1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

Ok, so maybe it was JUST 42km, but it may as well have been 1000 miles! This is the start of the 45th Rotorua Marathon, complete with Maori Warriors giving us runners some extra motivation.

It turns out that 42km is quite a long way. This was certainly such an amazing experience and I stil can’t really come to terms with the fact that I actually completed it. You reach different milestones on the race. There’s the 1km mark, you feel great, charged and full of energy. I was still feeling great at 10km.

At 18km I couldn’t take it anymore and had to start walking. I had managed to injure my right knee (which did happen once during training). I was alternating between running and walking, but eventually it was too painful to run.

When I set out to achieve this goal and complete a marathon, I envisioned myself running the whole thing. Sometimes life doesn’t always work out exactly how we plan, but don’t let that stop you. I certainly didn’t let it stop me. I decided before I even ran the marathon that I was going to finish.

I wanted to complete the marathon (my first ever) in under 5 hours. I had trained for 12 weeks and put a lot of effort, sought lots of advice from experts, and drank a lot of water and ate a lot of carbs! I also was doing this to raise money and awareness for STOP THE TRAFFIK - an international organisation dedicated to freeing people across the world from slavery.You can read more about the fundraising at http://www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

I didn’t make the decision to start walking easily. I tried to run through the pain as long as I could. I had never walked any long distances before, so wasn’t sure how my body would react or how long it would take me.

“It didn’t matter that I didn’t know those answers. I knew the outcome -I would finish this marathon today.”

That really helped me get through this. It’s crazy because you don’t realise how long it takes to walk 1km until you have to walk 25 of them in a row! I kept picturing myself walking over that finish line.

The last 10km were really tough…..then the last 3 were even tougher. They were tougher physically but, mentally, I knew I had made it at about the 36km mark….when I turned the corner and saw my beautiful wife standing there, so happy to see me. It gets lonely on the road…

This is a picture of myself, walking the last 100 metres, with my beautiful wife and our daughter Sophie, cradled in her arms:

Walking with her gave me more energy. I couldn’t stop to moving because my legs would seize up so I just kept on walking as fast as I could. She walked with me for a few seconds, gave me a kiss and moved back to the car, where our 12 week old daughter was still sleeping.

At the 3km mark I got another boost, when I saw my dad walking towards me. He walked with me for those final 3km. It felt like ages, and it was so great to have him by my side. When I got the final 200m, I was greeted by the rest of my family. It meant so much to have them all there, cheering me on. I felt like I was about to cross the finish line in the Olympics for gold….what a feeling!

As I walked over the finish line, there was more cheering and the announcer called my name. 6 hours and 26 minutes of constant movement. I did it. I completed a marathon - my first ever. Sure, I was in a lot of pain and my body ached from fatigue, but I felt like a million dollars!

Sometimes in life we get thrown some challenges, and it’s all about how we respond to those challenges and the support that we surround ourselves with, that will decide the outcome.

This is me and my good friend Dan Necklen, after finishing the marathon. I couldn’t have done this without you mate. Thank for the support - you’re a legend!

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all those hundreds of people that have supported me in this effort. Those that had the courage to make a donation to make a difference for those people in this world that are still sold into slavery - by supporting my charity - STOP THE TRAFFIK.

For all those amazing people that gave me advice about running and training - thanks for your efforts, it was all worth it! To my wife and two kids, thanks for your patience, especially on my long 2 hour runs. Your support has been invaluable! To everyone else that I haven’t mentioned personally, sorry but my goal tonight is not to make this the worlds longest blog post…although it probably getting there!

I would like to end this entry, by saying to everybody - don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. This is how we grow and evolve. When you next challenge yourself, throw everything you have at it. See yourself crossing that finish line, whatever it may be. Until next time, keep those dreams alive….

 All the best - Ryan Kilfoil

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. People say that one way to ensure you accomplish something amazing is to set your goal high and never give up until you have achieved it. This is me not giving up….

With 10 days to go until my marathon event, I’m pulling out all the stops, and I would really appreciate it if you could help me in any way you can. I think I’ve summed it all up in this video:

Oh yeah, and for those of you that noticed. I have now changed my target from NZ$10,000 (approx ₤4,000) and increased it to ₤10,000! I thought it was confusing having two different amounts in two different currencies - so I did the opposite of what I thought most people would do - and increased my target for sponsorships! What a way to motivate yourself to achieve something great!!

