My Cardboard Boat Racing Experience

What's in the box? _ I said what's in the box? _ I said WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOX!?!
*SCREAMS* *GUNSHOTS* I can make a great boat out of this. So this one time when I was in the third grade, for some reason our teacher thought it would be a good idea to get his entire class to participate in a... Cardboard boat race! :D. Cardboard boat racing is this event where teams of people build their own boats out of cardboard, and then race against other people's cardboard boats.

Now, you might be thinking that cardboard really isn't the best material to make a boat out of. And you're right. - But cardboard is cheap - But cardboard is cheap
- You can get big pieces of it - But cardboard is cheap
- You can get big pieces of it
- And they float in the water for a little bit Perfect for making boats out of! It's good short-lived entertainment. It's yachts of fun! Apparently, a lot of other schools got their students to do cardboard boat racing I thought it was just a strange thing my teacher made us do, but if other teachers did it, I guess he wasn't the only weirdo...

I don't know what cardboard boat racing is supposed to teach you Maybe teamwork skills and shipbuilding? I mean it would come in handy if I was stranded on an island with cardboard and duct tape and I could tell everyone: "Don't worry guys, I learned how to make boats out of these things in the third grade!" But no one else in my school did cardboard boat racing It was just my class! And I think part of the reason we did this was because the class I was in was an honors class. So... We were better than everyone else. Guys,I need to tell you about how friggin smart I am! So in the second grade everyone took this test to see if you would get put into the honors class, which, I'm going to be honest, I don't remember taking it I just remember my mom sitting me my twin sister down and telling us that we weren't going to be in the same class anymore because I made it into the honors classes and my sister didn't...

HA HA! Loser! The honors program was called DOGS which stood for...   Daaaaaaaaaang! Original gangsta students! Okay, that's not actually the name. I made that up. If you got accepted into DOGS you stayed in the DOGS program for the rest of Elementary school! So I basically had the same kids in my class for five school years And our class became known as the Dogs Kids.

I think since I was in the dogs program,
I wasn't bullied nearly as much as I should have been Because everyone in my class was a huge nerd! So I never really learned how to interact with people socially because I already knew everyone in my class So all the DOGS were cool with each other, But all the non-DOGS hated us. They thought that us DOGS thought that we were SOOOO much better than them... And we were. Now call me old-fashioned, but I think the third grade is a little too soon to tell if you're smart or not.

I would say that the DOGS program... Did NOT make me a smarter person. I don't speak for everyone This was just my experience But in high school my twin sister was a WAY better student! High school didn't have the DOGS program So me and my sister were in the same classes again. And she was a straight-A student while I was about a straight B and C student.

So all the math I've learned is telling me that something's not adding up. It probably had nothing to do with being in the honors program in Elementary School I probably just procrastinated a lot in high school Okay now let's get back to the actual topic of the video. Leading up to the event the teacher wanted us to stay after school to help make the boats. And I being the loyal DOG that I was stayed after school exactly zero times Sorry dudes, I take the bus home! And last time I missed the bus my mom got mad at me and I cried And she had to pick me up So actually if I was deserted on an island I wouldn't be much help I would have to get my mom to pick me up.

This event was at a medium-sized, man-made lake in Arizona because We don't, have real lakes.
They're all man-made. And it was right next to a college and a lot of college kids like to get drunk there We ended up making two boats: One was white, and one was blue with a dragon head at the front and the tail in the back They both could hold 10 people. There wasn't enough room for everyone in the class to get a spot on the boat, and the kids who actually helped build it got a reserved seat But since I was a scrawny white boy that didn't take up much space, I got to sit in the very front!! Because they were the coolest and smallest seats The person who I sat next to was this girl named Priscilla I still keep in contact with her and I asked if I could say her name in this video and she said yes. Later in life, she was the first girl to ever...

Later in life, she was the first girl to ever... Slap me I didn't ask permission to tell that story. While we were waiting for our turn to race, my dad got me a snow cone, and that snow cone was the very first time I remember getting a brain freeze. "It hurts to eat this." "Yeah, they do that."(James way of relating to people) When it was our turn, we rode the boat out and we actually stayed afloat.

I mean it was only a couple inches away from sinking... But it worked!! My mom told me beforehand that if the boat sunk, I should kick off my shoes because that would weigh me down And I would drown. Thanks for the vote of confidence Mom(!) And I remember being so afraid of the boat sinking. Not because I could drown, but because I didn't want to lose my shoes! :( So there were a bunch of eight-year-olds in a glorified Cardboard box on a lake with three other boxes filled with drunk college students.

