The Success Nuggets

The Success Nuggets #49 - Growing a Billion Trees with Paul Flynn

• David Abel • Season 3 • Episode 8

Share episode

Send us a text

🌍 This episode made me look in the mirror.

I’ve never met someone quite like Sir Paul Flynn.
He’s not just planting trees, he’s planting possibility.

Every segment of this conversation peels back a deeper layer of what he’s doing… and how he’s doing it.
From carbon finance to community wells, from wildlife protection to giving orphaned kids a home. Paul’s building a future, not from a boardroom, but with his hands, in the dirt—up to his legs in it.

But what really stopped me?

👉 His gratitude.
To those who back him.
To those who believe.
To the people who put their money to work. 

Not for returns, but for real, human impact.

This one’s not just a listen.
 It’s a lesson.
 And maybe, a call to check what we’re really building.

If you're lucky enough to hear this you are doing just fine.

#TheSuccessNuggetsPodcast #PaulFlynn #DeepWork #GratitudeInAction #CarbonForGood #GrowFoundation #ImpactMatters #LeadershipWithHeart

🟡 His golden nugget?
 "Be kind to strangers for no reason."
That’s not just a quote. That’s how he lives.

With thanks to One Golden Nugget and Maxwell Preece for editing, support and artwork

Speaker 2:

Amazing, amazing wisdom, entrepreneurs, success, success around the world.

Speaker 1:

This is the Success Nuggets podcast. Have you ever wondered what you could learn and how inspired you'd be if you asked incredible people from around the world about the patterns that drive progress? Get ready to dive into a world of insights and inspiration, of insights and inspiration. This is the Success Nuggets Podcast, with the founder of the Digital Lightbulb and your host, david.

Speaker 3:

Abel Paul Flynn is the founder of Grow Foundation, a visionary organization on a mission to plant a billion trees and transform a million lives across sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaker 2:

Paul, great to have you on the show. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 3:

Paul, we were just talking before we came on air about being in the right place at the right time. You've got a wonderfully unique career. Try and briefly explain all the steps you've had since the start and how it's got you to where you are now.

Speaker 2:

I think, when career progression is voluntarily throwing away careers in order to do something more meaningful, as I believed it, because you have to start right at the beginning to do what I'm doing today. I'm Ugandan-Irish. I'm a Ugandan mother, irish father, born in Germany, so I'm a diaspora child that grew up in three different cultures and my entire life I've been watching charity happen. So part of the diaspora family is always sending money home for the birthday gift. Or somebody is sick, or there's education, or someone started a business, or someone just needs a help for financial aid or simply just food. I've been watching this my entire life and I've seen things work and not work. And very early on I already recognized, you know, that the same people kept coming back. I mean, this was family, wider family, cousins, aunts, uncles, clan Africa still thinks in clans and tribal but it was the same people kept helping, because charity helps you in the moment but doesn't change people's lives. And then since I've been 16, I've been sending money home myself. So my very first paycheck I helped. I paid the school fees of one of my cousins. And since the age of 16, I've been sending money back constantly, every month. My entire life I've been sending money back.

Speaker 2:

But then I had to work, of course. So I studied an international degree in the Netherlands, just to add another country and Scandinavia, and I've always worked in an international work. I was very lucky in management consultancy and I became very good at structuring securities for companies. I worked with management consultancy that was headhunted into British government PPP, which taught me structuring securities for government work the kind of thing that governments and hedge funds do at a large scale for international markets. And at one point I was very, very lucky. I worked up to a point that I was reporting to the British, to the Scottish first minister, on a weekly basis. I was giving reports in the offshore wind sector. I got to, with permission, steal a bottle of whiskey from the Scottish first minister Not many people can say that yeah, even invited him to my wedding. I saw him that often. He didn't come though.

