A Wealth of Happiness:
finding the balance
by Kevin Voigt: Asian Wall Street Journal

Andrew and Gaia Grant:
Open-mindedness, flexibility

Sometimes achieving happiness simply requires being open to new ideas. Andrew and Gaia Grant were on a year long sabbatical in Bali when, over dinner one night, a new acquaintance made on off-hand suggestion. The acquaintance, a hotel sales director, said the Grant’s should leverage their backgrounds in teaching kids personal development skills and apply it to business executives staying in Bali.

Many people would disregard a suggestion that would require them to change their lives completely. Besides, the Grant’s had already made names for themselves in Australia. Rather than dismiss the idea, though, the Grant’s listened.

We had never worked with business people before, “says Mr. Grant. After thinking about it, the couple decided it made sense, and today the 42-years olds run a successful company from Bali- and live in the same home (now rather expanded) they took their sabbatical in.

Their company Tirian, launched in 1997, designs and facilitates programs for executive team-building and crisis management in 20 countries for companies such as Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG and Accenture. Not only do the Grants get to live on the Indonesian island of Bali, but the company is profitable as well-they earn as much as $20,000 for one day seminars.

It wasn’t the first time the Grants benefited from open-mindedness. Back in the early 80,s the Grants were high-school counsellors in Sydney, teaching religious studies and personal development classes for at-risk students. The curriculum they developed for the class, as it happened, turned out to be rather effective.

Heeding suggestions to develop their curriculum into more of a business, the couple started their own publishing company (also called Tirian), which sold about 20,000 copies of Mr. Grant’s teaching manuals to schools and community groups around Australia.

With the company’s success, the couple suddenly found themselves with a degree of financial freedom they hadn’t experienced before. But rather than settle down, the couple decided it was a perfect chance to take working vacations abroad, bringing their methods for helping trouble kids to other countries. Their travels took theme to Mexico City, the Philippines and war-torn El Salvador, where they worked with orphanages and relief agencies.

When the idea for starting Tirian in Bali came up, they decided it would be foolish to replace the mad-dash existence of their past-working vacations, being on-call 24 hours – with an equally hectic schedule in paradise.

Ironically, though, with the growth of Tirian – which now has 15 staff in four countries – the Grants are busier that they’ve ever been. But there’s a difference this time. “We do sometimes have 18-hour days, and the past month I’ve only spent four days in Bali, says Mr. Grant. “But that’s my choice. We can make our own decisions about how busy we choose to be”.

In the coming years, the Grants plan to step back from their growing business, and perhaps do more social work in impoverished communities. In the meantime, going to the office means a pleasant walk across the compound they’ve created near the beach. Mr. Grant can take conference calls while walking shirt-less, surfboard nearby, and two kids waiting to go out on the waves. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he says.

Kevin Voigt Asian Wall Street Journal Nov 2004 (used with permission)

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