Hey Friends! Welcome to my newsletter!

I'm traveling back in time to when I moved to a land far away.

To Australia, Oz, the Land Down Under!

I saw a thousand things I'd never seen before, learned a lot, met hundreds of people - some became good friends forever (and some I'm glad I never saw again!), and had many cool adventures and experiences.

In some ways, it changed my life and perspectives.

So, I'm sharing five lessons learned from living in the Land Down Under! It's hard to limit these to just five. But that's how these newsletters work!

Here we go!

First, some quick facts to set the stage:

Australia is the smallest continent, but one of the largest countries on Earth. It’s almost the size of the United States.

Australia has six states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

We lived in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria. Or as Aussies say, ‘MEL-BUN!’

For its geographic size, Australia’s population is small - less than 30 million people.

80% live around the Pacific or Indian Oceans. 95% percent of Australia is empty. So if you’re flying from Sydney to Perth, you truly cross ‘fly over’ states!

Australia has been called ‘The Lucky Country.’

Its natural resources are immense, its weather produces all the food (and wine! see below) it can consume and wishes to export. It’s far off from most of the World’s problems. Although the Japanese invaded Darwin in The Northern Territory during World War II.
There are 3.3 times more sheep than people in Australia. No shortage of wool ‘jumpers’ when the weather turns cold.

Some Aussies like sheep more than people…

I’m not going there … Just Say’in!

Aussies have a nickname for everything. Much of it derives from its Cockney roots.
For the first month living there, I could not understand what the hell these people were saying!

Ok, enough history! Let's get to the lessons I learned!

1. Crazy Sh*t Happens in Australia - Most You Don't Hear About!

The first thing you realize when you live in Australia: it’s a bizarre place!

So much crazy sh*t happens in Australia. Because Australia is on the other side of the World, only the most totally bizarre things will reach the Western World.

The Aussies take it for granted: 'She'll be right mate!'

Some examples:

Crocodiles eating sharks

Photo by Mark Ziembicki via Mediadrumimages

Megabats hanging from your roof

Lizards crawling up your house

Insects that are as big as children

Toads riding on pythons

Actually, these are Australian Cane Toads, and they’re more deadly than the Python!

Steve Irwin - badass zookeeper and the Crocodile Hunter hailed from Australia.

Getty Images / Justin Sullivan / Stringer

He made a popular series about these crazy and dangerous things.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson via AP/Shutterstock.com

But it didn’t end well for him.

There are also of course 'loveable' creatures:

Koala Bears

Looks can be deceiving... if you get too close to a Koala, he'll scratch your eyes out!

Tasmanian devils

Little nasty buggers you'll find only in Taz.

Many become 'roadkill’ when you drive through the Taz countryside.

If you hit one, don't get out of your buggy! Just drive on!

Magpies

Well not so loveable... more like scary bastards!

and Kangaroos

Photo by GumbysKangarooSanctuary via Facebook

These guys will hunt you down and kick your ass.

Trust me, it happened to me once when I tried to feed a few grapes to one on the golf course!

Something like this happened:

Australia also has the most amazingly beautiful places in the World:

The Great Ocean Road in Victoria

The Twelve Apostles also off Victoria

Ayers Rock

The World Heritage Forests of Tasmania

The Great Barrier Reef off Queensland

The great thing about living in Australia is we had enough time to experience all these places among other amazing spots there, along with ‘nearby’ places: New Zealand, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Fiji and Hong Kong, to name a few.

Australia is an isolated continent. So an eight-hour flight to Asia is no big deal to an Aussie!

Or as an Aussie would say: ‘She’ll be right, Mate!’

One nearby place just north of Queensland is New Guinea.

There are still headhunting tribes, so we didn’t go there!

2. If You Have the Opportunity to Live in a Far Away Place, Go For It!

As described in my first newsletter, I grew up in a little town in Iowa. We didn’t travel much growing up. Although we did do that infamous road trip to Disneyland in the Ford station wagon! Some fishing trips. A few Cubs games at Wrigley Field. All good, but not ‘traveler’ material… Pretty mundane stuff…

After law school at Cornell, I joined the Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

I started in S&C’s Washington DC office, but soon was asked if I would spend several weeks in the firm’s London office. I jumped at the opportunity.

This was the early 1990's when Maggie Thatcher was privatizing numerous government entities through IPO’s.

S&C was lead counsel on these activities and there was a ton of business. As a new associate, it was exciting.

I joined S&C at an interesting time. Steven Brill, the founder of American Lawyer had published a cover article on S&C, describing the firm as ‘fatally arrogant.’

A book had also just been published: A Law Unto Itself: The Untold Story of the Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

The book described the firm’s historical influence representing robber barons, S&C partners John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, collaboration with Nazi Germany, and other events.

