How I Made It

Australia’s most prestigious business column is now a podcast. Chanticleer is a weekly news breakdown of all things business, finance and markets. Every Friday, Australian Financial Review columnists Tony Boyd and James Thomson go behind the doors of corporate Australia to give you their unvarnished analysis. The first episode drops 5pm, Friday September 16.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

His parents moved to Australia with just $90 to their name, raising their young family in a housing commission flat in Melbourne. It was there Ruslan Kogan honed his selling skills, making a buck selling golf balls and washing cars. He’s now worth about $300 million after creating online retailer Kogan.com. Background reading: This Rich Lister quit his job as a consultant to sell TVs for 1¢ While living in a Melbourne housing commission flat, a young Ruslan Kogan honed his selling skills, making a buck selling golf balls and washing cars. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aaron Hornlimann bred guinea pigs to earn a buck as a kid. By his early 20s he was developing a text messaging system for Jetstar and now, at 35, the Young Rich Lister worth an estimated $34 million, is growing Elenium, a company making things easier for people to get in and out of airports. Background reading: ‘Sure, of course I can’: From uni dropout to young rich list Aaron Hornlimann, 35, is behind a company whose technology makes it easier for people to get in and out of airports. How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Simon Beard and his wife Tah-nee started Culture Kings as a market stall at the Carrara Markets on the Gold Coast. Last year they cut a deal to sell their company for more than $600 million. Here’s how they did it. Background reading: From tight-arse teenager to the Rich List As a kid, Simon Beard saved every cent given to him, stashing it in a drawer. By the time he finished high school, he had a kitty of $4000 and made a bold move: he bet the lot on buying hands-free phone devices from someone he didn’t know in China. He turned up at Gold Coast’s Carrara Markets hoping to turn a profit. “My first day I was just a stuttering mess,” the founder of Culture Kings says. Want to be a Rich Lister? Get up at 4am, take an ice bath, meditate Simon Beard says being an entrepreneur is like trying to make it to the NBA. His days are literally planned to the minute. How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 25, Robbie Ferguson is the youngest person to make the list since it began in 1983. He and his brother James have a combined wealth of $1billion thanks to the success of their crypto business Immutable. Background reading: The Rich Lister tipping a crypto rebound Australia’s youngest Rich Lister used to frustrate his parents by devoting a lot of time to video games. Now he co-owns a company worth $3.5 billion. Rich list tips: don’t study law (unless you really want to) Budding founders should hire slowly, don’t study law, don’t get caught in the hype, and read. How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sarina Russo failed high school English classes and was fired from her job as a legal secretary. She’s proof that determination and perseverance can triumph after joining the Financial Review Rich Women List earlier this year with an estimated $267 million fortune. Listen to how she did it. Background reading: She failed high school English. Now she’s worth $267m ‘Watch me’: Sarina Russo’s 8 lessons to turn failure into $267m How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After dropping out of uni and with starting out with $400, Tammy Hembrow has built online fitness app Tammy Fit and clothing brand Saksi Collection into businesses that's given her an estimated $38 million fortune. Background reading: 13 lessons to turn $400 into $38m How this 28-year-old built a $38m fortune How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Tudehope quit working for CBA at 25 to start a company with big ambitions. Macquarie Telecom would take on Telstra. It’s been so successful he’s found his way onto the Financial Review Rich List. Tudehope shares his secrets for success, which includes something they’ve developed called the Noah’s Ark. Background reading: The key to the group’s 28-year-success in the fast-changing tech industry is an in-house process they invented to evaluate emerging trends. One of Tudehope’s favourite quotes is from former US president Calvin Coolidge. It's about persistence, and for about a decade, he kept that quote in his wallet. Here's what else he learnt along the way. How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Grant Petty was growing up in Shepparton in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley, his family didn't have much money so he took to 'rorting' the system to fund his early education in electronics. Petty went on to start Blackmagic Design, a company that designs cameras and editing systems for the entertainment industry that turned over ¾ of a billion dollars in 2021. How I Made It website here. Email us at [email protected] Background reading Grant Petty doesn't play by traditional business rules: He mocks human resources departments who love to use psychometric testing. His accountants pull their hair out because he insists on paying more tax than he should. And, people probably thought that he was “pyscho” in the early days of building Blackmagic Design, a video equipment and software company that’s become so successful it made him a billionaire this year. 14 lessons for success: Founders need to “stop caring about how you look or what people think of you and focus”. Also, “be a little crazy”. For more stories about success, subscribe to The Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian Financial Review's Julie-anne Sprague takes you inside the world of the country’s top entrepreneurs. They'll share insights on what makes them tick, their business advice and how they overcame the odds to grace one of the AFR's Rich Lists. If you want to know how business empires are made, listen to How I Made It. Season two premieres Monday July 18. Subscribe to the Australian Financial Review here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Heine, 72 and his son Matt, 42, together run Netwealth, one of Australia’s fastest growing wealth management businesses. They come from a long line of entrepreneurs, never finished university and the family is now worth around $2.8 billion.They talk about taking on Australia's big banks, working with family, risking it all for a good idea and Dolly Parton. Background reading: The 150-year making of Netwealth 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.

Jessica Sepel, 32, went from working at Priceline after school to creating one of their fastest growing brands JS Health Vitamins. She’s a nutritionist and wellness blogger who quit her day job and is now worth an estimated $426 million. She talks about her struggle with food, getting scammed by manufacturers, how to deal with the social media haters, and one lesson she lives by: “Life is suffering.”   Background reading: Wellness couple fight back from failure to join Young Rich List https://www.afr.com/young-rich/wellness-couple-fight-back-from-failure-to-join-young-rich-list-20210913-p58r87See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.