Today my colleague Ben Fordham on 2GB breakfast asked me to look at our top 10 richest Australians. I offered to explain to Ben’s audience the common feature that explains a group of 10 whose net worth is around a quarter of a trillion dollars! Yep, these are very, very serious billionaires!

Coincidentally, last night, I was asked to a book launch of arguably Australia’s most famous event creators and organisers — Bruce and Chyka Keebaugh — who founded The Big Group. While the pair aren’t in the top 10 richest Aussies group revealed in The Australian today, I’ll bet their company has thrown some of the most outstanding events and parties for many of those on that “who’s got what” list.

Significantly, their very business name in part explains why our top 10 richest Aussies have what they have. Yep, like the Keebaugh’s, our richest are business founders and/or business builders. And they’ve dreamed BIG!

The book entitled By Invitation Only showcases some of the most spectacular events and parties that the BIG Group has created. I’m sure it made everyone who flicked through this magnificently produced book think: “Gee, I wish I’d been invited to that!”

That kind of wistful envy also gets conjured up in many of us when The Australian’s expert journalist on wealth accumulation, John Stensholt, reveals the state of the personal finances of our top moneymakers.

Source: The Australian

To get on this list you need $14.02 billion, which Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins, founders of tech business Canva have built up to come in at number 10.

While top of the list is Gina Rinehart, who didn’t start from precious little after her Dad left her the Hancock Prospecting mining business, Rinehart has shown her old man how to do business by creating her Roy Hill operation.

This Australian magnate is a strong, unique woman, who clearly ‘dreamed big’ building a business and wealth that her father would’ve been proud of.

This is what she shares with all those success driven Aussies on that top 10 list.  They’re all business creators and builders who took risks and borrowed to make their dreams come true. And because of their resolve and their willingness to learn from other successful people, they gave life to their dreams.

Looking at the list, Rinehart did it with mining, Triguboff with Meriton Apartments, Mike Cannon Brooks and Scott Farquhar with tech operation Atlassian, Anthony Pratt with Visy, Clive Palmer with his mining plays and Nicola and Andrew Forrest with the big gambles they took with Fortescue Metals Group.

In ninth position is Richard White, who created WiseTech Global, a leading developer and provider of logistics software solutions. This guy’s story is fascinating.

Wikipedia tells us that this Bexley boy from Sydney worked as a musician in a band called Jade, and was a refrigeration mechanic, who later started a small business repairing guitars called Rock Repairs. He taught himself electronics and programming when he started building lighting systems for bands. His customers? The guys in AC/DC and The Angels!

Of late, White has had issues that have impacted on his status as a director of WiseTech. While the company’s share price has been negatively affected, his story of rags-to-serious riches underlines his commitment to dreaming big and seeing his dream through by being primarily focussed on the main game.

Interestingly, as he became distracted by other affairs, WiseTech’s share price dropped, as the chart below shows.

WiseTech Global

A similar case of distraction has affected Elon Musk’s share price for Tesla. As he pursued his newfound loves of Donald Trump and heading up DOGE (the US Department of Government Efficiency), his company’s value has been smashed.

Tesla Inc

Forbes looks at his recent losses and revealed the following: “Musk’s net worth fell by $8.8 billion Thursday to $342.8 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time estimates. Musk’s fortune is now down $121.2 billion from its end-of-day record of $464 billion set December 17, 2024, when Tesla stock closed at an all-time high of $480 per share.”

A key lesson from the rich and successful is to dream big but remain focussed on the main game, which is easier said than done when you’re swimming in billions of dollars!

Peter Switzer’s book Join the Rich Club is an intelligent look at how to grow wealth strategically while still enjoying a well-balanced life!

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