Danny Morrison tells the story of how it all happened?
Danny, what inspired you to take up cricket?
Well I was late starter, I didn't start playing cricket until I was 11 when we moved to Auckland, and then I saw the two greats, Dennis Lillee from Australia and New Zealand's very own Sir Richard Hadlee and those two were in confrontation with each other in Eden Park in 1977. I saw these two guys and thought, that's me!
Those two guys inspired me to pick up a bat and a ball and have a go at the summer code of cricket
In a brief summary, what drove you to succeed to the highest level with cricket?
Well if any of you have seen me in the flesh, yours truly is a 5 foot nothing "Garden Gnome' as they like to call me here in Australia. And I had this burning desire and drive to not so much prove people wrong, but a lot of people doubted whether I could do that because I had spouted off a bit, pretty much half way through high school that I was going to run in and bowl fast for New Zealand and do it along side Richard Hadlee. And a lot of those teachers and people at School certainly doubted me, and I just simply desired it more than anything else. I trained hard, I simply wanted it that much more than some of the other talented guys I had gone through School and club with. I was very single minded, knew what I wanted, and went for it!
What is your greatest asset?
Your greatest asset; when you listen to a lot of very high profile speakers, high profile corporate people, sports people, any walk of life and you listen to them, they talk about a lot of things but it always comes back to central core, and that is your health! It doesn't matter how much wealth you have got if you don't have your health, you are simply not going to enjoy all that wealth.
So that's always been a big issue for me, because of my physical 'non-attributes' if you like, I had to work really hard to achieve what the others had.
So for me it always comes back to health being your greatest asset, you can't enjoy life without it.
How do you maintain your health & well being?
It comes back to the nuts and bolts for me, and I know that for a lot of people they hate to get up to exercise, but I really don't care who you are, in terms of how wealthy you are and where you are in your life, if you can't get up in the morning to do it then you are going to struggle.
You need to kick start your day with doing some physical activity, because what I found over the years is that if you leave it to the end of the day, things come up, you can make excuses, your schedule changes, but if you get up and do it first thing in the morning you have no excuses. Just like you say Grant it's all about planning an Ideal Day!
What about balance in your life, what are you up to these days?
Having moved to the Sunshine Coast in Australia and like a lot of us you come over here for the sun. And there is no doubt about it, when the Sun is shining; it is so much more uplifting and inspiring. So many young new Zealanders have come over with young families to have a part of that.
And so in terms of balance for me, it very family orientated, with my wife and two children, it's certainly all about that. And while you love chasing work and being stimulated by that, the balance for me has to be around family and being outdoors. I am lucky enough to be able to still do things through cricket avenues whether it's coaching, or media commitments, certainly the balance for me is being able to be there for your children, being able to get away, exploring this whole lovely region and being involved with their sport, either my daughters Netball or my sons Soccer. It allows you to step back from busy work issues to have that balance in your life.
Now Danny I'm told that you are involved in an exciting new technology with a project called Photomax? What is this all about?
It's very exciting, its internet technology based because that's the way you access it, but in real terms it's about digital storage.
In fact it appeals to every one of us because it's about how we store digital images and ensure we protect them for future generations. This storage is not just for our precious family photos and videos but also expands into business records, various other media, and even content from you mobile phone.
All this digital technology is exploding and we know it will be changing rapidly in the next few years. My friends and family have got involved with Photomax.
Not many people realise how fragile our old photos and videos are, in fact they only have about a 10 year life span before they start to deteriorate . All these sentimental emotional memories that are traditionally stored either on photo paper or on tape, they need to be digitized, enhanced and looked after and kept for all time. Photomax has a laboratory in the USA, and one opening soon in New Zealand and Australia. Photomax also has a state of the art storage facility, where all the digital back up of the photos is kept; to guarantee their future preservation.
But also you can send off all your fabulous memories to be stored as well as have them reproduced into a variety of Albums, and DVD's etc
Photomax is the only company that allows you to have a compensation plan where you can create a business out of this, and that is what has spoken to me!
How can people find out more about Photomax?
In the first instance you can view the Photomax website at www.creativemax.myphotomax.com or contact me directly at creativemax@myphotomax.com
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