The Security Circle
An IFPOD production for IFPO the very first security podcast called Security Circle. IFPO is the International Foundation for Protection Officers, and is an international security membership body that supports front line security professionals with learning and development, mental Health and wellbeing initiatives.
The Security Circle
EP 160 A Cops Story...'Shot 14 Times: Survival, Mind Discipline and Human Resilience' with Derrick McManus
“I didn’t feel pain. I didn’t hear gunfire. I just thought: ‘Derek, you idiot — how can you be falling at a time like this?’”
BIO
*Shot 14 times with a high-powered rifle
*Conscious and bleeding for 3 hours before rescue
*30 seconds from death
*Returned to elite sniper and counter-terrorism duties 2 years later
*Zero anxiety, depression, or PTSD or ongoing therapy
When you, your team or your organisation is preparing for or facing uncomfortable challenges and changes, let me take you beyond mere resilience to Human Durability and Sustainable Optimal Performance.
Resilience is great when things do go wrong but with Human Durability and Sustained Optimal Performance you will anticipate the challenges and changes and be able to take avoidant action when you see this first sign.
My life in the elite Police STAR Group as a sniper, tactical-diver and counter-terrorist operative (ie SAS, Delta Force, SEALs) prepared me for Human Durability.
The shooting 'field tested' and affirmed my Human Durability. I defied massive overwhelming odds physically, mentally, and emotionally and have now translated my lived experience and proven tools into universally applicable keynotes and workshops tailored for challenges faced in every industry.
After surviving multiple life-threatening injuries and grueling surgeries, I made a remarkable return to frontline duties. Even more extraordinary, I overcame mental health challenges—battling panic attacks and flashbacks initially, only to emerge without clinical anxiety, depression, or PTSD. This journey shaped the Mental Fitness, Agility, and Strength components central to Human Durability.
Life’s toughest moments—including personal setbacks after the shooting—taught me that durability is a skill anyone can learn, hone, and embed into their daily lives personally, professionally and mentally.
I’ve worked with diverse audiences; from Multinational CEOs to local hairdressers, Fighter pilots to Joint Operations Command, lawyers, real estate, and thousands of HR professionals worldwide. The result? I have helped to create teams that thrive under pressure, leaders who inspire courage, and cultures that sustain peak performance.
Imagine what your organisation could achieve if every person carried the mindset and tools to sustain optimal performance—regardless of uncertainty or adversity.
“One of the most powerful presentations I’ve ever seen with truly remarkable life lessons.”
- Cathie Crampton, Head of Property Development, Harcourts International
Human Durability changes lives—and business results.
Let’s talk about bringing this transformation to your people.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrickmcmanus/
Security Circle ⭕️ is an IFPOD production for IFPO the International Foundation of Protection Officers
If you enjoy the security circle podcast, please like share and comment or even better. Leave us a fab review We can be found on all podcast platforms. Be sure to subscribe. The security circle every Thursday. We love Thursdays. Hi, I'm Yolanda And welcome to the Security Circle Podcast, produced in association with IFPO, the International Foundation for Protection Officers. This podcast is all about connection, bringing you closer to the greatest minds, boldest thinkers, trailblazers, and change makers across the security industry. Whether you are here to grow your network, spark new ideas, or simply feel more connected to the world of protection and risk, you are in the right place wherever you are listening from. Thank you for being a part of the Security Circle journey..
Yoyo:Okay. I have a very great privilege actually of, of chatting to this man whom I've actually met in person before inviting them to the Security Circle podcast. Derek McManus, I think when I asked him just now, I said, how shall I introduce you? He said, well, you know, when I tell people on the street and they meet me and I say, I'm a, I'm a father of four, but actually he is an ex special operations police officer, sniper, diver, and counterterrorist operative who was shot 14 times. And spoiler alert, you survived. Derek, welcome to the Security Circle podcast. How you doing?
Derrick:Yeah. Yeah. I have been looking forward to this for so long, since the, the moment we met in Dorsett, um, when, uh, when we just hit it off straight away. I've been looking forward to getting on here, so I'm doing great.
Yoyo:Yeah, we met at Gavin Stones, spy Q event, didn't we? It was a two day overnighter and, uh, we had the great pleasure. In fact, I think, you got to meet Mike Hurst as well, which was, quite a nice experience. Um, Derek, these are great events to meet people, but it was quite an exceptional event. This Spy Q event, wasn't it? It brought in people from literally all over the world. You traveled in from Australia.
Derrick:Yeah, I traveled in from Australia, Pete Turner came in from, uh, the us um, and Maria Comstock came in from the US as well. Um, yeah, it was bringing people in. The, the concept of Spy q just fascinated me and it, it fascinates everybody that I talk to. Were
Yoyo:you being a bit humble really?'cause you were one of the keynote speakers?
Derrick:Yeah, I did tra I, I was, I traveled in to be the opening keynote speaker, so, um, I was really quite honored by doing that. Um, but uh, just the whole concept, brilliant concept.
Yoyo:So there's no doubt about it. Listener. This is a very serious guest. Let's find out. I mean, look, we are gonna talk about how you got shot 14 times. I've had, I guess, a high level overview of this, story, which is absolutely phenomenal.'cause many, many people we know don't make it after being shot once. But let's go into your journey in the sense of, you know, there's many different roles in policing and that's why so many people are attracted to that as a career. But you went into a very special department, didn't you tell me what that was like and how did you transition?
Derrick:The section that I went into in South Australia, we call it star group, and that is Star Special Task and Rescue Group. And we handle high risk arrests, hostage siege situations, uh, counter terrorism. I was close quarter protection to the queen when the queen came out. We did cliff rescue, cave rescue, mine, rescue helicopter operations, VIP security for all sorts of people. Um, and diving operations as well. You could essentially say, well, and I actually trained with the SAS in counter-terrorism, uh, but our diving operations are equivalent. To the SBS as well, uh, which your audience would have an appreciation for. Um, it's all the stuff that I absolutely love, the adrenaline pumping, exciting, demanding stuff. My mother had a slightly different attitude towards it, but I absolutely loved it. Um, and uh, I was in there for five years and I had to go and, uh, arrest a guy, uh, who had been declared as a high risk offender. And we knew that there was a potential for this man to be violent. Uh, so we were asked as star group to go and arrest him rather than allocating general police officers who don't have the same level of training, the same level of, um, equipment and. Resources that we do. Um, we knew that there was potential for him to be violent, so we were asked to go and arrest him, and sure enough, we knocked on the front door. He didn't answer. I've moved down the side of the house to see whether we could make a safer, more efficient, more effective entry through a glass sliding door. And as I've got to, within about two feet of that sliding door, he opened fire. He fired 18 times with a Chinese military rifle for anybody in your audience who knows weapons. It was an SKK Chinese military weapon that fires the same round that they use when they go to war 7.62. Uh, and he fired 18 times and hit me 14 times with either bullets or a shrapnel.
