Hey Kochie here, from Sunrise. I am going Back To School with the blokes
from Student Edge.
What were you like as a teenager?
Umm, I was a bit dorky, as a teenager, very dorky.
Loved sport, played a lot of sport as a teenager.
Played a lot of rugby, cricket and basketball and things like that
That doesn't sound so dorky I was a typical teenager but I loved maths
and I loved economics and all that sort of stuff.
How do you kinda of reconcile that you
say you were dorky but you were playing rugby, you were doing all these sports?
Yeah I was doing all of that but I wasn't one of the cool kids
Really, I had a big group of friends I got to say school and particularly high
school was terrific. I had a ball in high school, I had one of
those teachers that change your life as well, my maths teacher Mr. Holiday
who was also my rugby coach and I'm still keeping in contact with now.
Was he part of reason you kind of started your training in accounting?
Yeah he was but he was a lot more than that. I loved that movie Mr. Holland's Opus
you know? Where there's just this inspiring teacher within a school.
I reckon every kid should hopefully in their life, if they're lucky, have one teacher
like that in their life just you know makes a huge difference in terms of the person that
they turn out. And he was it for me and not only teaching
me a love of numbers but also because he was a rugby coach and played rugby himself.
What is it about numbers? I'm sure there are a lot of students out there who are going:
"What are you talking about love of numbers?!" like what was it that you felt connected you
with that particular subject? Probably because I am a very processed driven
sort of person. In my life today, I love everything
I have a process for everything, getting through the day.
Get up the same time, prepare for Sunrise, finish Sunrise.
Go on my day really well planned and maths is a bit like that
It's... it's a bit logical, I'm very logical in my thinking and it was just a connection.
What were your career goals... where you were studying, did you you go okay this
is how I want to follow the rest of my life?
No, no I started accounting because I thought that would be just a good general all round
business background. My dad was a business sort of bloke
But he also brought us up... brought my younger brother, sister and myself up with
a great saying which was "Have enough confidence in yourself to give anything a go, but if
it doesn't work out, have enough confidence in yourself to do something else."
In other words, never be scared of an opportunity Just grab it and give it your best shot
but never be caught in something you don't like and too scared to change and it's a philosophy
I have always lived with and have tried to pass on to my kids and my whole life has been
basically these weird opportunities out of the blue that... I'll give it a go and see what
happens. Now some of them have worked, some of them
haven't. But it's.. you never regret trying something new.
So what was it that did inspire you to move away from
accounting and towards journalism? It was funny, I was studying accounting
part time at the time and working for some chartered accountants doing auditing and I'd done just
enough of auditing to realise that maybe it wasn't for me.
So I said okay, I joined the Australian Newspaper as a cadet.
I did terribly in the HSE, I had terrible handwriting, I have always
had terrible handwriting and... so I was you know, really trying to
make up credits for uni and all that sort of stuff and this job in journalism came along
so I started at the very bottom as a cadet and worked my way up.
That's quite interesting 'cause I mean you think of accounting and journalism it feels
like that they would activate different quadrants of the brain
Yeah... yeah it was business journalism so that was the other side of things, it was
understanding business and I had always sort of thought it would be cool to be a journalist.
But never thought I would get the opportunity 'cause jobs are so scarce and it was just
impossible to get into media but just by sheer chance I was given the opportunity.
Absolutely... well you sound like you're obviously very pragmatic and that probably comes from
your business background but undeniably as you would probably say, having worked in journalism
journalism is very important. What would you say to young people who do
want to follow the route? Do you say you know what, maybe journalism isn't the smartest
route to study or do you still kinda of urge them towards it?
Oh look if you love it and it's your dream you give it a go
And you've gotta really... you shouldn't ever give up if you've got a dream and if
you wanna get into media, it's not as glamorous as everyone thinks it is.
Everybody wants to be in it, so there's a lot of competition but for
those who are really committed and passionate and work hard then give it a go and get in.
I know lots of people here got into the media mistake like me.
A lot of people did internships at newspapers or TV or radio stations and would just work
for a couple of months for nothing just to get noticed.
A lot of people starting in country and regional areas and worked their way up that
way. It's a mistake to think that you could
sort of do my job now. A lot of young students say "I wanna do your job". I say well I didn't
start in TV until I was 45. What do you think you've learnt about yourself
since becoming 45 and getting into TV, what did you discover in this new kind of profession?
I'm probably glad I got into television late in life because it taught me that there's
another world out there. TV is a bit of a bubble. You lead
an absolutely privileged life. There's no doubt about that, you get to do
some amazing things that no one else gets to do and there is a point where you can almost
take it for granted. Just before wrapping up, going back to your
teenage days, do you look back on that time with any regrets or...
Nah I loved it, I loved it, I loved school. I built a really close group of friends and
it is one of the best times of your life. I am a great believer that life is in different
stages. Life goes through different stages.
Never try and speed up a stage because they're all wonderful whether it be high school days, teenage days,
young working single days, becoming a parent days
They're all... bring great joy for different particular reasons and I meet so many people
that say I really don't like this stage of my life and I can't wait to get to the next stage
I think, "Don't think like that, just love the
moment, love your high school days and what you're achieving."
Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Like I did terribly in the HSC.
In my trials, I came 1st in Geography, 1st in Economics and 3rd in Ancient History
and in the actual exam itself - because back in those days HSC was 100% of your mark
I bombed out in all three of them because nerves got the better of me, I had terrible handwriting;
all that sort of stuff and I look back at that disappointment which at the time
seemed the end of the world and thinking really, it really didn't matter in the overall scheme
of things How did you recover from that by the way?
By being confident in yourself and understanding that there's always a way. Like I didn't get
a TER to get into university But there are ways of doing it, you do bridging
courses or you go to TAFE or whatever and you get credits for them
So you know, your teenage years and high school is there to enjoy it.
There to learn and make the most of it. Absolutely, no doubt about that. But it's also a time to
really develop your personality and build friendships and also build dreams and that's
one of the things that I try to pass on to my kids.
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