1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,080 Tell me about your vision. 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,860 So it's actually over 30 years ago, 3 00:00:07,860 --> 00:00:10,960 I worked for the largest company in South Africa 4 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:14,800 called Anglo American, which was a massive mining house. 5 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:18,120 And I was an engineer, I was a young engineer 6 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:19,740 and very impressionable. 7 00:00:19,740 --> 00:00:21,560 And I got to fly on the corporate jet, 8 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:26,020 which you don't really get to do at 22 for most people. 9 00:00:26,020 --> 00:00:28,760 And I was on the corporate jet, my very first trip 10 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:31,960 and I was in a T-shirt, I was an engineer, 11 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:36,960 I was flying to a mine site, T-shirt, jeans, 12 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,040 smart shoes, but boots in my bag. 13 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:42,640 All my fellow travelers arrived, 14 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:44,600 being dropped off by their chauffeurs 15 00:00:45,780 --> 00:00:49,000 and they were all in suits, three-piece suits, 16 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:50,840 smart shoes and I thought, well, I was a bit out of it, 17 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,620 but got on the plane, I sat right at the back. 18 00:00:54,620 --> 00:00:56,960 And I was sitting there contemplating this flight 19 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,120 because all these people were so much more senior 20 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,360 in the organization than I was, 21 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:04,840 but yet they greeted me like an equal 22 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:05,800 when we got on the plane, 23 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:07,960 wanted to know what I was doing there. 24 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:10,080 In the head office where I worked, 25 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:11,880 I was a certain level engineer, 26 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,320 which meant I parked at the third parking lot 27 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:15,800 away from the office. 28 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:17,120 If I was one level higher, 29 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,360 I would have parked in the second parking lot. 30 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,400 That's how hierarchical the business was. 31 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:23,800 So that's the backstory. 32 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,320 We get on the plane, plane takes off, 33 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:27,920 the pilot turns around and says, 34 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:29,920 okay, you can move around now. 35 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:33,160 And on the floor was an ice box on the plane. 36 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,260 There was no service on the plane. 37 00:01:36,260 --> 00:01:39,120 So I figured I'm the youngest, most junior. 38 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,260 I got up, I opened the ice box 39 00:01:41,260 --> 00:01:43,940 and I wanted to serve drinks to my fellow travelers. 40 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,520 I got a tap on the shoulder 41 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:48,920 and the joke I actually tell on stage 42 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:51,680 is that I'm glad it was from one of the directors 43 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:53,880 of the company, it wasn't from the hand of God 44 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:55,400 because I was at 40,000 feet. 45 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:56,960 Okay, so I didn't want to... 46 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,120 So the director turned around to me 47 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:02,840 and he said, please don't do that. 48 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:04,640 And I said, hey, I'm young and whatever, 49 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:05,460 I'm happy to do it. 50 00:02:05,460 --> 00:02:07,440 He said, no, in our planes, 51 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,800 the most senior person serves the drinks. 52 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,680 Now you think about that from this hierarchical situation 53 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:17,800 where you were like literally, 54 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:19,880 you ate in this canteen, not that canteen 55 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,040 because of your status in the organization. 56 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,260 That's where my interest in culture started, 57 00:02:26,260 --> 00:02:28,420 30 plus years ago, 58 00:02:28,420 --> 00:02:32,260 because I said if a company that was that structured 59 00:02:32,260 --> 00:02:33,820 could turn everything on its head 60 00:02:33,820 --> 00:02:36,760 in the confines of its plane, there was hope. 61 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:39,780 And yes, over the years I built businesses. 62 00:02:39,780 --> 00:02:43,180 Then I left Anglo-American, went to business school, 63 00:02:43,180 --> 00:02:45,340 started my own businesses 64 00:02:45,340 --> 00:02:47,940 and I listed my first business in 1996 65 00:02:47,940 --> 00:02:52,220 on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in education business. 66 00:02:52,220 --> 00:02:55,180 Went off to Inventure Capital for a number of years, 67 00:02:55,180 --> 00:02:58,860 came to Australia, started another business in 2001. 68 00:02:58,860 --> 00:03:01,880 But all through that, I've tried to create this culture, 69 00:03:02,780 --> 00:03:04,580 this culture of togetherness, 70 00:03:04,580 --> 00:03:07,100 of understanding the vision of where we're going. 71 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:10,620 It all came together 11 years ago 72 00:03:10,620 --> 00:03:11,940 when I was training for a marathon 73 00:03:11,940 --> 00:03:13,700 and I had two cardiac stents. 74 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:15,820 I almost didn't have a heart attack, 75 00:03:15,820 --> 00:03:17,180 I just had two stents. 76 00:03:17,180 --> 00:03:18,420 I had blockages. 77 00:03:19,300 --> 00:03:21,940 But that really focused me on what I wanna do 78 00:03:21,940 --> 00:03:26,440 and I wanted to share that vision with the world. 79 00:03:27,500 --> 00:03:30,940 I wanted to share that vision of how do you create 80 00:03:30,940 --> 00:03:33,820 these forward looking, amazing cultures 81 00:03:33,820 --> 00:03:37,740 where everybody buys into the values and purpose. 82 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:40,540 And so that's what I'm driven by. 83 00:03:40,540 --> 00:03:42,500 I'm driven by sharing the experiences 84 00:03:42,500 --> 00:03:45,100 of listing companies on two stock exchanges. 85 00:03:45,100 --> 00:03:46,380 Because when I was in Inventure Capital, 86 00:03:46,380 --> 00:03:47,540 we listed a venture fund 87 00:03:47,540 --> 00:03:49,640 on the Australian Stock Exchange as well. 88 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:53,140 And growing stuff from zero to, 89 00:03:53,140 --> 00:03:55,180 one of my current businesses now has done 90 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:58,740 more than $3 billion of residential mortgages. 91 00:03:58,740 --> 00:04:03,740 So it's that combination of entrepreneurship, 92 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:07,760 but also this deep, I guess, understanding of culture 93 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,060 from years ago that I really wanted to change 94 00:04:10,060 --> 00:04:11,140 the world's culture. 95 00:04:11,140 --> 00:04:16,140 And that's how the Culture Project came about.