We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time - TS Eliot The SOAR Institute: Our Story The SOAR Institute was officially established in 2008 but is a lifetime in the making. It has taken on many different guises and forms that have led to its present incarnation. Founded by two individuals, Gavin Friedman and Riaad Isaacs who hail from widely diverse backgrounds it began to take shape as an idea six years ago when both individuals completed a series of ontological transformation workshops that had a profound impact on both their lives. In 2008 Gavin and Riaad were part of a team that brought Robin Sharma, the best selling Author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and Leadership and Transformation Guru to South Africa. While the 4-week workshop tour was highly impactful to everyone from Soweto, Sandton and Cape Town who attended his seminars, it was ultimately a commercial failure. Most overseas financial institutions will only invest in or grant loans to companies with a track record of both success and more importantly failure. They understand as many of the highest achievers do, that most times failure is a prerequisite for success. Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work,” when describing what it took to ultimately succeed. Both founders can indeed expound on many ways not to build a company. This then provided the learning and ultimately the impetus for Gavin and Riaad to found the SOAR Institute. In 2007 Gavin and Riaad partnered with Innermetrix International to bring to the South African market its bouquet of sophisticated diagnostic assessment tools. Many fortune 500 companies as well as other global players in all areas of Organisational and human development are currently using these tools. The Innermetrix products form a large part of The SOAR Institutes offering. Pre 2007 Gavin and Riaad both practiced as Ontological coaches working with individuals and organisations to enhance performance. Different By Experience Many organisations purport to be different from everyone else and go on to produce substandard results like everyone else. This ultimately demonstrates that the true test of being different is the experience and outcomes produced by it. The SOAR Institute does not profess to be different, we just are, and the experience of us will demonstrate this.  |
The SOAR Institute is founded on the principle of awakening new possibilities in individuals and organisations through shifting the way we fundamentally observe, our attitudes and our beliefs and by creating new contexts for success and sustainability. Its founders, Gavin Friedman and Riaad Isaacs espouse the passion, dedication and commitment to learning and teaching, and exploring why and how human beings do what they do and whether they can be and do more effectively.
By using a process of IMMERSION
into The SOAR Institutes four core principles of Success, Opportunity,
Action and Result fundamental change, growth and fulfillment can be attained.
Riaad is a stubborn and passionate idealist who can be self-absorbed and inwardly focused at times but also be free-spirited, trusting and generous. He believes in man's fundamental goodness and intrinsic divinity, and his realisation of both. He is at once a student and teacher of man's deeper nature and the meaning of life. Riaad’s ultimate quest is to find and develop the inner resources and creativity in himself and others so that together a greater destiny is fulfilled.
Gavin believes that when given an opportunity, everybody has the ability to find that unique and authentic aspect within him or herself. In connecting to your true potential, you will then not only rise to your biggest game but also start to live your dreams and determine your destiny. Gavin is constantly exploring and expanding on the dimensions of self-growth, personal and organisational learning and leadership. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. - Albert Einstein
|
