About The Oracle Speaker
My entrepreneurial skills began at an early age. My father, who was 26 at the time, was seriously injured in a mining accident at Broken Hill. He never worked again. My mother was trying to raise five children on a meagre mine pension. There was little money for the things children enjoy. Therefore, in part through necessity, I devised a number of ways I could earn some money. I would get up early each Saturday and Sunday morning, take an old pram with me and collect soft drink bottles. My little sister would come with me and we would scour the main street of Broken Hill. Cashing the bottles in provided me with money to go to the movies etc. It wasn't long before I discovered there was more money in collecting old batteries and car radiators and other scrap metal.
At twelve, I sold and delivered newspapers on the streets of Sydney and Broken Hill. As we were poorly paid, I organised and led a newspaper strike. The opposition newspaper put me on their front page along with the other boys who were striking. The next payday we received an increase in our pay.
I was sixteen years old when I commenced a painting and decorating apprenticeship. My skills developed quickly, however I was doing all the work and my boss was being paid all the money. At seventeen, I decided to become self employed and continued my painting craft, employing people to work for me.
That same year I purchased my first block of land. Two years later I sold it for four times as much as I paid for it, this took my attention and awakened an interest in Real Estate investment.
At the age of twenty-two I realised a lot of money was being made selling life insurance - far more than I would ever earn by painting. In 1972 the average wage in Australia was $4,000 pa, $80 per week. In my first year selling life insurance I earned $16,000 four times more than most Australians were earning.
That was the upside. The downside was it was one of the worst jobs available. We were considered by many as social outcasts. As a life insurance salesman I did it the hard way. As we had moved to Melbourne I was in a new city with no contacts or friends to prospect among. I would ring people cold from the white pages, I would knock on the doors of flats in high-density areas such as South Yarra, Prahran and Toorak.
My approach would be, due to the number of burglaries in the area (this was true) do they have their contents insured? I knew there was no money in contents insurance but it was the excuse I needed to ask them about who looked after their life insurance. This was the beginning of many sales. I built a profitable business and enjoyed the fruits of success - a large home with acreage, Mercedes Benz, investment properties and won various awards and fully paid conference trips to U.S.A., Malaysia, Thailand, Canada etc.
My financial planning practice grew out of this business. Clients who had purchased insurance from me twenty-five years before were now having me do their financial planning. In the year two thousand I followed the feelings of my heart sold my business and took a sabbatical to Beirut Lebanon for twelve months. Upon my return I commenced my new business, The Oracle Speaker.