Here I am, about to run a marathon in just over 2 weeks. My purpose - to raise $10,000 for Stop the Traffik. This is something I feel very passionately about. I rallied for support, and found it difficult to understand why others didn’t share my passion in supporting this amazing organisation that dedicates themselves to bring an end to people trafficking all around the globe.

<<<<<<<<<<To Sponsor me now - please visit www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil >>>>>>>>>>

Then it hit me. The reason I am so passionate about this charity, is because I know what they do, the difference they make. So that’s what I’m going to do right now. I’m going to educate you about Stop the Traffik, and how people trafficking is still alive and kicking in almost every country in the world…So please, take a moment to read this. To understand what we are allowing to happen in our world.

What is STOP THE TRAFFIK?
STOP THE TRAFFIK is a global movement working to combat the fastest growing global crime, people trafficking. Around the world men, women and children are being treated as commodities—something to be bought, sold, and enslaved.

STOP THE TRAFFIK has more than 1000 member organisations in 50 countries & a grass roots following of ordinary activists around the world. Some of us sign petitions, wear symbols of the campaign, spread the message, and some of us show our support through adapting our lifestyles.

They believe that when people act things change. And I do too.

Real Life Trafficking:

“Masud was 12. His parents were persuaded, tricked, to let him be taken from his home in Bangladesh to a new life in England. He was sold - ‘Trafficked’

He left his family home with an unknown man who travelled with him to London then onto the South West where he was abandoned in an Indian restaurant. To survive he worked in the restaurants living in small store rooms, sleeping next to jars of chutney and bags of onions. Sometimes when there was no work he was forced to sleep on the streets. He was not able to go to school and his life was controlled by the restaurant owners.

When he was 28, with the help of STOP THE TRAFFIK he contacted the local police and immigration team who helped him to obtain a passport and identity documents, resulting in him being able to return the Bangladesh to obtain a UK visa and to be reunited with his family.

Masud is now living legally in the UK. He is married and is building a new life away from the restaurants.”

Stories like Masud’s are happening all the time, making People Trafficking the world’s fastest growing illegal trade.

So I thought we were pretty isolated here in little old New Zealand, surely we don’t get this sort of nonsense here? It turns out that I was wrong:

“A graphic US Government report on modern slavery has accused New Zealand of being a “destination country” for the trafficking of women for sex from Malaysia, Hong Kong and China [for some reason Vietnamese women are not mentioned in the report….read the full story“

 Fairfax Media | Thursday, 05 June 2008

“New Zealand immigration officials admit that women could be working undetected as sex slaves in New Zealand, the Weekend Herald reported on Saturday.  The Cabinet will be asked to set up a taskforce involving seven government departments to stop human trafficking in this country…read the full story”

April 04, 2009 The New Zealand Herald

So make a decision right now. Take this knowledge and do something about it. Or do nothing. This is your chance to make a difference. Please help me support this organisation, by sponsoring me for my Marathon in 2 weeks:

<<<<<<<<<<To Sponsor me now - please visit www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil >>>>>>>>>> 

Thank you for your support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Ryan Kilfoil

“Ability to influence a system, or an environment, in a way that multiplies the outcome of one’s efforts without a corresponding increase in the consumption of resources.”

www.BusinessDictionary.com

 The above is the definition of “leverage”. In the past I have talked mainly about using leverage to help others, through charity etc. An example would be my fast approaching marathon, where I am trying to raise over $10,000 for Stop the Traffik. (If you enjoy this post - please sponsor me here) By contacting some local and national newspapers, I have managed to get my story run, and attracted a lot of interest in my efforts to raise funds to stop human trafficking. Seeing as I had already decided to run the marathon, the only extra thing I did to generate interest, was to simply contact a few local publications. Only a little effort compared to the massive results it obtained for me and the charity.

Today I’m going to talk about using leverage in a different way - to help you achieve success in your life. I’m assuming that by now you have some direction in your life, you have set your goals (and written them down), have your dream/vision board setup and work towards your goals on a daily basis? Excellent - if not, maybe start here. So now that you have your goals - how can you use leverage to achieve them?

How to use leverage to achieve your goals:

1. Choose a goal to focus on.
2. Find someone that has mastered that goal before. If you have a goal that hasn’t been done before, or you can’t find anyone that’s an expert in that field, then try to get in touch with someone as close to that description as possible.
3. Contact them. By taking action to simply saying “Hi, this is my goal, I believe that you have done this before, can you please give me some advice?, you’ll be surprised at the reaction you get. Lots of successful people are more than happy to share their experiences. Whether it’s just a quick email, or perhaps they take you under their wing and provide some mentoring - you’ll still be getting some top advice that you can use to achieve your goals!