Speaker 2:

And then I was earning a really, really good six-figure salary. I had the opportunity to be based in the financial markets in New York doing what I was doing, but before that I said, instead of doing that, I'd like to be sent to Africa. I swapped Wall Street for living behind barbed wire with a tank in front of the building in East Africa and did some work there and it just reminded me of my own roots. And then the biggest career move was that I quit my six-figure career because I wanted to use what I can, my knowledge and my contacts. I didn't want to use it for government and hedge funds and large-scale private equity. I wanted to use my knowledge to create impact. That's already 10 years ago now a little bit more than 10 years at this point. So I left a really, really big career From doing charity privately. I left this career to then try and do it on a larger and professional scale. I tried different things. I worked primarily for rural electrification, trying to electric electricity into rural areas. There's lots of areas where 90% of the people don't have electricity, some of the areas we're working.

Speaker 2:

And then the carbon market opened, and the carbon market is something beautiful that created this amazing opportunity by accident. So right now the united nations, the entire world, has signed up to basically clean up the waste that carbon emissions create. As industries put them into the air. So companies put carbon emissions into the air. I simply plant trees with communities certify this through United Nations process. So now we have a registered, regulated financial product that we then sell to companies to offset the carbon emissions and basically be good to the environment.

Speaker 2:

And because I'm not doing this for a hedge fund and I'm not doing this for governments. I instead work with the Interreligious Council of East Africa. I work with the King's Council of East Africa too, so I work with grassroots communities, who are the main beneficiaries, so we truly have communities that help plant trees on an industrial scale on government mandated land. We certify this process and we turn charity on its head. Rather than asking people to donate money that I give on and people can do this two, three times I create a product that I can sell and with that we then fund food and water security projects to give people just time to think, then educational skills facilities so people and youth get trained to the work, and then we use the further the rest of the profits we generate to provide microfinance and grants so that people can create grassroots businesses that they own, and that's how we want to end poverty using climate finance. For once, trickle down works.

Speaker 3:

But by 2050, companies is that right. They have to be net zero by 2050.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we all live already in a carbon world. The United Nations in 1997 came together and created targets that their whole world signed up to that go all the way way past 2050. So we've already been living this for 30 years. This is why you have the light bulb in your logo. It used to be a general light bulb. Now we're switching to renewable energy, we're switching to electric cars. We all have to drink out of those terrible paper straws.

Speaker 2:

Companies, as they build buildings, have to make them more energy efficient and increase the heat retention to reduce the energy consumption. Everybody knows those ABCD ratings on their washing machine that shows how energy efficient. Nobody knows those ABCD ratings on their washing machine that shows how energy efficient. Nobody knows what it means, but everybody's been seeing this for 20 years. At this point.

Speaker 2:

All of this is part of the carbon market to slowly, over decades, teach people to become more energy efficient automatically.

Speaker 2:

And we've reached a point now that corporations, by now the big ones, and we've reached a point now that corporations, by law the big ones they've already been paying billions of that year, um, for, basically, with the, the carbon emissions that they cannot reduce. That's why I have to reduce the emissions, the carbon emissions that they cannot reduce or avoid. They have to pay for the removal of that carbon emissions out of the atmosphere, and by planting not planting trees, but by growing so keeping them alive forever we basically have a certified, science-based process of taking carbon out of the air and binding it. A tree will die, but a forest won't and through that we're taking this carbon waste that they create out of the air and they have to pay for that. So it's a Robin Hood scenario where we're getting the rich guy, for once, to pay for that. So it's a Robin Hood scenario where we're getting the rich guy for once, to pay for what they did and then, rather than making hedge funds rich, we give it back to the people.

Speaker 3:

I think it's a really unique selling point. Anyway, you know, you know the lingo. You've taken it away from the hedge funds, You're reinvesting it in the people. But how do I like? Okay, I'm going to grow my own. I'm going to plant some trees as well. Right, how do I go and approach a country about that? Surely it's not that easy, is it?

Speaker 2:

No approaching country. No, I've been working with governments now for a long, long time. As with everything when you're in the market, it's easy because you're simply in the market. So the government, the ministries, they've known me now for more than a decade and a half They've been knowing me. So it's just that happens to be the niche I'm in. So it's very easy and impossible at the same time.

