My Waitangi Day speech

I am proud to be a New Zealander, to be a thread in our diverse and beautiful tapestry.

On Waitangi Day we can look around at our nation, our community, our neighbours and our whanau, the tangata who have chosen to make Aotearoa our home.

Whether we are tangata whenua or tangata tiriti, the Treaty of Waitangi is a frame like an unthreaded loom.  The threads on the loom that bind the nation are its' tangata!

Let us not just come together on this one day, but let us bind as a nation so together we can become stronger and cohesive.  

Let us stand proudly and acknowledge the past but focus our eyes firmly on the future and support each other to be the best little nation on the edge of the world!  

Together we will weave a future that we can individually and collectively be proud to call our home.

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.- Bill Gates

I read this quote in Kirsty Dunphey's weekly newsletter today.  There is some truth to reflecting on failures, however I have come to realise how important it is to reflect on successes.

Being able to replicate & build on success is the key to continued success.

Reflecting on why we are successful  helps us do the right things more often.  Whether it's winning a new client or a round of golf, learning what we did right is often more valuable than trying to fix what we might've got wrong.

The revised quote could be:

"Celebrate success, then learn from it & build on it to replicate the success!" - Tony