By CRAIG MUSSON
LIFE, LESSONS and LEARNINGS
Never let the fear of failure be greater than the hope of new opportunity.
The journey from a young man shovelling horse manure for a few dollars to becoming the owner of a multi-million dollar international flower business employing over 200 people.
In 1991 Craig, and his wife Michelle, left behind the chaos of Zimbabwe and emigrated to Perth, Western Australia. Australia was in a recession with soaring inflation and unemployment. Michelle worked as a primary school teacher while Craig picked roses in the Swan Valley. However, given the state of the economy he was soon laid off.
Craig describes his situation at the time as being ‘…desperately unhappy and frustrating. I had brought my wife to the country for a better life and here I was unemployed, probably unemployable, and in the middle of a stinking recession.’
Faced with almost overwhelming odds but filled with optimism and a ‘can do’ attitude, Craig was supported by Michelle, an army of family and friends, and a courageous bank manager, in his decision to import roses and chrysanthemums from Zimbabwe for resale in Australia. It was a bold move, creating a business in perishable commodities in the most isolated capital city in the world.
This business formed the foundations of Wafex.
Life, Lessons and Learnings reveals the story behind Wafex, and Craig’s own life, as the business builds. However this is much more than just an interesting autobiography, for the author has a desire to reveal ‘the Wafex journey with shared lessons and learnings at its heart.’
Craig believes he can encourage and inspire other men and women who are keen to build a successful business.
He has acheived his aim by creating a book that is written with heartfelt frankness and good humour, filled with interesting anecdotes, providing detailed examples of where he has succeeded, and where he could have done better, for he believes people can learn from their failures.
This book is compelling reading for those seeking to understand more about Wafex, the man behind the brand or who wish to benefit from Craig’s lessons and learnings.
FORWARD – A word from craiG
My intention in writing this book is to share the Wafex journey; from a young man with an Agricultural Diploma and $250 to his name to owner of a global business employing
200 staff.
It is a story with shared lessons and learnings at its heart. We learn more from our failures than we do our successes and my hope in sharing my stories is that you may be saved
some of the pain as you go about your own journeys. It is also a story about humour and optimism, of relationships and hardships to hopefully encourage and inspire.
I hope you enjoy the read. Never let the fear of failure be greater than the hope of new opportunity. One of the greatest men to have lived, Theodore Roosevelt said it best.
‘The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.’
This is my story from the arena.
Also by Craig Musson