RIP Kerwin “Fucking” Rae

By dan - On

I don’t often share thoughts when people pass away. I never really know what to say, plus I’m scared of delivering the wrong words. But this time I think I’ll share a few things, because if I don’t, they won’t ever be seen.

I first came across Kerwin Rae about 20 years ago. I went to a motivational event with plans to be my own man, a business person, an entrepreneur. Out of all the speakers, Kerwin really stood out. He was that guy. He was the guy I wanted to be. I knew I never could be that, but I bloody loved seeing someone who was in their element the way he was. It was inspiring. I also loved how much he said the word ‘fuck’.

I don’t know if this is normal, but today after hearing the shocking news about his passing, I went straight to my DM’s with him and read them all.

Turns out after seeing him all those years ago, I did end up becoming some sort of version of an entrepreneur. Nothing like him, but through luck and hard work I managed to have my own business for 17 years. Over the years I had some contact with Kerwin. We were by no means great mates, and I really feel for family and close friends who truly were great mates with him. But that didn’t stop him regularly reaching out to help me.

When I looked through my messages today I saw them in a whole new light.

In 2016 I was a nobody, Kerwin never had anything to gain from me. Yet the very first message he ever sent me was offering his help.

He wanted to share the book I’d written at the time, and he was genuinely wanting for it to be a success. I barely knew him.

When I scrolled through my messages I found lots of examples of this. It’s super easy to be helpful to people when it’s in your interests, but when you have nothing to gain, that’s when you really know who a person truly is.

We stayed in contact over the years, when he came to the Gold Coast he was super keen to find a restaurant for his team where he could try my beer (Black Hops). We tried to line up a brewery tour but I stupidly (in hindsight) said we were closed that day and couldn’t accommodate the team. We were closed, but now that just seems to stupid, how hard would it have been for me to have come in and given them a tour?

He was funny as shit too. I messaged him once out of the blue after not being in contact for months telling him that I just discovered my girlfriend was a massive Kerwin Rae fan. He replied back ‘Ha! I thought you were into boys?!’.

And despite not knowing him super well, in 2020 I dared to ask him to write the foreword to my new book.

I thought there was probably no chance he’d say yes, but once again he surprised me with his generosity. He said yes without hesitation. His main question was whether or not he was allowed to swear haha.

I loved what he wrote, it was really cool, but at the time I didn’t really think it was a great fit for the book. So I didn’t publish it. Reading back through our messages, I realised how often I was being selfish and he was being selfless. He was always willing to help me and I was kind of never really there to reciprocate.

That’s not really something you think about when someone is still here. But I’m thinking about it now.

RIP Kerwin, you were great.

Here’s the foreword he wrote for me. This is something I need now more than ever, and I will probably re-read for many years to come.

When reading any book the first thing I always do is look at the person, who they are, what they have done and the actual results they achieve in the real world. There is no shortage of great business and marketing books written by armchair experts or academics who teach through the observation of others.

Although helpful I find there is always something missing or lacking that can’t truly be learned through observation alone and can only be learned through direct and real-world experience.

You can’t call yourself a fighter if you have never been punched in the face. You can’t prepare a fighter for the ring by telling him what it’s like to be punched in the face. He has to feel the smack of the glove, see the stars, feel his knees wobble, and experience the immediate release of adrenaline and stress hormones that if unprepared for will set the fighter up to be knocked out cold.

Business is the same. You cannot call yourself an entrepreneur until you have been punched in the face by failure time and again to be able to learn the finer aspects of how to counteract in the situation. You don’t learn from watching someone fail, you learn by failing and then getting up and using the experience to counter the same situation to come out on top.

If Dan was a fighter he would be like an Aussie bogan version of Connor McGregor. He wirey, he’s mean and he has the heart of a lion and has the scars to prove it and if you don’t read this book then I can almost guarantee you will get knocked the fuck out the first time you get in the ring or even the tenth time.

Dan is seasoned and not like a Mcnugget, like a business and marketing professional. He has done the work, he has done the rounds, he’s had the battles and he’s been knocked down 7 times and has stood up 8. He’s also had some incredible sparring partners that he has been able to learn from and he has culminated the decades of real-time in business both online and offline in the pages of this one powerfully detailed strategic and tactical manual.

The art of war was taken and he should have called this the art and science of marketing as the level of detail he has gone into here makes me almost cringe that he is selling it for $27 as it is worth millions in the right hands and as useful and a Cleo mag in the wrong hands

Read the book, apply the lessons, and learn how to adapt it to your own game and you will be better for it. Don’t fuck around read it now it’s only a hundred pages so commit, follow-through, and use it like your life depends on it.

Kerwin Rae

Wise ass man

dan
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