Speaker 2:

The challenge is that, for especially in emerging markets, it's lots of hedge funds come in and they make contracts with the president of a country, the relevant ministries or governors to secure thousands of hectares of land protecting forests. It's very important, but it's nearly impossible for a hedge fund to get really to the ground level, to actually plant trees and then keep them alive, and that's the difference. So, simply put, it's not about planting a tree, it's so-called additionality. So, for example, lots of people say let's plant banana trees or avocado trees, but then the question is well, these trees? Well, if you want to sell bananas, you have to plant that tree anyway. Therefore, it doesn't meet the additionality criteria. Fun fact, that is quite terrible.

Speaker 2:

We have lost half of the trees on the planet. Three trillion trees have been cut down. Every year we lose 15 billion trees and 5 billion are planted, of which but most of them are plantation trees. So we're cutting down natural forests and then replacing them with plantations. But even if you count them, we're losing 10 billion trees a year, and the thing is there's zero incentive to plant a tree. That does nothing but make a squirrel happy. So I make squirrels happy professionally. That's the point. That way, yeah, and that's what carbon certificates are for To bring back natural indigenous forests that do nothing but will be standing there hundreds of years from now If you do our work Right.

Speaker 3:

I was going to say what happened to wildlife. You're really sort of getting involved in the African wildlife scene. We've got some of the best animals in the wild.

Speaker 2:

I have a team member that was bitten by a lion. It was a baby lion, it had to run away from an elephant. So we do spend time in interesting areas. So, for example, in the Renzori Mountains, which is between Uganda and Congo, we are extending the Renzori mountain range through planting the wildlife habitat of gorillas. In another area we're expanding the wildlife habitat of chimpanzees because we plant on forest reserves, nature reserves and wildlife reserves and or in wildlife reserves in general. So it's lions and giraffes and all the animals that are there. By creating basically a forest barrier, we're creating a barrier between the population that is expanding and the animals that are there. By creating basically a forest barrier, we're creating a barrier between the population that is expanding and the animals that are there.

Speaker 2:

And here's the trick when we're in Africa, we never talk about environmental protection. The people there don't care. They live in an environment where you see 10-year-olds looking after goats and there's literally a lion half a mile down the road To them. They help us because, first of all them. Cutting down trees is a sign of poverty. So we want to end the poverty and truly change their lives. So they're not planting trees because of the environment. They're planting trees because we've increased their income We've sometimes tripled the income that they had before and their children are going to schools, facilities that we built or put equipment into. We've put water wells in place with the villages surrounding the forest to reduce the distance that women have to walk. They still go to water wells to get it and put in sanitation systems so that it's clean water to keep the old and the young healthy from drinking that water. This is a very different life they have been.

Speaker 2:

And then we create for the youth and women. We create skill. The youth and women create skilled centers, education, training centers for them to learn different skills and jobs that they can monetize. Can be arts, it can be crafts, can whatever it is. They tell us what it is because you're not coming as a big charity and telling them what to do. We say listen, help us plant trees now we will earn money. What do do you need? Because they live there, they know exactly what they need to do. They don't need a rich Muzungu, muzungu's white man and I have a Muzungu there too. They don't need somebody to come in and say here's my plan for your life. They know exactly what to do, but they don't have the financial means to do that. So by planting trees, which creates product we can sell. We then have money to empower them to take control of their future, take away the pressure of daily life through food and water security, train their youth with education and skill centers. We also do a lot of orphan care and then we provide microfinance and grants for them to start their own businesses. Everybody knows the story Teach a man how to fish and eat for a lifetime.

Speaker 2:

That's where charity ends. We will buy him a fishing boat, we'll buy him a fishing net, we put a motor out there so he can do more. We'll invest in a restaurant for his wife to cook and sell that same fish. We teach the son how to export this fish with a freezing system. And then there's more tourism because there's more business and we. And then there's more tourism because there's more business and we have somebody put an hotel and, as an Irishman, at the end there will be a bar.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, very good. Well, we'll bring the bar into the new world, but the old world has to be start putting into the old world. You touched on the parts of that orphanages, taking kids off the street.

Speaker 2:

I have 36 children at the moment. Two have made myself the rest. We took off the street. I have total 36 children at the moment Two. I've made myself the rest we took off the street.

Speaker 3:

And that's incredible. And what sort of ages are these kids?