As you are no doubt all aware. I’m running a marathon on May 2nd, after never running further than 3km before I started training 8 weeks ago. When I made the decision to run a marathon, I began to research running on the internet and sifted through countless pages of conflicting information about what I should and shouldn’t do.

So I decided to see if I could find someone who had at least run a marathon, and have a chat to them. Somehow I managed to do a lot better than that. I found Ross Steele, who also lives in Tauranga, New Zealand. Ross has just returned from Kilimanjaro after running his 26th Marathon!!!

Not only that, but finishing that Marathon meant that he had run a marathon on Seven different continents, making him a member of an elite club, with only 240 members world wide. Ross was definitely qualified to give me advice about running marathons. Ross will also be completing in the same Marathon I will be completing on May 2nd.

I emailed Ross the yesterday and he gave me a call shortly afterwards, only too happy to meet me to talk about this passion that is running marathons. Ross was fantastic, giving me time loads of advice and practical tips that I now see as invaluable.

I feel much better equipped for my marathon and have only grown more confident since talking to him, and learning from him. Even if it was just an hour that we spend discussing running. So I learnt what a powerful tool it can be, to talk to someone who has achieved as much success in the area that you are trying to excel in.

You can read more about Ross’s recent achievements here. So now that you’ve finished reading this. What are you going to do? Have a coffee? Get back to work? Have a sleep? Or are you going to take action, and get in contact with someone RIGHT NOW, who will be able to help you achieve your goal?

Hi Folks

You’ve probably just read about me and my crazy goal of making $1 Million dollars in 365 days! If you would like to follow my progress over the next 183 days, I suggest you subscribe to my RSS Feed or free email alerts, in the sidebar on the right.

So firstly I would just like to say thank you for visiting my site. If you’re new here, feel free to look back through my previous posts and hopefully you find something useful. Also, please feel free to contact me if you have any question: ryan at thekiwimillionaire dot com

So - back to me…needing your help. On my journey to make a million dollars, I have learnt a lot of things. One of them being, that:

“by giving to others, you receive more in return than if you chose not to give“.

For that reason, I decided to start a separate project and raise $10,000 for charity - by running the Rotorua Marathon on May 2nd 2009.

WHAT?

This isn’t your ordinary charity. About 1.2 Million children are trafficked each year. TRAFFICKING IS…to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

You can DONATE - instantly and securely, directly to STOP THE TRAFFIK, helping them help others enjoy what we all take for granted everyday. Here are some ideas:

• Donate the money you would have spent on a coffee tomorrow
• Run a marathon and setup your own donation page (www.justgiving.com)
• Why not take lunch from home this week and donate the money you would have used to buy your food?
• Why not have a competition between your friends to see who can donate the most?

The truth is, if you don’t do this now, you probably won’t do it at a later date - so please visit my donations page - www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil and donate now to STOP THE TRAFFIK.

Thank you, from me and from the millions of men, women and children that are sold into slavery every year.

Thanks for helping to make a difference.

Kind Regards

Ryan Kilfoil

There is an old saying “Charity begins at home”. While I always thought this to be true, I now believe the opposite. Charity begins with Charity. If you wait until you have enough spare cash to give to charity….I think we can all agree that you may be waiting a long time.

“But how can I give money away when I can’t afford to pay all my bills?” Well, there’s really two solutions here:

1. Reduce the number of bills you have to pay!
2. Give something - it doesn’t have to be 50% of your income! Maybe start off with 5%? Chances are that you won’t even notice it’s gone, but I bet you the people that you are helping will surely notice your contribution.

I think this goes back to being grateful for what you have. No matter what is happening in your life right now, I bet you can find people in this world that are a lot worse off than you are. If you are reading this blog, then you should be counting your lucky stars because you obviously have power and Internet access! Some people don’t even know what those things are!

My goal is still to make a Million Dollars in 365 days….and I have some exciting developments that I will share with you over the next couple of days with regards to my progress However, during this journey so far, I have discovered some other opportunities out there - and one of them is to challenge myself.

And that I did, by committing to running a marathon! Not only did I commit to running a marathon, but then I publicly committed to raise $10,000 for the charity - STOP THE TRAFFIK! Do you have any idea how great I feel? Not because I think I’m doing this great thing, but because I have no doubt that I will complete both these tasks - I have to - there are people counting on me!

