honest, I had a strange upbringing. My parents were married seven times between them, which led to me having a very disruptive childhood and I experienced a lot of things that most children probably don’t experience in life. This resulted in me deciding to leave home at the tender age of fourteen because I felt I could do a better job looking after my own destiny than my parents could. (There is a small chance I could have been wrong).
It’s amazing how much you think you know at the age of fourteen and then realise how much you didn’t know when you get to the age of twenty-five. Mum and Dad, I do apologise. I left home at the age of fourteen and went and signed on for an apprenticeship on the railways and decided that I’d become an electrician. Now, during those four years I was working towards my trade papers but quite honestly, I would never call myself a master tradesman.
By the end of four years I had been trained in what was probably one of the best possible environments to become a master tradesman, which was the State Rail Authority at the time. They had one of the most comprehensive training centres in Chullora which supported you with additional skills on top of TAFE, (paid by you, the tax payer, of course). You’ve got the teachers, you’ve got a dedicated training centre there to learn your skills and you have a trainer who is responsible for only thirty apprentices. Despite having all of these resources, by the time I left my apprenticeship the major skill that I had developed was how to drink a bottle of scotch in one night. That was my claim to fame (pretty sad). It’s not something to be proud of, ladies and gentlemen, but let me tell you that this is a book on the inconvenient truth for both you and me and I cannot help you if I don’t share and am not open with you about my past.
Let me say that by the time I finished my apprenticeship, the skills that I had mastered were definitely not those of the great tradesman. Now, why didn’t I become a great tradesman, even though I had all of the resources and all of the opportunities in front of me? Well, quite simply, I just didn’t have any desire to be a great tradesman. The reason I chose to be an electrician was simply because I thought girls might find that a bit cooler than if I was a plumber.
Anyway, moving on. After my apprenticeship, I decided I needed a bit of adventure in my life and went to join the army. I thought, “Hey, this’ll be fun,” so I joined the regular army but after a while I wanted a bit more adventure and I decided to apply to join the commandos. Please understand that I’m not built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’m just an average guy, but at the time the big action movies were coming out at the cinemas and Arnold Schwarzenegger was my hero, so I set my sights on becoming a commando. Sure enough, I got into the commandos despite what all my friends and family said to me, that being, “You’ve got no hope, buddy.”
During my time in the 1st commando unit at Mosman, I learned how to do some pretty amazing things.
For those of you who don’t know how the armed forces work, (now I’m talking infantry here), essentially, the powers-that-be decide that they want to defeat an enemy. To do this they need to destroy sensitive targets such as bridges, ammo dumps, communication centres etc.
Before they can destroy these things they need to know exactly where they are and how to eliminate them, so they send in the SAS. These guys really are super human and they go behind enemy lines, usually on their own, or perhaps one other member goes with them, to seek out where the best targets are, determine the coordinates and send them back to HQ and that is where we come in.
We generally go behind enemy lines in a squad of about six people and blow up the targets that the SAS have pinpointed. And That’s what I learned to do, blow things up and get fitter and tougher than I ever thought possible. Really, become a lean, mean, killing machine full of testosterone.
It was quite an amazing time for me and I did enjoy it but did I become as good a soldier as I possibly could be? No. I did okay but there were a lot of people who were a lot better than I was. Why was that? Well, quite honestly, I never had the desire to become a lean, mean killing machine. I actually prefer to be a lover, not a fighter. So, it was time to leave and find another adventure.
I decided then, after the commandos, that maybe I would try to make some money. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve got my electrical license so why don’t I get my contractor’s license and get out there and do my best to make a dollar? Other people seem to make money as an electrical contractor, why can’t I?’
So, off I went out there into the wide world of business with no clue to what I was doing and with the money that I had behind me, all I could afford was a beat-up Ford Escort Mini van, running on two cylinders with smoke pouring out of the back of it, as my first contracting vehicle.
I set off trying to find work and I actually got lucky when I joined a company called Spinners and subcontracted to them for quite a while. Remember the first part of this chapter when I told you that I was no amazing electrician? Well, I fumbled my way around trying to make a dollar but I wasn’t very good at it. In fact, it was a real challenge for me just to stay alive and put food on the table.
Anyway, one day I was goofing off because I did not have any work to do and I was walking along the Darling Harbour Promenade when I saw these signs saying, “Money Expo.” I said to myself, “Oh God! Money! I’d love to be exposed to some money. That’d be nice.” This was the very first time I had ever seen an expo but when I excitedly tried to enter the exhibition, someone stopped me and had the gall to ask for $20.00 for the entry fee.
Well, I didn’t have twenty dollars to my name but for some reason I knew that I had to get inside the exhibition to learn about money.
So, being a good, resourceful tradesman, I knew the tradesmen’s entrances to most premises and I snuck in through the back of the exhibition centre trying to look like I belonged there. The fact that I was successful must have been due to my commando training. As I got in there, I saw a bald headed individual talking on a stage and I quietly tried to sit in the back and look inconspicuous. I have to admit that I looked like a bit of a mess because I couldn’t afford decent clothing. I am talking dirty shirt, ripped jeans and sandshoes with hardly any soles. Anyway, I was listening to this individual starting to talk about being successful in business and a phrase came out of his mouth that I will never forget.
He said, “I’ve got no problem with someone being broke but I’ve got a real problem with them staying broke.”
It was like a lightbulb went off in my head and I thought, “You know what? This guy’s got the answer.” I wrote down just about every word that came out of his mouth and after the presentation this individual made a beeline towards me and asked me for my name. I honestly thought that I’d been busted for coming in without paying and he was going to hit me up for the twenty dollars.
Actually, he just took my details and about a week later a book ended up at my front door. It was called, ‘How to Turn an Ordinary Business into an Extraordinary One.’ Now, that book and that mentor went on to change my life. I didn’t know it at the time but that was a massive turning point in the future of Ian Marsh. You see, that individual up on stage was Mal Emery and he was the first mentor that I ever had in business. When he started talking, the things that he was saying really resonated with me and I felt like I had found my calling.
Okay, I’d admitted I didn’t want to be an electrician, I wasn’t that great and I’d admitted I didn’t want to be a lean, mean, fighting machine, so I left that area. Now, listening to what I could do with marketing and sales and business, I knew that I’d found my calling. I’d found my mission and I knew that I wanted to be as good as I could be in mastering business. That was it. I was on a mission and I devoured the book that Mal sent me (probably out of pity). Remember, I didn’t have any money at the time but the book had a story in it about FAI security and how this FAI company built themselves up from nothing to be the fastest growing security company in Australia simply because they did the right thing. Their tradesmen put booties onto their shoes before they walked in the door. They put drop sheets on the carpets from the front to the back of the house. If there were globes blown and if they had time, they would just change the globes for the client at no extra charge.
Looking at this example I thought, “Wow! That was an experience. Well, I can do that. I might not have money but I do have time.” I