Focus on what you have, not what you don’t have

This was a message a visiting pastor pressed home to the assembled multitude as I was trying to climb out of poverty after losing our business, our house, our car, and 300 staff that included a lot of friends.

This was a Government induced poverty mind you, after 13 years of running our own business I thought I knew all the traps, but who could have foreseen interest rates of 18% or in my case, an overdraft of 22% by an obnoxious Labor prime minister insisting this was "the recession we had to have". Great leadership declaring defeat before the battle, what a goose!

12 months later I had assembled 4 of my old team and we had secured a small contract helping a Sydney based shipping company prepare a tender for a significant Western Australian project.

This meant travelling from Queensland to Sydney or Perth each Monday morning and returning Friday afternoon, and while I was concerned about only having one client, this small contract had me not giving orders, but following the orders of a deputy manager that mentally was working from home before that became fashionable.

On arrival in Sydney one Monday morning, the deputy manager gleefully announced he was now the manager and that the services of my company were no longer required.

Sitting on the plane on the way home trying to figure out the unpleasant task of laying off staff again, I remembered the Pastors message focus on what you have. But a rented house, a borrowed car, and about enough funds to last 3 weeks, I had nothing.

But hang on, I had 2 million Qantas frequent flyer points! I had some good international customers who were friends, so I rang Qantas.

Normally redeeming airline points is an exercise in futility, but I was extremely lucky in getting a hold of a pleasant young lady called Anita in the Hobart call centre. This lady was a "can do, half glass full, super optimistic person". So, with her great input I did a round-the-world trip staying at hotels every 3 days, sleeping on overnight flights the other 2 nights, Pacific nations, South America, Caribbean, Canada, UK, and Asia.

Day 17 in Japan, I received a phone call from the Western Australian project CEO.

"You're a hard man to track down," he chided me, in these pre-mobile days, and he asked me if I was still working for the Sydney Shipping Company.

I responded "Not to put too fine a point on it, actually I got the sack from them, why are you asking?"

"We would you like you and your team to head up the project for this phase, so if I organise a business class ticket to Perth, can you come straight away?"