Speaker 2:

Oh, from as young as two to 16. Yeah, I mean, we have one project that was literally. The boss is 23 years old. He's looking after this. One has like 90 children looking after no supervision. These are real street children looking after no supervision. These are real street children looking after themselves. At 18, he was kicked out of the home that he was in. He was put back on the street and then basically, so we have children that their parents tried to murder. We have children that were chased away from home because there's not enough food. There's like an eight-year-old with their five-year-old younger sibling that tried to walk through the night to stay awake and sleep in a safe place during the day. So there's some really, really tragic stories.

Speaker 2:

And then the street children. They kind of find themselves and become groups. Those that are not taken after fall to drugs, as so often is, or steal or something. And then there's lots of projects where they try to help themselves. So it becomes a safety net amongst themselves and we have find groups like this and then we try to put them into a better environment. So we talk to the school. We give them the funding. We're not responsible for the education itself, we can't be. We give them the opportunity to become part of the education net. So we put them into housing. We pay for the housing, the water, the food. We're scaling to pay for their education so they can go back to school, because we're working with the interreligious councils. We then connect them to the local school so that they are allowed to go back into school, because you meet 10-year-olds who haven't spent a day in school over there.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes there's some real heartbreaking stories, but the amazing thing is it takes a while, but at some point you can see them begin to trust it, because these are children that have been dropped by their mother and getting them back into a position where they feel like, hey, this group of children around me, led by youth, this is my family now and I'm safe and protected. You can really see them. They go from street hustlers that are hardened at the age of eight and then they become children again and that that's the nicest thing you'll ever see as a real. I've taken my own children there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was very proud of my eight-year-old he was seven at the time I was just last year and and he was like I was like we brought beds into one of the buildings and he was helping to carry beds and then he asked he said but why are we getting beds? Yeah, then they don't have beds, but why don't their mommies and daddies give them beds? They don't have mommies and daddies. And that his jaw dropped and he looked at everybody. I said do we have to take them home? Yeah, and that that made me happy, because that means I did everything right with my children at least.

Speaker 3:

Yeah they've got a big heart. Your, your kids.

Speaker 3:

And we live in a world where everybody wants instant everything. You know. Planting trees takes time. Changing communities takes time. Helping kids get over trauma and become kids again All takes time. Yes, and when you plant those trees, you'll plant in belief. You know every tree planted, every life is there. How, when you plant those trees, you'll plant in belief. You know every tree planted, every life is there. How do you believe in it yourself? I mean, you tick so many boxes. Is it just this golden thread of well, that's where I'm from and that's what we do? Or how do you give yourself the belief now to achieve these things?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question. I think people make the mistake that they think their job needs to be fun and there are many moments where this job is real fun and is true joy. And there's many, many other moments where it's really hard, like working in emerging markets where everybody is living today. They have to. It's really hard, but if you look, if you find your industry. I'm not doing it for rewards. I walked away from enough money to make me happy.

Speaker 2:

I know that I have control of my own life, so my strength is very much inside, so I'm able to go through hardship because I know that the result on the other end of this sometimes very difficult path, that is worth it. So in my case, the journey is not what you're enjoying but the destination. You know that the destination is worth it and that helps you get through any struggle and any hardship, because the strength inside anybody is infinite. If you're not waiting for a golden watch or a tap of the shoulder or some award or your picture somewhere, if you ignore all of that, all that is just noise and then you truly have this inner drive.

Speaker 2:

Anybody and anybody listening, believe me, anybody can achieve anything if they find a way to tap into that inner energy, and it hasn't been an easy path and not at all, but being able to see how people's lives are transformed and just giving them opportunity. And it's just small, yeah, but I like to say be kind to strangers for no reason, that's a mantra. And the same way, it's impossible to plant a billion trees, but it's very easy to plant one. It's impossible to change the world, but it's very easy to change the lives of the four or five people that you meet in that day. Yeah, you got it.

Speaker 3:

If someone's down, pick them up. Someone's thirsty, give them your cup.

