04/05/2026
Saturday night I had the privilege of being in a room with a thousand small business owners at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards. This was my third year as a judge, and an honour I don’t take lightly.
Story after inspirational story came from that stage. Different industries, different journeys, different struggles.
But one word, one particular theme, kept coming up, over and over again, in almost every acceptance speech.
Family.
Family who believed in them before the business made sense. Family who put up the money when no bank would. Family who sat at kitchen tables and talked through the hard nights. Businesses now in their second, third, even fourth generation, all tracing their roots back to someone who said yes, back them.
Even Steve Loe the founding director of the awards, opened the evening talking about his own parents and how their encouragement shaped everything that followed.
It really landed. Because for me, it’s been no different.
Because when you have someone in your corner like that, it gives you something that’s really hard to manufacture on your own.
Courage.
The courage to step outside your comfort zone. To take that extra risk you know could bring the reward. To back yourself, because someone else already does.
That belief from the people closest to you can be the difference between playing it safe and actually going for it.
Is family your number one driver for business success? Or your biggest motivator to keep pushing?
