A Business Day in Sydney
As luck would have it, the guy that Ilise introduced me to yesterday, Alain, took me to meet one of his good friends Rodolphe. Alain picked me up from the apartment this morning and I got to meet Mich (his wife Michelle). We took her to Bondi Junction where she was meeting a friend and then we headed into Sydney to meet his friend. Rodolphe is a successful business man with a background in the hotel industry, but is the CEO of a new tech startup called MyVerifiedID.com. The company is all about identity verification on the internet.
They are creating a self-service platform that allows online merchants to prove who their buyer is beyond a username and password. They are using fingerprints and voice recognition, along with eyes and more, to create unique signatures for people. They have investors from China and the US in their business with a top notch CTO from Australia and a small development team in India. I liked Rodolphe as we talked about business and making a difference in the world. You could tell that Rodolphe has been thinking about this business for a long time and has a passion for online security. I forwarded some of his stuff to one of my resources in the US and he thought that Rodolphe faces a lot of competition, so we will see if there is anything unique here.
In the end, this just helps me understand that my future in being a connector has some real possibilities. I have always said that if I could make money from just putting people together I would be a happy person. I will look to do this as I continue to coach business owners and early stage consulting resources and building Success Redefined as a brand in the social space. I have realized that if I have my hands in a few different spaces I will be more satisfied and will be able to diversify my income streams. That is an important aspect of this next stage of my life.
After the meeting with Rodolphe and Alain, they dropped me at the Sydney Opera House where I met Damian O’Sullivan from Cisco for lunch. Damian was my point person for the BLP (Business Learning Partner) Program at Cisco. I have always enjoyed my conversations with Damian and enjoyed this one as well. It is a shame that we couldn’t get to meet Damian’s family, as he has a son just a year younger than Noah. Maybe next time!
On the way back from the Opera Bar I stopped by the ThunderJet desk to ask what happened to my complaint from the ride on Wednesday. Those of you who know me can attest to the fact that I don’t complain about much at all. Well, on Wednesday there was a young boy on the boat who was crying after the first 5 minutes and the boat driver pretty much cut the ride in half because the kids was not happy. We had a great time, but it could have been so much more. I asked the manager that day if they could do something and she said she would get back to me. Since we hadn’t heard anything I asked the manager on duty today if they would make it right and she came back 5 minutes later telling me we could go again today. Wow, time to take action!
I called Ilise and asked if she and the kids wanted to come down and meet me at the boat. She said she was cleaning, Karley had enough the other day and she asked if I would come back and take the kids myself. So, I did. I jumped on a bus and got back to No. Bondi about 30 minutes before we needed to be at the warf for the boat ride. Alain and his wife happened to be at the apartment introducing Mich to Ilise and he offered to take us to the train station. We jumped on a train, switched trains at Town Hall and got to Circular Quay 5 minutes before they loaded the boat. We jumped on, sat all the way in the back and had another great ride!
We headed over to Baskin Robbin for some ice cream and headed home. Overall, one of the best days for me of the trip. Mixed a bit of business and meeting new people with some adrenaline with the kids. Looking forward to the rest of the trip and starting to just enjoy myself rather than worrying about what might not happen!
To a life well lived 🙂
Larry Kesslin 