Speaker 2:

I've been very, very lucky. I have a lot of process control. Most people want to be a broker. Most people would say, listen, I connected these two people and now it's between them. So myself, my team, I'm very lucky. I'm surrounded by a very, very dedicated team. It hasn't been just me for a long, long time. At this point, in every country we're active. We have a local office with a local team. I have an international team that are.

Speaker 2:

I have people that left Goldman Sachs, that left law firms, that left well-paying, cushy jobs, because they believe in that mission, and I'm extremely grateful for everybody who's just as stupid as me. I don't recommend it to anybody. Life can be easier, but I'm extremely grateful to everybody who's been part of that and that's what brings it forward. So, first of all, it is a massive team effort. But and here's the thing I take full responsibility for the entire process. So, because I've been into my knees in lond preparing planting sites, I I know the communities and women on the ground. I've been to the borders of Congo and Somalia, so I've been in desert areas and jungle areas. I've been part of every single part of the process and we then, as a foundation, we take responsibility for every single part of the process, so that I can start with my knees.

Speaker 1:

Join David and his incredible guests next time on Success Nuggets Podcast. Every single part of the process so that I can start with my knees with Blendy's in a month Next time on Success Nuggets.

Speaker 2:

Podcast.

Speaker 1:

And to find out more visit onegoldennuggetscom.

Speaker 2:

Why this is a good idea and a secure project that's ensured by Lords of London to invest in for the long term. Because we solve their compliance issues and we protect their brand integrity. Because we can prove with satellite data and scientific data that they're doing something good. And this taking responsibility for everything. If something goes wrong, it's my fault. If something is stuck, it's my fault. If two other people didn't connect, it's my fault. Yesterday I was in Bulgaria and yesterday afternoon was a call for an investment transaction and I was like I think I should be there. So last night I'm in Germany right now. So I got into a plane at midnight, flew to Istanbul from Bulgaria, was and then flew into Munich, where I'm right now this morning Because, like you said, showing up and taking responsibility for every single step, that's tacky to everybody's success, no excuses.

Speaker 3:

You're a wonderful founder, one I think many would like to work for with that kind of attitude and it really is. That's what a great CEO founder does. They go to the shop floor we would call it in retail yeah, go and meet the people, go and build the relationships. Tell me about your entrepreneurial side, because you've got a big heart, you're a great business model and you're very smart. But when the locals taught you about coffee, yes, what did you see? And and how have you helped them on coffee now?

Speaker 2:

well, we're literally trying to scale. We're just two flagship projects that we're trying to scale right now. One of is coffee, one of them is international remittance. So coffee, those two things are two examples of how the company is losing out.

Speaker 2:

So 90% of sub-Saharan Africa are self-subsistence farmers. They produce food for themselves, that's it. They have no true surplus because they can produce coffee beans and then they pick them up. It's like a little nut that they can produce coffee beans and then they pick them up. It's like a little nut that they can take off a tree and then they sell it for a few cents. So they're getting cents. But now somebody else takes this, processes it.

Speaker 2:

The biggest export in the world of coffee is switzerland. I've been to switzerland. No coffee farms, but they sell less cafe and espresso. So they are the. They have the biggest. They make billions with the sale of coffee, where the others make millions. So the challenge they have is that these people, they can't invest into industrialization. They have this glass ceiling that they can't break through to process that. So now we're through the carbon certificate sales, that's industrialization, microfinance and grants. We are basically helping them invest in industrialization. So where before they're making a few cents on the dollar. They are close to the full dollar, and my dream is that there'll be an African-owned coffee shop in New York one day where they're selling a $10 iced latte to somebody and the profit margin goes back to some village to do some good in africa. We're far from that, but that's. We want to slowly work our way up the value chain and bring more and more of that value home.

Speaker 2:

Another app, quite simple. There's people who leave africa to work as cleaners around the world, work in fast food, restaurants and warehouses, do menial labor work. They only earn a few hundred dollars a month when they're not okay. And still these people they're sharing flats, they share rooms, they save money and send half of that money home. They are the breadwinners, the people you see in toilets where you give a few cents. Those people are sending money home to families because they are the breadwinners and and they use remittance apps.

