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Speaker 1: Tony Quinn grew up in a wooden caravan built by

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Speaker 1: his dad in Aberdeen before becoming himself made millionaire through

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Speaker 1: pet food and confectionery we know and better these days

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Speaker 1: for motorsport. He's the visionary behind Highlands and Hampton Downs

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Speaker 1: and Tapa. Of course, his book zero to sixty and

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Speaker 1: Beyond has been re released. It's got ten new chapters

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Speaker 1: and there's a story in that and Tony Quinn's weather's tiny.

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Speaker 1: Very good morning to you. Good morning, yup, nice and

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Speaker 1: early in Australia. I take it here in Australia, are you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, some in Australia and it's the sun's up. But

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Speaker 2: unfortunately to no, it's not a very nice day today,

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Speaker 2: so we'll we'll have to put on an extra T shirt.

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Speaker 1: Good you write the stuff down. I refer to the

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Speaker 1: extra teen chapters. You're a believer in writing down what's

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Speaker 1: happening in your life? Why and for what value?

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Speaker 2: Oh gee, it's a bit of a story. But it

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Speaker 2: started when my grandfather passed away and my grandfather, who

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Speaker 2: was Irish, got involved in the IRA when he was

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Speaker 2: a young fella and he had a fantastic interesting life

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Speaker 2: and we heard his stories. Throughout his life. He would

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Speaker 2: share some of them, but he was quite quiet about

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Speaker 2: his activities, and when he died, there was nothing written down,

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Speaker 2: and so there was no official record, if you like,

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Speaker 2: of his life. And I said to myself that I

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Speaker 2: would hate to do that because it's one of the

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Speaker 2: missing links in life if you don't know what your

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Speaker 2: heritage is. So I decided that I would write down

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Speaker 2: my exciting life that I was having and in one

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Speaker 2: day write not a book. It was just going to

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Speaker 2: write my story so that the generations behind me could

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Speaker 2: read all about why I did the things that I did.

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Speaker 2: And that's how it started. So I got these black books,

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Speaker 2: things that you buy from the shop, and every time

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Speaker 2: i'm on an I had a plan or whatever. If

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Speaker 2: I get a minute spare, I'll write the date at

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Speaker 2: the top of the page, and I'll write down all

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Speaker 2: the things that have happened since the last time I wrote.

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Speaker 2: And it could be a month, it could be two months.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. But when you write the date and

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Speaker 2: you start writing things that have happened, you can remember

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Speaker 2: all the stuff that happened, and you just need to

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Speaker 2: put a bullet point. It doesn't need to be the

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Speaker 2: whole story, just a bullet point that reminds you, and

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Speaker 2: then one day the thing is to then just recorded

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Speaker 2: or put it down. And I met a guy called

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Speaker 2: Robert Toy in New Zealand and I said would you

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Speaker 2: He was a freelance journalist and I said, would you

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Speaker 2: be interested in writing my story? And he said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: no problem. So he did. But as he was writing

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Speaker 2: the story, he said, man, this is this is such

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Speaker 2: an interesting story that you should share it with other people,

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Speaker 2: not just your family. And I said, I don't really care,

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Speaker 2: that's not the point. In anyway, one thing led to another.

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Speaker 2: The publish got hold of it, they decided to publish it,

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Speaker 2: and it became very surprisingly. It became a number one

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Speaker 2: best seller in New Zealand and we actually never released

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Speaker 2: it in Australia for some reason. So anyway, the book

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Speaker 2: was reprinted a couple of times, and on the fifth time,

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Speaker 2: Josie said, look, we're going to have to reprint the

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Speaker 2: book again. It just keeps selling and I said, no,

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Speaker 2: I don't want to do that. It's too old. It's

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Speaker 2: seven eight years old. Why don't we do a revised

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Speaker 2: edition because it has been so much happen in the

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Speaker 2: last seven years that I think there's a lot that

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Speaker 2: people you know, the continuation of the story if you like.

