Business Owners' Wisdom. Brett Kelly

       BK: The gentleman I interviewed yesterday is a super successful guy and he has stories that are very similar to yours. He said, ‘Brett, I failed high school, went to a sort of country school in Melbourne, but there is a trend of people who have done well that don’t seem to be necessarily academic initially, but very much driven to do something’–

      BB: That’s right. You find out how to get money.

       BK: Get moving.

      BB: As young blokes gambling, I used to say to my mate, this better arrive, we’ve got to settle. And he wouldn’t mind knocking a few over to get there either, you know. He knew that the onus was on him. And because we had to deliver, we had to pay or find the money.

      Most of the time we didn’t need to, but there were times when we did, because if you’re betting, you would say to a bloke, we want £100 on this horse and so he asks you to put in your own £100 with it. To prove it’s trying and so you’ve got £200 on it.

       BK: OK.

      BB: So, then we had to find the first hundred or whatever it was.

       BK: yeah. To get to the next.

      BB: So, that’s how you got paid. It wasn’t always easy. Money wasn’t easy in those days but we used to get up to a lot of tricks. They used to dope horses in those days and do all sorts of things like that, but all of that is gone now. And they’ve got movie cameras. They’re still at it, but it’s not as necessary as it used to be.The prize money is good now. If I had a good horse today it’d be trying all the time, because the prize money’s good – and rightly so, too. But it’s all changed –circumstances have changed and needs change.

       BK: Let me ask you two final questions, if I can. Firstly, do you have a motto or quotable thought that best summarises your approach to life?

      BB: Free bowels, comfortable shoes, and empty balls (laughs).

       BK: Classic! And final question – and this is a rude one. When somebody comes with a $20 million property and says I want you to sell this, you see so many real estate agents hoping to wrap it, dropping commission rates and whatever to sell the property, how do they remunerate an agent at your level for that type of sale?

      BB: There is no dropping in commission. As I said to somebody the other day, a millionaire is asking you to drop your commission …

       BK: That is always fun.

      BB: You know, I said no way. I said I am a bit like the girl in the bar in Bangkok and they said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘She lies very still for $50.’ They can interpret that any way they like. I don’t care what they say.

       A motto or thought that best summarises your approach to life? – ‘Free bowels, comfortable shoes, and empty balls!’

      BK: So, what is the commission rate on a $20 million house sale in this market?

      BB: It should be 2% plus GST.

       BK: Plus advertising?

      BB: You’ve got to get the advertising. But I sell many of them without an ad because I know who buys them. But if a bloke comes along and I know he’s going bad – because I’ve been a knockabout, I’m the sort of bloke you can do a deal with – I’d say, ‘You pay me when you’re travelling alright’, or ‘When you get a bit of cash, pay me. Tell me how I’m eventually going to get it.’ It doesn’t have to be 2%, I’ll work on 1% if you’ve been a good fellow to me … But if they’re millionaires, I want them to pay me.

      BK: Thank you.