How I Made It

Wes Maas, 41, was doing “okay” playing in the NRL for the South Sydney Rabbitohs but knew he was never going to be in the top 20 per cent. So the “workaholic” from Dubbo went home and bought a bobcat for $14,000 and borrowed $25,000 to buy a tip truck. His company employs over 600 people, listed on the ASX last year, and Wes is now knocking on the door of the nation’s billionaires club. He adopts his business philosophy from sport: work hard, build a great team and play to win. He talks about why Dubbo is the most connected place in Australia and why every team needs a “mozzie”. How I Made It website here. For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Graham Turner, 72, grew up on an apple farm in Queensland and attended a one-teacher primary school where he had to make up numbers on the netball team. He’s a trained vet who went from driving double decker tour buses around Europe to starting Flight Centre with a couple of mates. It’s now one of the world’s biggest travel agencies with operations in 24 countries. Flight Centre put Turner on the Rich List for 20 years until the pandemic knocked the share price from $61 to $9. Turner says it’ll take the company 3 to 5 years to recover and while he has no plans to retire, he is looking forward to an overseas holiday.  How I Made It website here. Background reading: ‘Cash is everything’: Skroo’s 8 lessons for life; How Graham Turner built Flight Centre and survived COVID-19 For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Australian Financial Review started tracking Australia’s 200 richest people in 1983. Back then, they were worth a combined $4.7 billion. Fast forward to this year and the total value of Australia’s 200 richest people sits at $479.6 billion. In this bonus episode of How I Made It, host Julie-anne Sprague is joined by Rich List co-editor Michael Bailey and Chanticleer columnist James Thomson to dissect how they find candidates for the list, how the nature of wealth has changed over the last 38 years, and what investors can learn from the way fortunes are being made today. How I Made It website here. Background reading: Meet this year’s 26 new Young Rich Listers For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Walls, 57, is a Wollongong boy who went straight to work from Port Kembla High School, attended university at night and spent all his spare time programming computers.  He started his own business right before the early ‘90’s recession from a bedroom in his parent’s house. Objective Corp now employs over 400 people and Tony is one of Australia’s newest tech billionaires. Walls, a reluctant member of the Rich List, says leaders have to be careful not to believe their “own BS too much”; talks about why he races a McLaren 650s GT3 on weekends, and hasn’t sold a single share in his company in 20 years. How I Made It website here. Background reading: How the nation's newest billionaire built a software giant; Rich Lister Tony Walls has nine tips for success in business and life For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jane Lu, 35, started fashion retailer Showpo in 2010 after scoring her dream job at a big consulting firm and realising she would "never be a good accountant". Showpo now sells 6000 styles, employs over 100 people and Jane - who has been on the Financial Review's Young Rich list since 2017 - is worth around $50 million. Lu talks about starting school in Australia without speaking any English; how failing in business can be the "best education"; and why you can achieve a lot more in life if you believe you're just "not that special". How I Made It website here. Background reading: Quitting EY made this ex-accountant a $50m fortune; Jane Lu's 7 tips for success. For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack Cowin, 79, is the fast food billionaire who brought KFC and Hungry Jacks to Australia and then turned $400,000 into more than $2.6 billion by investing in a pizza business called Domino's. But he also had a failed career as a professional athlete, studied psychology and sold trees door-to-door while at university. He talks about how his first KFC store almost never happened because of a football rivalry, his battle with Burger King, and why, as Australia’s self-confessed biggest burger eater, he’s now investing millions of dollars in plant-based meat. How I Made It website here. Background reading: How Jack beat Burger King and his 13 rules for life. For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stories of building wealth from the ground up and business advice from members of the Australian Financial Review Rich List. How I Made It premieres October 10th 2021. Subscribe to the Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.