Our son Matthew has just graduated from Deakin University in Geelong. It was a great day. We were a very proud pair of parents to see him graduate with distinction. He studied media and journalism over the last three years. He also did an internship with the ABC in Melbourne, plus three weeks with the Warrnambool newspaper The Standard.

Matthew loves reading… but that hasn’t always been the case. Matthew just couldn’t get reading early on, and it was a real problem. As parents we were pulling our hair out. We’d read to him always, but he just couldn’t get it. So Matthew was one of the first kids in Northeast Victoria to do a Reading Recovery program. It was a new program, and it worked miracles! It was great.

Now all Matthew has to do is go find a job. We’re sure he’ll do really well. He’s always had a great attitude to learning, plus he knows all about hard work from his years at the Beechworth Bakery.

But the best investment you can ever make is to invest in yourself. Matthew has put a lot of investment in himself over the years. You’ve got to read the books, attend the courses, do the work. There’s always a price to pay, yet most people are not prepared to pay it.

And we all need a strong belief in ourselves.

I have found, over my many years in business, that your income will rarely exceed your personal development. It’s all about continuous learning and being prepared to pay the price.