Jack Black looks forward to Saturday mornings. It is the only time of week the motivational speaker allows himself to indulge in his favourite drink - coffee.
The Scotsman is an exponent of the theory that success in business can be boosted by harnessing the powers of the right side of our brains. And coffee, he says, produces high beta frequencies which put our brains out of kilter.
"I love the smell and taste of coffee, but I would never dream of drinking it when I was working," says the 59-year-old. "It's about 'do you want to be ordinary, or extraordinary?' If you want to be extraordinary, make sure you're in the boardroom drinking water, especially in the UAE. Business leaders can improve their mental agility by being very careful about what they're eating and drinking."
Mr Black will introduce his theory to Dubai during a leadership masterclass next Tuesday. There he will teach tools he claims can help attendees bypass stress, access their inbuilt creativity and create powerful visions for their future.
It is a long way from his days as a social worker on a Glasgow council estate 30 years ago. Then a series of tragedies occurred that he says put him on a path to become one of Scotland's first motivational business speakers.
One rainy evening, a work mentor kindly drove him home when his car broke down after a failed job interview. The mentor then spent several hours coaching him before dropping down dead two days later.
"It was the stress that killed him," says Mr Black. "And within two weeks, two other critical people in my life under the age of 40 died too. Glasgow was a big, macho city. Nobody ever talked about stress, that was for wimps. While I knew I wanted to work my way through the system, like my mentor, I knew it would probably kill me too."
Mr Black came across a book about managing stress using the Silva method, by a Mexican Texan called José Silva. This introduced him to using guided imagery to rewire the subconscious. Feeling inspired, he started working for the American Silva Organisation.
"I trailblazed the movement in the UK - before that, motivational speakers were always Americans. They somehow felt that Americans were better at it. I realised I needed to do this my way, so I de-Americanised it."
Mr Black then spent six months developing his own techniques, developing "Mindstore" - his personal development and performance improvement programme, which he says helps people connect with the right side of their brains.
"Most people have heard about the left and right brain, but they don't do anything with that knowledge to specifically enhance their lives," he says. "The right brain's faculties are imagination, creativity and intuition, and the real stars in business and leadership are the ones who are obviously using both sides of their brains."
The technique Mr Black uses requires a state of deep relaxation.
"I found that when I was very relaxed my imagination would run wild - just like if you're sunbathing on the beaches of Dubai," says Mr Black. "The right brain naturally uses imagery. The part of the mind that allows communication between the two hemispheres of the brain is the corpus callosum. So I tell people imagine you're standing on the banks of a river, which represents the corpus callosum. Imagine the landscape in front of you, which is a metaphor for the right brain, and build a house with a red roof. Inside the house, there are different rooms and inside each are powerful tools for using your mind to your advantage - for creativity, innovation and better communication. It allows people to focus on what they want to do with their future. So it has a powerful impact on business and sales." Mr Black says he has used the technique himself to buy his own Scottish castle.
"In my very humble beginnings, I regularly passed this castle with a big loch and a flag on top of the tower. I decided one day I would live there. After developing Mindstore, I wanted to prove to myself that my techniques worked, so I bought the castle. It wasn't a happy place to live - it was cold and draughty but it was the unshakeable proof that you can use the techniques to get everything you want."
However, Mr Black acknowledges that material goods do not necessarily equate with success.
"The extraordinarily successful people I've worked with aren't doing what they do so they can say 'look at the big house I live in'," he adds. "They're successful because they absolutely love what they do and people pick up on it, both consciously and subconsciously."
And a positive mental attitude can also help those early on in their career says Mr Black. "Entrepreneurs I know say that when someone comes for a job, they're less interested in their qualifications and more interested in their attitude."
The motivational speaker says the easiest way to foster more positivity is to switch off the news.
"Right now, I suspect anybody living and working in the Middle East must lose a large percentage of their vibrancy and drive by watching the news. News is a dangerous thing. It should be treated the same way as coffee - very carefully."
For tickets to Tuesday's masterclass in Dubai follow the links at wlp-success.com
business@thenational.ae
Jack Black to reveal secrets of a motivated mind in Dubai
Motivational speaker claims the key to business success is accessing the creative tendencies found in the right side of our brains. And he plans to share his techniques at a workshop in Dubai.
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