I watched a great tele-series on TV sometime back about the two titans of the Australian publishing and media industry.
The Murdoch and Packer families have been household names in Australia for decades, as the two families controlled rival TV and newspaper companies, which were both publicly listed.
Rupert Murdoch had to take over his father’s business when his dad died suddenly. He was rushed back from university in London and at just 23 years of age, he took the helm of his father’s company.
As he started to make more acquisitions, he moved from the Australian city of Adelaide to Sydney, where the Packer family was based. At this stage, the Packer family had a much larger business, something Rupert Murdoch was going to change.
As the TV series showed, at one point, Kerry Packer, by then the head of the Packer family business after his father had also passed away, invited Rupert to a dinner at his home with a number of other major players in the Sydney business scene.
When Rupert shared his global vision with the men at that catch up, they all laughed at him. The Packers, billionaires by this stage, kept their business interests largely in Australia, so the thought of a young Rupert Murdoch taking on the might of the media world in much larger markets was obviously seen as a joke.
However, as the show outlined, Rupert was embarrassed by the group that night. They clearly didn’t think he was capable of it. History now shows us that Mr Murdoch has been perhaps one of the most influential people in global media, starting with just one newspaper and building a company that employs well over 50,000 people. His business ended up dwarfing the Packers, yet even he had people laugh at his dreams. he is even in the Christian media market, where he owns Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, both Christian book publishers.
Whatever it is you feel God has called you to do, you can be sure there will be a host of people out there who will tell you why you shouldn’t do it, or why you’re not qualified to do it.
In my experience, the people who go the furthest in life are not those who are the smartest, did the best at school, or went to one of the top colleges. The people who generally make it to the top have a dream, a vision, and they simply will not give up on it. They are also careful who they share that dream with, as there are always so many people so willing to tell you why you won’t make it.
If you have a dream, then you’re going to have to fight for it. In the early days, my wife and I nearly quit on so many occasions, as the disappointment and discouragement was almost too much to bear. But where we have got to has, other than loads of prayer, had a lot to do with both never giving in, and also ensuring we only share our dreams with big-thinking people who encourage us and believe in us.
So choose the people you spend your time with very wisely, and hang around big-thinkers who will encourage you forward in whatever it is you believe God has placed on your heart to do.
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Matt Danswan is the CEO of Initiate Media, publishers of Christian Woman & Co. He also blogs at www.mattdanswan.com and is the author of NOT Business As Usual.
