Name: Persistence with Purpose: Endurance Lessons for Modern Leaders
Start: 2026-05-21T17:30:00+09:30
End: 2026-05-21T19:30:00+09:30
Location: Torrens University Australia, Adelaide Campus

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Gareth Holebrook has completed 30 Ironman and ultra endurance events. That world teaches a specific lesson. Finish time is rarely about how fast a person goes. It is about how little a person slows down when the day turns. Most people do not fail from lack of effort. Most people fail from ungoverned effort.

After leaving the Royal Navy, Gareth spent 25 years in product development and agile delivery as a coach and practice lead including leading practice for a subsidiary of Visa. Since 2020 he has worked with David Marquet as a coach of Intent Based Leadership.

This talk connects endurance mindset to life and work without turning it into grit theatre. No Goggins posturing. No PDSA wrapped in Japanese words. It brings a nuance to persistence through governing intent.

The outcome is a discipline of self-governance Gareth created called the Ishi Spiral. Decide, Forge, Persist, Reflect. A constraint system for determined intent.

It helps people name what matters, build the capability to carry it, persist with boundaries and stop or adjust without shame when conditions change.

The audience will leave with a clear way to govern personal intent so persistence becomes a choice and not a compulsion.

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My work helps conscientious people who carry too much responsibility learn how to discern, persist and redirect effort so commitment stays effective instead of destructive. 

I began my career as an engineer in the Royal Navy. Discipline and precision shaped how I think and how I work. Those habits carried into endurance sport where I completed more than 30 Ironman races including the World Championships in Hawaiʻi. Endurance has been part of my life for over two decades. 

My work now centres on intent. How we decide. How we stay aligned over time. How we review decisions under pressure without losing momentum. These questions show up in leadership, sport and life and usually surface when things get hard.I write and think about where focus holds and where it drifts. Where effort continues after direction has faded. I am interested in judgement more than motivation and in decisions that hold under strain. 

My thinking draws on Japanese philosophy, particularly the idea of determined intent, alongside systems thinking, neuroscience and lessons from endurance sport. I work through ideas by practice and repetition rather than slogans. 

I am the author of Ishi: The Discipline of Determined Intent, now available on Leanpub. The book presents a four-phase governance system for people who already possess discipline but lack the architecture to protect it. I also publish regularly on Substack where I explore these ideas through daily practice. 

My approach is calm, direct and grounded in experience. I am interested in work that lasts and in helping people build the judgement to know when to continue and when to review.

Gareth Holebrook