Yoyo:What do we know about him in terms of his skillset? I mean, he, I get that you are fairly close range, but he sounds like he's a, a gun fanatic and he sounds like he, you know, does a lot of target practice with that.
Derrick:Um, yeah, you've picked it, um, precisely. He was a gun fanatic. He used to be a gun dealer. Um, he wasn't anymore, but he had, uh, a range of high. Power weapons. Um, we know that he has never had an offense of violence in the past. However, he's made threats. He's intimidated people. Um, we were going there to arrest him for 197 counts of fraud. So not an, not a violence offense, but it was a fraud offense. But he'd made threats. He'd been intimidating, all of his victims. Um, and some of them didn't go to the police. Um, but when the police were investigating it, um, one of the first things that he said during the early investigation to the police, the police, uh, and we're going back 35 years to the beginning of the investigation. So policing was a different animal back then. Um, and the, the local detectives rang them up and said, we're investigating some offenses. We need you to come into the police station, um, so that we can ask you some questions. And he's gone, no, I'm not coming in. They said, oh, well bye. Yeah. We're gonna have to come out and see you. Uh, and he said, any police officer who comes to my house is gonna get shot. So we had a slight hint that he might be violent.
Yoyo:Yeah. Oh yeah. Bit of a hint there, isn't it?
Derrick:Um, but again, I go back to, uh, as much as he made those threats, as an intimidation, he'd never done anything of violence. And before the job where I got shot, I'd been involved with him on two previous occasions. Obviously, when he made that threat to shoot, any police officer who turned up Star group were turned out, uh, sorry, um, requested to turn up, um, and arrest him for that particular offense. Um, and he just rolled over and said, oh, you've gotta be kidding. You took that serious. I was just joking. Um, so that was his attitude. Uh, we turned up to his house again and again, nothing of violence. Um, he had been stopped on the road by some. Plain clothes, police officers as part of the investigation earlier on. Um, and they were plain clothes, plain car, all that sort of stuff. And as they pulled him over, he has reached into the backseat of the car, picked up a loaded rifle, and was getting it ready when a police officer rocked up at his window, loaded, uh, sorry, uh, leveled their firearm and said, stop there. And, you know, he stopped. So he's been on that fringe of violence, uh, but certainly on the day that, uh, we went to arrest him and he shot me, he stepped across the line. Um, but again, going back to what do we know about him, um. People say, was he insane? Did he have mental health issues? All those sorts of things. No, he didn't. He knew exactly what he was doing. Uh, one of the thi first things he did after being arrested, uh, was say, I need to be mentally assessed, uh, because I'm suffering from mental health. He was assessed by the psychiatrist and they said his mental health is absolutely fine. He just has a high level of paranoia in his personality. Now, the paranoia, in my opinion, and I, and I make that very, very clear in my opinion, that paranoia comes from the fact that he had 197 counts of fraud. These were frauds against ies against people that he knew were dealing with the mafia, uh, druggies, all these sorts of people that he had good reason to be scared. So it wasn't paranoia, it was reality. Um, so, uh, but. That was the person that we were dealing with. So we knew this history. So we knew not to take chances and star group or ask to go under arrest him.
Yoyo:Forgive me for asking this question because as I said earlier, you know, um, a lot of people when they get shot, they don't survive to tell the story. So this is a burning question, that I wanna ask you, and I'm sure that you've been asked this before, not once, but many times. What was the first conscious thought that you had when you realized you'd been shot?
Derrick:This, this almost goes too embarrassing. Um, but it's also very, very salient information for people looking to develop themselves for dealing with challenges. Um, so. Uh, and, and, and let me just go back on what you were saying. Uh, you dunno whether you could, you feel nervous about asking this question. I think you and I know each other well enough. Now. You can ask me anything. Go wherever you want, because I actually enjoy the delving into the depths of the scene behind. So, uh, the first conscious thought I had, um. At the time of being shot was realizing that I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me. As I approached this glass sliding door and I suddenly started falling to the ground, I didn't feel any pain. I didn't feel any impact. I didn't hear the sound of gunfire. All I knew was I was falling to the ground. So I was feeling nothing, but my body knew exactly what was going on and responding to it. And my first conscious thought was Derek, and excuse the language, and I'll beep it out. Essentially, Derek, you've idiot. What are you doing? How can you be falling at a time like this? I had absolutely no concept that I was being shot as I was halfway to the ground, and this is sort of going in slow motion, uh, as I was halfway to the ground, I looked at the glass sliding door again, and I saw there was small round holes in it. Then I heard the sound of gunfire, still hadn't felt any impact, still hadn't felt any pain. And the next conscious thought I had was small round holes, sound of gunfire, I must be getting shot. And the thought I had from that point was, Derek, don't be too hard on yourself.'cause if you're getting shot, it's quite acceptable to fall over. And that was the, that was the conscious thought I had. Um, because I had thought about this beforehand. I had thought going into this job, there's a real chance I may be shot and injured. I may actually be shot and killed. I then had a conversation with my wife around that concept, and we can come back to that later. Uh, but I also then had a conversation with myself. If I do get shot, how do I want to respond to it? And let me think about this. What would be happening in my body and what would be happening in my mind and what would I like to do? What would be an absolute perfect response? At one end of a continuum. But then I also had the, uh, understanding that it may not be a perfect response. It may be down the other end of the continuum, and it may be in absolute chaos. And so I went through this thought process of, if it ends up perfect, I'll be able to do this. If it ends up in chaos, I'll need to do X, Y, Z. Um, and then I. Absolutely visualized my way through this whole process of influencing my situation, my mindset, so that I could come back to getting close to, uh, the perfect response. So at the time that I got shot, um, there was an emotional overwhelm, a physical overwhelm of, oh my God, this is happening. And then all of a sudden I've gone, but I know how to handle this. I've thought this through. I know what the, the, uh, I know how I need to respond to this. And so having that already thought through, I was able to have that thought outside the square of Derek, don't be too hard on yourself. If you're getting shot, it's quite acceptable to fall over while still doing everything I needed to do.
Yoyo:The level of critical thinking that's going on at that time is phenomenal. Don't you think?
Derrick:I, I, I I will accept that you have said that. I, and I thank you for that. Um, it is. But it's, this is what I do these days. I get people to analyze their own lives, the things that they could anticipate in encountering as a result of their choices and their circumstances, and then better preparing for it. I actually don't see myself as a bizarrely different person. I've actually just put a little bit of thought process in process into what I could anticipate as a result of my choices and my circumstances. I chose to go into Star Group. I chose to go into a world where I knew I may be shot and injured. I may be shot and killed, and so I prepared for it. But what I like people to do is not compare their world to mine and say, I could never do that. So you are far better than me because I can tell you right now, I love my accountant because she does what I can't do, and this is where I like people to engage with the fact that. They choose their own challenges. I would never choose the challenge of being an accountant. I've got no interest in it. But if you choose that challenge of being an accountant because you love it, then be the very best you possibly can at that passion. And I give people the, the methodologies to prepare themselves for it. Think those processes through. What could you anticipate encountering, and how would you handle it if it did?