The course we had to take was pretty simple it only Had two left turns should have been a piece of cake and we were doing pretty good... ... Until we had to make the first left turn. We messed up on that part...

We practiced turning on land all the time! But for SOME reason when we were in the water our turning maneuver wasn't working we kind of just... Drifted forward. We were pretty much all stranded we didn't know how to drive this thing and we were running out of time since the Cardboard doesn't last that long when it's wet... But there were these Lifeguards slash helper people going around in canoes and one person came up to our boat And he just kind of pushed it with his paddle *pushy pushy* and he turned the boat and we were back in the race!! Well actually by this point everyone else had already completed the course but We're still floating.

We were still going to finish this! When it came time for the second turn... The same thing happened. We didn't learn anything; they never taught us this in honors classes. By this point, the next four people racing just went, they got tired of waiting.

And while the canoe boat guy was trying to teach us how to turn, the other boats just passed us. Eventually we did get the turning thing down and we made it back to shore! The boat stayed up the entire time. Out of the four people we raced against we came in eighth... I kind of wish something bad did happen Like the boat flipped over or a shark ate one of the kids! That would have been a better YouTube video...

But that also would have been LYING! And then afterwards the president came down and high-fived all of us. And to prove I'm not lying Here's some pictures of me in front of the boat... ... We had to take the dragon head off because it didn't fit with all of us.

But we kept the tail and you'll also notice how cramped the seats are and the girl who later on slaps me? Here's a boat with a roof! Here's the picture of the snowcone that gave me my first brainfreeze. Here's us in the water next to a pretty big boat and look our other white boat is getting blocked off by the bigger boat! Notice how our boat is going in the wrong direction and how close we are to being submerged... And here's a picture of the grown-ups Carrying the boat out of the water after a long day, and I'm not in this picture I wanted to get to land as soon as possible! Here's a picture of me during Halloween I dressed up as a ninja I think it was the halloween after the bunny, and there's a plushie of an neopet in the background, Do you guys remember neopets? All my neopets are probably dead now.  Here's a picture of me with a giant pencil It's actually a model rocket, but it looks like a pencil! Isn't that adorable? Remember my science fair video where I launched Rockets? Yeah, this wasn't that time...

This is a completely different model rocket and here's me in a tub of animal plushies! And this bird plushie right here was actually my favorite I got them from someone else's birthday was in the goodie bag. It was a pirate themed birthday. It was like You know a little tiny parrot I really liked that bird his name was birdie, and now he's gone... And here's me dressed up as Galileo.

Yaaaaay a new video is done! Sorry. It's been like a month since my last video I've been busy with three conventions all back-to-back But it's good now those are all done! Videos should be coming back on a normal schedule and by normal schedule I mean twice a month... It's so weird seeing these old pictures because in my head I. Remember the exact moment when I sat down in the boat and being super Cramped and having to row with my kneecaps pressed against my chest.

And I remember that snow cone too and just not knowing Why it hurt to eat it.. And now I'm looking back at these old pictures and being like... *Strange sound that I can't comprehend* I was a different person back then! I can't end this video without mentioning the person who helped make this video come out on time. And that person this week is GingerPale again.

Thanks, man He helped color and also FootofaFerret helps get some of the sound effects for the intro of the video Thanks writer. So everyone give them a big old hug and wear your seatbelt!.

MadMatt 4WD Visits Superior Engineering's 4WD Retail Store

Have you had the chance to get into a Superior
Engineering Retail Store? I tell you what, it is well worth it. They have got steering arms, panhard rods,
they have got their Superflex arms. You want an Ironman fridge? They've got that for you. You want a bullbar? They've got that.

Whatever you need, get in here and check it
out. MSA seat covers. Make sure the mud doesn't get to your seat. They've also got all the other suspension
components, lighting components, navigation components, radios...

A man, the list just
goes on and on. You've got to get into a Superior Engineering
retail store and check it out. Go to their website Superior Engineering dot
com dot au, or drop into the store at Deception Bay. I'm Mad Matt.

Stay Safe On The Trail..

I WILL WIN - Motivational Video

I think that among the things that prevent us.. From acting is the fear of failure... And if you've already failed, you don't wanna fail again.. The pain of that..

The disappointment.. Many of us don't act because we want other people's approval   We want everybody to like us and to accept us... We are settling for less than what we actually deserve... We don't feel good about it, but we make it work in our minds We will come up with some kind of excuse to make it alright.

Most people like to feel like they are "King" in the area of their comfort zone. They only wanna do those things that they know how to do well.. So there are many reasons why we don't act. The  other thing though that affect us is that - Not wanting to take personal responsibility..