Speaker 2:

Remittance is one of the biggest income categories per GDP for most sub-Saharan African countries, but it's always foreign companies that are putting in this financial aid. So right now we're also funding an app, an African-owned app that's going to be owned by the Interreligious Council. So for every, they're going to start in a few months. Hopefully, the bishops and the imams will start telling everybody in the world hey, when you're sending money home, please use this app, because, number one, it's going to be slightly cheaper and number two, that profit margin, we're going to get it and with that profit margin we can build more schools and more water and take it home to do that. So that's that we take the money from. So we plant the trees, we get the certificates, we sell them. Now we have profits and now we can help make a difference. So those are two examples of businesses that we're spinning off.

Speaker 3:

Yes, now what I thought we could be going is in a vision even bigger than that is that the African villages are so well supported. Yeah, when one of the clan goes abroad, perhaps we can send money from Africa to them to help them in their life in New York. Perhaps we can flip it so far in the future.

Speaker 2:

Could that happen one day? Well, africa this is. This is true for Southeast Asia as well. They are the fastest growing economies. Right now. There's a McKinsey study that says Nigeria, and I think even Congo, are going to be in the top 20 nations, nigeria even in top 10, maybe top 5. So I think, given the opportunity, with hard work and some luck, we can. Over the next 20, 30 years, we'll see several African countries go through what we saw. Over the next 20, 30 years, we'll see several african countries go through what we saw the middle east place like dubai and saudi arabia and india go through.

Speaker 2:

So china, 50 years ago was a backwater and now it's a global superpower, as it was 5 000 years ago. We are going to see they have. The average age in uganda is 17 the moment. They simply don't have access. Train them and give them access just to the internet to provide services, something as simple as Fiverr, what India was doing, the IT services India did the last 30 years. They're becoming expensive now, places like Kenya, tanzania, botswana, they will start being able to provide those services. It's training and infrastructure and we want to fund that training and infrastructure through what we do, simply by planting trees what a great, great mission.

Speaker 3:

You know what? It's all human-led, anything about robots or AI that won't work.

Speaker 2:

This is people putting their hands in the dirt, digging a hole, putting a tree, keeping it alive, chasing away goats and sometimes elephants. Yeah, so this is real people and that's the thing zones people showing up and getting paid on the day. It's people taking the difference. And the interesting thing is that these remote little villages are impacting the world because they are helping, not self-execute. They are helping clean up the environmental conditions that we have caused in europe, the us, australia, also china, through industrialization. They have been a part of the damage that has been created, but they are the only hope. The same is true for south america and southeast.

Speaker 2:

As the green belts of the world, they are a part of the solution that we need Now. Tree planting is not the end all Not at all, it isn't. But we need the trees as a breathing lung and breathing in oxygen and breathing out CO2, a tree does the same thing, just the other way around. They breathe in CO2 and they breathe out oxygen, and we need that. We need that, so we're keeping the world a little bit cleaner, we're creating a nice environment for our children to enjoy the future and we found a way for the big guy to pay for it.

Speaker 3:

We should all be a bit more, a bit more humility, I think, after hearing that story as well, the seven deadly sins keeps coming across my instagram feed. Do you know the seven deadly sins keeps coming across my Instagram feed. Do you know the seven deadly sins?

Speaker 2:

I did not off by heart, but yeah, I know some of them.

Speaker 3:

Makes me think of pride and humility and gluttony, Gluttony I was thinking that, yes, jealousy. Yeah, lust and belonging, and I think that this show you should really hopefully ground a few people of what's going on out there. It is.

Speaker 2:

If you're able to listen to this podcast, trust me, your life is great.

Speaker 3:

It's a very good point. It's a very good point. Audience go and get involved with Paul. Where can anyone find you with this great call?

Speaker 2:

You can find me on Instagram thepaulflin Watch what we're doing is. You can find me on Instagram thepaulflin Watch what we're doing. And wwwgrowfoundation just G-R-O foundationorg. That's the website of our organization, so you can see those things. Right now, we're very much focused on the corporates, but my dream would be, again, not to make private equity and venture capital happy. My dream would be to connect communities in the west to help scale these projects so that the communities africa can plant, so their lives get better and then, as the big corporations pay some return flows back to the people that are there, so truly create a bridge between communities. We're not there yet, but that's one of the dreams I look forward to achieve, being libel, moment we should twin.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if you've been to any of the UK cities where they say they have twinned with Birmingham in America or twinned with somewhere in Massachusetts. Have you ever seen that before?

