obviously, by my accent. And I started with my life and my dream thinking I wanted to be an actor in Hollywood. And so at thirteen years old, I got myself on professional stage in Chicago. And by eighteen, had moved out to Los Angeles. And for the next eighteen years, did thirty eight motion pictures. I also did over five hundred movies behind-the-camera working as a crew member, special effects, stunts, like you do.

And I guess—one of the things—the biggest life changer for me was in 1989. I was doing a movie with Chuck Norris in the Philippines called Delta Force II. And during the course of the movie, I was involved in a major helicopter crash where five of my friends died and my very best friend died on my arms after I pulled him out of the wreck. He was on fire and I got him out and gave him CPR on the way to the hospital and he died on my arms that day.

So it was a tough life, a tough day at work, I should say. And for the next two and a half years after the crash, my life went into a really downward spiral, you know, like cocaine and drugs and cigarettes and suicide and, you know, every night having a gun in my mouth. And so, you know, I definitely know what the dark side of life looks like.

West: Absolutely.

Kurek: And I wasn’t partying. I was trying to kill myself. So I have to be grateful that at some aspects of life, I’m not very successful. Suicide is one of those things.

And since then, you know, the company that brought me to Australia in 1998 didn’t pay me for the year that I worked for them and left me stranded. And I was literally twenty dollars away from being homeless in two countries. I have long, since 1980, been giving seminars and coaching and all that stuff. The personal development was really my sideline and being in the movies was my main focus in those days. So when I came out here and was left stranded again, I decided that I really didn’t want to get back to the movie industry. I just decided to stay focused on what my passion was, which was teaching personal development and success in business and life. And since then, it’s kinda like—I don’t know how to explain it, West—it’s just like having your head pulled through a funnel. It’s just been a rocket ride, you know. And as you said, in the 2000 Olympics I took the Women’s Beach Volleyball team to win the gold medals. I worked with the Brisbane Broncos, Sydney Dragon Boat Racing team, Brisbane Boyscout Rowing team, corporations all over the world. I now work in thirteen countries. I was just with Al Gore in Sydney a few weeks ago.

West: Yes, I saw the photos. It looks awesome.

Kurek: Yeah, I spent time with President Clinton and Richard Branson. So it’s…from a guy who is homeless numerous times in my life to where I am and certainly where I’m going, it’s kind of an accomplishment. And yet, the part I’d like to stress to everybody is that I’m not the only one who can do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. You know, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, it’s just that I’m a guy who knows his strategy; I take the action with that strategy and I follow it through. And anybody can do that.

And so, you know, the clients that I work with and the people who come to my programs and the results that I see with people are phenomenal. I’m still to this day never anything but in awe, you know. I see these things happen and I’m just in awe. And that’s a prize just because human beings, when they put their mind to it, can really accomplish anything.

West: Absolutely. Now that’s, I think…listening to Kurek’s story is very touching even for me. I’ve heard it on his programs before and I’ve had a chat with him in person but that’s some serious, you know, highs and lows in life.

And I wanted to ask you, Kurek, when you came back from the accident, going through the journey all the way down and then coming back up, I’m sure you must have had a lot of self-doubt and self-limitations that kept popping into your head. I guess my first question is, how did you go about breaking through those for yourself and has that influenced you in the way that you coach all these top people that you work with today?

Kurek: Well, West, I want to just kind of correct it for a moment because I don’t just coach top people in the world, I coach people from all walks, you know. So millionaires and movie stars, drug addicts, rape victims, incest survivors and everybody in between. And everybody on the planet wants to evolve, you know? That’s the natural order of the universe is for everything in the universe to seek to reach his highest potential which is to evolve. So the results that I’ve gotten people are from literally across the board.

And yes, it is true, is that when I was down and out, self-doubt, thinking that there was no way out, my own personal health was ever possible, and yet uniquely, there was some affirmations that I’ve been doing daily since 1980…

West: Wow.

Kurek: …and I’m still doing to this day. And I even did them during the darkest times, which is kind of funny. People say, “Well, that’s funny. Why would you still do that even when you’re so depressed?” And the answer is because it was my habit. I’ve done it so long that it just was like, “Okay, you get up and you do this everyday.” Why? I think, West, that that’s probably what saved my life: is that I still had consistent, positive thoughts going through my head even when the rest of my day was pretty dark and dismal. I started off my day with these positive thoughts and they were like seeds that were still, you know, growing. And I believe they kept me from pulling the trigger on the gun and ever cause any real harm. And then it was also, I think, what got me to start to make the term where I guess my brain heard enough times where it said, “You can do this! You can do this.” And a lot of this is subconscious. It’s not your conscious mind that’s talking to you; it’s your subconscious mind. And it’s not always speaking to you in straight up English. Other times, it’s in a hunch or intuition or feeling or just an action you start to take.

And so really, one day I woke up—and I talk about this in my book. I have a book coming out in April called “How Would Love Respond?” And this is probably the most popular question I’ve been asked…is how did I turn my life around that day and it came from a new thought. And the new thought is that my life is not my own. And what I mean by that is that there are a lot of people out there who love you, who care about you, who look up to you. And, you know, when you go down the tubes of life, when you go down the toilet, you don’t go by yourself, you drag people with you. And because negative energy is a much heavier, denser energy than positive energy is, I mean, even if you listen to the terminology: I’m down, I’m blue, I’m heavy, I feel like the weight of the world’s on my shoulders. Or if you’re happy: I’m light, I’m up, I’m frivolous, I’m dancing. I feel just like…

West: Change of mood immediately.

Kurek: Absolutely. And so I realized that, you know, my mom who Kerryd me for nine months, she would suffer the rest of her life wondering why did she fail as a mom; and my dad and my brothers and my sister and my friends. And all of a sudden, I started thinking about that. I realized that this journey, you know, none of us do it alone and we’re all here to interact with each other and we have a responsibility for the investment that other people put in us.

West: Yeah, wow.

