I started off in 1993 with one lorry. I wasn't one of those guys buying a business and gearing it up.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I actually quit the business. I went and drove a truck for a year and a half.
My very first job was selling pop off the back of a wagon. Then I went to work in a timber yard to save up for my bass amp and joined The Smiths.
I started my first business at 14!
My father was a lorry driver, very rarely at home. The house was run by my mother, and because there were 10 or so kids, there was no time for individual attention. It was about survival. It was about where the next meal was coming from.
I started my business with my best friend from high school.
My wife, Sharon, and I started with nothing when we got married. I was driving a 1902 Pinto and eating off a card table.
Anybody I grew up with in this area - they're still a mate. Lots of people in the Prahran area gave me my first go. Sold me my trucks on... I don't know, 100 deposit and 100 a month. Without the support of those guys, you'd still sort of be driving a truck.
It was the early 1970s and I was recently divorced. I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit - summer stock - but couldn't afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell.
I was in the Navy as an enlisted man, started my first business when I was 21.
As the years passed, and I was nine, 10, 11 years old, it became obvious I was going to start up a business of some sort.