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Speaker 2: But also, Mike, I wanted to share. I genuinely wanted

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Speaker 2: to share some of my business philosophies and tricks for

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Speaker 2: want of a bit of term, because I'd started doing

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Speaker 2: some university talks to young business entrepreneurs and I found

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Speaker 2: that quite enlightening and they loved it. And so in

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Speaker 2: the book, the new book, there's a chapter there a

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Speaker 2: bit how simply you can make money in this life.

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Speaker 2: It's not difficult, it's not complicated. In fact, it's very simple.

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Speaker 2: It's it's it's you know, it's it's I say it's easy,

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Speaker 2: but a lot of people don't think it's easy. But

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Speaker 2: I actually think it's quite easy to make. However much

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Speaker 2: money you want to make.

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Speaker 1: Well, there's a funny story in the book where you

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Speaker 1: dreamed or wanted to make a million dollars a week

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Speaker 1: and when you when you got the you couldn't believe.

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Speaker 1: Are you driven by money or are you driven by success?

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Speaker 2: No? Absolutely not. I'm not driven by money. Money is

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Speaker 2: a byproduct of hard work and good decisions. That's all

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Speaker 2: it is. In fact, the more money you make, the

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Speaker 2: more tax you pay, and you know, and the more

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Speaker 2: the government pounds you for more money. So but no money.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's evident because when I go on

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Speaker 2: a racetrack, you're actually competing with a whole heap of

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Speaker 2: other people that are all trying to do the same thing.

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Speaker 2: So it's all about the game. It's all about you know.

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Speaker 2: As a young fella, I managed to win a chess championship.

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Speaker 2: I knew nothing about chess, but I quickly learned how

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Speaker 2: to play the game, and I won a championship in chess.

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Speaker 2: So I've always liked the challenge and the winning. There's

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Speaker 2: no better place to stand than on the podium.

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Speaker 1: Tony, you sort of answered it before, But to a degree,

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Speaker 1: you come from a time and a place. You start young,

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Speaker 1: you start with nothing, you make a fortune. Do you

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Speaker 1: think a young person born ten years ago, fifteen years ago,

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Speaker 1: in the world in which we now live, can still

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Speaker 1: do that and live that story.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to sound weird, but I actually think

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Speaker 2: it's easier today than it's ever been. And the reason

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Speaker 2: to say that is one of the main ingredients to

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Speaker 2: be successful in life and business is to work hard,

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Speaker 2: And I can tell you that when I was a

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Speaker 2: young fella, I'm going to say a lot of people

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Speaker 2: worked very hard because that was what they did, and

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Speaker 2: so you were just one of the many people that

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Speaker 2: work hard. Nowadays, as I look around, as culture society

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Speaker 2: has designed it, a lot of young people don't really

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Speaker 2: work that hard, and so if they're prepared to work hard,

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Speaker 2: it actually is easier for them. Now it's all different

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Speaker 2: and a lot of young people doing like Picca is.

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Speaker 2: But working hard is really just that working hard, and

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Speaker 2: that doesn't mean digging holes for twelve hours a day.

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Speaker 2: It means focusing on whatever you're doing for twelve hours

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Speaker 2: a day. Twelve hours is a long time and you

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Speaker 2: can achieved so much in that time, and so I

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Speaker 2: do I think absolutely humans have done it all along

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Speaker 2: their journey. You know, the generations before us, and I'm

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Speaker 2: sure the generations are after us. Will The problem that

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Speaker 2: we've got not a problem that we've got, but the

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Speaker 2: issue that we've got is that the world keeps changing.

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Speaker 2: You know, we had COVID, nobody saw that coming. We've

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Speaker 2: got cryptocurrency. You know, nobody saw that coming, even you know,

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Speaker 2: and what is that? And do we do I understand it. No,

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Speaker 2: but young people will understand it. I just spent ten

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Speaker 2: days in Italy and saw what the Romans did two

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Speaker 2: thousand years ago. It was fantastic that they did so No,

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Speaker 2: I think young people today can certainly make their way

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Speaker 2: in life very successfully. And you know, I mean you

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Speaker 2: and I might we wonder at YouTube stars and Instagram

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Speaker 2: influences of that just wasn't a career choice when we

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Speaker 2: were at school.

