Excerpts of Richard’s City AM columns. As he has been too busy to continue, these are now all archived here as blog posts
Posted on December 6, 2012 | in Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur | by Richard
In 1814, my ancestors, Mary and William, met and fell in love on a cruise from England to Australia. It must have been romantic sailing the 3-month ocean journey, eating fresh fish while watching the crimson red sunset merge with the sapphire blue waters. Except for one thing, of course. They were convicts. Both were sent to Tasmania for 10 year-plus sentences, doing hard labour. Eventually freed, they made their way to the mainland and started the long chain of sheep shearers, farm workers and the odd criminal, that I was born into, with my 10 brothers and sisters, six generations later.
We Aussies love to bang on about the unfair sentences inflicted on our convict forebears. “They were sent out just for stealing a chicken! Pommy bastards!” But the truth is, anyone who did anything hideous, such as murder someone or insult the king, was hanged. So a trip to Oz might have been a relief. And once there, according to our version of history, the “English” settlers did the bad things, such as the early mistreatment of the aboriginals, while the good stuff, like discovering the continent’s interior and learning to grow wheat, was heroic deeds by early “Australians”.
The fellow who researched my ancestors told me that William’s crime was fraud, and he arrived in Tasmania with a shilling, apparently a lot of money in those days. He suggested further research into how William got such an amount, but I said, “Don’t bother mate. It’s obvious. He nicked it.”
Despite any genetic influences, I’ve managed to stay on the right side of the law, and now days, in business, I rather find myself as the occasional victim of crime and dishonesty. In fact I would say I rate dishonesty as the biggest single business risk.
In the late 90’s I bought a small diamond mine in Sierra Leone. No blood diamonds, a completely legit operation doing wonders for the workers and local community. I’ll tell the story next week, but the summary is, the business failed. After months mining we found almost no decent sized diamonds. There was theft going on, but how? We had tight security. I was flabbergasted to discover it was the English manager, who was also siphoning cash.
Around the same time, I backed a friend in Monaco into two start-ups. Graham, a rather nerdy maths PhD, sat in my living room, while our sons played together, and told me outright lies. With the kiddy connection I trusted him. Later, one of the businesses lost everything when five small oil wells all mysteriously failed. The other, a listed US software company, announced a large “Microsoft order” that wasn’t legitimate. Graham is now wanted by the FBI.
Fortunately, these are probably my worst cases of being deliberately misled. More often, the problem has been somewhat more innocent. It’s almost human nature when staff exaggerate or downplay developments, particularly about sales prospects. Maybe if Tasmania beckoned, they’d be more careful.
By Gerald Thomas
Patiently waiting for your new post Richard. Best wishes
By Are Terjesen
By GarryS
Grant Lockley
Hi Richard when are you heading down to Australia to do a speaking event or seminar?
December 12, 2012 at 1:21 am
Audrey de Witte
I sometimes find myself so disheartened by dishonesty, that I swear I will become a hermit and cut myself off from the rest of the world and just be me (whoever that is). But that really would be boring and void of the challenges of living.
I am in a conversation at present with an elderly lady (part of my job). I go in and see her every few days in the local Hospital where I do some contract work. Every time I see her she is so agitated and fearful. She can only tell me about the cruelty and injustice she sees in the world (I get where she is coming from). It takes some doing but I try and get her to also tell me about some of the ‘goodness’ and kindness that she may have seen throughout her life. We get there eventually. However, the next time I see her it is like I am starting at the beginning again. Just as well I don’t give up easily.
Human nature both frustrates and fascinates me. Dishonesty hurts! Yet there are times that I need to ask myself why people need to lie, what is the story behind it? When I try to unravel some of this it helps a little – though becoming a hermit still is tempting at times.
August 9, 2013 at 2:07 am