Andrew Darbyshire - Think Big, Live Large: How to Succeed in Business and Life: Incorporating The Power of Persistence and Purpose

The purpose of this book is to illustrate how the challenges we face every day ultimately make us better people and that we can all carve out our niche, even through tough times.

Building a successful international software business, starting a family and having to deal with the tragic loss of a child wasnt easy.

Over time I adopted four approaches to life that meant I was able to retire at forty if I chose to.

They are;

I consider myself to be blessed in so many ways, to have a wonderful wife in Cathryn, she is the mother of our three beautiful daughters. Caitlin was our first, then Brooke and finally Annabel, all spaced two years and five months apart. Brooke and Annabel have very different personalities. Brooke is extremely sensitive and caring of others. If someone gets hurt in the playground she is the first to hold their hand and comfort them. She is also very creative and exceptionally gifted at drawing and working through technical issues. Annabel on the other hand has blind faith and confidence in her own ability, she is constantly on stage.

Cathryn and I journeyed through eight-and-a-half years of caring for Caitlin and then losing her. Were Cathryn not the wonderful woman she is we may not have survived, and we jointly acknowledge and salute every other parent and couple who have stepped out on the same path.

It is my hope that by telling the story of my life so far, that you may also be encouraged to look beyond whatever your daily struggles are with life, work, business and relationships, and focus on moving forward. To create a wonderful life for yourself and your family, and then to consider how you can also create a special place, space or opportunity for the others you will come across in your life.

Andrew Darbyshire, 2009

Chapter 1

Dad was a builder, my grandfather was a builder and my great-great-grandfather owned a large timber yard and supplied the timber for, and was involved in, the building of the famous Flinders Street Railway Station in the heart of Melbourne. By the time I was ready to start earning a living however, Dad had absolutely no interest in me following the family tradition and doing the same work for a further generation. My father was born in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and grew up during the Second World War and, as a result, disaster always loomed large in his life. I grew up in that shadow and have always been aware that good times can evaporate very quickly if not managed well.

Throughout my childhood if I asked for something extravagant I was reminded of the financial and lifestyle pressures on people as a result of the Great Depression. I am certain that is what has driven me to build financial freedom in my life, and to ensure that my children never go wanting.

I was born in 1960, and one of my first memories was waiting for my dad in his car while Dusty Springfield was playing on the radio. I remember that radio took a few minutes to warm up each time you got in the car because it was an old valve-based type. The Vietnam War was in full swing in the late 1960s, there was Woodstock and the era of flower power in San Francisco. Long hair was in, and people with it were put down by my parents generation as good for nothing bums. The world was rapidly changing and was, in a lot of ways, a very scary place.

Not a lot has changed in all the years since, except the players. Throughout human history the world has always had great challenges, be they social, environmental, or more recently, fiscal. Our lives are still ruled by the laws of the jungle and this will probably never change. We have to learn to switch off from all the strife and difficulty, and accept life as normal, concerning ourselves with what goes on in our own backyard and working not to be dragged down by the doom and gloom surrounding our lives.

1970 wasnt a good year for me; My grandmother died, I moved to Melbourne Grammar School and after several attempts by my parents to hold their relationship together, my mother walked out with my younger brother and sister. It was a very traumatic event for a ten year old, but obviously one I had no control over, and I now realise it is often better to be from a broken home, than in one.

I can only remember one holiday with my parents, down at the seaside holiday town of Mt Martha on the Mornington Peninsula one Christmas for a few days. Dad also took me away for a couple of small trips to have a break from the stress at home. I determined that as a consequence of this, my children would have, and have had, some wonderful family holidays travelling all over Australia and the world.

My school holidays were usually spent travelling around with Dad in his Holden utility truck to his building projects, mainly large houses and blocks of flats. In those days seat belts werent installed in cars and I spent many hours sitting beside him on the bench seat steering the car. The building sites were full of colourful characters, largely recent immigrants from Italy and Greece.