Speaker 2:

I've seen that, but I thought I wouldn't know. I don't know how to get in there, but if that's possible, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Where I live is a town called Billericay. It's not an island, but it sounds Irish right. Twin it with a place in Congo or twin it with a place in Uganda. You know, we can do that. Anybody listening from there call me yeah, cities and towns could become carbon neutral themselves. Mayors could take it on. This could spin off in many direct communities.

Speaker 2:

So we have two different categories. So, for people who want to donate and write it off, those are impact trees. So those are fruit trees, commercial trees for the communities to use. That's a donation period. And from the sales side, we plant forests that are there permanently. That's just for the squirrels and the monkeys to be happy, because they are supposed to be there for centuries if you do everything right. Basically that produces certificates for companies to buy as a product. So there's two different ways to come and support this project. But again, I'm not a jealous type. This world needs projects to scale, so let's just be an example of this is possible. It is possible for communities to come together and build something beautiful and if you go the indirect route, your money will find, will find you. Yeah, money of the day is a way to do good and get rewarded for it. Be a bit more patient, but actually you get more.

Speaker 3:

In the end, patience is the leader in the clubhouse. Episode 31 of the success novice from rick macy, the world's greatest tennis coach. What is your one golden nugget for life to share with the audience?

Speaker 2:

I think I said it here earlier on Be kind to strangers for no reason. I really truly believe, and I believe that it's impossible to change the world. But if you just change, it's very easy to change the world around you. That, no matter how you feel or without getting anything Like you said just now, helping just because you can, if you see something that's wrong, helping somebody carry their bags, getting downstairs something very simple can make somebody feel better. That you don't know and who knows what that person will do. And if we were all just nice to the strangers around us for no reason, the whole world would change. That's why it's it's impossible to change the world and at the same time it's really, really easy it is, but I don't have.

Speaker 3:

You've seen people, uh, singing to animals, the vibration that I've heard about that.

Speaker 2:

I've heard about that. I really believe it's true. I really believe it's true. So your own belief and this is not a mantra in the sense that you know, just believing things will happen. But you have to take that responsibility and that little bit of effort. Just go out of your way a little bit to be aware of the people Walking down the street in your hometown. If you open your eyes, you will see somebody who's lost and doesn't know where to go, and you can just tell them hey, are you looking for the bus? It's actually down there.

Speaker 2:

You have to turn, take a left yeah, yeah, just that yeah, just being aware of the things around you'll be, it'll be unbelievable. Just uh, a few weeks ago and this is just a random thing, but as an example I was walking down the train station with a colleague of mine and we saw this group of women that were just totally lost in the train station, just totally lost. And one of them was in a wheelchair, which we didn't know was relevant, and we just asked do you not know which train to take to? Because we thought maybe they're foreigners. I speak German also, so we said we can help you find wherever you want to go. You find wherever you want to go.

Speaker 2:

And he said we have to get up that platform and elevators broken, and so I said I could carry, which we then did. So I carried a lady and then my friend carried a wheelchair and we carried him upstairs and it was like a group of like women in their late 40s, early 50s, and we get some, so I'm still holding her and then they debate if this is the right track. Yet I'm standing on the top of like the train tracks yeah on the side, of course.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, still holding the woman, and they're debating if this is the right track or not. No, way yeah, we'll find out, but just that, just being aware of little things. It wasn't difficult, but we made their day.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well done, mate, well done. It's been wonderful having you on let's chat for a bit more, but I think we'll let the audience go and I hope they're so inspired by every outlook that you have, paul, and I hope your dreams control, because you're. You're always in the right place at the right time and I sense you might be as well again.

Speaker 2:

So thank you for coming in. Thank you so much for having me look after yourselves. That's true for everybody. Live a good life, goodbye join david and his incredible guests.

Speaker 3:

Next time on the success.