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Speaker 1: It is what's your thinking around family and wealth in

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Speaker 1: terms of do you help your family now because you

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Speaker 1: can more than you might have, or do they have

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Speaker 1: to make their own way in the world.

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Speaker 2: Nobody knows the answer to that. Make it's a conundrum

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Speaker 2: that everybody that's been successful and made money and life

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Speaker 2: is not about money. It's just one of the things.

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Speaker 2: But money is a tool and it can be used

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Speaker 2: in a positive fashion or it can be used in

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Speaker 2: a negative kind of fashion, and nobody knows the answer.

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Speaker 2: I've spoken to many, many successful, wealthy people, and we

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Speaker 2: all wonder what the best thing to do is with

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Speaker 2: our families. I chose to basically give my family enough

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Speaker 2: wealth that they can do something with earlier in life

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Speaker 2: because they had achieved they'd helped old my empare, and

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Speaker 2: so I gave them a share of it early so

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Speaker 2: they could go on and achieve things in their life.

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Speaker 2: And they've all done different things, so you know, nobody

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Speaker 2: can tell that one. I don't know what the answer is.

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Speaker 1: One of the things you have done is giving back

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Speaker 1: to motor racing in this country, of course, and you've

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Speaker 1: set up various foundations. You're helping a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: And one of the people you helped early on as

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Speaker 1: a young man called Liam Lawson, who this coming weekend

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Speaker 1: is turning up in Austin, Texas. And you must be

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Speaker 1: as we all are, as excited as anybody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, Liam's a great driver, and he proved

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Speaker 2: himself actually at Highlands at the Grand Prix when he

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Speaker 2: passed Marcus Armstrong on the outside of the last corner,

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Speaker 2: which is a very brave move to do, especially in

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Speaker 2: the damp. So he got signed up by Red Bull

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Speaker 2: the next week. But there's many, many other talented kiwis.

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know what happens over there,

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Speaker 2: but there's a lot of talented kiwis that can drive

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Speaker 2: very well and on the world stage at the moment.

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Speaker 2: You know, we've got McLaughlin and Shane van Gisberg and

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Speaker 2: over in America. They had a fantastic job and both

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Speaker 2: of them, you know, guys have been involved with as well.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I'm just very pleased to see all

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Speaker 2: these young fellas doing very well.

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Speaker 1: It must be tremendously satisfying having watched you for a

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Speaker 1: number of years and all that. It must be of

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Speaker 1: all the things you've done on the stages of your life,

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Speaker 1: this must be the golden time. I mean, you're giving back,

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Speaker 1: you're successful, you live your life the way you want

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Speaker 1: to live it. I mean, you can't ask for anything

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Speaker 1: more than that, can you.

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Speaker 2: No? And as Dan Gaunt would say, it's my purple patch.

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Speaker 2: I don't know what that means that he keeps calling

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Speaker 2: it the purple patch. But I'm very very happy with life, Mike.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I can't ask for anything more. You're quite right.

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Speaker 2: I'm sixty seven years old. This weekend I'm going to

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Speaker 2: Sydney to race a Porsch GD four. And when they

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Speaker 2: say race, I don't race anymore. I just go round

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Speaker 2: and round, you know. But I have a fantastic life

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Speaker 2: and have very recently bought a farm in Brisbane, and

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Speaker 2: literally in Brisbane. I mean it was established in eighteen sixty.

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Speaker 2: That's so old it is. And I just love it there.

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Speaker 2: I just love the rurals. I mean, I'm surrounded by suburbs,

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Speaker 2: but I just love it.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, well, congratulations again on the book number

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Speaker 1: one best seller. Let's try it again, zero to sixteen beyond.

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Speaker 1: Tony Quinn, owner of Hampton Downs and Highlands and Tapa

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Speaker 1: and Big and Motorsport and all that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: But it's a great read, this great story, and plenty

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Speaker 1: of motivation there for you. For more from the Mic

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Speaker 1: Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio