The 5 am club

You should not be here!
” the officer emphasized, adding,
“Who are you people?”
The guard did remain professional at all times. But he was visibly
surprised. And obviously mildly shaken, perhaps imagining that the occupants
of the aircraft had planned some kind of ground assault. And thinking the
unexpected visitors had illicit intentions.
“All is good here,” the pilot said with a firmness and confidence not often
seen. He was now standing outside the helicopter and began to walk slowly
toward the man in the truck, first adjusting his shirt then arranging his helmet,
which he kept on. The pilot was not young. You could detect this from the
way he walked.
“This is a special day for them,” remarked the pilot, his voice getting
louder. “These people have come a long way to see the prison cell where
Nelson Mandela was jailed. They have come to view the limestone quarry
where he was forced to hack away at stones for over a decade, in the torturous
sun that reflected off the rock to the point where it damaged his eyesight
permanently. They want to view the courtyard where the statesman would
exercise and throw tennis balls with confidential messages inside to his fellow
political prisoners in the next cell-block. They need to go to the spot where
Nelson Mandela’s manuscript for 
Long Walk to Freedom
, his autobiography,
would be secretly buried in the dirt after he’d spent many hours working on it.
They need to experience—at least a little—the suffering Mr. Mandela endured
over his eighteen grueling years here. And they must learn about how, even
though he was so viciously treated—a theft of many of the best years of his

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life—once he was released, he chose to forgive all those who had been so
cruel to him.”
The pilot stopped in front of the pickup truck. “These people want to be
genuine heroes themselves, I hear. In their professional and in their private
lives. They wish to be leaders of their productivity, icons in full-on expression
of their mastery and perhaps even path blazers in the fulfillment of a better
humanity. Our world has never been so in need of pure heroes as it is today.
And, as I always teach when I present from the platform: 
Why wait for them
when you have it in you to become one of them?
“Wouldn’t you agree, Stone?” asked the pilot, turning to speak to the
billionaire, whose mouth instantly fell completely open.
The pilot then, ever so gingerly, almost in slow motion, took off his face
guard. Next, he shed his sunglasses. And, finally, he removed his helmet.
The billionaire, the entrepreneur and the artist were astonished by what
they saw.
It was The Spellbinder.
Sterile and calculating fluorescent lighting kept the prison on Robben Island
hauntingly eerie, even during the daytime. And feeling frugal, brutal and
unsparing.
A set of invisible hands seemed to be guiding the members of The 5 
AM
Club on that fantastic South African morning because, by some precious
symphony of synchronicity—the billionaire would call it “the magic”—the
security guard who had raced up in the dusty pickup truck was a huge
follower of The Spellbinder’s. An “I’m your #1 fan” kind of fan. He loved
The Spellbinder’s work that much.
And so—you won’t believe this but it really did happen—the head of
housekeeping, after receiving a green light from the guard, started the tour
bus that was out of commission that day because of the bad weather and
drove it to where the visitors stood. She also asked one of the few guides still
on the island to raise the flag and open the prison for a totally private tour.
Just for the billionaire, the entrepreneur, the artist and The Spellbinder.
In every life, especially the hardest ones, doorways of possibility and
gateways into the miraculous swing open, revealing the reality that everything
that each one of us experiences is part of some intelligent—and yes, often
illogical—plan meant to draw us nearer to our greatest powers, most
wonderful circumstances and highest good. Everything we go through as we
travel through a life is, in truth, a fantastic orchestration designed to introduce

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us to our truest talents, connect us with our most sovereign selves and deepen
our intimacy with the glorious hero that lives inside each of us. Yes,