Fast food mogul has advice to chew over
I was impressed with an address by acclaimed businessman and fast-food king Jack Cowin at an entrepreneurs' conference in Townsville this week.
I thought I should share it with you because he is an inspiring man.
He started with a fast-food chicken business, having come to Australia from Canada in 1968 with a young family and a loan from a group of people he managed to convince he was worth backing.
He is now a multi-billionaire who owns Hungry Jack's, is the largest shareholder of Domino's Pizza and has interests, among other things, in the supply of meat around the world.
He provided the audience with a list of what he said were his "life lessons" or what was "most important" for success.
His first was to look after your health because if you lose it, nothing else matter.
His second was to maintain your integrity because if you lose that, whatever success you do have won't matter either.
Next was to "control your own destiny".
Even if you do work for someone ele, he said you had to have the ability to say no.
To succeed in business, you have to be prepared to take calculated risks but not bet the farm.
And any business ideas you do have, model or test them before you invest large sums.
On family, his advice was to find a tolerant husband or wife and to be kind to your children because one day they will be the ones checking you into the nursing home.
In business or life, he said you should be resilient.
You should also be humble, even if you don't believe it.
Finally, he said you should focus. Be a rifle rather than a shotgun.
So there you have it, the life lessons of a billionaire. They are not easy but then, in life, nothing ever is, I suppose.