We want somebody else to do it and that's not possible.. And when you go through life like that... Something in you dies.. You need to start asking yourself  some questions - What do I really really truly want? Don't wait around for things to be just right..

Don't wait for things to be perfect Don't wait for the ideal  situation, it will never be ideal... Today this opportunity that you have - it might not be here next year, it might not be here  the year after next.. It might not be here the year after that.. This is the only moment you got..

And what you will find then when you decide to act when you decide to take life on and let me warn you.. It can be painful... It will be uncomfortable and that's where the growth is Never be satisfied with yourself, always know that as you invest the effort and time on you.. That's the greatest ability that human beings have above animals.

See a dog can be anything but a dog.. Tree can be anything but a tree.. Human being you've got unlimited potential.. You can put effort on you and by concentrating on you and developing you...

You can transform your life wherever you are right now... Many people will leave the universe without a trace... No one will know they were here.. What will you leave, what will be different because you came this way? Listen to that still small voice within you Don't try and make everything logical There are some things about life that defies logic.

See there is some good out there for you in the universe.. That has your name on it and nobody can get your good it has your name  on it...  They can't take your stuff, it's your stuff.. So when you know that..

When you know that whatever you are seeking... Its also seeking you.. You don't worry, you don't run scared You don't think somebody is going to take it from you.. You've got to say - Yes.

- Yes to my dreams.. - Yes to me! Yes! I can make it.. Yes, I can. You don't need anybody to approve your dream..

It was given to you, if they can't see it it's because it wasn't given to them... It was given to you! You gonna get thrown to the ground again and again and again.... But when you have determination.. And you know that what you are doing is right..

It gives you YOUR LIFE. It gives a special meaning and power to you.. I REFUSED to be denied.. And I am gonna go all out..

I am going to be relentless.. I don't care how many No's I encounter.. Doesn't matter how many failures I've made.. Doesn't matter how many mistakes I've endured..

Doesn't matter about my defeats.. Doesn't matter about what I've done.. YES! YES! YES, I CAN! Hey guys, this is Charlie from MotivationGrid.. Now, we create alot about motivation here and we hope that you love these inspiring videos...

But up until now we haven't gone into the concrete actions that actually help you realise your full potential the steps that you can start taking right now to radiate unshakable confidence, and inspire, impress and energise the people that you come across every single day even if it's just for a minute that is all about to change... So if
you want to learn more about those exact steps to be the kind of person that
walks to the world radiating unshakable confidence then click the link here and
you'll be taken to a page where you can submit your email... It will immediately be taken to a
video that will show you one thing that you can start doing right now that will
take you from anxious to super confident inside of a minute so if you want to see
that video and you can hear more about what's coming go ahead and click the link now.

How to create your own indoor racing program

Wouldnt it be great if you and your friends
had access to an indoor track for fun and racing? A low-cost track that anyone could enjoy. DBoots Tires has a racing program for you.
Like parking lot racing, it offers you an easy and affordable way to attract drivers
in your area. And the ideas pretty much the same, except that the focus is on indoor
racing. You just set up a temporary track for a day  or a whole weekend  and then
tear it down until its time for the next race.

Its a type of racing thats been
popular in Europe for years, and is now starting to take North America by storm.
The advantages are huge: you can hold a race anytime, rain or shine. Since its temporary,
you can set it up fastand tear it down the same way. You can set it up almost any
way you want, almost anywhere want. And, with the unique chemistry of dBoots tires, you
can hold races on virtually any kind of surface.

Theyre
comparable to conventional tires in price, but outlast them by a factor of two or even
three to one. Theyre available for almost any 1/10 scale driving application. Short-course
as well as two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive off-road. In a medium A and softer B
compound.

And in a wide variety of tread patterns. DBoots markets NanoByte, TerraByte, MultiByte
and BlockPass treads under the dBoots brand, and nine additional tires for ARRMA vehicles
under the ARRMA brand. There are forty in all.
Sounds great, doesnt it? Well, heres something else youll like: you can develop
a successful dBoots racing program of your own even if you dont: have the room; a
big budget to work with, or any previous experience with racing programs. Heres what well
cover: location, materials, track types, racing classes.
Location.

First option: partner with a local hobby shop. Thats a natural choice. However,
if the retailer doesnt have room, look for places that do: community centers, churches
with basements, school gymnasiums, vacant stores, machine shops and more. Once thats
settled, youll need three other things: track-building supplies, a scoring/lap-counting
system and a positive attitude.

Have racers bring their own tables and chairs for pitting
and youre well on your way to scheduling your first race.
The track we set up for this video is roughly 30 feet by 60 feet. You may go with a small
oval track, or a sprawling carpet track for off-road, packed with jumps, bumps and obstacles.
The choice is yours. Setup and teardown can take as little as fifteen minutes.
Materials. For your scoring/lap-counting system, for instance, what we recommend is the Robitronic
Lap Counter System.

