Company History
Paul & Mary Blackburn (founders of Beyond Success) first met in 1974 when appointed as teachers to the same high school in western Sydney. They were married in 1975 and pretty soon afterwards bought their first home on the banks of Woronora River near Sutherland.
Always a dreamer and possibility thinker, Paul quickly convinced Mary that renovations were the "go" - and so began nine years of life on a building site.
Knowing that two teacher's salaries didn't add up to millionaire status, Paul & Mary tried a number of micro business activities with mixed success. In 1980 Paul left teaching to pursue a short lived and spectacular sales career, concluding after a year or so that he was a better teacher than salesman.
His emotional state over the next 24 months or so would nowadays be diagnosed as depression but back then he thought he must have been either lazy or just lose career wise. By this time he and Mary were seriously attempting to start a family with no success - adding to the air of futility they both sensed but were powerless to change.
One of those pivotal points that completely turn a life on its head occurred about this time when Paul found himself in the self help section of yet another bookshop. In the early 80's these parts of a bookshop contained 8 - 10 books in total.
On impulse, Paul picked up a brightly coloured (who says you can't pick a book by its cover?) skinny book that promised "thoughts were things that controlled the world around us".
He read all that night becoming more and more excited by the idea that "you could think your way to success" and insisted the couple were shortly off to America where "they even run courses in this stuff!!!"
Typically evangelistic, Paul insisted that the flatmate also read the book and was devastated to discover that it was eaten by his dog. The flatmate bought a replacement copy - in which someone had placed a brochure advertising that the course was "here is Aussie!!"
Moments later the dog was blessed, the flatmate forgiven and Paul booked into his first ever personal development course. The couple at this stage were only able to borrow enough money for one of them to attend, so they had agreed that the one who went along to the course would teach the other. Mary is still famous for stating at the time, “Well, you’ve got the most problems – you go.”
Enriched, excited and enthused about what he’d learned in just one life changing weekend – Paul knew he had found his quest and vision in life. Mary, witnessing the exuberance in her husband became aware that not only was her fun loving man back but also that her life too was about to change forever.
From the day Paul & Mary decided to “change the world” by entering the personal development field, teaching and training others to reach their potential, they have never wavered in their intention. Beyond Success has a 23 year continuous history of delivering world class personal development material to those interested in maximising their potential.
In 1986, the birth of their first child stirred an old chestnut. For years Paul & Mary had dreamed of living in the country, raising their children in “the bush” and running their very own conference centre. By 1990 they had found and moved to their dream location on 250 acres, ten kilometres outside Gundaroo in rural NSW, reaching all three targets at once.
Reaching some targets starts others.
Eighteen months living in a caravan with no water or electricity while they built the Boolgana conference centre with their own hands, raising two very young (3 & 5) girls would be a test for any relationship but they grew closer together as they cooked on an open fire, worked as builders labourers and washed the cutlery and themselves in the dam.
The Benz’s were traded for a Range Rover and the windsurfer converted to an ultra-light sports aircraft that could fly out of the front paddock.
Meanwhile Paul was showering in a gym on the way to seminars big and small all over the country and planet. Seminars and annual conventions saw the business taken everywhere along the Eastern seaboard. Fire-walks took it to England, Ireland, Hong Kong and the USA. Many courses were run in California as a push into western USA was sponsored by a client who had moved to LA
Numerous radio and television spots occurred and with increasing frequency, including segments on the Midday Show, Steve Vizard Live, and most of the top rating shows in the late 90’s, including a debacle at the summer training camp of the Adelaide Crows. One player claimed to be seriously burned, sparking a media frenzy in Adelaide!
By the mid 90’s, as a result of Mary’s strategic marketing activities, Beyond Success had achieved the rare privilege of being nominated as the sole contracted supplier of personal & professional effectiveness programs to the Federal Departments of Immigration, Finance and Health & Family Services.
Business assignments had also unobtrusively entered the seminar/speaking agenda and the Beyond Success team mostly disappeared inside corporate Australia. Three huge clients, one of whom was the government of the day was enough to keep the business busy and profitable.
Around this time, Paul’s book, Beyond Success, Why Everything You Ever Wanted Wont Be Enough was published and over the course of the next few years, sold out its first two printings. No mean feat for a self published book. The third edition is current and will take the book into best seller status.
Meanwhile, the primary objective was always kept in centre screen. “Live a great life doing what you love, live in the bush, build a conference centre and bring up two loving humans who will help change the world”, was never far from Paul & Mary’s lips. “Walk your talk” was and remains to this day the litmus test for all activities and decisions. For this and many other reasons, chief among them being the desire to be parents first and business people second, Beyond Success remained a well kept secret among the general public – a situation Paul & Mary were happy with.
In 2003, Paul was diagnosed with aggressive Prostate Cancer and given 3 years to live. Much of what he, Mary and the girls went through remains to be told in person but several significant changes took place in the business. About this time the girls were graduating to their own homes, undertaking tertiary study and beginning careers.
So our intrepid couple decided there was nothing to lose. That their gift needed to be passed on to others who also wanted a better world. That every day above the ground was a good one.
So acting on a clients advice to change the business from service centric to product orientated, they completely re-engineered its modus operandi. Beyond Success now produces and sells literally thousands of home study personal development courses, tapes, CDs, DVDs, books, manuals and training programs.
As far as passing on their skills is concerned, Paul & Mary are now training some of Australia's and in fact the world's best coaches, speaking at success super-conferences of 1,000 people & above, sponsoring kids personal development programs and spearheading revolutionary personal development delivery systems.
The world is indeed a better place.