Kurek: And so if you put yourself right on the spot or let’s change right now, no more playing the games ‘coz uniquely, next time that gun might go off and it might not kill you, it might just blow off your spinal cord and paralyze you the rest of your life and you live til’ 90. I mean, you know, imagine that.

West: Imagine it’s a huge burden on the people around you.

Kurek: Exactly. And so I would also imagine not even getting the satisfaction of killing yourself, but now you’re a vegetable where your mind’s still working but your body’s not. And so that day, I literally unscrewed a broom stick out of a broom and I held it over my head in my backyard behind the garage and I held it over my head like a samurai warrior and I cut a line in the sand with my makeshift sword and I said, “Once I step over this line, I will never go back to my old behaviors.” And so that day, when I stepped over that line, I literally gave up cocaine, cigarettes, alcohol abuse. I gave up my guns away.

West: All up in one day, all in one moment.

Kurek: One moment. Now I just want to make it clear, I didn’t give my guns away to people wandering down the street, okay? I gave mine to gun collectors. But I literally, I… you notice, all changes happen, West, when you make ‘a’ decision. Some people say, “Well, no, it’ll take you a long time to quit smoking.” It doesn’t. It actually takes you maybe a long time to make ‘the’ decision but once you make the decision to never touch a cigarette again, you’re instantly a non-smoker. There’s no lag time; it’s instant.

So once I made the decision to never ever, under any circumstance, touch a cigarette or cocaine or suicide or any of that stuff, instantly your life starts to change. Now here’s the part though that I want to make very clear, is that life doesn’t just turn around in an instant that all of a sudden you’re so happy and money starts rushing in and all the trouble you’re in instantly ends. At that moment, it became a quest to find everybody who could help me grow: any teacher, any audio programs, seminar I can go to. Also, it’s piece by piece. I had to dig myself out of the hole financially and the other things that happened. But I knew that if I kept taking one step and puy in front of the other instead of trying to do these giant leaps and bounds, just stay consistent, that eventually I’ll come out the other side…which I have. And it does happen a lot faster. It’s just that most people, they get so motivated that they think they’re going to do this overnight and when it doesn’t happen overnight, they get burned out and they quit.

For me, this is a marathon, not a race. So most people overestimate what they can do in a week or a month and they underestimate what they can do in a year, five years, and a decade. It’s unbelievable.

West: And I guess it’s your job—in a sense—when you’re talking to clients, to actually help them realize their potential in those areas.

Kurek: Well, and also, I want to be very honest, West, is that no matter what I teach you or anybody else teaches you, I can’t teach you to have no problems. Everybody’s got problems. The only people I know with no problems are dead people and being dead, that’s a big problem. The thing is, the chapter in my book—the first chapter’s called ‘Life Doesn’t Turn Out the Way that it Should’—the unique thing is, you know, it’s that way at the last chapter too. I mean, you know, when you read the last chapter of the book, it’s such a twist because I think I’m one of the first authors who tells you right at the end of writing my book, again I got hit with a major life setback, and how I used my own book to change my own life again. You know, I had to reread my book to use the strategies and come out the other side still standing tall and up on my feet because that’s life.

So, you know, the longer that people go to personal development seminars and they come out so pumped up that they quit their jobs and they think that everything’s going to happen overnight, and to me, that’s like jumping off a diving board where there’s no water in the pool. So it’s really about creating an intelligent plan of action first: go through your grandest goal dreams—don’t go for small, piddly stuff—go for the stuff you really want because that’s going to inspire you instead of going for the things you can get or the things you think you can accomplish. But then, you know, go with the bite-size chunks. Think about the outcomes that have to be achieved in order to get that grand dream goal done. And then start on the first outcome and just do it until it’s complete because excellence is the commitment to completion. Then once you get that one done, go to step two, step three, step four. Well, because you’re in motion and you feel this sense of accomplishment with these outcomes being achieved—you know, it excites you, it motivates you, it keeps you on track—and piece by piece you’re getting closer and closer so eventually you’re going to have to get there. And you’re going to achieve the goal you want that way.

West: Absolutely.

Kurek: I would definitely never go for a small, piddly goal because honestly, West, I’ve never seen anybody have a Daewoo on their dream list before.

Go for the stuff that’s going to inspire you, West, because we are going to be dead forever.

West: That’s powerful.

Kurek: And so while you’re here…because, see, West, here’s the thing: all of us, we’re going to all die at the exact same time in our life. And that time is, we just achieved one goal and we’re on our way to the next goal. We have achieved that goal a year ago or six months ago or twelve years ago, but either way, we’re going to be in-between achieving the goal and heading for the next one. Well, if you really want to be caught with your pants down, dying and you’re going for a small, piddly, worthless goal…

West: Absolutely.

Kurek: …since you never know when your last moment is, you might want to make every one of your goals worth dying for.

West: Hmm. Well, that is just absolutely profound, Kurek. Unbelievable stuff. And I’m assuming everything that you’re saying here also applies to when people come and approach you with regards to their business and their finances, only you’re talking general success strategies but they have huge application in theory of finances as well. Is that fair to say?

Kurek: Well, look, West, we’ve got to do something with our time everyday, right? So you’re going to fill it one way or another. You can fill it doing nothing, you can fill it doing busy work, you can fill it watching Dr. Phil, you know, whatever you want. But if you’re going to go towards like first having a business, why not go for a business—‘coz business, by the way, in any language, means make money, that’s what business means. You know, ‘domo arigato’ in Japanese means ‘Thank you very much.’ Business, in any language means make money. So why have a business that does not make any money? That’s actually not business, that’s called a hobby.

So, you know, yeah, absolutely. So if you’re going to invest your most expensive commodity—which is time—why not go for something that’s grand. Now if I go in for 5 million dollars and I fall short of achieving that goal by 75 percent, that’s still 1.25 million dollars in your bank account.

West: You’re still doing pretty well.