Yoyo:I've never met a passionate accountant or an, or a passionate, tax man. Uh, Derek.
Derrick:I, unfortunately, I have met few of them, but I love them. I, I love the fact that I, I, I've visualized my accountant staying awake at night thinking about my numbers. Oh my gosh, what can we do? Because they do, if they're passionate about it, and you know, you, you get passionate butchers, passionate parents.
Yoyo:Yeah. Yeah.
Derrick:Whatever it is we choose to do, be sensational at it
Yoyo:You are right.'cause actually, the last time I said to my accountant, and we were doing the whole rundown. It was the summary. This is the sit rep, for example, and it's going through this kind of like, you know, dah or you've got this option. You and I genuinely think that's what he does that job for. You know, so he can deliver the, you know, it's not gonna be as bad as he thought. It's, you know, I, you know, you know, and I'm like, okay, this guy is worth every cent.
Derrick:Absolutely. I, uh, I did a post on socials, LinkedIn, Facebook, just recently. And the title of it was, I'm Not a Hero because everybody sees me as a hero and I'm not. My accountant is my hero. Because they are delivering that da, da, da. It's not gonna be as bad as you thought. Look, I've found this solution for you. Oh my God, you are my hero. You have saved me from that, whatever it was. So I, I like to think that everybody can be a hero in their own world.
Yoyo:You are almost talking about the theory of relativity there in a completely different context of, you know, it's your, the heroism near to you is relative to how important a job they do for you. That a job you would never contemplate. I have to go back to this moment where you were shot. Do we think that the, the bullet went through you so fast that your brain didn't yet have the moment to understand the pain receptors going through your body to register pain? Is that literally how fast that process is? Do we think?
Derrick:I couldn't tell you how many doctors, uh, and pain experts that I have spoken to and said, why did this happen? Um. I have also had conversations with him about the fact that I was lying on the ground for three hours and I had a severed artery in my left forearm, severed radial artery, and a severed ra um, anar artery in my right wrist. And how did I not bleed out in three hours? Generally it takes three minutes. Um, the doctors literally can't tell, uh, me what the circumstances were. One of the doctors, the first doctor to get to me, uh, actually said in a news interview with the, the two of us, all the textbooks say that Derek should be dead. The only reason Derek's not dead is he hasn't read the textbooks. Um, so. Essentially I defied medical knowledge, but why I didn't feel that pain. Was it the speed, was it the searing heat? Because I was only meters away from, uh, where we were shooting probably three meters, four meters at the absolute most away. So was the bullets still burning hot and just seared through and sealed everything? Uh, was I so overwhelmed that my mind just didn't acknowledge it. Um, or the, the one that my mates all default to. I was just too stupid to feel the pain. You know? It it, you know, which, which is the reality you want to live with.
Yoyo:Yeah. Cool mates. Uh, that's so funny. So going back then, what part of your extensive training do you think genuinely saved your life There? I'm thinking about it might even be. How your brain dealt with this in terms of all the things that you were thinking about the possible solutions, you were competing the whole time, but is there a part of training that you think, actually, yeah, this, this saved my life? It did.
Derrick:Um, there is absolutely no doubt that every part of my training has come together to combine, uh, to give me the result that I got. But there was also another part that was never trained that came in, which I think was the biggest influence. So, um, going back to the training, I was physically fit and strong. My resting heart rate was, uh, 38. Beats a minute at the time. So, you know, very, very fit. I was strong, I was well-trained. Uh, I had good insight into first aid and, uh, maintaining victims, uh, because we were responsible for rescuing victims of, uh, falling off a cliff for being shot or whatever it might be. But nobody had ever said, if you get shot, what you will need to do for yourself will be, um, part of my dive training is that we have a certain amount of air on our back in a cylinder, and if we get trapped below the surface of the water, we've only got a finite amount of air left. And we need, we were trained within the dive section to stay calm, stay rational, slow our breathing down so that that cylinder of air is gonna last as long as possible. That part became critical for me on the ground. Four things that I needed to do while I was on the ground. Uh, the first was to control panic. The second was to control shock, which is the body's physiological response to physical or psychological trauma. The blood was rerouted away from the brain processing areas where we do our higher level thinking, our creativity, the frontal prefrontal cortex, uh, where we do our problem solving. So maintaining, uh, controlling panic and controlling shock allowed that blood to flow back to the prefrontal cortex. Uh, but I had to slow down my breathing and I had to slow down my heart rate, and I needed to do that for the entire time that I was on the ground. Um, when. There were, there were highs and lows in that because when I didn't know where he was, I wondered if he was coming back to shoot me. So, you know, my, uh, heart rate would Spy, my breathing would be shallow and panic, uh, and panting. I would be going into panic mode. Where is he? Where is he? But then he started shooting. And when he started shooting, I realized he was in the roof of the house, essentially in the attic. And from that place, he was absolutely no threat to me. Yeah, he couldn't easily get it. And I say easily, he couldn't easily get a shot towards me. So I was able to start slowing down, uh, and controlling myself again. Um, and this comes back to where I think the things that I weren't trained, I wasn't trained in, um, became the most important. Uh, and that's what I talk about these days. And it's mindset and mind management and the mind management is the most important part. Mindset is good. That gets us up to the start line. It gets us up to the tough times. But when things start going south, when they start to get overwhelming like this, it's mind management. So I had already thought through for myself, if I get shot. What's gonna happen in my mind? How's that gonna respond? How have I responded in previous situations where I've had incidents which have overwhelmed me, but responded well, what can I draw from those and bring them into being shot if it does happen? Um, but the other vulnerable thing I had to do was say to myself, what have I done that I stuffed up in previous situations that I'd like to do better if it ever happens here? And so I prepared my mind for the vulnerability that my emotion, my emotions were gonna be overwhelmed. Um, that I'd have to slow down all those processes. Um, and that would take an awful lot and that would have to come down to vulnerability of knowing that I'm not perfect, that I have failed in the moment, uh, but having made a mistake, I can only move forward and take control of it moving forward. Um. What we had been trained in that realm, um, was that, and this is going back 30 years ago, so men didn't have emotions. We were told we were gonna be trained to be unbreakable. We will never feel anything because we don't, uh, have that process in our body.'cause we have to be tough. We have to be focused all the time. That will go out the window. It will never affect you. Of course, now we are more educated and more aware and we know that the first thing that happens is our emotions kick in when we are challenged or when we go through something that overwhelms us or when we get a fright or, or anything like that. Um, so one of the most important things that I did way back then at the time of the shooting was go through this thought process of what's gonna happen in my mind or what's gonna happen in my body and how do I have an influence on, on those things.
