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People call me quite regularly and say “do you know anyone who can…?”
Note: I’m going to save time by giving you a clue. I say yes every time.
Back in 2011 a guy I knew called me and said: Do you know anyone who can make a video news show in Las Vegas for a Construction Equipment Expo?
I upgraded myself to Premium Economy on a Qantas A380, flying to Vegas via LA. Those planes are double story, with the top floor all First and Business Class, except for 6 seats for Premium Economy passengers. I boarded the flight to find it was just me and 5 huge miners from Western Australia. What could possibly go wrong?
To summarise, we were refused service before we took off, missed our connecting flight to Vegas and I only got three hours of sleep every night I was in Vegas before getting up to appear on camera during the day. Shout out to Ken, my camera guy. He had to work really hard to make me look good.
Fast forward to 2025. My friend said: “I’ve got a spare ticket to the NRL in Vegas. Do you know anyone who can go?
You can read about that here:
Just for your information I may have been to Vegas several, OK many, times in between.
Last year I moved to Melbourne because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I actually got a real job. That also seemed like a good idea at the time. Like so many seemingly good ideas, it was one of my worst ever. The job part, not Melbourne. It’s great.
After about four months an old colleague called me and said: Do you know anyone who can work on a project that’s going horribly wrong in regional NSW?
You can read about that here:
A few weeks ago a friend and boss of mine from nearly 30 years ago called me and said: Do you know anyone who can help us with a renewable energy education project?
The thing is, I always say yes before I know anything about what these jobs really entail. So I shouldn’t be surprised that ‘helping us with a renewable energy education project’ is code for teaching 300 children how to make batteries out of potatoes.
Seriously. Who knew you could make a battery out of a potato? I certainly didn’t, right up to the point when I was demonstrating it to 50 kids. I’ve never been more shocked when a light turned on.
I knew the kids would be so much smarter than me. Just when I was congratulating myself for creating light, these ones worked out that people are conductors and used themselves to turn the light on. We can rest easy. At least a few of these young people will know how to keep the lights on for us in our nursing homes one day.
Also I met someone while doing this job who can literally do anything. I came up a with a name for her new business. It was [insert her name here] Can. She said it was good but she didn’t like to draw attention to herself. So I will leave it at this.