If I just kept these goals to myself, how easy would it be for me to decide that things were too tough and make a bunch of excuses and then quit? It would be pretty easy. Now, there’s no way I can quit!  I’d be getting emails and phone calls from all over the globe! If that’s not a great form of motivation then I don’t know what is.

I have been training since the 23/01/2009 and just last Sunday I managed to run 15km’s which made me feel like I had accomplished a major feat! It was fantastic! A lot of people asked me how difficult it was to run that far (it’s far for me okay!). My reply was simple, I didn’t find it difficult.

Why not, you ask? Well, like a lot of things, it comes back to perception. What am I comparing this marathon to, or at least this training to? If I’m comparing it to sitting on the couch at home watching TV then hell yeah - it’s painfully difficult!!

I’m not though. I’m comparing this marathon, this training, with an average day for some of the people out there, that are supported for by the charities I am raising money for. STOP THE TRAFFIK does a lot of work to stop people trafficking - can you imagine what it would be like to be sold to someone? When I’m running, I think of what someone else might be going through, how they might feel and what they would do if they were offered the chance to live a day in my life….now those are some powerful perceptions.

Now I’m not doing anything overly special here, I’m simply trying to raise some money for these guys. The question is, can you help? Maybe you don’t want to donate to this cause, maybe you can’t afford it. I’m sure you can come up with more creative excuses than that! However, the point is that this is not the only way you can help.

I challenge others out there to do also take on a marathon, and raise funds for a charity of your choice, get your community behind you, get the world behind you. Do it for yourself, do it for others and do it for the right reasons.

If you’re not in the mood for a marathon, then luckily for you, I have another solution - you can contribute to my Marathon by donating directly to STOP THE TRAFFIK, through my page at www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

I have set myself a big goal, and I’m confident that with your help we will be able to achieve it. Whether you can afford $1 or $100, please support this worthy cause right now. I truly appreciate you reading this entire post, and even more so for making a difference for this Charity. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly, especially if you have any other ideas on how to help raise even more funds for these guys.

Thanks again readers, for your amazing support and I look to keeping you updated with my progress. Have a great day and I hope you have gained something positive from this piece.

All the best - The Kiwi Millionaire

Every day, people do things that astound me, and the last couple of days has been no exception! Five days ago the voting was going well with over 4,000 votes cast for the $10,000 challenge, which was a massive effort!

When voting closed, at 4pm today (28/02/09), the results absolutely BLEW ME AWAY! We had received a massive 51,247 Votes! I never dreamt that my cause would be able to reach this many people.

And the Winner is…

Congratulations to Stop the Traffik (www.stopthetraffik.org) with their fantastic effort, receiving 92% of all the votes cast!

So they official results are as follows:

1st Place and the recipient of all funds raised by me for the Rotorua Marathon is Stop the Traffik with 47,372 Votes!!

2nd Place was Save the Children with a great effort and 2647 Votes!

3rd Place was the Child Cancer Foundation with 1112 Votes! This charity also blew me away, with the massive support from the public and I hope to be doing something with them next.

4th Place was the Heart Foundation which finished with 146 Votes!

My sincere thanks to EVERYONE that voted and to all the charities that were involved. I know a lot of hard work went into this and I do believe that ALL the charities managed to raise their profile through this exercise.

As charity is an ongoing process, I do hope to work with all these charities over the coming months and appreciate all the correspondence and support I have received so far.

The difficult has now passed - we have a winner. Now all we have to do is raise the $10,000! So keep an eye out for some innovative fundraising activities courtesy of your Kiwi Millionaire!

To donate to STOP THE TRAFFIK please visit http://www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

Hi guys, here are the results for the $10,000 challenge so far. Remember there are still 4 days left to vote. So if your favourite charity is not in the lead, then cast your vote below!

Placings as of 9:00am on Tuesday 24th February 2009:

1. www.stopthetraffik.org - 830 Votes - 52% of the votes
2. www.childcancer.org,nz - 543 Votes - 34% of the votes
3. www.savethechildren.org.nz - 177 Votes - 11% of the votes
4. www.heartfoundation.org.nz - 28 Votes - 1% of the votes

Total votes to date: 1578

With only 4 days to go, spread the word and place your vote below:

This interesting short clip highlights the plight of these poor people, taken away from their families. Do you feel passionate about this? If so, visit the official website of stop the traffik to see how you can help. Thank you.