Inspiring Woman of the Month

Before I die, I want to write a book on all the wonders and interesting things in my life.  From the very first day I entered a Karate school at age 11, I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

It was hard in a man’s world, I always felt that I had to train so much harder and be so much better just to be recognised as an equal but after opening up my first Karate school at age 14, I decided that did not have to be equal, I just had to be the best that I could be.  I represented South Africa successfully in many countries and at age 24 I heard that there was to be the first professional Karate team in the world so I packed up my daughter and off I went to the USA.  I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the 7 females and my dream came true.  I trained 8 hours a day for 5 days a week and competed for money on the weekends.  I could think of no other job that could have been better.

I won numerous national and world championships.  Ranked overall number 4 in the USA and just turned 30, I decided to look for a new challenge, something completely different.  With no clue about anything other than Martial Arts, I wondered from shop to business asking lots of questions and pretty much the same as when I was 11, immediately upon fiddling with my fist PC (back in the good old days of the 8088 processor) I knew I had found a new passion.  I went to the store manager and begged for a job.  I offered to carry boxes and stack shelves.  He thought I was nuts but was curious to see how this woman with the funny accent was going build a career in IT.

I bought tons of books and spent every spare moment in the service department and within 6 months, I was his head technician and running his service department.  I had tons of ideas on turning a service department that at the time was a cost to the company, into a profitable business centre.  

Four years later, I opened my own computer business and within 3 years, Computer Magic became the 2nd largest IT company in the State of Rhode Island.  I met the man of my dreams and my life was complete.  But life had other plans for me; my mom called from South Africa to say that my sister had ovarian cancer and that she had a month at best.  I booked my ticket and returned after almost 15 years abroad.  We were blessed and my sister went into remission.  I spent as much time with her as I could, knowing that in my absence, the company would not make it.  Computer Magic went under but I learned that family is much more important than anything else – life is about balance.

I made trips back and forth between South Africa and the States for a few years and did several odd jobs, one of them being repossession.  Because of my Martial Arts background, I became the first female repossession agent for Rainbow Rentals, one of the largest rental companies in the USA.  It was a total break from IT and I enjoyed not having the responsibility of paying employee wages and babysitting staff and customers.  Rainbow Rentals collection method was very structured and professional and very focussed on non-violence.  

One day I went to pick up a big screen TV from a rather large lady who really did not want to give it back.  I tried to convince her that it was the right thing to do and she basically picked me up and threw me down a flight of stairs.  This simple act of aggression and violence made me realize that everything I had ever learned about self-defence had been OUT OF CONTEXT:  I did not realize that she was a potential attacker.  There was no referee. There were no rules.  

I wondered what I could have done differently to prevent the attack and I began to wonder how untrained people kept themselves safe in conflict situations.  Advanced Conflict Training was born.  I began to change the way I thought about safety and upon after returning to South Africa permanently in 1998, I embarked on developing a safety methodology that would work for everyone including business executives, housewives and children.  I read and studied and tested each idea and then distilled it into the simplest possible solution.

Advanced Conflict Training focus on providing solutions for all types of violent situations, including (but not limited to) home invasion, mugging, hijacking and violence in the work place.  We educate people on how to implement their own personal safety program, rather than turning this responsibility over to someone at the end of a panic button.  We have learned that crime is not limited to our shores but rather, it is becoming a world-wide plague.  Last year we opened an Advanced Conflict Training branch in Thailand and we are currently in the process of opening another in Canada.

We have presented talks or workshops for many large corporations, including Rand Merchant Bank, Microsoft, Cape Chat and many more.

Some customers we have developed specialist training for are Metro Police, Maritime Reaction Squad, Rhode Island State Troopers, etc.

The world is full of inspirational people. Sometimes we don’t need to look any further than our own family and friends and other times we are inspired by those we know only by name.  At the top of my list is my Mom.  She is always there when I need to talk through difficult situations and she gives me excellent advice and plenty of encouragement.

Kelee, we salute you!