The price for the complete system, including three transponders, is under
three hundred and fifty dollars. Extra transponders are about forty dollars each. And both can
be ordered through your local hobby shop. And when it comes to track-building materials,
the sky  and your imagination  are the only limits.

You can use just about anything
to make your track fun and challenging. Take track barriers, for instance. We made ours
from 10-foot sections of plastic rain gutter, which are available at most building supply
stores for about a dollar a foot. You can use them as is, or dress them up with spray
paint, decals or even simple vinyl designs like the ones we used.
And heres what we used for driving surfaces: metal racks from old displays, plastic sheeting,
rubber mats, leftover wood flooring and one by twos we formed into a rumble section.

We
even included some prebuilt features  jumps and table tops  that we store between races.
Track Types: Cost is also affected by track type. Here are a few basic examples.
Oval: This requires only an outer barrier, a middle barrier and some plastic or dots
for the corners. Duct tape or sand bags are easy ways to keep the barriers in place. Oval
tracks are great for concrete, tile, wood or carpet.
Road-Course: this also requires an outer barrier, as well as several barriers inside to form
the course.

Lanes on our thirty by sixty track are ten feet wide. We used bolts to hold the
track together. Like oval tracks, road course layouts are great on concrete, tile, wood
or carpet. Off-Road: This off-road track uses the same
basic layout as the road course, but adds jumps, obstacles and a variety of driving
surfaces.

The more creative your layout, the more fun
you and your friends will have. Remember that the name of the layout doesnt need to limit
the types of vehicles that race on it. DBoots-style racing is geared
more towards the weekend warrior than the hardcore racer. As a result, you have a lot
more flexibility in setting up racing classes and track rules.

Here are a few suggestions
for racing classes: Off-Road Rookie: this class is great for drawing
in the wanna-be racer and getting them pumped up about racing. Often called the Run what
you brung class, it allows drivers to compete with any kind of vehicle, and against drivers
just like themselves. Off-Road Buggy: a class for all brands of
1/10 scale buggies, including the ARRMA RAIDER. MEGA desert buggy.
Off-Road Truck: like the buggy class, this class would be open to all brands of 1/10
scale trucks.

A great choice here is the ARRMA. VORTEKS BLX.
Off-Road Short Course: short course racing could easily turn out to be your most popular
racing class. There are a huge number of good short course trucks out there right now, including
this one  the ARRMA FURY MEGA. On-Road and Oval: while off-road and short
course are hot tickets right now, dont forget that on-road and oval racing are popular
choices, too.

The popularity of these classes varies widely from place to place. The nice
thing is that you control the racing program, and can offer the racing classes you and your
friends want most. Finally, remember that vehicles in the same
racing class can still be wildly different in equipment and racing potential. One of
the best ways to level the playing field and ensure a more exciting race is to require
all drivers to use the same spec tire.

The unique chemistry and wide variety of dBoots
tires make them a great choice for any indoor surface.
In addition, theres no rule that says that you have to limit race day to only one class
of racing. If you start with road-course racing in the morning, you could add jumps and tables
to the existing course and offer off-road racing in the afternoon. Thats the beauty
of dBoots-style racing: since your track is temporary, you can change the layout every
time you set up, until you and your friends get just the track you want.
Well, there you have it: a racing program you can run year-round  one that can be
just as simple, flexible and affordable as you want it to be. It gives drivers a great
place to drive for fun or racing  and it gives people whod like to start driving
a great way to see what all the excitement is all about.
The fast track to easy, affordable fun is out there.

Good luck  and good racing  from
dBoots!.

Gerry Harvey on How Online Retail Will Never Reach More than 10% of Total Sales

Open mic here, what is your stance on online retailing? Well, online retail is over-hyped and it's unfair in terms of all the overseas retailers selling into Australia and not paying their duties and GST and all the rest and it will all stop. The pity is that it will go for 3, 4, 5 years before it stops. But the stop period is slowly coming. It might probably be in the next few months even.

So the rest of the world doesn't do what we do. So if you go to the UK and you want to bring something in from overseas, you pay your 20% taxes, you pay your duties and I think even on smaller items, they have a surcharge as well sort of thing. We have a thousand dollars, and no one takes any notice of that. The thousand dollars becomes 2, 3, 4, 5 thousand because they send it in in parts, or the don't declare it or they get a bodgy invoice and all this sort of thing.