Yoyo:I'd like to go back to shock, actually. And, and some people might not have ever really truly experienced true shock. And I think I only have one example and, and I just want to explain how the very basic of things are impossible when you're genuinely in shock. I was, I've done some stupid things in my life, Derek, and one of them, one of them was, I was wearing flip flops and, I was, you know, impromptu decided to continue, stripping some tiles off my bathroom wall because it was something that had started. And I was in there and I thought, well, you know, I just, I felt like, I feel like having another tack at it and I didn't change my shoes. And, I trod on a, significantly sharp piece of tile and, uh. Sharp bit went through the main artery in my big toe, and literally blood was everywhere. And, I was able to understand what had happened and I was able to remove myself from the situation. And blood was just going everywhere, all over the floor, as you can imagine. Every step I took. Yeah, it was a bit, it was a bit bit like that police song, you know, every step you take. And, um and I managed to sit down upstairs in the bedroom and, and for some reason I, I made a phone call. I dunno if it's'cause I picked up a call, I can't remember whether I made the phone call. I think I, I picked up the phone and it was my brother bizarrely, and I remember him saying, what's up? You know, what's, what's happened? And I just, I couldn't speak. I was just like, I couldn't get words out, which is hard for me. Um, and, and it was just this whole, my brain was like, why can't your words come out properly? Yeah. My brain was like. What's going on? My brain was like, oh, you're in shock. Clearly you're in shock. But my mouth wouldn't work, and I wanted to say that story. Um, and obviously I'm fine. My toe healed up and there was no damage, but it was a ridiculously stupid thing to do. But I wanted to share that how hard it was to experience the brain being completely there, but the body being non-responsive, and that's hard. That for the first time made me identify what those different types of parallelism, can feel to the paralysis, can feel to the body. You know what, what happens if this happens? Or, you know, my brain's working and my body doesn't do this. It's a really kind of earth shattering experience, to be honest with you.'cause you have a lot more sympathy to people with some significant disabilities. Yeah. But we never know, do we, how we're gonna react in any type of shock situation. But in your experience, can we experience shock in a different way? And I also wanna draw down the importance, especially with the elderly as well. Shock can kill them. In fact, it's not the shock that kills them. Shock keeps them alive. The adrenaline keeps them alive. It's when the adrenaline stops going to vital or organs that they can ultimately, have a significant heart attack and die. But how do you see shock in, in your career? And how, how impactful is it?
Derrick:It, it's interesting you said that. Um, I can't remember your exact words, but basically we can't anticipate when we're gonna be shocked. Um. I like to look at it differently, and I actually think we have a fair ability to be able to predict what might happen in our lives, right? As a result of our choices, as a result of the circumstances we find ourselves in, we should be able to anticipate the majority of things, okay? If you decide to, uh, renovate your bathroom, there's a chance that you're gonna put a hole in the wall. There's a chance you're gonna cut your hand, you're gonna smash, uh, your thumb underneath the hammer. All this, these things have happened to other people, so there is this outside chance that it may happen to us. And we have to go through that process of, I'm gonna take on this challenge. If I do, what's the worst things that could possibly happen, but also what's the best things that could possibly happen? So let's not just catastrophize and stay down the catastrophe end. Let's look at the best things as well, because you wouldn't take on the project of your bathroom if you didn't think it was gonna be exciting. The result's gonna be great. You've gotta be feeling really proud of yourself, uh, not knowing that you're gonna actually put. Blood all over the tiles before you get them out of there. Um, but we should be able to anticipate most of the things in our life. And so that takes a lot of the shock factor out of it. So the fact that I've been shot never been shot before in my life, but I had some insight into how I might respond because I had a look at the previous incidents in my life. What else have I been through? Um, that might be similar. So, uh, this shooting happened in 1994. In 1987, uh, I'd actually been involved in another incident where somebody had tried to shoot us. And we got into a wrestling match with the offender. Um, my partner had hold of the pistol. I had the offender in a headlock. I had one hand on his wrist to try and control the, um, the pistol. My partner, um, had a hand on the pistol, but another hand on the radio calling for help. Um, we need assistance. He's got a gun. Be careful. There may be more people in the area. So we're going through this process. My partner absolutely, uh, calm, rational, uh, lucid. Um. And doing exactly what he needed to do. Um, but as we were wrestling with this guy, the gun was broken. He was pulling the trigger and it wasn't firing. Um, it actually had to be cocked so that it could be fired because it was broken. Um, and he called out to his girlfriend, cocked the gun. Cocked the gun, and she's clammed over the top of us, three fighting men. Um, and she has pulled the hammer back, making this weapon live and it could be fired. But as she pulled the hammer back, I put my thumb on the hammer between the hammer and the gun so that it couldn't be fired. Now I thought to myself, how on earth did I have that level of logical thinking in the midst of it? And it was because we had talked through those sorts of scenarios in the past, and as a result of talking through those scenarios, I'd come up with, if it does happen, this is something I could do. Um, so. I think if we are all, in fact, I've got a, a whiteboard exercise that I do in all of my, uh, workshops, um, that I absolutely love that puts this all into a concept. And I'll, I'll try and be very quick about this. It's a whiteboard, uh, exercise where I've got four columns. Um, I tell people that I prepared myself for what I could expect as a result of my choices, uh, and my circumstances, so I could anticipate I could get shot. In their world, they probably can't anticipate they could get shot. So what are the things that they are going to be challenged by? Or they get, what are the, what are the challenges and changes they're gonna see in the next 12 months to five years? And that comes down to cost of living, babies being born, parents dying, change of jobs, uh, financial challenges, uh, health, all these sorts of things. And then the second column, I say, what are the emotions associated with those challenges and changes? What are the feelings? What are the things, the emotions that you feel? Um, and they start going, oh, well, fear, overwhelm, anxiety, uh, depression. Um, uh, but then somebody comes up with a, a very positive and goes actual, actual fact. There's excitement, uh, you know, new children. It's a challenge, it's a change. But I'm actually excited about that. And so then I start talking about. To end of the continuum again, what's the worst that feeling you might have? What's the best feeling you might have? Let's look at them both and acknowledge'em. Um, so we, we go through that and just talking about those emotions and feelings. People go, oh. I'm not the only one that gets overwhelmed or scared or excited about these things. Other people feel it as well. So it starts normalizing those conversations in your head. I then jump from, uh, column one, column two over to column four and column four is what are the resources you have to deal with those emotions When the challenges start becoming too much and it's talking to friends, talking to professionals, meditating, going out and walking the dog, uh, listening to music, involving yourself in your hobby. We have a conversation around alcohol because what do we do when we start getting overwhelmed? Some of us go, do you know something? I've had a stressful day. Let's just have a gin and tonic and go out in the back and have a chat about this, because we do. And so I like to talk about what is good level of alcohol, what's an. Uh, outrageous level of alcohol.'cause when we discuss it in a calm situation, we can go, you know, if I'm having three drinks a day every day, that's just too much. But if we wait until we get to having three drinks, we will defend that position. So let's have that conversation early. Um, and so those are all the resources that we can use. Column three, I come back to afterwards and column three is one of the most important columns. And it is what are the indicators that tell you the emotions are getting too much. You need to be able to access the resources. Now what are your thought processes? What are your behaviors? And it comes down to people going, oh, I'm getting really angry. I get short tempered, I'm snapping at people. I can't concentrate, I can't sleep, I'm not eating well. And again, this normalizes that conversation where people go. Oh yeah, okay. I've recognized those in myself before. Maybe I should go and meditate, go and take some time out, go and have a holiday, uh, go and play with the kids, whatever it might be in those resources to manage the emotions and bring the emotional overwhelm down. Um, and so I, I think that process, it's something I can articulate now. It is something that I did at the time of the shooting, but I had no idea I was actually doing it. It was just intuitive. It was innate. Um, but I think now that I'm able to consciously do it, consciously allow other people to see that process and see how it would work for them, whether it is in having new children come into the family, a parent dying, um, financial challenges,'cause we've lost our job and whatever it might be, we should be able to anticipate the majority of the things that could happen and have a better idea of how to manage'em.
