Even though, together with his wife Trish, he produced a family of creatives, he didn’t see himself as one; he was a finance man, a number-crunching guy.
But a gentle nudge to put his life’s well-spoken-about journey into written words from a mate he ran into at a funeral was all it took to consider maybe that self-assessment had been wrong.
Self-reflection is something Mr Bryant has worked hard on throughout his life.
He credits the biographies, autobiographies and true stories he’s read for much of his self-awareness.
He hadn’t ever read a book, not even in high school, until he broke his wrist in the 80s.
His mum gave him a couple to read during his recovery, including Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.
“These stories were just so inspiring that I kept reading those real-life stories from then on,” Mr Bryant said.
“And then I thought, gee, I wonder, could I do that?
“And so I got inspiration from truth books and autobiographies to do some of the things I did in my life.”
He said after not being a keen reader for so long, he found himself engrossed in those real stories and started regularly buying books in the same vein, attributing them partly to what caused positive changes in his business life and entrepreneurship.
Mr Bryant said he’d scoffed at first when the 80-year-old friend he’d run into at that funeral in Numurkah told him he believed he had a book in him.
He’d told him his ego was big enough already and he didn’t want to encourage it.
However, given he trusted the man, it set the cogs in his mind in motion.
He began to think his story might be worth putting on paper.
“You hear a eulogy and you think, hang on, what do I want said at mine?,” Mr Bryant said.
At first, he thought his book, Life is a Daring Adventure, would just be for family, friends and anyone he had written about in its pages.
“I thought I’d give them a copy and thank them for their contribution to my life, because that’s what I found in life, is you don’t do much on your own,” Mr Bryant said.
“You do it with the support of other people and I’m very grateful for that support.”
However, once his memoir was complete, he was happy to share it with a wider audience in the name of inspiration.
“If it happened to be something that was of use to other people it would be lovely if someone got a spark to do something because of it,” Mr Bryant said.
He said writing about his life — or his “quest into the unknown” — and how he never learned from a textbook, was born into dairy farming, drifted into grain trading and flourished in finance, with his company eventually listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, was a cathartic process.
He penned tales each night of unique travel experiences, being dumped from the company he founded just a few years shy of retiring age, quitting his alcohol addiction and helping to set up a rehabilitation housing development.
“Keith, who suggested I write it, said to just write all my stories honestly, authentically, without trashing anyone else,” Mr Bryant said.
“And then they’re not there as a problem anymore; it’s that closure. Three o’clock in the morning there are no issues, they’re all out there.”
He said his book was raw and real. It wasn’t sent to a copy editor for polishing.
“You want it to sound like you, from the heart,” Mr Bryant said.
He said his book would be an interesting read for anyone who wanted to explore the breakthroughs that follow breakdowns.
It’s available at the post offices in Wunghnu and Numurkah, Cobram Newsagency, Collins Booksellers in Shepparton, and on Kindle.
All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to The Cottage, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Shepparton.
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