The Continuing Adventures Of Your Own Personal Jesus

William Randolph Hearst made a few mistakes in his life and was far from perfect, but when you consider the fact that he was one of the richest men of the first half of the 20th Century, a man who amassed one of the largest collections of fine art and sculpture, then it’s hard to find any real fault. That is if we only ever look at his professional life (and public persona) and ignore his xenophobic tendencies and the facts that he was as pigheaded as they came, hated taxes and unions, along with immigrants, had extra-marital affairs (which, if we believe history, resulted in the birth of an illegitimate daughter, Patricia Lake) and ruled his publishing empire with a hand so iron he could have made all the Packers combined look like mealy mouthed pacifists. His expenditure was gigantic. This was a man who had wealth enough to tell someone to buy a castle, no matter the cost, and have the structure dismantled and shipped from Europe to America to be reassembled, brick by brick, building...

In work, as in life, I’ve always tried to be as good as I possibly can be. I’ve tried to be a good father, partner, brother, son, uncle, pal – you name it, I’ve done my best to be as good as I can be. I know that, at times, I’ve failed both miserably and spectacularly, but each time that’s happened I’ve tried to learn from it and then apply those lessons down the track. Each time something has gone wrong I’ve analysed what happened, dissected it and decided what to do next time, if there is a next time, and what I could have done differently. That’s one of the lessons that I was told once when I sat down for lunch with none other than Edward DeBono back in the early 1990s. That one hour private session, over a feed of cheap sandwiches (courtesy of the ABC cafeteria) taught me more about analytical and lateral thinking than any book I’ve ever read, and that includes DeBono’s own work. Having said all of that, in this situation I can’t think of anything I could have done differentl...

FIFTEEN DAYS IN GOLGOTHA Introduction: What Happened Before The story of the Fifteen Days In Golgotha actually began nearly four months beforehand. I’d been promoted to the position of Housing Officer from CSO nearly a year previously. I’d then applied for temporary positions and was always successful to the point of being offered contracts to run with. This was despite the Person In Charge (PIC) of the region not being overly fond of me on a personal level. Cunning guy that he is, nothing was ever said in front of witnesses, others were always tapped to carry out any dirty work, and nothing was ever written down. But it was there. My contract was due to expire early in the year. I inquired as to whether an extension or another contract would be considered, only to be told that no, nothing was on the table. This was despite at least three positions being vacant upon my leaving. I took it with good graces, if somewhat confused, and applied for, and was granted, nearly two months...