After losing nearly everything, Gavin Davids found a new beginning in helping others. Through TGD Life Coaching, he blends lived experience, faith, and deep personal insight to guide clients towards growth, clarity, and meaningful change.
In 2014, Gavin’s life fell apart. His business partnership collapsed, his finances crumbled, and he stood on the brink of losing his home. What looked like the end would eventually become the beginning of a new calling, one that had been shaping itself quietly over decades. But Gavin couldn’t see any of that then. All he felt was devastation.
One night, overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty. He scheduled a life coaching session for the next morning. In an attempt to prepare, he began googling what a life coach actually was.
He wasn’t looking for insight; he was looking for validation. He wanted something that could confirm he was the victim in the story he was living. But a single sentence stopped him. “A life coach helps you become the person you’re meant to be.” Not the person he had been. Not the person he was in that broken moment. The person he was meant to be.
“Without thinking, I shouted so loudly that my wife came running. But for the first time in months, nothing was wrong. Something was finally, beautifully right. It was in that moment that I realised my true calling: to become a life coach,” he explains.
The calling wasn’t new, he said. It was simply revealed. Every part of his career journey, from government director to construction managing director, had been preparing him for this. He had spent years assessing foundations, navigating systems, leading teams, and learning through conflict.
When the partnership fell apart, Gavin didn’t just lose a business. He gained the authority to help others walk through their own fractures. “My wounds became my credentials,” he says.
But beginning a new life in the ashes of the old one wasn’t easy. At a time when many would have left the Free State in search of opportunity, Gavin stayed. Not because it was comfortable, but because he sensed he wasn’t meant to run from the place where he had broken.
“The Free State landscape has been my teacher. I’ve watched veld fires clear away dead grass, making room for new growth. I’ve seen boreholes drilled deep in seasons of drought. The metaphors I use – fire and well – aren’t borrowed; they were lived here,” Gavin explains.
Family anchored him. Calling held him. And the very land he had called home for more that two decades became part of the rebuilding process. He believes God whispered a simple instruction: “Don’t run from where I broke you. This is where I’ll remake you.”
TGD Life Coaching was birthed in Bloemfontein, its soil “fertilised by ash”, as he puts it.
The turning point came six months after the business collapse. Gavin was journaling and complaining when a sentence he wrote struck him with unexpected force: “How long are you going to let them control your story?”
In that moment, he realised he had been merely surviving what happened to him – but now he needed to become the fire that transformed him.
“My coach couldn’t do that work for me. He could ask the right questions, but he couldn’t burn my victim story. I had to choose that. That’s when I understood: the client achieves the change, not the coach,” Gavin reflects.
TGD Life Coaching was built around this philosophy. Gavin does not present himself as a fixer, but as a guide. A companion who walks alongside clients while reminding them that transformation is both their choice and their responsibility.
When he launched his business, trust was not won through marketing strategies or polished branding. It began with his story.
“I was radically honest. I didn’t pretend I had arrived. I was just a few steps ahead, enough to know the way, but close enough to remember the struggle.” Conversations became sessions. His network opened doors. His vulnerability opened hearts. And, over time, both local and international clients began to seek his guidance.
Success, once defined by revenue, roles, and visible achievements in his construction years, has been reimagined. “Success now is transformation,” he says. It’s the client who rebuilds their finances and identity. The leader who steps off the stage to reconnect with God. The perfectionist who finally launches imperfectly. The person who stops waiting for rain and chooses to drill.
This shift in perspective lies at the heart of his two signature metaphors – burning dead grass and drilling for water. Fire, he explains, reveals what is already dead and clears space for new life. Wells remind us that resources were always within us, simply waiting to be accessed. These images, born from the Free State landscape, continue to guide his coaching today.
From losing everything to becoming a guide for others, Gavin’s journey is a testament to returning to basics. The collapse he once feared became the foundation of a purpose he now lives daily. “What I thought was my ending became my beginning,” he reflects.
And from that beginning, a new truth emerged, one he now teaches to others: You’re not starting from zero. You’re standing on something that’s been prepared your whole life.
Text and photographs: CLEMENT MATROOS