Yoyo:I mean, Derek is, you've just been through an, an utterly phenomenal experience. Um, is there a point where you get fed up with talking about it?
Derrick:Um, yeah, there is, um, when people, I, I love people's morbid curiosity, absolutely love it. Um, but if I go to a dinner party and I dunno, people I will. Actively avoid mentioning the shooting until it naturally fits into the conversation. Now, I've had conversations with people, um, in fact it was, uh, a wife of a very good friend of mine. Uh, we met at a conference. First time I'd met her, knew him extremely well. Uh, and she and I had a conversation around dealing with injuries and dealing with emotions, uh, and really getting into it deep. And I was able to have those whole conversations. Never once mentioned the fact that I'd been shot and we had a good, valuable conversation. So, uh, and it wasn't until she went home, she said, oh, I had a great conversation with Derek about blah, blah, blah, and my mate's gone. Did he tell you he got shot? And she said, her jaw literally dropped. So yes, it can be underwhelming for me to talk about it at times. Um, but it's like if you have a car accident. You don't mention that every time you go to dinner, uh, but at the, the appropriate time. Oh yeah. I remember when I had a car accident. So I see it as just another thing that has happened in my life. Um, but I, I completely accept people's morbid curiosity that they go, as soon as they hear that I've been shot 14 times, it's like whiplash on their neck. You've what? Tell me more about this. Um, so, and for the appropriate audience, people who are going to take stuff away from it, I love talking about it. Um, and actual fact, let me just clarify that a little bit more. I, I need to talk about the shooting because that gives me credibility and allows me to talk about the other stuff. And it's actually the other stuff that I love talking about. The human durability, the mind mastery, being able to manage our emotions in, in times of stress. Uh, those things I love. I know that talking about the shooting opens the door for people to go tell me.
Yoyo:You know, uh, honestly, I, I get, I'm literally, you, you're kind of sending me transcendent because I'm just listening to everything you're saying. Earlier on, I was gonna ask you a question around mental tough and steric, because a lot of people get that phrase wrong based on their own experiences. What, when you, when people talk about mental toughness, there's a beautiful segue into this question. What does the phrase get wrong based on what you've lived through?
Derrick:I, I understand why people say mental toughness. I have an internal cringe when I hear mental toughness because I think mental toughness means to people unbreakable. I will be able to do anything I want. I'm so mentally tough, nothing will affect me. I have changed that phrase for myself to mental fitness, agility and strength. Now the agility is probably the most, uh, important part there, understanding that we can have those highs and lows, understanding that, yeah, I, I've been shot 14 times. I survived. I came through this without PTSD, without anxiety, without depression. Uh, and people say, oh my gosh, you lost me mentally tough two years after the shooting. Um, I left my wife because it just wasn't working out, and happy to talk about it and not shy about that, but I won't focus on it at the moment. But when I left her, I broke a solemn promise that I made, that I got married for life, one life, one love, one marriage. I was absolutely committed to it. Uh, and not only did I leave my wife, I left 24 7 access to my children. I could access it many time. My ex-wife was absolutely brilliant. Anytime I wanted to be with them, I could. Um, but I wasn't there when they woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares. That destroyed me. Uh, and I actually, uh, spiraled down into anxiety, depression, uh, and PTSD from the marriage breakup, shooting, never a thing. But I also recognize that that's just normal. We all go through highs. We all go through lows. And the more that we can recognize this is a low, let me deal with it, the more chance we've got of bringing it back up. So, um, after the shooting, I went and spoke to a psychiatrist, uh, three months after the shooting. And he cleared me psychologically, said I had no PTSD, no anxiety, depression, psychologically I was able to go back to work the next day. And he said I didn't need any ongoing therapy. So I was in a pretty good psychological space at that time. It took me two and a half years physically to get over it, but psychologically it was the first meeting. Um, but I also said to him, this may revisit me at any time. Um, it could be two months down the track, it could be 10 years down the track. It could be 40 years down the track and something might happen and I might snap right back. So he, he realized that I understood the process, um, and I had prepared myself, what's gonna happen in my mind. I knew that there could be nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks. The difference between the shooting and the divorce. I didn't see the divorce coming. That was something that was never gonna happen in my life, right? And when it did happen, it hit me out of left field. Um, I started spiraling down into depression And one of the, the significant things we need to understand about depression is we don't often recognize it for ourselves.'cause as we spiral down, we're not able to do the higher level thinking. We're not able to do the analysis'cause it's just too much, it's too hard. I don't want to think about that stuff. Um, and what stood out for me and the reason I was able to catch it early was I was training to get back into Star Group and I was absolutely passionate about it, but I was starting to not have energy. Uh, and I recognized I wasn't eating well and then I realized I wasn't sleeping well. I wasn't passionately training. Um, and so the logical bloke said to myself. I'm missing something in my diet. I need to go and see the doctor so that he can tell me what vitamin I need to take so I can get all my energy back. Uh, and he gave me the, uh, questionnaire for anxiety, depression, PTSD. And I remember sitting in his office and thinking to myself, ah, you don't know what I've been through this. I don't get depression. I don't get PTSD. So it was tick flick, tick flick, completely vulnerable, completely open. And he sat there and said, Derek. This shows that you've got mild depression and mild PTSD. I literally sat there and went, damn, okay, how do we deal with it? And it was that quick. I'd had the conversation with the psych. It may hit me at any time, and if I take action immediately, I've got a better chance of controlling it. Um, and so I was diagnosed with mild and I, I like to stress, it was mild, PTSD, mild depression, did exactly what the doctor told me to do. Uh, came back to the doctor completely open and vulnerable again. Did the same questionnaire, uh, for exactly how I was feeling. I did everything that the doctor told me to do in that month, uh, and within a month. Uh, the depression, anxiety, uh, and PTSD had moved on, uh, and I went back to normal life, but I still recognize the highs that I have when things are going well and I recognize the lows, and I know that when it gets down to this low, then I need to take some action so that I can bring it back up to homeostasis. Doesn't have to go back up to absolutely sensational, it just has to get back up to that comfortable level again. And, and that's, you know, uh, mental fitness, agility and strength. And that's where I like to put that mental toughness conversation. I understand why people say it, but there's a better way to articulate it.
