Sean Te Wake
I Thought
I Was
Dying.
I turned 50 this January.
I have trained tens of thousands of people in my career.
Built a business from nothing. Looked after everyone else.
My first near-death experience came at the start of Covid.
I was running a business non-stop for 7.5 years. 24/7. Chasing the almighty dollar.
My body gave out.
NO WARNING
Organs were failing. Drugs did nothing. Every test came back with nothing.
I could not walk.
I could not eat.
I lost so much weight people thought I was dying.
I thought I was dying.
Fragile.
Brittle.
My emotional and mental state was fucked.
GONE
For the first time in my life, I saw my own mortality.
I thought I was Superman. I was wrong.
I was a broken man.
Crumpled on the floor.
Bed-ridden.
A shell of who I was.
I asked God to take me. Loudly. With everything I had.
That moment, the FUCK YOU GOD moment, changed everything.
In March 2026 I was hospitalised with a pulmonary embolism.
Multiple blood clots in the lungs.
Four days in hospital. Discharged on blood thinners. Still recovering.
But here is what is different this time.
I navigated that crisis from a much stronger place.
That is the evidence that this work is real.
I am a Maori, Cook Islander and Tahitian man.
20+ years facilitating with the hardest rooms in Australia.
Mandated participants. Trauma. Addiction. Disconnection.
Disengaged. Long-term unemployed. Indigenous men.
My people. I love them.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO STAY HERE