Kurek: But if you’re going for 5 grand and you fall short, you can’t even buy a used Daewoo for 5 thousand dollars. Yet if you fall short, you’re really in trouble.

Success is the same for any area of your life; it’s called holistic success. It means having success in all areas of life. As I see it, ifyou shoot for the stars; if you fall short, you land on top of the world. But if you shoot for the rooftop and you miss, and you hit the street and the bus runs you over. Go for grand.

West: Absolutely. For sure. So I wanted to ask you on that point, when people come to talk to you, Kurek, and you tell them they need to shoot high, most people—or most people that I’ve come across and I’m assuming in the population—they tend to come up with their own excuses and their own stuff that happens in their head. It’s often, obviously, come to see someone like your self to get that clarity, but what are the most common issues that you find that people come up with when you tell them they need to shoot high and then how do you get them to break through it and change and go for it?

Kurek: Okay. Well it’s actually a great question, West. The challenge is that when most people start to do their goals… But first, let’s start from the very beginning is that most people don’t even have a goal because they’re not willing to write them down. Only three percent from the population has actually written down their goals this year. For most people who write down their New Year’s resolution, they don’t even check it ‘til next year, you know, next New Year’s. And they go, “Hey, I’ll just Xerox it. I didn’t do that one so I’ll do it again.” So now you’re talking about the minority who writes down their goals, right? And you might say, “Now wait a minute, just because people didn’t write down their goals doesn’t mean they don’t have goals.” Well, I’m going to say, yes, it does mean that because the first step to achieving your goals is to write them down.

West: Materialize it.

Kurek: Yeah, if you’re not going to take step number one, why would you think you’re going to do step number two, right?

West: Absolutely.

Kurek: The easiest step is to probably write them down.

So then once you write them down… but here’s the challenge that happens even when people do capture their grand dream goal by writing them down, is that they ask themselves a question which is, “What do I want?” Now the challenge with wanting something is that that’s an activity of your ego. And ego, if you look at the initials E.G.O. means ‘Edging God Out.’ Not in religious terminology. What it means is that you’re trying to do something that you can’t really do in this universe, which is possess something because everything is this lifetime’s borrowed. You’ve got to give it all back. And so when you’re asking ‘what do I want,’ you’re asking what do I get to keep, really, or what am I going to get to possess?

And for a lot of us, we feel, “Well, you know what? I don’t really want to be materialistic by saying I want a Mercedes or I want a Gucci bag or whatever. So I’m going to go for something small because I don’t want to look like I’m materialistic.” Or people would say, “Well, it’s egotistical that you need a BMW,” you know. Well, I’m going to tell you is that it’s not. It’s actually egotistical if you don’t drive a nice car or if you don’t live in a nice home or if you don’t have financial freedom because again, you’re not living in the rules of the universe which is ‘for everything in the universe to seek to reach its highest potential, to evolve.’ And it’s hard to evolve when you’re struggling, you know. How do you go to courses? How do you go to classes? And how do you read books if you can’t afford it?

West: Yeah, you can’t give it to other people.

Kurek: Absolutely. So the question is instead of asking ‘what do I want?,’ it’s a much more empowered question to ask ‘what do I want to experience?’ See, experience means why do I want to try lying here ‘coz life is about living in as many experiences as you possibly can while you’re here in this lifetime. And I’ve got to say, living in a comfort zone, which is living the same day over and over again everyday, isn’t a different experience. It’s one experience that’s being duplicated everyday.

West: I love your analogy where you talk about people driving to work the same way, have a shower and they clean themselves the same way, they brush their teeth the same way and it just happens over and over again, a bit like Groundhog Day the movie.

Kurek: Exactly. And so you want to get in as many experiences as you possibly can. Now my ex-wife asked me one day—this was when we were still together—“You know, Kurek, we’re teaching people about spirituality and about abundance and the rest of these things and we do all these nice things for everybody… I feel bad, you know, what if I really do want like a designer bag or a nice car? Is that wrong?”

And I said, “Marie, why do you think God is not in Gucci? God’s everywhere, you know. God’s in K-Mart. He’s definitely in Gucci.”

And God doesn’t actually know the difference between a Mercedes and a Daewoo. It’s just energy in the universe. And that’s what I mean by God—I’m talking about the universal intelligence, not the religious God, you know, whatever created all of this stuff—it doesn’t know the difference. And so it’s about what is going to give you the experience of the most amount of joy while you’re here. Because the thing is, West, is when you have joy, you’ll spread the joy and give other people joy. And that’s when we get a better plan and everything else if good. But I’ve got to tell you is when I was struggling, yeah, I was a happy guy because I taught myself to be happy but it was really tough when you’re being kicked out and you’re homeless and you’re living in your car and you’ve got no food to eat. Or, you know, somebody in your family needs financial help and you can’t help them? Man, that’s pain. So no money by itself won’t bring you happiness; but not having wealth is a guaranteed way to buy you a lot of pain. And that’s not evolvement.

So you can do whatever you want when you have financial wealth. As a matter fact, this year, through my seminars and through a company in New Zealand, we built off an entire school in Africa and we fed quite a few thousand kids for over a year.

West: That’s amazing.

Kurek: Yeah, exactly. And I’ve also flown myself to, I think, six or seven different cities this year to do a program called Step Up where we’ve taken close to ten thousand kids or eight thousand kids and given them a program to turn their life around.

West: Is this the program that Ryll Burgen runs?

Kurek: Yeah, it is the program.

West: Yeah, wow. Fantastic.

Kurek: And I’m one of their key speakers. And I fly myself in, I put myself up—it costs me thousands of dollars to do that. But because I have financial wealth, I can afford to do that and donate my time.

West: Absolutely.

Kurek: Most people can’t even get away from their job to do that. And the response that I get from young people who participate in part of my program and all of Step Up, man, it’s life changing for them. You know, how do you do that though when you’re struggling yourself? And who wants to listen to you when your life’s bad? I mean, who wants to listen to you talk about wealth when you don’t have any? Or who wants to listen to you talk about happiness when you’re miserable?

