A decade ago Gerry Madigan was on top of the world – thrilled by the consulting work he did that helped people improve themselves through self-development and personal leadership.

An accomplished musician, marathoner and father of six, the Dubliner embodied the principles and practices he taught.

Then he discovered his son Julian was heavily involved in Dublin’s drug culture – hooked on acid, LSD, speed and ecstasy.

Madigan soon discovered some of Julian’s pals had died of overdoses or suicide.

Mike Dempster, Business Edge
Gerry Madigan knew that if the principles of his work didn’t apply to his son Julian, they were useless.

Before they died, their self-esteem had plummeted and their perception of life was a “horribly distorted” hue.

“We now know that if we hadn’t got him out (of the drug culture) within a year, he would have been dead,” recalls Madigan.

It was 1994 when Julian, 18, slowly began admitting to a spiraling addiction that had begun four years earlier. Madigan was devastated. A management consultant and lecturer with the Dublin Institute of Technology, he had been teaching people how to better their own lives since 1989.

As part of his work he had formulated a practical guide of five building blocks that would later be the title for his book, The Five Plateaus of Progress (published in 1996).

“I was teaching all this stuff, but I told my wife Marina if I couldn’t apply the principles to Julian, if it doesn’t work and we can’t save him, then what I’m teaching is useless . . . it’s all empty rhetoric.”

Madigan and his family now live in Calgary, where this summer he re-started his management company (www.

madiganmanagement.com). The five plateaus he teaches – awareness, vision, discipline, change and commitment – can be applied to anyone who wants to make a change in their life or their business, he says.

The principles can be applied to helping a person get in shape (and stay in shape), to revamping the culture in an organization – or, in his own testimonial, to saving the life of a drug-addicted son.

In a recent interview over coffee, Madigan explained the five plateaus and how he used them to deal with Julian’s addiction.

* AWARENESS: The first plateau involves grasping the reality of “where you’re at” by becoming aware of your mission in life and your contribution to society. In Julian’s case, he had to realize that he wasn’t just smoking a little hash, but his whole life had turned around. He was no longer a national-calibre runner and swimmer. His only friends were druggies. His school marks were poor. “When Julian realized where he was, he was crushed.”

* VISION: This plateau deals with seeing what your future could be and how to create that destiny. Madigan says he posed the question of where Julian wanted to be in five years. Julian felt he was useless and asked, “What can I do?” It took a long time to decide on a vision, that Julian somehow wanted to be involved in sports as an athlete, a physiotherapist or something similar.

* DISCIPLINE: In this most difficult plateau, people have to realize that in order to succeed they must create an infrastructure. Most want to go directly from vision to change.

But Madigan says it doesn’t work that way. Like a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, some people may have a vision of being 20 pounds lighter. But by mid-February, the enthusiasm has waned, and the original reason for setting the resolution doesn’t seem so pressing.

There are no quick fixes, Madigan says. It’s a lifetime’s work and creating an infrastructure for discipline is critical.

In Julian’s case, Madigan introduced his son back into a semblance of routine. He was forbidden to see his druggie friends. Madigan also took him to see a running coach. Julian was depressed when he trained and younger kids blew him off the track, but he had to stick to his program. Madigan daily drove his son to the track and counselling – essentially giving up his consulting business. “It took a long time before I could trust him,” he says. “It took a long time to set the discipline plateau firmly into place.”

* CHANGE: This means having the courage to shed excess baggage and break out of comfort zones. Madigan says that once some trust was established, Julian had to get a job. He also had to start running in some track competitions, where he would ultimately finish 10th instead of his once-accustomed first place. “That was hard for him,” Madigan says. “Julian would say, ‘What’s the use?’ If we hadn’t developed the discipline (plateau) he would have gone back to drugs.”

At the same time, Julian thought about the fundamentals he’d learned and began to understand he had options. Importantly, he started to believe in himself again.

* COMMITMENT: This plateau is about rising to challenges and maintaining the momentum required to embed these principles and practices in daily life.

In Julian’s case, Madigan convinced him to document what he had learned and to think about how he could give back to help others. Sometimes Julian only produced one paragraph as he tried to recall and articulate some of the terrible experiences he’d lived through.

After six months of documentation, Julian had written what Madigan saw as the bare bones of a book. He offered the manuscript to Ireland’s Top 10 publishing houses, and every one of them expressed interest in obtaining the rights.

After much work with an editor, Julian agreed to have it published – a book that would ultimately expose him and his family. After one week on book shelves, The Agony of Ecstasy was on Ireland’s best-seller list, and would move to No. 1. Interest was so high that Madigan and Julian spent the following three years holding seminars and workshops to help parents and students in Great Britain.

After moving to Canada, Madigan and Julian toured the country offering well-received drug seminars. Only this year has Madigan actually returned to his consulting roots. Julian, a triathlete, still does some speaking but has taken a job outside of Calgary to re-energize himself.

“I’ve really just returned to my passion,” Madigan says, after a near-decade long journey he hadn’t planned on taking.

“It’s not a quick fix, this program. But this (Five Plateaus) really works if you apply the principles.”

Just ask his son.

(Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca)