The Power of Choice (A gift from Neale Daniher AO)
Introduction
Today’s post is the final post for 2025. Thank you to all my readers for engaging with my posts during the year. I genuinely value your input and engagement.
This post is a little different to most from this year as it is an appreciation post for a new book that I’ve read titled ‘The Power of Choice’, written by Neale Daniher AO. For those that follow the AFL or who are based in Victoria, you will likely be familiar with Neale’s incredible fight against Motor Neurone Disease (‘MND’), or what Neale calls ‘The Beast’.
I understand this book will not be for everyone, however if you have recently faced any personal challenges or setbacks, you may find that this book provides you with some tools and inspiration to navigate challenging times.
Background
Neale is a family man, and was a champion Australian footballer and coach, and was diagnosed with MND in 2013. Following initial shock, fear and trepidation, Neale has turned his diagnosis into a gift for future generations through the establishment of his foundation to fight The Beast, titled FightMND.
Neale and his family have invested countless life hours to grow the FightMND charity, and have raised over $130 million for MND research, serving as a testament to Neale’s resilience and philosophy of actually ‘taking action’ (over mere talk), and making an incredible and tangible difference to those who are fighting, or will fight The Beast in the future.
Neale’s latest book is a deeply personal and inspirational account of his philosophy for living, written using eye-gaze technology, as he continues to fight The Beast. The reason Neale has used eye-gaze technology to write the book is because he can’t walk, can’t eat or drink, can’t swallow, and can’t use his arms or hands.
Eye-gaze technology helps those people living with MND to use eye movements as a cursor to control computers and enabling hands-free communication, internet access, and empowering users who lose speech and movement by tracking a person’s pupils to select letters, words, or functions, thus preventing the feeling of being ‘locked in’ by the disease.
The Power of Choice is not a traditional personal memoir but Neale’s advice regarding resilience, purpose, and making the most of one's agency, even in the face of immense adversity. Despite the difficult subject matter, Neale’s tone remains positive, uplifting and practical, focusing on life lessons, intended primarily as a gift for his grandchildren, but applicable to anyone facing personal challenges.
About the book
Neale’s central message of the book is that while we cannot control all our circumstances, we can always choose our response, attitude and effort. Key themes include courage, gratitude, responsibility, hope and the importance of valuing action over words. I found the book to be a powerful and moving read, offering practical insights and a profound reminder to live life with purpose and to make every minute count.
Sporting application
As many of you know, rowing was my sport. For those of us who have rowed, we understand the nature of the sport. Thousands of hours training per year, no cheering crowds, for most of us no pay, and the pain felt during competition or erg testing is excruciating.
So, during a race or erg test, when the pain becomes unbearable, the rower has a choice. The choice is to back off a little to try to ease the pain, or, lock in, embrace the pain and go that little bit harder in the race to the line and try to inflict that bit more pain on your opposition. (If you know, you know).
As Neale was a former high performance athlete from the country (Ungarie NSW, population 396), many of his practical country messages resonate with me.
For the lessons that rowing and sport has taught me, life does get down to choice.
What are you going to choose?
As Neale writes:
“To many, I must look like a man with no choices left. But let me tell you something: I still have a choice. Every day, I choose how I show up. I choose my attitude. And that, right there, is the heart of this book”.
Modern day setbacks
A reader of this book does not need to be suffering from a terminal disease to appreciate the messages of hope and courage the Neale offers. There are many modern day setbacks that can apply to us that are challenging for certain periods of time. Examples might include:
a child is diagnosed with a life changing and debilitating disease;
family breakdown and estrangement to loved ones;
a surgery that impacts your life and ends your sports career:
the death of a close friend;
being fired from being a sports coach; or
an unexpected financial setback such as an unexpected tax bill or loss of a job/client;
Neale states:
"Life is part chance, part circumstance, part choice. You don't get to choose everything that happens to you, but you always get to choose who you become in response”.
Former Australian test cricketer and coach Justin Langer reflects on Neale’s messages in the book:
“I’ve always believed that true greatness isn’t just measured by what you achieve on the field, but by how you handle life’s moments when the scoreboard isn’t in your favour”.
So, when things are not going your way, Neale’s book is a great reminder of the choices we can make when adversity invariably finds us.
What are you going to choose?
Reflections on the Bondi terrorist attack
This week our country was rocked with the tragedy of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack of 14 December where 15 innocent Australians lost their lives. I convey my deepest sympathies and condolences to the Sydney Jewish community who were targeted in the attack and to the broader Bondi community who were seriously impacted by the attack.
Australia is a beacon of successful multiculturalism and there are pockets of ideology within our community and political leadership that seek to divide us to an ‘us and them’ mentality.
I’d recommend our politicians and community leaders read Neale’s book to reflect on some of the lessons that Neale presents us, with what the best of Australia can be.
Perhaps we as a nation can move to a position where there are opportunities to ‘agree to disagree’, rather than harbouring deep seated resentment to those who hold opposing views. Being an Australian is one of life’s greatest gifts and we all need to be vigilant to continue to maintain our successful multicultural, multifaith, peaceful way of life.
What are we going to choose?
Happy Christmas
Our team is taking a well-earned break during the Christmas and New Years period. Thank you to my team that has helped Yarmouth Group have another successful year and particularly to Sean McNeil for his assistance with bringing AndrewSMcNeil.com to life in 2025.
For those that celebrate Christmas, I wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas period. For those of other faiths, I wish you a happy and enjoyable summer break.
Thanks to all those people who have supported me and my businesses during 2025, and I look forward to connecting for an even more successful 2026.
Andrew McNeil, Fellow of Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments