Money is only a small part. Two mates are on a mission to figure out how
10 Aussie icons in completely different fields
broke away from the pack. We want to dig deeper,
see if anyone can do what theyve done and figure out their common thread. [Theme music] Gerry Harvey is the undisputed retail king
of Australia.
At 22 the door-to-door vacuum salesman
dropped out of university to co-found Norman Ross. With over $240 million in sales the business
was taken over by Alan Bond who made the two founders redundant. But shortly after, they started Harvey Norman
which went on to become the best performing stock on the ASX for 20 years since listing. The business now boasts 230 stores in eight countries and Harvey has accumulated more than $1.5
Billion in personal wealth.
Here we are on the Gold Coast at the Magic
Millions horse sales. One of the many jewels in the crown of Australias
retail king. So lets get in there! Following our first episode with Gai Waterhouse,
the horse trainer, we were back at it. This time at Australias major horse auction,
the Magic Millions, which Gerry owns.
While he may be known for Harvey Norman, he also happens to be the worlds largest racehorse breeder. We were beginning to think horse racing was
a thread. It was here, in a small back office, where
we managed to secure Gerrys time. I was really keen to talk about your salesmanship,
Gerry.
How did you first get into door-to-door sales? It was like desperation. There's nothing in me that wants me to- you
know, where I want to go knocking on doors selling
vacuum cleaners. I can't think of anything I hate more. But what did happen, the opportunity, when
I saw that, you know, I could open a business and then I saw what I could do then.
I thought that was when the doors started
to open. I think 'wow' so my head's running. There was potential there. I can see potential in lots of things but
a lot of other people can't see maybe.
But I can execute it too. A lot of people see potential but they can't
execute it. So when you were rebelling and going down
this different path, were your family supportive of you? No, family got no friggin money. How can they be supportive of me? I'm gone.
Okay? I was living in a garage. We've got a family of 5 living in a room twice
as big as this. I'd gone from being a fairly wealthy little
kid to a very poor little kid. Yeah so it was just me.
You're on your own. You said that your old man was a bit of a
scoundrel, in an interview. In just that he threw his money away a bit. Yep.
Did that ever motivate you? Yeah, sure, because my father was one of about
eight or nine kids and his father was a very very wealthy man. And when his father died, he left my father
less than all the other kids because he thought he'd just waste it. And he was right, he wasted it. And so, you know, that motivates you to...To
not be like that.
It's a strong motivation. As we picked up in our last episode with Gai,
parents who let you take risks is one of the threads we see throughout. While Gerrys parents werent able to
support him financially, he was able to take risks. He decided to drop-out of his commerce degree
at university and quit his part time job to sell vacuum
cleaners door-to-door.
He quickly expanded his reach by opening shops
selling white goods, furniture and electronics. We wanted to know where this ability to sell
came from. Is someone born a salesman or do they pick
up these tips along the way? Some people can never be a salesperson. They just can't.
Doesn't matter how many books you study, how
many people you watch, you can't do it. Some people can be a great salesperson and
they never knew they were. They just have something. Like if you're coming in to see me and we're
going to have an interview I've got to get the gut feeling that you've
got it.
Now, one, I want to look at you and decide
whether people will like you, whether you've got a happy outlook on life,
okay. Or you're one of those people that can get
sour, and you have moods, or whatever it is. I want someone whos got enthusiasm, energy
and a good outlook. That sort of person, you can do something with.
If you've got that ability, you're very lucky. You can give me a shop, and you can have a
another shop over there. Were both square okay. You can have all the top staff right? Ill have none.
Ill go out find mine and train them and
Im going to beat you, okay? And Ill back myself to do that every time. Because Ill get those people and I just
want enthusiastic people. Im a good enough leader to be able to beat
that bloke. Maybe I cant beat everyone but Ive got
that confidence that I can.
I dont want a shop in Australia, in any
town, where I am not the best shop in town. This is why, perhaps, they call him the
retail king. With Gerry, it isnt enough just to be very
good. Hes highly competitive and wants to be
the best.
We would see this when his first business
was taken over and he decided to start all over again, launching
Harvey Norman at the age of 42. We're going to open seven days a week. And we're going to give all their prices and pizzling. Mainly because we don't keep wasting our money taking over other people's businesses.
How do you think Alan Bond and John Walton will like this? Why don't you come and have a look? Maybe you shouldn't have sacked my after all. Or maybe you should buy this place too. Harvey and Norman, starting all over again,
7 days a week, Paramatta Road, Auburn. So would you find it's that passion or being a people person that's more important to be a successful business person? If you want to be a successful business person,
one, you'll have to have the passion.
Two, youll have to have the work ethic. And three, you probably have to have the ability
to get people to work for you and want to work for you and then work for
you as a team. But if you have a lot of business acumen,
you're very good, but you are not a good peoples person,
that's going to be very difficult for you. Very difficult.
[Harvey Norman theme music] Who would you say has been your biggest role
model? When I was a 20 year old, 19 year old, I used
to spend a lot of times with guys who were 30, 40, 50, 60. Successful people. And try to figure out then what the hell have
I got to do to be as successful as this bloke. Older people will spend the time with you.
As long as they sense that you are trying
to get ahead and you're interested. I was mixing with the best businessmen in
the country between 20 and 30. Thats a learning phase you can get between
20 and 30 you probably can't get between 30 and 40 and it's nearly impossible between 40 and 50. Why is that? Because you get to set in your ways.
Whatever happens to us all it's a very rare
person that doesn't walk a narrow corridor and become fairly set in their ways. And people come to me and say, I'm still
young. I'm 30 and, you know, I've got this great
ambition. And I say, Mate you're probably not going
to make it, sorry.
Why not? Well, because youve buggered around,
you haven't done anything much and you're 30. Youre probably not going to make it. You'll be competing with blokes that have
been doing it for 10 years and you're going to start now? The ones that are most successful are the
ones who have been doing it for a long time, early. We covered a lot of ground with Gerry that
morning in our 3 hour interview.
This point definitely struck a chord though
- the idea of having a go while youre young and not waiting for tomorrow. Its almost as if his rationale for starting
early was to get a head start on his competitors. As if hes been in his own race to the top. We wanted to know more.
In other interviews youve said that the
majority of your success is really because youve gone through the
right doors at the right time. How can you explain that fantastic foresight
and then explain it away with luck? I don't want to get too carried away with
my own ability because I want to be more realistic about it. And I really honestly believe luck plays a
bigger part than most people give it credit for. You need that bloody door to open at the right time.
That little opportunity and you can exploit it. Do you think someone like Warren Buffet is lucky? Sure. I think every wealthy blokes lucky unless
they were left money and then they're still lucky. But yeah, I don't think any of us should ever
get carried away with, you know, 'We did it and no one else could have'.
Like Bill Gates, if the computer industry
didn't exist, would Bill Gates be who he is today? Highly doubtful. We werent too sure if this was just Gerrys
competitive instincts coming out or whether he truly believed luck played a
big role in his life. Because he does claim his own gut feel, not
luck, is the key to surrounding himself with talented people. But, you can see why people want to work for him.
For a billionaire, hes never lost the common touch. I don't try to be someone Im not. And a lot of people do get out of that. They start to become self important which is one of the greatest disease that youll ever get, self importance.
It's a horrible thing to happen to you. But you've got to know there are lots of people
a lot smarter than you all day, every day. And so don't ever get too confident about
how much you know. You said before that you don't pretend to
be something that you're not, but you are in the spotlight a fair bit.
Have you been able to successfully manage the media? Yeah, I think I manage the media okay. Because I am talking to the media, if not
every day, every week. And I know exactly how the media thinks. So if you're talking to the media you want
to try and help them get the headline.
And you've got to get the media to like you
and you've got to get the media to respect you. The medias got to believe what you are
about a bit, people in the media. But if they take a dislike to you, you treat
them badly or something, they can go and write these horrible stories
about you all the time. They're out to get ya.
And so somehow or other you've got to get them onside. Its very difficult. [Harvey Norman theme music] How big a burden is that constant pressure to perform? That's the thing that drives me, I guess. Because I ask myself, Do you need the money mate? Why are you doing this? Because it's a bloody challenge, that's why.
Beginning of every day, you look at it and
think to yourself, you know, I want to be relevant, I want to be out there,
and I want to do things. I might be physically old but I don't want
to get mentally old. All those sort of things I am living the life
of a 40-50-year-old and that's important to me. I don't want to live the life of a 70-year-old
because most of them live a horrible bloody life.
They're happy but not my sort of happiness. I think you just get up every day, do the
best you can and go to bed at night and say, I gave it my best shot. What else can you do? I'm giving it my best shot, I'm going nowhere
but they are - get out. So I've got to recognise if that day comes
where they're doing it and Im not, that is the day I've got to go.
Gerrys a gifted salesman with a good outlook
on life whos made the most of his opportunities. But what interested us the most was how hed continually compared his decisions to his peers throughout life. It was almost as if his mantra was, yes, work hard but work harder than your peers on the things
youre good at and passionate about. This kind of competitive drive was a thread
we saw run through the others we sat down with too.
Gerry, you're someone that has great focus
and follows their gut so we got you a little token of our appreciation. It's a set of blinkers. So, I've had blinkers on all my life and youre
the first guys that recognise it. Thank you..
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