So it's an absolute rort. And there's no point to it except that some people get some cheaper stuff and put a whole lot of other people out of work. So sooner or later governments wake up to it and that's what's happening now. So, that part of it, the overseas thing will start to drop, when that all happens.

Then in Australia, online, that will start to grow. And so you will have this combination of online and bricks and mortar shops. So at the moment in Harvey Norman that online business is growing. We were doing 60 or 70 thousand dollars a day.

In December it got up to 300,000 dollars a day but now but now it will drop back to maybe 100/150 thousand dollars a day and that will just keep on growing. So what percentage of our business will it be in 1 years, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years? Everyone's having a guess at that and they don't know. At the moment, if you took instead of a Harvey Norman, maybe took a department store, it might be a bit better an example. A department store is 1 or less than 1 per cent of turnover.

Where can it get to? If it gets to 5 per cent it will be high. But a whole heap of people will tell you that it will get to 10 or 20 percent, I don't believe that. I think it's got a ceiling on it. But I am not sure what it is.

And if you take the department stores, there's only two really, David Jones and Myers, and if it gets to 5 per cent, that'll be 1 in 20 sales done online. I am battling to see how it will get much more than that but I don't discount the fact that it could get to 10 per cent, it could, but I don't ever see it getting any more. I just can see how it could get any more than that..

Ep. 2 - Gerry Harvey The Retail King of Australia

[Typewriter typing] Success is achieving something that you personally want to achieve. So it doesn't mean making money. It just means rising to the top of whatever it is that you aspire to rise to the top of. You know, a lot of people relate it to money.

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..

As Stores Close Nationwide, Summer Retail Jobs Harder For Teens To FindNBC Nightly News

  GENERATION BUT THOSE        
  JOBS ARE HARD TO FIND.      
  HERE'S JO LING KENT.             >> I HATE WORKING THE        
  THEATER.                    
  ALL THE ACTION'S ON              THE OTHER SIDE OF THE        
  MALL.

                     
  >> Reporter: THAT                SUMMER JOB AT THE            
  MALL, ONCE A TEENAGED        
  RITE OF PASSAGE NOW              MAY BECOME A THING OF        
  THE PAST.                    
  >> I'VE SENT OUT                 APPLICATION AFTER            
  APPLICATION.                
  >> Reporter: THIS                20-YEAR-OLD IS RACING        
  TO FIND A POSITION          
  BEFORE SUMMER'S IN               FULL SWING.                  
  SHE WORKED RETAIL LAST      
  SUMMER.

                        >> DEPARTMENT STORES,        
  I'VE DONE SNEAKER            
  JOBS, WOMAN'S                    CLOTHING.                    
  >> Reporter: THERE'S A      
  NEW REALITY FOR TEENS            NATIONWIDE WITH MORE        
  RETAIL STORES CLOSING        
  ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND           A BOOM IN ONLINE            
  SALES.                      
  MORE STORES AT MALLS             LIKE THIS ONE SIMPLY        
  AREN'T HIRING.              
  MANY RETAIL JOBS ARE             MOVING BEHIND THE            
  SCENES.

                   
  >> THOSE JOBS ARE JUST           SHIFTING TO THE BACK.        
  ITS JUST IN THE              
  WAREHOUSING.                     >> Reporter: A NEW          
  FORECAST SHOWS TEENS        
  BE BETTER OFF LOOKING            FOR WORK OUTSIDE OF          
  RETAIL.                      
  >> THERE'S A LOT OF              GROWING INDUSTRIES,          
  CONSTRUCTION, THE            
  MEDICAL INDUSTRY,                HOSPITALS.

                 
  >> Reporter: ANOTHER        
  MAJOR FACTOR --                  CHOICE.                      
  MORE TEENS NOW USE          
  SUMMER FOR EDUCATIONAL           PURPOSES TO BOOST            
  THEIR COLLEGE                
  APPLICATIONS.                    THE NUMBER OF TEENS AT      
  WORK HAS DROPPED 20          
  PERCENTAGE POINTS IN             THE LAST 30 YEARS.          
  BUT JOB PLACEMENT            
  EXPERTS SAY SUMMER               JOBS CAN BE AN              
  INVALUABLE EXPERIENCE        
  FOR TEENS NOT TO                 MENTION HELPFUL IN          
  AFFORDING THE RISING        
  COST OF COLLEGE.

               >> MY EXPENSES SHOULD        
  BE MY EXPENSES AND NOT      
  MY PARENTS AT THIS               AGE.                        
  WHEN I GO BACK TO            
  SCHOOL, I WANT TO HAVE           MONEY IN MY POCKET AS        
  WELL.                        
  >> Reporter: TO GET IT           SHE MIGHT                    .