On the 10th May I turned 99. Recently a head nurse asked me the secret of my old age.

        My answer was a good wife.

        Looking back now I can see some of the highlights of my life – they have been like stepping stones for an amazing career.

        I have worked in some 16 countries and got into many places tourists couldn’t go.

        I didn’t do well at school but I enjoyed Scouts and playing in the Hawera High School rugby 1st XV. This helped me build up some confidence in myself.

        Choosing agriculture as a career was a very good choice. I started work as a farm cadet working on many farms on the West Coast of the North Island.

        Next I started working in the Department of Agriculture as a clerical cadet – the lowest rung, and after 39 years ended up a Director.

        I joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a Naval Airman (2nd class) near the end of the 2^nd WW. By the time I was 21 I had toured all New Zealand ports and travelled around the world.  I met some amazing people, from a US Senator to a film star in Hollywood. I saw the world through new eyes. I declined a Hollywood offer of a film test as it was not my thing.

        When I was demobbed I returned to the Department of Agriculture. I asked for a field job. I was told I needed to qualify with a Bachelor of Agricultural  Science degree for such a job. This took me many years as I lacked the money and the qualifications. I ultimate made it – but it wasn’t easy.

        While I was working part time at the Seed Testing station in Palmerton North I met and married Joyce Wharton, a scientist and a farmer’s daughter from Geraldine. This was the best thing I ever did. We had four wonderful children.

        My first field job was in Wanganui working mainly in the Waimarino area. I knew this area well as I had spent seven months at the Naval radio base just South of Waiouru.

My next appointment was to New Plymouth where I headed the Farm Advisory Service. I enjoyed this work. We built a house on a large section on the outskirts of the city.

I did a good job and was appointed to do a five month management training course, with four others Farm Advisory Officers(FAO.

At the end of this training I was conscripted to move to Wellington. I had built a house and had a job I was enjoying – I did not want to move but I had no choice. It was very costly to move.  The house in Wellington cost twice as much as the new house I built in New Plymouth. With hindsight it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I learned to train and service other FAOs – I learned a lot from them about training ways, delegation, and ways to stimulate agriculture.

The next big step was winning an Eisenhower Fellowship to the USA.

Imagine going to the States with your wife, being lent a new car, travelling from coast to coast for 8 months with all expenses paid – and being on full pay. (This story needs a full blog}

        Some 20 years later I received an invitation to join a United Nations team in Thailand. This Fellowship led to a senior United Nations appointment in Thailand.

        After 2 years working largely on missions in Bangladesh I was offered a World Bank Food and Agriculture (FAO) appointment in Bangladesh.

        I declined this position and we returned home to a cooler climate and to see our grandchildren.

        After returning home I was offered all sorts of missions such as; the Asian Development Bank; to Taiwan as a Technical Adviser to The Food and Fertilizer Organisation, and to Samoa.

        I did four missions to Samoa. The most important one was for five  months after cyclone Ofa. Massey University put me on their staff as a Senior Lecturer and seconded me to the Alafua, a College of the University of the South Pacific. I was teaching agricultural extension to the final year degree and diploma students when the Pro Vice Chancellor  said “Geoff you use to be a manager I would like you to teach these students management skills. They are all going to be managers next year when they go home.”

        It was not a subject I had ever taught and I couldn’t find any suitable reference books.

        The students asked for a text book. I couldn’t find one so I put my notes together and wrote one for them . I titled it “Survival Skills for New Managers”.

        Another New Zealand Publisher, Harry Mills, showed this book on a New Zealand stall at the German Book fair and Kogan Page in London asked for the rights then sold them off to eight international publishers. one of which was the Singapore Institute of Management University. They wrote to me as asked me to turn it into a three day workshop. I did this and  I flew to Singapore 32 times to run these workshops – about every six months.

        Some of the attendees were very high-powered managers. I learned so much from them by using a workshop style training.

This lead me to run many more workshops in Indonesia, and in Sri Lanka.

        I gave up my international training at aged 82 as the stress of flying out of New Zealand to keep a deadline was becoming too much.

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)

“Never a dull moment”