Yoyo:Do you understand from your own personal experience then why some folk of the same gender tend not to. Be so assertive when it comes down to seeking out advice. So you didn't know what you were seeking advice for, you were seeking vitamins ultimately, but you needed viti, you needed vitamins for the brain, I would say metaphorically. But we know that men stereotypically have a really tough time coming out and saying, I need help. Can you at all reflect on why we think that's just so systemically hard? And is it harder for Australian men?
Derrick:I don't know whether it is, cultural. I think this is worldwide, culturally, religiously, doesn't matter, what it is. Um, but men do have, and I think this goes back to, um, history, DNA, um. Yeah, everybody wants to be the alpha male, wants to be able to protect, um, wants to, and the, the alpha male is the male that is appealing to the women and everybody wants to be that. And that is the strong, the stoic, the unbreakable, the mentally tough, the physically tough. Um, and, uh, as soon as a man puts his hand in there and says, do you know something, I'm actually getting challenged at the moment, I'm, I'm really struggling with whatever it is. Um. In the past that has been perceived as weakness, um, and other males pile on and go, oh, you are pathetic, you're weak, you're no good. Uh, we can't trust you anymore. We can't give you too much because you can't do, uh, what we recognize now is that by actually putting your hand in the air and saying, Hey, listen, do you know something? I'm having a challenge here. We are better able to deal with it, accelerate our way through whatever challenge it is, and come out the other end a better person. Uh, and I can't remember what the Chinese terminology is, can say, or something similar to that where they say that a bowl or a a piece of crockery that gets broken then gets repaired with gold leaf, uh, as well as all the putty, and it becomes more valuable because of its repairs. And this is what I look at for people who have seemed to have, uh, had something go wrong, they fix it. They are stronger because they fix it, because they now have an insight into, if it happens again, I can take action early and stop at happening in the future. If it happens to someone else, I'm able to give them advice and help them as well. So when we put a hand in the air and we go, do you know something, I'm having a challenge. We get the resources to be able to manage that. Um, we become better, stronger people for the future.
Yoyo:You've made me go straight to children in my head there. In terms of, uh, resilience, do we see in our younger generations a lower percentage of resilience? Because as parents, we have sheltered them from all of the, you know, the harms and the things that can cause disruption and the things that can cause tears and tantrums. You know, have we done so well in shielding them from all the things that we wished we hadn't seen and done, that we've ultimately impacted the capability to be more resilient. Resilient I
Derrick:that, that they, I, I've been asked this question many, many times and I don't think the children of today are any different to the children of yesterday, the children of last century. Um. It's just that we as elder people believe we are stronger. The children aren't as good as what we are now. Um, I correlate this with the other conversation that we generally have, um, in that children have no respect for their elders. They, um, have no respect for the law. They, um, are not behaving the way that we believe they should be behaving. And, and I'd like to read you just two very quick quotes here. Uh, and I'd like to you to think and ponder on who might have said these quotes. Um, and it's from a fair while ago. Uh. The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contemporary authority. They show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in the place of exercise. Second quote, young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They're impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything. And what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness to them. As for girls, they are forward, immo, un womanly in speech, behavior, and dress. How long ago do you think that might've been said? And who do you I'm, I'm gonna leave it as rhetorical because nobody has ever guessed it. The first one was Socrates, the second one was Plato
Yoyo:I would identify with that from my own personal journey. I didn't have a respect for elderly people's journeys. I, you know, it's only when you become older that you respect where elder's journeys have started and, and may end. I didn't really, I was very selfish. I used to think about my own journey trajectory forward. I used to think very little about past. I, I remember just being very self-centric, you know, and I, I don't know if that's how we're designed to be, because we have to begin our journeys and that has to be, go become with self-determination. I'm, I'm not sure, but I can't, I can't say that I, I'm outside that I was totally, that describes me.
Derrick:There's a another saying by, uh, Robert Burns, who was a Scottish philosopher and being a Scotsman. I was born in Scotland. I love it. Um, and I can't remember exactly what the saying was, but it came from a passage in a book that he had written. Um, and it said that, um, between the ages of about. 15 to 22. Uh, I thought my, my father was an absolute idiot. He had absolute no knowledge. Everything he did was stupid. But then when I turned 22, he seemed to become a brilliant man. And I think this refers to that passage, uh, that you're talking about. We go through this phase and everybody goes through this phase of, I'm the most important person I need to make, start, start making decisions for myself. Uh, I can't be influenced by what everybody else is saying. Um, and then we get to that stage where we go, oh, do you know something I could probably do with some advice? We get over that, that hump of independence. Um, and if you look at the development of the mind from being born through to about that 22. Uh, years old. There are several stages that are predictable that children will go through. You know, the, the zero to five, the brains, uh, are the most vulnerable and open to being the sponge. Um, and, and I can't remember exactly what all the other phases are exactly, but it goes five to 14, 14 to something and then something to around 22. And it is predictable. We all go through it. Um, and I think one of the problems we have in children aren't as resilient today as what we were, is we look at ourselves now and say, I am so resilient, and I've always been this way throughout my life. We forget what we went through as children and how vulnerable we felt and the mistakes that we've made. Um, so I think, you know, reflecting on things that Plato and Socrates and Robert Burns have said, brings me back to the fact that, do you know something? We're all pretty much the same. I mean, if you ask your parents or, or any people of their age, they would go, oh, the children. My, uh, the, the children during my era, um, they were pathetic. You know, they weren't as tough as ours. And we went through world wars and, you know, the children would never be able to do that. These days we will, we will step up when we need to.
Yoyo:Yeah, that's what I think. Just because we're not going around, you know, punching our chest, going, come on, bring it on. You know, I just think, I think this is an absolutely spot on conversation. I wanna go back if I can, and ask you the question, because I've seen the photograph of you in your hospital bed. All right? I saw your legs out. I've seen your legs, Derek. Um, and you were in a bad way. You know, you can definitely see you in a, in a really bad way. And quite rightly, you know, you've been shot 14 times. Um, but I have to ask you, what was harder? Surviving the incident or living with what came after?
