About the speaker

Our speaker today is Mr Mark Maloney.

Mark is the CEO and Chairperson of the Big A-Ha Company, an investment and media house focused on the well-being and lifestyle sectors.

Prior to establishing the Big A-Ha Company, in 2008 Mark entered into the Maloney family business as CEO and Managing Director of The MAC Services Group that was listed on the ASX in April 2007. Mark played a fundamental role in the group’s transformation from a private family company to one of Australia’s best-performing Top 200 ASX-listed companies. The company was sold to Oil States International in December 2010.

Mark completed his HSC in 1989 at St Johns College, Woodlawn in Lismore, NSW. After school, he went on to achieve Honours in a Bachelor of Business majoring in finance and economics at UTS where he is now a member of the Advisory Board.

Upon completing his degree, Mark ventured into the investment market where he gained 15 years’ worth of experience. He has held senior management positions with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in both London and Sydney. In these roles he was responsible for advising and working closely with many global financial institutions and companies.

It gives me great pleasure to invite Mr Mark Maloney to deliver the occasional address.

Speech

Good evening Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Faculty Dean, staff, distinguished guests, proud families and friends and most importantly, graduates. It is an honour to be with you on a night that marks such a great achievement in your lives.

I’d also like to start by adding my acknowledgement to the Gadigal and Guring-gai people of the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands the University now stands.

Around 20 years ago I was sitting in your exact seats and some might say they wish they knew then what they know now. I don’t subscribe to this anymore as I now believe the fun is in the journey and the learning’s a long the way.

Over the years I have developed a view that living, leadership and entrepreneurship are one. That is, the same qualities that are needed to be a successful leader or entrepreneur are just the exaggerated versions of what leads to a great life and it’s these qualities that I want to talk to you about tonight.

I believe that there are just six qualities and that living these will take you on life’s great journey.

Before I get into it though I should give you some background on myself.

I grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney in a fairly normal middle-income family. I was however lucky to have an entrepreneurial father to learn from and also to witness him nearly go bankrupt a number of times. From this I learnt to understand risk and how to deal with it on both an emotional and practical level.

I’ve done a lot of stupid things as well as smart things and continue to do both on a daily basis. I’ve loved, been loved, ended relationships and had relationships ended on me. I’ve been selected for jobs and not selected for jobs. I’ve failed many times, then succeeded and then failed again.

After graduating from UTS, I spent most of my working life in London with various global investment banks. In 2006 I returned home to Sydney to join my family in a mining services business that my father created 10 years prior. We decided to list this business on the ASX in early 2007 and I was bestowed with the honour of being CEO.

Whilst this company was listed we were able to grow it from a medium sized family firm to the 150th largest company on the ASX. Then in 2011 we sold the business to a US corporation for an amount of money that we would have never imagined in our wildest dreams.

This was it, I was set for life … or so I thought. Over the next three years we lost a chunk of this money in a bad deal, I suffered a near break- down, recovered well from that, separated from my wife of nine years and then went on to set up a great new business which I thrive upon today. None of this I predicted nor expected.

But enough about me … let’s look at my 6 qualities of Authenticity, Empowering Relationships, Fighting Spirit, Visionary Minded, Creativity and Good Times

Firstly as a base you need Authenticity or credibility. The bottom line here is you just need to be a good person and always do the right thing despite personal consequences. The level of trust others have in you determines your influence.

You also need to be accountable for your own life and never blame anyone else. You are responsible for every action you undertake or emotion you have. Nobody makes you feel the way you do but you. This may seem like a simple concept but for many it can be very difficult to master.

You need to be passionate, energetic, proactive and always strive to find a way to make things happen. Be very flexible with a ‘can do’ attitude.

Authenticity is further enhanced through knowledge so remember to always have an inquiring mind and act only with knowledge. Be open-minded, always expanding your thinking and challenging your beliefs. See absolutely everyone as your teacher and know that the learning never stops.

Remember whether you are the head of a family, sports team, business unit or major corporation leadership is a privilege, not a right, and you need to embrace the responsibility. You need to be visible, accessible and lead by example being the change you expect in others. Humility and modesty should be your hallmarks, do not allow yourself to be governed by ego. I’ve been sucked into the ego side of things a few times in my life and in the end it always lets you down with a massive thud!

Remember that it can take 20 years to build a reputation and literally 30 seconds to ruin it, I have witnessed this in what were very successful people a number of times. If you remember this you’ll do things very differently.

The second quality I want to talk about is fostering Empowering Relationships, empowering because whether its in your personal life or business you need to give people space and at the same time enable them to reach their goals. Everyone wants the freedom to be themselves and to make a contribution that matters. Everyone wants and needs validation. Respect that every person has their own way of doing things and just trust them to do their thing.

Whether it’s your personal or work life the people you interact with are the number one key to your happiness and success. Be conscientious in all your people decisions. Listen to what people say closely, how they talk about others, find the peace or anger in them. More importantly watch their actions and how they treat people. Every time I’ve had a relationship go sour, both personally and in work, was because I ignored these early warning signals.

You need to have a genuine interest in people and expect nothing in return for helping them. If you can learn to believe in karma you’ll lose the desire to be rewarded and find new ways to feel gratified.

Put time and effort into picking your life long partner as well. This is the single most important decision you will ever make in your life and you do need to have a number of experiences before you settle.

As you go through this process treat each other well. A basic guiding principle I have found to work well is for men to treat women as you would expect your sister or potential future daughter to be treated and for women to treat men as you would expect your brother or son to be treated. The same can be said of same-sex relationships – it’s all about respect.

And don’t hide behind Tinder people! Experience real relationships. In this modern world it’s all too simple to take the easy road but if you want to ask someone out don’t text them, call them. If the time comes to break up the same rule applies. Open and honest communication is one of the hardest but most satisfying things to achieve and allowing yourself a little vulnerability will help to uncover your true intentions for every relationship.

In both life and work I have learnt that a healthy relationship consists of honest communication, each partner being allowed to pursue their own creative passions and each partner being accountable for their own lives. I have also learnt that not every relationship is meant to last forever and that people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. If it is a reason or a season you need to work out what you’re meant to learn from the experience and then move on. If you think about it, it’s in our relationships that we are most exposed and therefore have the best opportunity to learn about ourselves.

Remember that you can’t do it all on your own. Allow people to help you and know that this is not a sign of weakness. Particularly in business you need to be successful in developing high performance people contributing to high performance teams.

Foster your relationships and know that they are very important. I can tell you that without my family and close friends I wouldn’t have made it through the difficult periods in my life the way I did. Look after your buddies and they will look after you, you’re going to need them.

My third quality is a Fighting Spirit. Have the courage to try, to fail, to fail again, to fail one more time and then to eventually succeed but with failure still a possibility. You are going to continually find this pattern in your life and my advice is to never rest upon the pillars of success or in the doldrums of disappointment, keep renewing and reviving yourself through continual transformation. If you fall pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn and start again.

Take yourself out of your comfort zone, every day do something that scares you as they say. Be true to yourself and follow your real passions.

Have the courage to be decisive and make the tough calls. Don’t over analyse things but learn to trust your gut or intuition. Being a very analytical person this has taken me a long time to realise and I still sometimes forget this but I’m telling you there’s been many a decision I made that was against logic but felt right and nine times out of ten it was right. Accept that mistakes will be made, that not all decisions will be right and always be at peace with your decisions.

You will suffer along the way big time; life will bite you on the bum hard! See this as a blessing in disguise, as a reminder that there is a lesson you need to take away here. Also just trust that in the end everything will be ok. A lot of things happen for reasons way beyond your control, so don’t over think things too much.

My fourth quality is to be Visionary Minded. In all aspects of your life try to imagine the world different from today and anticipate new directions. Everyday you should spend time thinking about this and trying to see opportunities where others may not.

As a leader in any field create a shared vision that inspires, motivates and engages others. Visualise that success and make it happen. Remember, you need to prepare for many possible outcomes because the truth is no one can predict the future. Not knowing your exact future is one of the greatest pleasures in life.

As the famous Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzsky once said “the key is to go where the puck is going, not to where it is”.

The 5th and most important quality I am going to talk about today is Creativity. I honestly believe that exploring and sharing your creativity is one of the greatest gifts you can bring to the world. Think about it … where would we be without artists, actors, musicians, the engineer that created the techniques that support the structure of the building we are in tonight and the list goes on.

Always try to be a pioneer and unique in your approach. A conservative mindset will only hamstring you. Don’t look to do things better, look to do them differently. Create something useful, something you really care about because that’s what will inspire you to persevere and see it through.

Wherever you are inspire a culture that leads and welcomes change, encourages experimentation and new ideas. As Jim Collins says try a lot of small things first, see what works and then take the big bets. You don’t need to bet the farm first up.

Lastly I think its good to be crazy, respect these people as quite often they are the ones that really push the human race forward. They are the ones with the passion and the guts to have a go. Through history the most successful artists, musicians, fashion designers and scientists were often said to be a little crazy. I truly believe all businesses can learn a lot from how these people think and approach their passions.

The last quality I want to talk to you about is the ability to have Good Times; to free yourself now and then from everyday pressure and stress. When all is said and done in both your business and personal life, remember to celebrate the wins and losses and to strive for some balance.

If it’s partying you like to do, then party hard when the time is appropriate. If it’s travel, then just disappear at a moments notice, go to that place you always wanted to see. For me its blowing off steam ‘occasionally’ and travelling as much as I can. The thinking time you get sitting 100,000 feet in the air or in some new location is like no other and opens the mind up immeasurably. It’s also why I like extreme sports … surfing, skiing, boarding they will all take you to some of the wildest most culturally interesting places in the world.

So there you go … having authenticity, fostering empowering relationships, having a fighting spirit, being visionary minded, embracing creativity and allowing yourself good times is what I’ve learnt it takes. I’m sure you have your own views and will refine these over time.

In closing, I’d like to leave you with these final words …

Don’t care about what others think and never be judgemental of others!

Never be driven by money, as it is not sustainable in the long term. Find your own passionate life purpose that in someway involves helping others, that will get you out of bed every day.

I get up each morning knowing that I’m following my passion but it’s also my two young daughters, sitting in the audience tonight, who continue to inspire me. They are without a doubt the most fulfilling part of my life and I hope each of you finds a relationship of any nature that motivates you like this.

I’m far from perfect and I fail at least one of these qualities everyday, but that’s ok as long as I keep trying. I started by saying that I have enjoyed the ride and I can tell you after having built and sold a very big successful business with my family … the joy was not in the end, it was in the doing. After selling the business I was really lost for a couple of years until I found my new calling in Big A-ha Company which I established as an investment, entertainment and education house in the well-being and lifestyle space. Now I’m bouncing out of bed everyday.

If I could sum it all up in a few words … just enjoy the journey!

Thank you, congratulations and most of all good luck!