A more recent book documents the Two Brothers.

I recall the managing partner of the firm having lunch with a few of us. We asked about the recent publicity. He dryly responded: ‘You know, it’s tough being Number One.'

I thought: ‘Nope, no fatal arrogance here!’

We smiled and said ‘Amen!’

Soon after returning from London, the firm asked me to move to Melbourne Australia, which was S&C’s Asia Pacific base office.

Washington partners advised me that going so far away from S&C’s headquarters could derail my ‘partnership track.’

But I never wanted to stay in private law practice very long anyway. I was at S&C for the training and experience.

So we said: 'What the hell, let's go to Australia!'

3. When You Have a ‘Terrible Boss,’ Make the Best of it - It will make you Better!

OK, so like with every journey, there were a few ‘bumps in the road…’

First, we moved Down Under in June. No matter what anybody tells you, Melbourne in June is crap weather: cold, rainy, gray.

Remember Australia is upside down: Our Winter is their Summer. Our Summer is their Winter. It would have been great if we had just finished Summer/Fall in Washington, then moved down in November (Oz’s Spring) and enjoyed another Summer (our Winter). It gets confusing right?

And Melbourne is on the south east tip of Australia, so the weather in the Winter is a lot worse than Sydney, let alone Queensland (the ‘Florida’ of Australia).

About a month into the stint, I recall sitting in S&C’s office on my birthday in early July, starring out my office window looking at cold gray drizzle. I said to myself 'What the hell did you get yourself into?!'

It was the worst birthday of my life!

A few months passed, and the Melbourne weather got better.

Oh and the second 'bump in the road:' the Australian dude managing the office…

In my 30 year career, I’ve only had a few ‘horrible bosses.’ I was lucky.

In a previous newsletter I talk about several “toxic business people’ you can encounter.

Fortunately, I dealt with these characters in my business dealings, not so much as bosses.

I wouldn’t say this chap should be compared to Kevin Spacey in Horrible Bosses.

And also for the record I never encountered anyone in the Melbourne office that would fit the Jennifer Anniston character!

Although that could have been interesting ...

In realty, the staff there were pretty dull, and well how should I say?

If I would have been back in the US, I might have moved on to another law firm or business.

But we were stuck on the other side of the World!

So I made the best of it! It made me a better professional and business person.

Later in my career, when I had to deal with difficult people, I leveraged my work experience in Australia and successfully dealt with the situation at hand!

4. Embrace uncertainty - Deal with It! It will make You Stronger!

S&C’s Melbourne office was small. There was the above-mentioned Australian managing partner, and four or five of us associates.

As mentioned above, this was S&C’s Asia Pacific base - so we handled all activity from New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia and Southern China. S&C represented almost every major corporation in this region, focusing on APAC businesses entering the US market - through mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, public offerings or financing deals. So the work was constant and mostly interesting.

I learned a hell of a lot during my two years down under. We had to handle everything that came into the office. I matured a lot as a professional through this ‘baptism by fire’ experience!

As General Counsel of a public NYSE company for 20 years ('one' of my ‘jobs’ at Meredith Corp), I managed everything legal … and also many that were not legal - they were just ‘FUBAR’.

I sometimes said that ‘if sh*t hits the fan at Meredith, it will likely wind up in my office.’ And it did. Many times!

Having my experience at S&C Australia was invaluable.

5. Every Adventure Worth Taking Will Have Some Bumps Along the Road

I learned this in spades in Australia. As I noted above, my two year stint was far from perfect. No adventure is. But pretty much all adventures - including mine in Australia - are worth taking despite the bumps.

The real risk is having an opportunity to pursue an adventure, but turn it down over concern about the bumps along the way.

I wrote about Charlie Munger in a previous newsletter and attending Charlie's last Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting last May. Charlie recently passed away just shy of his 100th birthday.

Charlie was recently asked 'What is the secret to a happy life?'

'The secret to a happy life is to have low expectations. If you have unrealistic expectations, you'll be miserable your whole life. Have realistic expectations and take life's results good and bad with a certain amount of stoicism.'

So look at every adventure - whether it's moving to a far away place, changing jobs, or taking a long trip, with realistic expectations.

Even set a low bar, so you're likely to exceed your expectations.

Charlie also said that another secret to a happy life is 'Avoid crazy at all costs!'

So I guess the takeaway is:

Pursue life’s adventures
Be realistic about your expectations - there will be plenty of 'bumps'
If the adventure will put you in a crazy situation (think landmines and huge potholes), maybe don't go!

Well, there we have it!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

And the Very Best for 2024!

See you in the New Year!

Just Say'in!

5 Lessons From Living Down Under