So I’m here to walk my talk in order for the kids to have any response. And, like you said, I’ve got a brand new Harley Davidson, you know, I kind of make success cool to young people and they go, “He’s not like a suit-wearing stuffy. He’s like a guy having fun with his wealth.”

West: I’m curious, Kurek, how do kids react when you give them the same power principles that you’ve shared with us today? Most adults have a lot of pre-conditioned thoughts and they’ve been brought up to think a certain way, but would it be fair to assume that a lot of kids that listen to you speak obviously are open and have a joyous approach to life after spending some time with you because they don’t have those preconditions that university and work and all that sort of stuff brings?

Kurek: Well, West, I actually like to make a little adjustment to that. Is that these days, because of the internet and how fast young people are growing up, they’re actually getting the limiting beliefs faster. And that’s why, at least in Australia, we have the highest teen suicide rate of any country per capita in the world, which is alarming.

West: Goodness.

Kurek: So they do know. And what happens is that that’s why you get kids, you know, going to gangs and drugs and trouble. They feel like ‘there’s no hope for me in the future so I might as well party out my brains right now and live a good-looking corpse.’ And so the thing is, when I go in and I work with these young people, I get right through them and I say, “Look, that’s not a fact. Just because your parents and society in front of you, a lot of their lives are not what they wanted them to be, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be that way, you know. I was a homeless kid. I was a street kid. I grew up in a tough neighborhood. I had troubles in my family. I used drugs. I know what it’s like to be in the toilet. And worse…because I also had a .357 Smith & Wesson pistol on my mouth every night for two years. So I definitely know what it’s like. If I can do it, you can do it and I’m going to show you how.”

And then because of the strategies I teach people—it’s not a brain surgery, West. Anybody can do it. It makes common sense. And when a young person hears it as well as an eighty-year old on my programs…they’re excited about life again. They go, “I’m not dead. I’m still going for it.” And it’s unbelievable, the results that they produce, including a school in Cincinnati, Ohio that I worked with, that got a one hundred percent dropout rate, which means no kids made it through high school. And we’re talking about the decade.

West: That’s insane.

Kurek: And I created a program for the school and the kids go to it every Saturday. They do community service because that’s how they earn their tuition to the program is they have to add value to others in order for them to receive value. The program is going three years now. We’ve had no dropouts: a one hundred percent success rate.

West: So from zero to a hundred. Oh my goodness. That’s unheard of.

Kurek: And we’re talking a bad, bad, bad neighborhood, West, something that most people in Australia, if they’ve even seen it in a movie, have never seen a neighborhood this bad.

West: That’s crazy. So what was the difference for these guys, Kurek? What did you instill in these kids that, you know, made such a massive turnaround in their lives?

Kurek: Well, the first thing, West, is not motivation; it’s, you know, ‘here’s a goal you can go for and you turn your lives around, being financially free, having a great life. And I’m going to teach you the step by step skills to get there. And this is stuff you don’t learn in school.’ I mean, you should learn it in school but you don’t. I mean, I’ve got to tell you, West, I graduated high school and since then I haven’t used two ounces of what I learned there to be successful.

West: I’ll vouch for that.

Kurek: As a matter of fact, I had to unlearn things that I learned in school to actually become successful. And so, you know, the world’s going to definitely need to change; it is changing rapidly. And the school system’s going to have to change to teach people real living, working, life skills, entrepreneurial skills, personal development skills for this… Really, what I teach is personal development, which means that you’re developing your person into being a higher-caliber person than you used to be where that new version of you will automatically, without even knowing what to do, will automatically start to do new things that the early version couldn’t do because they didn’t know what to do and didn’t know how to do ‘em—and that kind of person wouldn’t have done it anyways—then these new actions are always going to produce new results. So it’s actually very simple stuff. Anybody can do it. And everybody that’s ever applied what I teach—every one of them—has succeeded in what they’ve applied before.

Like I said, every sports team and every actor I’ve ever worked with has won. And I don’t even know most of the sports; I mean, you really don’t want to see me in a bikini…

West: And I think Natalie Cook’s a little bit taller than you too, Kurek.

Kurek: Natalie and Kerry, I mean, you know, those girls were already cream of the crop. I mean, they were elite athletes. They were bronze medal winners already. I don’t teach volleyball. Actually, I don’t know enough volleyball to teach it. And there was a head coach who taught the skills for volleyball. And I don’t step on his territory. That’s what he teaches.

West: Completely different.

Kurek: Yet when we were on the Today Show a few months ago, the interviewer asked Kerry, he said, “Do you really need an American success coach?” She said, “Hey, without Kurek, there would be no goal for us. That made a difference for us, is that he taught us how to use our heads.” And it was stuff that I used in my life. You know, now Kerry, she’ll tell you that not only does she have a gold medal, she’s got everything else in her life she’s ever dreamed of. She’s got a beautiful baby. She’s got a wonderful, new husband—she was married last year. And the life of her dreams, she’s got wealth in the bank. And after twenty years of being Australia’s best volleyball and beach volleyball player, she’s also got that gold medal that she’ll always remember for all those efforts and all that loyalty she put into her sport.

West: Absolutely. I’ve just also heard that she’s recently opened up her own volleyball school, teaching Australian youngsters how to excel in volleyball; so a very successful businesswoman as well. So you’re dead right there in terms of her getting all parts of her life together.

But I’ll ask you a question leading on from that, Kurek, in that what similarities do you see between elite athletes who are the best in their field and your clients who are hugely, financially successful? Are there any similar traits that you could share with us that you’ve observed in your coaching experience?

Kurek: West, you know, it’s funny you asked that question because anybody who has succeeded in anything in life, those people—very clearly—are just the people who are willing to do the things that everybody else isn’t willing to do. And I didn’t say ‘know,’ I said ‘do.’ Cause everybody actually knows what to do. Most people just aren’t doing what they know.

