He Was Found in a Box on a Battlefield

Adam Callinan (0:00)

Our guest today was found as a baby in a box on a battlefield in Iraq without functional arms or legs. He grew up in an orphanage absolutely surrounded by war, learned to walk with prosthetics for the first time at 11, and years later found himself homeless in Los Angeles after losing nearly everything. And he is the happiest person I have ever met in my life. We talk about hope, self-belief, asking for help, working hard without just grinding for the fun of it, the insane chain of persistence that eventually led to him opening stadium shows for Coldplay around the world.

This is a conversation about persistence, perspective, resilience, and what happens when you refuse to let your circumstances define your ceiling. Our guest today is my dear friend and an absolute gift to humanity. His name is Emmanuel Kelly. I am Adam Callinan. This is Growth Mavericks.

Welcome to the Growth Mavericks Podcast. We know that entrepreneurship isn't just about strategy. It's about stamina. It's about disrupting your default and getting comfortable being uncomfortable so you don't burn out before you break through. I'm your host, Adam Callinan. Let's get to work.

Let's be good storytellers and start at your beginning.

Emmanuel Kelly (1:22)

All right. Yeah, let's start there. That's a great idea. So for story sake, I was found in a box on a battlefield in Iraq by two soldiers who heard a baby cry and they went towards that baby and they saw me and they realized that that baby was me and they took me to an orphanage where I was then raised there for the next seven years of my life and then at the seventh year, the Chippendales had heard about me and thought, let's recruit and build him up as a seven-year-old.

And I took over Chippendales when I was 18 Legal, obviously, had to be. Of course. Yep, yep, but they did train me from seven till, you think Cristiano Ronaldo and all these, you know, Le Men, Yamel at Barcelona train when they're five. Well, I'll tell you what, being a Chippendale dancer, you gotta start at least seven or eight. No, I was though taken to it all for the-

Adam Callinan (2:25)

I haven't heard that story. So that was a good version of the story.

Emmanuel Kelly (2:27)

Yeah, is it?

Adam Callinan (2:29)

I think your other one's probably more impactful, but we can take that one.

Emmanuel Kelly (2:32)

Oh, that's it. No, look, I was raised in that orphanage for the next seven years, seeing and experiencing executions, gunshots, every day wondering whether it was going to be my last day on earth. But the one thing that kept me going was hope that somebody was going to help, come and rescue me and I would able to take advantage of that rescue, rescue in and turn my life into something extraordinary, whatever that extraordinary looked like, I had no idea, but certainly had hope. And every day that hope just flushed through my veins. I think the biggest part of the hope though that I had was, was not so much that somebody would come and rescue me, but that I would just live that day. I would live long enough to see that person come and rescue me or experience that. So, lo and behold, that hope kind of stood strong.

And when I was seven years old, an incredible woman, Moira Kelly, humanitarian, ran projects for Mother Teresa, ran projects for the Pope, for Queen of England. She's an extraordinary woman. She came to Iraq and met my now brother, Ahmed, who was my brother in the orphanage as well.

And it took her about two and a half years to take us to Australia. But when she first met us, well, first of all, she met us when we were around about five, six years old, and then it took her two and a half years to get us out to Australia. So I came out to Australia around seven and a half, eight years of age. But when we first met Aunty Moira, we called her. My brother goes up to her and he says, Aunty Moira, can you take Emmanuel and I? Can you save us both? And she said, I'll do my best, but I don't know. My brother turns around and he goes, well, if you can't help Emmanuel and I, just take Emmanuel and don't worry about me. Come back for me another time. He wasn't even my blood brother. He wasn't my blood brother. He wasn't related to me by blood. But I think in those moments, and when I heard that story, because I didn't even know my brother did that until mom, who I call her now, Marty Moira, told me years later and told both my brother and I that story and said that that's one of her most beautiful memories.