Derrick:It's a really good question. While I ponder this, let me just tell your audience the injuries that I was dealing with at the time. Uh, I was hit 14 times, so I had a broken forearm and a severed archery in that left forearm, I had a, um. A severed artery in my right wrist. I had two bullets in my stomach and lost 45 centimeters of bowel. I had two bullets that went into my left thigh, uh, and ripped out about a third of the muscle from my left thigh. Uh, three bullets of shrapnel skipped across the back of my left calf, just needing a few stitches. Uh, a bullet went through my right achilles tendon and took out 80% of the thickness of my Achilles tendon. Uh, a bullet or bit of shrapnel went behind my right knee, needed half a dozen stitches there. Uh, and there were three other bullets that hit bits of equipment, definite, solid hits at. Potentially would've killed me if, if it hadn't been for, you know, some protective equipment. So it was 14 hits. So that's what I was dealing with. Uh, was it harder dealing with the shooting itself or what came afterwards? Um, I think it was the, afterwards that was actually hardest. It lasted longer. For the three hours I was lying on the ground. I didn't feel the bullets hitting me, and for the three hours I was lying on the ground. I acknowledged that I was in pain, but it wasn't overwhelming, it wasn't searing. I was able to still have the thought presses going. Uh, I was lying on my back, uh, with my forearm resting on my leg, which had been cocked up to try and get them above the level of the heart. So it, it would be harder for the, you know, the blood got to pump up before it comes out. Uh, so I was staring at broken bones, uh, in my face, you know, the whole time that I was lying there. Um, but. There was, I never had any doubt that I was gonna continue fighting. Um, and I would fight for as long as I possibly could and I was never going to give into death. Um, but there was also this very cognizant acknowledgement that with one bullet shot, with one bullet wound, um, I could die. So 14, there's a real chance I may die, but I'm never gonna give into it. When I got to the recovery stage and coming through it, that was all in the background. It was now dealing with the pain, dealing with learning how to take one step again,'cause I've got muscle missing from my left thigh of, I've still only got 20% of the thickness of my Achilles tendon holding together. Um, so you know. We are now 31 years on, and I've still got 20% of the Achilles tendon on the right hand side. Um, I had to learn how to walk. I had to learn how to use my hands. I had no fine motor skills, uh, in the initial stages. Um, the tendons in my left forearm had all been stretched and some had been broken. Um. Nerves have been damaged. So I had to learn to reuse all this again. Um, there were highs where I was really coming through it well, and there were lows where I absolutely doubted myself as to whether I was gonna be successful. Um, it was so hard at times, and obviously I was going through troubles with my relationship as well because, uh, I separated two years after the shooting. Uh, and I didn't return to work full time until two and a half years. So all this was happening at the same time. Um, and there were times where I've gone, do you know something? This is all too hard. Um, is suicide an option I want to take? Uh, because that would make it all so much easier. And I don't shy away from having that conversation that I thought about suicide. I thought about taking my life. Um, but I think. You would understand by talking to me. I like to consider every option that might be available to me. And suicide was certainly one of the options. Other people have done it. Um, and it supposedly made life easier because they don't have to deal with anything anymore. Um, I considered it, but it was on the table just for a short period of time and I've gone, no, I don't like that option. Sweep it off. What's the next option? Let's move on. I think there are more people that have those sorts than, than are willing to share them. And by sharing this, I hope it sort of normalizes conversation for people and they go, I'm not the only one that's had that thought. He's been through that, he's come through it really well. No PTSD, no anxiety, no psychological issues. But he still had that thought. Maybe I'm stronger than I realized. Um, so I, I would like to, um, you know, just acknowledge I had those thoughts and, and they're more common than we think.
Yoyo:If listeners then could take one mindset shift from your experience, what should it be?
Derrick:Be vulnerable enough to know that we can stuff up and make a comeback. Uh, I I, oh gosh. Yeah. Okay. I've, I've, I've laughed ri I've gotta now explain that, that Ry laugh. I do it. This is something that I haven't shared with a lot of people and, and I dunno whether I am being overly egotistical here or not, but, uh, I'd like to think it comes from a place of humility. But I have created a saying called the McManus Curse. Um, and it, the McManus Curse is a, a misnomer to start off with'cause it's actually one of the best things you could possibly have. Uh, but it's the opposite to Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law is if anything could possibly go wrong, it will go wrong. The McManus curse as I see it, is if anything can go right, it will go right. We will find a way to make it right, but it doesn't happen because we sit on our bum and wait things wait for things to happen. It happens because we get off our ass and we go about doing what we can. And going back to the point you were making, um, if people could take one thing away. When we get hit with challenges, we can get through it and we can find a better place On the other side. It may not be perfect. The McManus Curse doesn't always work out perfectly, but it brings us to a better place than where we were. And, um, I guess the one thing really comes down to, uh, I talk about five drivers for success. Uh, and that first driver is a sense of optimism. If we can retain a sense of optimism that will keep us motivated or keep us passionate. If we believe that we can find a place better than where we are now, it gives us reason to keep on fighting. If there's no sense of optimism, well you may as well give up. If there's no reward for effort, you may as well give up. So it's retained that sense of optimism, and, and that's what the McMannus Curse does, I believe. I strongly believe if I put in the effort, I will make my life better. I've gotta go through some shit at times to get there. And sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, but I know that if I persevere, I will find a better place. So, and I believe everybody can do that.
Yoyo:I think that's one of the biggest conversations we can have with younger people, because rather than tell people, you know, what they need to do, where they went wrong, and how they can do things better, we, I think we just need to prepare people that the journey isn't always rosy. There's gonna be, you know, rocky days. There's gonna be horrible things that happen. It's how we come through that, how we prepare ourselves for that. That I think is key. When I look back and I think, yeah, I've had to go through a rocky road to get here, uh, that's, that's where you, you look at it with a, a very different what's ahead. You know, you never know, do you? But, um,
Derrick:this is where I go back to that. Whiteboard exercise of the four columns, what are those challenges and changes? How are we gonna feel about it? The bad, as well as the good? What are the resources and what are the triggers that tell us we need to access those resources? The first thing you've gotta do is be vulnerable enough to go, do you know something? I'm not always gonna be on a high. I'm gonna be facing that challenge. It's gonna make me feel bad, but if I do this, I'll be able to make it better. Um, I, and that gives, that whiteboard exercise builds a sense of optimism. Okay. I know there are gonna be challenges, but I know there's something I can do about it.
Yoyo:We know that, uh, certainly from our backgrounds, you know, reflection and learnings and outcomes is always a key part of everything. We do appreciate that. You know, what happened happened a very, very long time ago with very different kind of frameworks around learnings. But the, the reflection question really is, you know, if you could speak to yourself the day before the incident, what would you say to yourself? Knowing everything you know now,
Derrick:the day before. Wow. Wow.
Yoyo:This is why the security circle is so different. You're gonna get, you're gonna get a question left of bang, Derek.
Derrick:Oh yeah. That's a good, I don't know. I don't know what I would say to myself the day before. Um. Because I, you know, as I reflect on, you know, what happened and how it panned out, it just seemed to go well. Um, even though it went badly, um, I managed it well. Um, that's funny. You know, the, the one thing I always come back to, um, if not just the day before, but in periods beforehand, is trust your gut. Um, and, and that's what I did on the day. I didn't know I was trusting my gut on the day. It was intuitive. It was an innate, it was an innate, but trust your gut that the gut will tell you if something is potentially going to go wrong. Um, the gut. As I understand it, the, the gut vagus nerve connected to the brain, all those sorts of things. But the gut is the intuitive and works on patterns. I've seen this pattern before. I get a feeling in my tummy. I would get a gut instinct that this is gonna go wrong. I get a gut instinct that this could go right. This feels great. Uh, sports people use it, business people use it, but we don't trust our gut. Instead, we go, oh, it doesn't feel good. But there is nothing logical going wrong. Now if your gut's telling you something, it's recognizing patterns you've been through before. Um, and it doesn't mean that things are going to go wrong, but you've gotta go, what can I do to change my gut feeling? What proactivity can I take on to change that gut feeling and give me a better sense of optimism? I wanna
Yoyo:go one step further than that because I, I saw a medium with friends. Uh, it's not something I've ever done before, but she, when I picked out one of the cards, one of five cards, one of them was around gut instinct. And what she was encouraging me to do was to listen to that voice more. And it's been so valuable. I have made different decisions because she helped me fine tune. Like a radio signal on an old fashioned radio, a better quality of message coming through. Why am I getting that feeling? What do we think it's trying to tell me? How can I act differently? What would I have done before? What should I do now? And I think from just like a very, kind of like tongue in cheek. Yeah. All right, then let's go and talk to the dead. Uh, yeah, that was a very profound learning that I had this year. That's changed my life.
Derrick:Yeah, absolutely. I, I completely embrace everything that you just said there. Um, trust your gut. Listen to it. Um, don't overanalyze it, but then go, why is it telling me this? What are the things that my gut is seeing that I'm not logically seeing? And if my gut is telling me this, is there something I can do to settle my gut? And not just take my lanter or anything else like that. Is there any action, any behaviors? Um, any resources that I can access, friends that I can go and have a chat with. I want to do this, but my gut is telling me something's wrong. Have those conversations with other people, but having those conversations means you have to be vulnerable enough to go, do you know something? I'm not sure I can handle this. Men aren't good at that and we need to get better. So
Yoyo:yes, you do. Uh, lastly and a little tongue in cheek. Yeah. Do you see your, do you see your survival as luck, preparation, or purpose or something else Entirely?
Derrick:The term I use is good fortune. Um, a lot of people say, oh my God, you were lucky. In fact, I've had, and this is tongue in cheek, and I'll come back to a serious answer in a moment. Um, I've had people say to me, isn't it lucky you were shot 14 times?'cause 13 would've been unlucky. God, how does that even work? Um, but I, there is no two ways about it. There was a little bit of luck that I survived. If a bullet had hit me half an inch, one way or another, severe, an artery hit an organ that couldn't be repaired. Um, if my arteries had bled instead of not bleeding, um, I could have been dead within seconds, within minutes. Um, so there was a little bit of luck. The rest of it is good fortune and preparation, and we prepare ourselves so that we can have good fortune. Good fortune is what we create in our lives by the thoughts we have and the actions we take.
Yoyo:Well, I, I wanna know when the book's coming out, Derek.
Derrick:Ah, yes. We've had that little conversation, haven't we? Yes. Am I sorry I mentioned that to you now. Now the pressure's on. Um, I, I've been writing this book for a little while. Um, I had a ghost writer help me initially, um, and that ghostwriting process wasn't as smooth as what I would like to, to have been. So, uh, it's been on the desk for about eight years. Um, but, uh, I am gonna make a commitment to you Yoyo, that I will have it done within a month. I, I, I know exactly what I need to do with it now. Um, I believe I can do it in a month. So, yeah, months time. But one of my big challenges there, you know, what are the challenges and changes in your life? Column one, one of my big challenges is, I don't know what title to give it. I dunno what to call it.
Yoyo:Well, there's a question for the listener, isn't it? We, we can help. We can help you. Derek, why don't we. I certainly know, I know a man specifically who will love to take this task on. So describe for us, the premise so that we can then give our listeners an opportunity to sort of think of some names for you.
Derrick:So, so this book is just the book of the story. Um, I certainly talk about what I call human durability and mind mastery, uh, as well. And there there will be separate books, you know, about those things. But this is the book of the story and it's the story of, um, I was a vulnerable kid, I got beaten up when I was a young kid and it's probably not gonna be in the book. Uh, but I didn't come into the police being this tough guy who knew exactly what sort of leader he was gonna be and I grew into it. Um, and. Going through the shooting, it was an intuitive process, um, that I've come through with this bizarre sense of humor, like as I was falling. Being shot, I was having a little laugh at myself. I had jokes with myself the whole time that I was on the ground. Lighthearted thoughts that went through my mind, um, while always acknowledging the fact that I, you know, I might die. Um, but retaining this sense of strength and determination and focus, uh, and my focus. Was not that I wanted to live with. For me, I wanted to live for my children. Uh, I wanted to be there with them for their challenges, their changes, their marriages, their graduations, all those sorts of things. They were my drive up while I was on the ground. And, and now that I've come through, I'm sharing all this with other people. Uh, and essentially all of that is going to be covered in the book. Um, and there'll be the extra insights into what I was feeling while I was on the ground. While I was on the ground, I was fully conscious for that three hours I felt my body closing down. I felt my arms and legs closing down, body being the blood being rerouted just to the core of my body. Uh, the pistol that I was holding onto fell outta my hand, but at no stage did I lose that sense of optimism and that preparedness to fight for what was most important to me.
Yoyo:I, I, I have had a giggle here and there because I remember at the end of Spy Q when you presented, you got a, you got given a bottle of whiskey, didn't you? I did, yes. And and what did they tell you when they presented it to you?'cause it makes me laugh.
Derrick:Oh, did I, can't actually remember now.
Yoyo:They basically said they thought that that size bottle would be fine'cause it's got at least 14 shots in it. Ha. That's right. Yes.
Derrick:Yes. I do remember that. Now everybody,
Yoyo:like, everyone's just gone through this rather harrowing story where they've had all the right facial expressions on and they get to the end and everyone just laughed because it was like, it's just the funniest thing. I don't know how many shots there are in a bottle of whiskey, but, um, Derek, what can I say? Derick Derek with two Rs. It's been an absolute, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the Security Circle podcast, and it was an absolute pleasure meeting you in person as well. Thank you so much for joining us.
Derrick:Yeah, yeah. Always a, a privilege and a, a great time, uh, talking to you. Um, you are a very insightful person and I love the, the deep questions that you ask and the lighthearted sense of humor you do it with.
Yoyo:Come back next year. Tell us all about your book, Derek.
Derrick:I look forward to that too.