West: Yes, that’s powerful.

Kurek: I mean, as an example, everybody knows that if you eat a better quality of food, you eat smaller portions of food, you exercise more regularly, you’re going to lose weight and be healthier. But 65 percent of the Western world is overweight and out of shape. So the truth is, everybody knows what to do, but they’re just not doing it. And the people who are still healthy and fit are the ones who are obviously doing what everybody else isn’t.

West: For sure.

Kurek: And you can say “it’s my glands” and “it’s my thyroid” and “it’s my family’s fault,” but as soon as you say that it’s something outside of you—

West: External. You lose control.

Kurek: Well, you’re powerless. Okay, well, that means that you’re a victim. And I have never seen victims succeed, become wealthy or win sporting events, unless you’re going to be the bull’s-eye at archery.

West: So what’s the difference between someone knowing then and doing them? I’m just trying to get deeper and deeper into these layers because there seems to me to be a definitely a common ingredient between these guys. And any more insights that you could share that would be highly valuable?

Kurek: Okay. Well, the first thing, West, is that successful people realize that you can’t just randomly let trash enter into your mind. You have to actively, consistently and consciously put into your mind the thoughts that you do want to have that will either make you empowered and proactive towards moving forward. So that means, you know, you get up first thing in the morning and you do affirmations and you read your goals and you do your mental exercises. That’s because the law of displacement says that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. So if your head is filled with positive, happy, and powerful thoughts, there’s no room for the garbage; there’s no room for the negative disempowered stuff, even the stuff that society and your friends and co-workers sometimes want to dump in there for you.

The next thing is that all great achievers are visionaries. They don’t look at where they were, they don’t look at where they are, they always look at where they want to go. It’s like driving your car. You know, if you drive your car and don’t look at the back windscreen, you’re going to crash. Well, that’s what happens when you look through the backdoor of your life, you know, your failures and ‘didn’t work out.’ Or you can even say, “Hey, I used to be the 1972 prom queen.” But also, if you’re looking at right where you are, like if you look at your current bank balance, your bank balance is never going to grow because you’re going to keep acting the same way you’re acting right now, which means you’ll keep producing the same result you’re getting right now or worse—there’s inflation and you slip backwards. All great achievers are visionaries where they look forward towards what they want, they get gratitude in advance for having those things—hence, they get excited about it. And then your body automatically goes into automatic—it’s called the automatic success mechanism—so to make that vision a reality. And so you start to create what that image is in your mind that you’re holding consistently. So if you’re going to hold the past consistently, guess what? You’re going backwards. If you’re going to hold the present consistently, you can stay in here. And if you hold the vision consistently, you move forward. It’s very easy.

These are all quite simple stuff. Anybody can do it. Yet people say, “Well, what’s the difference between walking four meters of hot coals and walking eighty one meters of hot coals,” which I did. And I said, all I had to do is train my brain to hold my focus longer. And people are, “Oh, it can’t be that easy.” I didn’t say it was easy. See, there’s so much input coming into our brain and so much distraction, so much doubt, so many other people telling me how you can’t do it, that eventually it starts chipping away at your focus and you don’t hang on to it. I trained myself to be able to hold on to it ‘coz otherwise, like the guy who tried to break my record in Sydney last year who literally, they almost amputated his feet that night. He only did like ten meters. He was very, very seriously hurt. Luckily, they didn’t and he survived. But, you know… this is not a magic trick. It’s real hot coal. Well, success is the same thing. You have to train your mind to hold on to that focus. How do you do that? Read your goals everyday with passion and enthusiasm. Hang out with other people who encourage you. Focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want. Ask better questions. I mean, there’s a whole slew of strategies here, that, if you put them into action enough times—here’s the key—it produces new habits. And West, this is the easiest part of being successful: is you make success a habit.

West: Mmm. Wow, that’s powerful.

Kurek: Plus, all these things that you do that get you in trouble, like smoking—not you, but I mean you in a general sense—you know, what we’re eating, smoking, disempowered thoughts, whatever those things are, those are habits, but I don’t see most people get all bent out of shape and they have to do those everyday, they just really, really do them. So you establish new habits like going to the gym. Because it’s not what you do once in a while that counts, it’s going to be whether you do it consistently. So once you make that a habit, it’s not even effort anymore. You don’t even have to think about it. It just automatically starts to happen.

And that’s why I created a program called the Life Success Club. And just with that, it’s recreating habits: really easy strategies, ten minutes a day, thirty five minutes a week, creates new habits. It’s so easy. And you know what? The results people are getting are amazing! And people are going, “God! I can’t believe it’s that easy.” Wait a minute. See, you saying that it can’t be that easy is a habit. You’ve just accepted that it’s not that easy. When you start saying “it’s easy, it’s easy, it’s easy,” it becomes easy because easy becomes your habit.

West: I love your analogy where you say that people are either growing or disintegrating and there’s no in between. And that just rings really true with what you’re saying, you know, with these success habits.

Kurek: Yeah. Either you evolve or you dissolve. Nothing stays the same. And so if you’re not moving in one direction, by default, you have to be moving in the other. It’s called the Law of Vibration: everything’s in motion. So it’s got to be going one direction or the other. And so if you don’t actively choose to go that direction where you want to go…you cannot help, there’s nothing to do to save yourself, you’re going to slip backwards. You have to be proactive about choosing the direction of life you want to go. So that means either you’re growing or you’re decaying. And West, we all know that when things decay, they start to stink. And that’s because the universe is trying to tell you: ‘Don’t go that direction; it stinks.’

West: Yes. Definitely. I’m wondering if you’re able to share, Kurek, some of that success habits of some of your financially successful clients—getting down to a bit more specific level now—are there a series of habits that—‘coz there are a lot about this, um, pretty well-to-do but they’re just looking for that next level and maybe they’re not, they haven’t sustained the habits that successful financial people that you’ve observed have.

