Got a toy company called Moose Toys,
based in Melbourne. We've got offices in
various places around the world,
particularly where we're
selling, America for example, and we
design and create innovative toys that
we ship all over the world. Probably
about the sixth biggest toy in the
world now. I had a gift company that I
started in '74. Sold it in '91, '92,
thereabouts, never to work again. Retired. Moose
was meant to be a passive investment
with two other guys that were supposed
to run it. It was doing about 6 million
turnover, had about 10 people. Things went
wrong with the previous- the so called
partners and the previous owner. I ended
up buying them all out. It shifted to
Melbourne to fix things up and next
thing you know I'm back in the business
world. Nothing more complicated than that.
I've always been driven and that would
probably come from childhood: not having
much, not being overly successful within
the small community that I was brought
up in, academically. Friends became
doctors, lawyers, I didn't. So I was driven
to succeed at something. Money wasn't the
primary motivation, it was just to be
successful, and I've always had a very
competitive spirit and that goes with
anything that I do,
that's chess, soccer, tennis. Mainly I
was concentrated on sport. I played a
very high grade of squash for 20 odd
years, which is probably the most
competitive sport of all because it's
like boxing: you're in a ring and there's
nowhere to hide if you
not up to scratch. if I'm in business I'm
determined that business is gonna be the best
business there is, nothing more
complicated than that. Business practices
I've always maintained a higher degree
of ethics
and I've always maintained a win-win
situation
of when I'm dealing with people. Does
that correlate with a spiritual- it actually
does correlate with a spirituality, that
was not my primary motivation. I only got
into spirituality when I was about 40,
came to me late in life. Prior to that I
believed that you ate, you had a good time,
and I certainly had a good time, you
procreated, you lived your life and then
you're dead, you're buried in the ground,
that's the end of it. That changed
dramatically for me from the age of 40
onwards. I do believe a lot of Buddhist
teachings, but on a spiritual level
I'd say I'm sort of a child of the
universe if you want for a bit of a word.
My primary motivation was to try and
rescue the company, doesn't matter what
the company was doing just happened to
be toys, but when you put it in that
context for sure the DNA thing is about
making children happy, and we donate well
over 10 percent of our income towards
children's well-being. We build
playgrounds for kids, we build- we do
stuff in hospitals, children's hospitals.
I do it because I believe it's right and
personally I give 10% of my own income,
I have for a long long time, since I
started this meditation thing, but I do
it anonymously because the- and I can
explain to you spiritually the impact
on you yourself if people know about the
money that you're giving. So they try to
put my name up in places that I've
built and stuff and I won't do it, but
for the company I've done because I
think it's beneficial for that team and
the overall company perspective, and we
get our staff to participate, physically
participate and all of this stuff. But
how do I feel about it?
And I know it's going to sound really
strange and it's probably the first
person you're ever going to hear say this,
but I'm actually totally detached from
it, as strange as that sounds. I don't
have any emotion about the- people do stuff to make
themselves feel good. I do it because I
think it's right, not to make myself feel
good. The culture that we've created and
the culture that I believe in
wholeheartedly, I apply everywhere,
so we've got 60 odd people in
our LA office, we've got people in
Minneapolis, we've got people in
Bentonville, and they are of the same
disposition, because they've been
inculcated with our value system. Is that
because it's Australia? I don't think so,
but Australians do have a rather
laid-back style of operating and
treating people with respect and with
possibly a little bit less ego than some
of the other countries. But I'd be doing
this doesn't matter where I was.
