The Long Run: Why Good Advice Matters

No matter how old we are, we all need heroes. We need people to look up to. We need mentors. More about mentors later.

Someone we’ve all looked up to recently, and someone who’s a real hero in the eyes of New Zealanders, is Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox. A sort of delightful Antipodean cross between Sir Bob Charles and Fred Dagg, he captured our hearts and minds with his understated, underdog, come-from-behind, victory in the British Golf Open. We’ve all vicariously shared in his moment of greatness.

Like every weekend warrior, I’d love to vicariously claim I know Foxy and have played golf with him, but unfortunately that ship sailed way back in 2009 when he was selected to play for the NZ amateur team. It meant he couldn’t go to the 2009 golfing tour his father, Grant, was leading to The Masters at Augusta that year. Ryan was due to accompany his father as his “plus-one” to The Masters, but his national representative golf commitments meant his uncle Paul, a Te Puke kiwifruit grower, went instead.

I, however, was one who did go on that 2009 Masters Golf Tour with Grant Fox. I got my dream Sunday pairing for the final round – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. This was not long after Tiger’s then caddy, Steve Williams, had publicly called Mickelson a “prick”. The tension in the group was palpable and the only two talking to each other were the caddies.

Going to The Masters is not for the financially faint-hearted. The tickets are like gold-plated hen’s teeth. I tried to justify the extortionary cost of the trip by rationalising that I was saving money by killing two birds with one stone. I was also running the Boston Marathon eight days after watching The Masters.

Those of you accountants and bean counters reading this will well remember that 2009 was the height of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). As the financial world turned to custard, our exchange rate went down the dunny.

I was able to forward pay the first half of trip at a US 75c rate. By the time the final payment was due, our currency had spiralled down to US 50c. A hedging lesson learned the hard way! I banked that lesson for later use in life.

I also wasn’t helped by the fact the golf was all 5 Star, including a high-end stop over in Sin City, Las Vegas, on the way to Augusta. Many of our expenses were pre-paid and inclusive in the tour cost.

With a name like Mackay, you can bet your bottom dollar I’ve got good Scottish genes and hate to see waste. So, rest assured I filled my boots when it came to eating and drinking what I’d already paid for.

I’d spent four months sweating in training to lose four kilograms heading into the marathon. By the time I lined up at the start line in Boston, I’d regained three of those kilos on the 10-day golf tour!

I talked earlier of hedging your bets, a good risk-mitigation tactic in business. Well, I hedged my bets in Boston.

Having previously run the London and New York Marathons – as a part of my mid-life crisis – and having been determined not to walk one metre of that 42.2km run, I changed tack for the third and final marathon after getting some sage advice from an Invercargill accountant.

I’m sure many of you in the industry will remember Mike Piper. An athletics legend who ran more than 100 marathons. Even though his best running days were well behind him (he had a buggered knee) he was kind enough on the eve of the Boston Marathon to take myself, and my two Southland farmer running mates, on a reconnaissance mission to scope out the most infamous hill in marathoning.

Heartbreak Hill is well named. It is the fourth of four challenging hills in the second half of the marathon. And it’s the longest at 800 metres. And it comes at the mythical ‘20 mile’ mark where many marathoners ‘hit the wall’.

As you’d expect from an accountant, Mike had crunched the numbers. He took us to the pub at the top of Heartbreak Hill and said that two pints of beer would be good to calm the nerves and do a bit of carbo-loading. I liked that advice!

And next comes the crux of this column. Always take advice from a good accountant if you’re second-guessing what to do.

As we nervously supped on our two pints atop Heartbreak Hill, having had a look at what we had to ascend the following day, Mike suggested we change tactics. Instead of refusing to walk, and seeing that as defeat, he suggested walking up Heartbreak as a risk-mitigation tactic.

He assured us that if it was an accepted pre-planned tactic, we would view it as a reward when we got to the 20-mile mark, rather than a failure. And sure enough, the wily old bean counter was right.

The Boston Marathon is said to be a fast marathon. The first half of it is on a slight downhill gradient but there’s those four (aforementioned) hills to deal with on the way home. Having got through the first three unscathed I was feeling the pinch. My mindset changed. True to Mike’s word, Heartbreak Hill was my oasis. It was indeed a reward to be walked and savoured!

I lost little to no distance on some of the runners ahead as they ground up 800 metre incline. When I got to the top, I felt refreshed. Or as refreshed as you can be having already run about 34 kms. The rest of race, downhill into the Boston CBD, was relatively (and I used that word advisedly) pleasurable.

Boston ended up being the fastest of my three marathons, despite some walking, and a less-than-textbook lead up in preparation at The Masters golf.

So, let’s loop back to where we started with Ryan Fox. He leaned heavily for advice on his experienced South African caddie, Dean Smith, to win the Open at Royal Birkdale. At the other end of the “great moments in New Zealand sport” scale, I did likewise 17 years earlier with the help of an Invercargill accountant.

I never got to have that game of golf with Foxy in 2009, but I did get some great advice.

In summary, and at the risk of running with a bad Heartbreak Hill pun, if you feel like running your business is a bit of an uphill battle, then talk to the team at +MORE.

Every farming business eventually faces its own version of Heartbreak Hill, whether that’s succession planning, expansion decisions, managing debt, compliance requirements, technology investment, or simply navigating a tough season.

Sometimes the instinct is to keep pushing harder, when the better approach is to pause, reassess the plan, and lean on people who have helped others through the same challenge.

Trust me. It’ll be worth it in the “long run”.