Kurek: Okay. Well, I’m going to give this scene a couple of ways, West. It’s because I believe in teaching people by teaching them to be independent and not dependent on me. So I’m going to actually answer that question as if I was approaching you right now. And that is, is that I recommend to anybody who’s listening to this program, go on and buy a book by George S. Clason called The Richest Man in Babylon. It’s been around for a long time. It’s a true story about a tablet discovered in Babylon which was by, per capita, the richest country in the world. There were more wealthy people per capita than any other nation in the world, and it was because a man there who used to be the poorest man in Babylon followed the strategy which was actually taught him—he tried it once, he failed at it; he tried it again and finally became very, very successful—became the richest man in Babylon and taught others how to do those strategies. Now the reason why I’m not going to teach what those strategies are in this tele-seminar, is because I… you know, I’m not going to cripple people. I want them to have to take the action.

Now here’s step number two. After you read the book, immediately start living the strategies. It’s clear as day; it’s like the nose on your face. Do not say later on or some day or one day or next week, I’ll do it; start IMMEDIATELY from the moment you hear his strategy. Put it into action. And if you don’t get the strategy, read the book over and over until you do get the strategy. Or people can get me at kurekashley.com. You have to read the book first. I have to question people if they’ve read it or not because, you know, here’s the thing, West, the reason I say it is, is the library is filled with books, millions of books, that teach you how to be wealthy, healthy, happy, successful, relationships; I have never seen the library filled with millions of people reading those books.

West: Absolutely.

Kurek: It’s all going to be about the people who are willing to do what average people aren’t willing to do. And what you just asked me is exactly what wealthy people—the real wealthy people that I work with—do: is they take the action when they get something who gave them advice. They instantly act on it—not tomorrow—immediately act on it. They get on, you know, the internet, order the book or they go down the bookstore to buy the book. They instantly start reading it and do that.

Now when I’m told that, here’s what I do: I go buy the book, I read the book, and I put the strategies into action. And that’s why my life is successful today—is because I’ve done that whenever I get recommended by the people that I respect and people who have the results. Man, when they come to do something, I’m all over them to wrap their sheet.

West: Yeah, I know. I completely agree. And that book is a real classic. It’s a very short book, too. But it’s very powerful in terms of its parables, the way it tells the story. I’m pretty certain that even a lot of people who may have read the book already that Kurek’s referring to, they probably wouldn’t have implemented it. And it would pro…

Kurek: If you did you’d be wealthy.

West: Exactly. Exactly. And I must admit, I’ve read it a few times now and a lot of the principles are still sinking into my brain. So I love your analogy that there are a million books out there but there are not a million people reading those books.

Kurek: You know, the funny thing, West, is that I used to give free audio programs away. I used to give free seminar tickets away. And guess what? People never listen to them and people never showed up. And, you know, you made people invest in themselves. If you look at the word ‘investment,’ it’s i.n.v.e.s.t.m.e.n.t. So it’s I-invest-in-me.

West: Mmm. Wow.

Kurek: It’s the best investment you can make. But if you’re not willing to put in, yeah, you aint going to get anything out… So you have to put in. So that’s why I’m going to challenge you and say, “Look, I’m not going to give you the, you know, ‘here, I’m going to do it for you’ strategy because that’s only going to turn you into a cripple. You know, you’re never going to do anything for yourself and you’ll always be dependent on someone like me.

So for my clients, I’m not Jim Henson of The Muppets who I stick my hand up you and say ‘yeah I’m going to go do this for you!’ You know, I’m going to teach my clients how to be independent so that if anything ever happened to me or as they leave the coaching program with me or even the Life Success Club or whatever, that they have the same skills and tools that have made me successful, can make them successful. And that’s when they feel great wisdom. They did it for themselves with the help of others. And by the way, West, all of us have had help up from other people. The people who had to help though are the people who ask for help. That’s biblical: “Ask and you shall receive.” You have to be willing to have enough courage and get out of your comfort zone to ask somebody for help. The only weak people on this planet are the people who are not willing to ask for help because if you don’t ask for it, you can’t get any.

West: Never. Very Powerful.

I wanted to ask what drives Kurek Ashley personally?

Kurek: Well, you know, the first thing I told you earlier in the call is that West, I am very clear that I am going to be dead forever. And so while I’m here, I want to make every moment count. So instead of living today like it’s just another day in my life, I live today as if my entire life is in this day.

West: Is today, yeah. That’s powerful.

Kurek: You know, I believe that this morning, when I woke up, I was born. And tonight, when I go to sleep, I’m going to die. So what do I want to do with my life today? And that means I want to pull all the stops out and I want to go to the fullest. And, you know, I keep in mind at how I want to be remembered on this life. And because of that, I make sure that I live that way everyday, which means I’m very abundant, I’m very generous. And yet the first person I have to take responsibility for to make sure that their life is complete is mine. Because how do you give away that which you do not have yourself? How do you write a million dollar check on a bank account that has no money in it? So you can’t go out and make everybody else’s life great when yours is in the toilet. So I make sure I exercise everyday, I eat good quality of food, I spend really good quality time with my lovely fiancée, Anna, and we have great time together—you know, it’s not just about, ‘hey, let’s do a lot of business’ and then spend five minutes together. Our life is more important. And I get the business done anyways. And then following through and going for your grand dream goals; that’s what inspires you everyday…going after the stuff that, man, it just gets you going crazy because you’re going after something that’s grand. And that inspires me. That gets me up in the morning. By the way, West, I get up at 4 am, everyday, seven days a week, because sleep is dreaming and being awake is reliving the dream. I’ve got to think that I’m dead.

West: That’s awesome. How have you managed to—I’m assuming, I mean, someone who lives his life as passionately as you do, Kurek, would it be fair to say that you just naturally draw other passionate people towards you and surround yourself with those people?

