1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

The other day I was trawling the interweb, as I do sometimes, when I came across an article about a property developer who wanted to develop a barrier island in the Tauranga harbour, New Zealand. The more I read about this particular gentlemen, the more I was intrigued.

His name is Christopher Wingate. According to this interview in the NZ Herald, Chris was a self made millionaire by the age of 25.

“He knew from a young age he wanted a different life and so instead of spending his days hanging around the Western Heights shops he spent it in the bush or wondering around some of the tourist businesses talking with the owners.

Each Friday night we would have fish and chips- one piece of fish each. The others would hog their piece of fish but I would focus on the chips knowing my fish would be there long after they had scoffed their fish. I guess then I knew I was different

Married 24 years with 4 kids, Chris was a self made millionaire by the age of 25. He has lived in Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver and Hawaii.

He is currently filming a movie called GOVERNMENT, a 9/11 type film about what he calls “idiots in power.“

The part that really struck a chord with me, was when Chris was talking about the biggest low point in his life, and how a change in perception, totally changed the way he was viewing life at that time:

“My darkest hour was when:

I lost the Matakana Island litigation at the Privy Council. I had won the 4 week trial in the NZ High Court - the defendants were clearly guilty and all the documents and cross examination proved that. Then the Court of Appeal changed the facts and ignored others, I was shocked democracy could be so negligent or corrupt. The Privy Council were supposed to be the beacon of intelligence so when they rejected my appeal I just went blank.

I came through it by:

On the flight back sitting in first class talking with a Chinese businessman from Singapore we started talking about what we did. I explained I had just lost a court case and began talking about it all . I started showing him some photographs of Matakana Island from my briefcase and among those photo’s were pictures of my family and our home, While looking at them I realised my family were about to lose their home as we had put everything into the litigation. Suddenly I found myself crying.

The Singaporean man put his hand over to mine and said ” Maybe I don’t know how bad things are for you but I want to consider this, imagine if you were on this flight for a different reason, imagine if one of your family had been killed and you were flying back to New Zealand for that reason, you would be here right now praying to god he take everything you own in exchange for that family member to be alive again. Money is not as important as family that is your priority and that is your wealth and reward”. I got off the plane with a smile and my family needed that.”

The story behind the Matakana Island litigation is covered in this Scoop article. Chris Wingate has also set up a website about the venture.

I was really touched by his story, his passion and drive. Here is an example of someone who believes in something and is standing up for what he believes in by doing something about it! Great stuff Chris - I hope your story empowers and inspires others like it did me. Thank you.