Great New Book - Success Leaves Clues

Here is another great archive entry from the Maverick Spirit, that was brought up this time last year.

This week I have had a few challenges - the government is still being a bit of a bully with their action against us, and apart from being a bit lopsided, them being the government and just poor old us, they keep changing the rules. So, after taking a bit of a whack around the ears, I opened the mail to find a book that was sent to me by Jason of Bob's Books. After reading it I was ready for another round with government!

Written by a West Australian, Glen Smyth, the book has the engaging title, Success Leaves Clues. Glen has interviewed a number of successful Australian business people and craft a really tremendous guide to succeeding in life and business. Glen talks about visiting the council rubbish tip to junk $400,000 worth of computer software which he had developed but very few people felt the need to buy. This experience set him off on a challenge to find what set successful people apart from the rest of us.

In a favourite observation of mine, Glen talks of success stories by people who left school at an early age. Perth identity John Hughes didn't get passed 15 at school. And he had many challenges along the way. When he bought the property his multi-million dollar business still sits on some 30 years ago, but it nearly sent him broke before he even started. Delays in building and getting the business established meant that payments were required on the property before he had sold a single car. However, John pushed through these initial challenges and now sells more than 12,000 cars in a year, and employs hundreds of Western Australians in the process, making him one of Australia’s most successful car dealerships. Approaching 70 this year, John is still active in his business.

- Wayne Mansfield