Kurek: Well, West, it’s physics. Energy attracts like energy. If you’re going to be pissed off, angry, negative and depressed, you’re going to meet a lot of those people who are the same way. And knowing that is if you’re going to be hanging out with those people, you’re going to become one. If you are positive, happy, loving, generous, abundant, you’re going to start to meeting people who are like that. And if you’re not now, you start hanging out with people like that, you’ll become one. See, we’re a product of our environment. And negative people don’t really like hanging out with me because they know that they’re either going to have to change or they’re going to have to listen to me being happy all the time.

West: Yeah, you’ve got a nickname: Mr. Positive. When you used to train at the gym, over at Fitness First, one of your stories is the guys always used to refer to you as Mr. Positive.

Kurek: Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s true. And you know, the funny part though is that you’ll notice that anybody who has charisma, which means people that we get attracted to, those are the positive, happy people. Because when you’re positive—you’ve got to remember, positive is an ambiguous terminology. Positive can mean I’m happy kind of positive. I’m in positive energy. And the other thing can be positive as in like battery terminals like you car battery. Well, if you look at positive and negative, the symbol for positive is a plus sign, which means, it adds to, having more power to. Negative means you’re taking it away. And you’ll notice that there’s no neutral terminal.

So isn’t that unique though that we talk about when somebody’s being positive, they’re empowering, which means more power. And you’ll notice that, you know, the more powerful we get for like a light bulb gets, the brighter the light gets and the more bugs and light starts showing up towards the light. And Jesus talked about walking in the light, and Buddha taught the path to enlightenment, which both meant to be in your light. And you’ll notice that around both of those figures—Jesus and Buddha—there is always a ring of light around their head known as a halo. But I call that an empowered ring because they were empowering about everything. They had positive thoughts about everything. And guess what? Everybody saw their light and wanted to be in their light. And Jesus said, “Even the least among you can do all that I have done and even greater things,” which means that when you live in the light, you’re charismatic, people are attracted to you. And when people are attracted to you, those people have offers, they have opportunities, they have friendships, they have relationships, they have everything. All you’ve got to do is be happy and positive. But guess what? When you’re negative, not only do people not going to be attracted to that, it’s a force field that pushes them away from you. I mean, who wants to hang out with that?

So again, it’s either you’re going to pull people closer to you and pour more life towards you—you know, those things that you want in life—or you’re going to push them away. There’s no neutral.

West: That’s a very interesting observation in nature that you talked about with the insects being drawn to a brighter life. That’s powerful stuff that I’ve never heard before.

Kurek: West, let me ask you, where do you live in Australia? What’s the name of the state?

West: Queensland.

Kurek: And that’s the what state?

West: The sunshine state.

Kurek: Sunshine state. So when that light shows up in the sky and the bugs come up, it’s sort of all of us.

West: Yeah.

Kurek: You know, light is what gives life to the planet. So it’s not just bugs. I’m just using this as an example of a light bulb, you know. But as a matter of fact, when I was in the movie industry, we used to use twenty four thousand kilowatt lights. And you’ve got not only billions of bugs flying through the beam, you’ve got birds, you’ve got bats and then you’ve got people coming out of their house going, “Hey, what’s going on down here?” See, we’re all attracted to the light.

West: That’s a seriously big light, Kurek. Massive.

Kurek: Well also, West, think about a movie premiere or an opening of a shopping center. What do they put out in front of it to attract people?

West: Yeah. Bright, flashing lights and…

Kurek: Yeah, big flashing lights in the sky. Why? Because people go, “Hey, what’s going on over there?” So what you’re doing is you can see that we get attracted to that light.

West: Very powerful. I was wondering, Kurek, if you can share, because when you mentioned that you say your affirmations each morning—you don’t have to, obviously, if they’re very personal—but if you’ll be able to be kind enough to share maybe one or two that you say to yourself.

Kurek: Sure. Well, one of them is something that I originally got from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich which, by the way, is a book that has made more people successful. They attribute their success to that book more than any other book in the history of writing. And funny, it talks about think and grow rich, which is what I’ve been talking really about all day. I respect the guy. He’s obviously got the result. Take the advice. Yet I read it and I said, you know what, there are some things in there that I think need to be added for my own thing. And so I added some pieces to it. I reformatted it and gave it a name called The Winner’s Creed. Now I’ve been doing the Winner’s Creed since 1980, when I first read Think and Grow Rich and I’ve read it, you know, fifty-sixty times since then. And so it goes like this—and I’ll rattle one off to you. And you know, if any listeners want it, you can write me at kurek@kurekashley.com and I’ll send you a copy of it.

West: Thank you.

Kurek: It’s not mine. My name’s not on it so It won’t cost you anything. It goes like this:

I know that I have the ability to achieve my definite purpose in life:
therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action towards its attainment.
And I here and now promise to render such action.

I fully realize that no wealth or position will long endure
unless it is built upon truth and justice;
therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all to whom it effects.

I am succeeding by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use and the cooperation of other people.
I induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve others.

I eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, cynicism, anger, and fear by developing a true love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude towards others can never bring me success.

I cause others to believe in me because I believe in them and in myself.

This is my creed. This is my quest:
To never stop striving for the top.
To always keep moving forward.
To always be the very best I can be.
I am the power. I am the magic. I can not be stopped.

I promise to always be true to myself because I am the creator and master of my universe and responsible for making a positive difference in the world and to the quality of life in it.

I live in constant and never-ending improvement.

West: Wow. That’s unbelievable. And you’ve obviously ingrained it to every cell in your body, Kurek. When you were saying that, I could just feel the energy and the power in the words there. So I want to thank you personally for sharing that with us.

Kurek: West, let me give you one more piece before we go. And that is Wallace D. Wattles, who wrote the book, The Science of Getting Rich. He said that getting rich is not the result of doing certain things; it’s doing things in a certain way. So it’s not about reading the affirmations, it’s about reading with passion and enthusiasm. That is the certain way. Because enthusiasm, the root word, is Greek, which is entheos, which means the god within. So passion is, you know, whatever we’ve been great at life, it’s the same stuff that we are passionate about. So if you want to be great at something, get passionate.

