I was raised in rural South Australia. I lived with my parents, my two brothers and sister on a small 2000 acre farm. There seemed to be more bad years than good. I didn’t realise that getting hand me down clothes and visiting the opportunity shop wasn’t the norm until I went to school and saw kids with the latest clothes and toys.
Whilst as a family we never went hungry I was always taught that money was hard to come by and you should make every cent stretch.
When I was in my teenage years my father had a heart attack it didn’t kill him but the farm had to be sold.
I finished my schooling in the seaside town of Victor Harbor. Shortly after graduating High School I gained employment in the jewellery industry for a large Jewellery manufacturing company based in Adelaide.
I had always wanted to have my own business and as a young boy would always find things to sell to others to make extra pocket money and pay for important things at the time, like accessories for my bike and my first car.
After working through the ranks in the jewellery factory I began to become increasingly anxious.
Seeing my boss buy new cars seemed to be a yearly event whilst I was stuck still driving the same old car.
It all came to a head one week. You see I had caught my girlfriend cheating on me, I had just buried my grandfather, I had two visa cards maxed out, no savings, and I needed fuel for the car. I cursed God for my predicament “Why me?” I shouted.
There was only a small snag, I didn’t have any money in my pockets. As I feverishly searched under the seats of the car and in the ash tray, I scrounged up $5 in apple and cinnamon dust covered coins.
As I walked to pay for fuel a massive Ford XA Coupe 351 V8 in metallic blue pulled up. I thought, great can the world just rub my nose in it and add salt to my wound by showing me the car that I love.
At the counter I could feel the eyes of people staring at me as I embarrassingly paid for $5 in fuel with coins. As I walked from the service station I was done, I didn’t care anymore I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole. Everything I had was worthless all my work for nothing and no one to share it with.
As I went to my car the owner of the Ford pulled his wheel chair across his lap and opened it by the side of his car.
The silence was deafening. It hit me like a tonne of bricks. I was ok, I could change I realised that I was a total sum of the choices I had made. I said yes to the car loan, job, visa cards and that girl.
It was my rock bottom, but I used it as my foundation to rebuild my life. I started to study the rich and what they knew.
I went out and started my own business as a manufacturing jeweller one thing led to another and in 2010 my wife and I started SA Gold Traders and in our second year we turned over 3.2 million dollars in business. In the process we became the Largest Perth Mint Distributor in South Australia by volume.
From there we kept going and have broken business records in Australia and NZ.
My mission now is to help others become the best they can be. My passion is to help men become better fathers. This will produce great community leaders and family role models.
Remember as a man you have what it takes and the responsibility to teach others never ends.
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