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  In our modern world today, qualifications are often considered and treated like a "passport" for entry into certain professions and levels of income. A lack of the proper qualifications, rightly or wrongly sometimes means opportunities are reduced.  
  While there are some leaders who emerge without having professional qualifications, their appearance is less frequent and usually far more arduous than those groomed for power through prestigious universities and colleges.
  
  A man without qualification  
  While I was blessed to be educated by the Jesuits at Xavier College (HSC in 1982) Melbourne, and while I was accepted and attended sporadic classes at both La Trobe Univesity and the University of New England during the 1980’s I remain a man without professional academic qualification.
  
  As such, I am an outsider, a maverick when it comes to discussions on any subject that is the general purview of academically qualified persons. The internet may allow be to publish my views, yet without the proper academic qualifications, the credibility of what I say will always be in doubt versus those with even basic qualifications. That is the nature of the world we live in.
  
  The struggling student
  
  I could say that the reason I chose not to attend university and complete a degree (or two) was that I found the system boring or some other excuse. In truth, I was and remain a poor student of academic study.
  
  For my whole life I have found organized learning difficult. Mathematics study remains even to this day a challenging and extremely difficult pursuit. The same can be said for a whole range of scientific and artistic subjects. It is just that it takes me a long time to grasp and understand the concepts. Once I do, I feel confident enough to discuss it with any person, including relationships of key concepts. But on the practice of learning, I have failed more than I have passed.
  
  In the end, I have chosen to pursue a rigorous and constant course of self learning where I have tried to maintain broad interests and subjects and continue to learn at least half a dozen new ideas each and every day. After twenty plus years now, I feel I understand a great deal more. However, if you were to put me in front of an academic board and quiz me, I would certainly fail any IQ test or University acceptance test.
 
  The varied life careers  
  While I may not be qualified, if there is one thing I have certainly done it is to experience all aspects of life. During my 43 years of life so far, I can honestly say I have worked and lived at every level of society, from playing music on stage, to spending time in a Monastery, to the halls of Parliament House in Canberra Australia, to the Board Rooms of large public companies.
  
  I did not intend to set out experience such diverse life episodes. But in making life choices, life itself has put me through all these amazing array of experiences. Initially, once I left school I wanted to play music in a rock and roll band. My parents being the supportive people they were did not stop me from pursuing this short career. While I achieved a recording contract with a company called Image Music briefly in 1984, the contract was ultimately worthless and I made nothing from the pursuit. Instead, I felt a yearning and calling to consider being a priest.
  
  After spending a year contemplating the romantic notion of becoming a Cappuchin priest (an order of the Franciscan friars), I returned home. I could say that the reason I did not want to be a priest was that I didn’t believe in the Catholic philosophy. In truth at the time, the reason I did not pursue the process was because I felt I could not be 100% truthful to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. While I deeply wanted to pursue a spiritual path, I found such self-restaint too difficult and so made up excuses that it was “not for me”. To this day, I feel a deep respect for all religious who show such self-denial and restraint to pursue a course of holiness. For me, such a path has been far too difficult.
  
  My father (Glynn) recommended that I consider getting my life in order, organizing a proper suit and at least focus on getting some real work. Thanks to friends in the family, I was able to secure some clerical work and then entered a training/motivation course held by the Victorian Liberal Party. Without having any definite political ambitions at the time and still being clear in mind on ideas from my time at the monestary, I simply spoke the truth I felt during the course of debating, camera interviews, public speaking and grooming.
  
  It turned out I made an impression on the then Director of the Liberal Party of Victoria and soon found myself working as his assistant. A year later in 1988, I found myself working for the Federal Secretariat of the Liberal Party in Canberra.
  
  Politics is generally a nasty game, full of vicious personal abuse, cut throat elections and desperate policies to win. However, I found Canberra and more particularly the Liberal Party Secretariat a place of good character, honest people and genuine interest in making a difference.
 
  I was blessed to be taught the finer arts of campaign and electioneering by some of the best in Australia including Tony Eggleton, Andrew Robb and Grahame Morris. I also had the opportunity to meet and interact with a host of political leaders including Andrew Peacock and John Howard.
  
  Throughout my period in Canberra, I had the opportunity to see first hand how policies are formed, how elections are fought and won as well as lost. In 1992, before the Hewson defeat I left as Andrew Robb introduced campaign experts from the US into the secretariat. The truth of my departure was because I had become accustomed to the travel and lifestyle, had become a maverick, setting my own agenda rather than a loyal member of the team. In anger, I burnt my bridges by claiming in public that Hewsons’ policies would cause mass unemployment (which they would have) and in the process disappointed those still willing to support me.
  
  As luck would have it, in spite of my impulsive actions a year later I was working for one of Australia’s leading financial institutions- AMP helping their direct marketing and database restructuring. This was to be my first direct hand experience in the world of software design and construction.
  
  While I was never able to complete the goal of producing an intelligent enterprise system at AMP, what I learnt of the problems of major corporate IT systems helped me in the architecture and design blueprints for leading software systems through my own company by 1999.
  
  Since then, I have continued to develop and sell software while using the income to pursue philosophy and this web site.
  
     

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