West: Get emotional. Get your body involved. Get your physiology involved, as you say.

Kurek: Turn the Engines on!

West: Well, Kurek, I want to thank you for sharing some awesome, awesome analogies, stories, strategies. You’ve given a lot today. And I just learned heaps more from you than I’ve learned from your programs from talking to you. So thank you.

I want to finish up by allowing you to talk about if someone wants to find out more information about any of your products, your upcoming book—I’m definitely interested in promoting this to our members—your website, if people want to come along, what do they need to know, who do they talk to?

Kurek: Well, the easiest way to track me down is kurek@kurekashley.com which is my email. I do answer emails. Or you can go to KurekAshley.com. It’s the website which has all the products, you know, the videos to watch. Sign up with the newsletter. I would highly recommend…

West: It’s a client newsletter, guys. I’m on Kurek’s newsletter and it gives you an update on where Kurek’s been but also gives you some really good tips and strategies as well. Carry on, Kurek.

Kurek: Well, I want to make sure that it’s an added value so that people really get good value, new strategies, keep them going. I share a lot of things about my own life and what I’m doing so that, you know, and teach you how I’m doing what I’m doing. Also, for people who signed up for the newsletter is this coming year is I’m going to do a whole series of teleseminars just interviewing people that I know who helped me in my business, teaching me how to sell more books, good marketing, business. I’ll just offering that for free, people. So that’s going to be on there.

Also the Life Success Club. If you’re interested in that, you can go on read about it. It’s a monthly coaching program. It’s only $39.95 a month. It’s very economical yet it literally conditions you to have new successful habits.

And there’s the networking side of it where we get members together. They can talk to each other on the website.

West: And you have events that you organize for the Life members as well.

Kurek: Yeah. We just had one with feeding the tigers at Dreamworld, invited people to go meet Al Gore and President Clinton and Hugh Hefner and Richard Branson. So, you know, it’s that.

And you can also ask the other members for help, you know, “Who can help me out there?” And a lot of times, you know, it’s members who can help you with strategies to achieve your own goals, financial business.

And then the biggest thing, West, I’d like to talk about just for a moment, is my book. I’m very…

West: Yes. I’m really keen here about it.

Kurek: Yeah, I’m getting great pre-reviews on it. We’re literally destined to go to number one on the bestsellers list the first day it’s out, which will be April 8th. I’ve got some very big people launching with me, big people giving bonuses away so that if you order the book on the first day, you’ll get like $5,000 in bonuses.

West: Wow.

Kurek: Plus I have a drawing where like 5 people are going to win some big major prizes, trips, cash, all kinds of fun adventures…

West: Will people be able to buy it off your website or is it only through bookstores?

Kurek: Yeah, and also, I’m going to pass on an email to you, West. And then if you can forward it off on to your listeners…

West: That’d be great.

Kurek: …there’s going to be an opportunity for it. But the book is called How Would Love Respond? And it’s kind of an interesting title. And the gist of it is that it teaches you personal development in a way that you may have never learned it before that will literally get you doing it. It definitely opens up your mind, it poses a lot of questions for you. It’s a very personal book. I use myself as a big example through a lot of it and real work examples. You don’t just learn A + B + C; it’s what applies in your life, how do you do it, and yet if you don’t do it, what’s the price you’re going to pay. And it’s very unique.

And for most people, plus again, there’s some great stories about me, you know, like friends with John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone, and other things. It really is a page-turner. I mean, the biggest compliment I get about the book is people tell me, you know, “I started reading it at 6 o’clock at night and because of you, I’m getting sleep less. I couldn’t put it down without finishing it.” Or people taking it to the bathroom and reading when on their toilet because they just can’t put it down.

So it’s not just strategy. It’s actually, you know, there are a lot of personal events in there. And like I said, the last chapter, the comment I’m getting from everyone including editors, publishers, publicists, they’re saying, “You couldn’t crave for an ending that good except, Kurek, it’s actually really your life and it’s amazing that you’re so honest to share that sometimes in life, you get hit with a left hook and you didn’t see it coming and yet, here you still handle it in such a loving, empowering way; and look at what it’s done to your life because you’ve done that.

And that’s ‘How Would Love Respond?’ I’m very proud of it. And so April 8th is the release date. And we’ll be sending out more information through the newsletters and emails and things like that.

West: Great. Yeah, please keep me posted, Kurek. I’m certainly going to purchase that book for sure for my own personal collection. But we won’t give away the end for the business, obviously. I’m aware of what happened and it is a huge, huge twist in the story. But I encourage you all to go out there and take a look at Kurek’s book and read it, you know, five, six, seven, fifty times and bring out the hi-lighter. I’m sure you’ll learn tons of wisdom from Kurek.

So…

Kurek: Well actually, West, is don’t read it if you don’t want to have everything you want in your life. If you want to stay where you are, just keep doing what you’re doing. If you really want to change, and again, it’s simple strategies that anybody and everybody—everybody’s got equal opportunity, equal potential to create your rewards in life you want. Everybody’s got that. It’s the people who are willing to do and invest in themselves that get the rewards that other people don’t get.

And the last thing I’ll leave you with, West, on that is whether or not—and the people listening to this or anybody else I’ve ever worked in life—goes and does what I prescribe them to do or teach them to do, whether you do it or not, I’m still going to have a great life, because I’m not willing to sacrifice my happiness and my rewards in life for the people who aren’t willing to take the action. Yet, it’s not lonely at the top but all your friends are happy, healthy, wealthy and successful too because we helped each other get here.

West: Wow. That is a huge and powerful point to end on. Again, Kurek, thank you. Genuinely and deeply, I’ve just been very impressed with what I’ve heard in every way and I hope the listeners have got something out of it. So thanks for your time, Kurek. And hopefully, we can speak in the near future.

Kurek: I look forward to it. You’re a great man, West.

West: Oh thanks, Kurek.

[END 61:58]