And there you have it, the 200 is up. When I first started writing Growth in 2016, little did I imagine that we’d achieve this milestone.

Last Monday, the 25th, was 23 years since my father-in-law, Wal, passed away. A World War II veteran with the Royal Air Force, his passing was sudden and unexpected.

Last week’s weather and catastrophic fire warning in Sydney was, for me, both confronting and provocative.

Last Tuesday was the running of the Melbourne Cup – the race that stops the nation. I’m not much into horse racing. When it comes to horsepower, I’m a fan of more than one!

Three days prior to flying to Canada a few weeks ago, I injured my back. It was the most innocuous of actions, reaching for something in the shower, that made it give way. The slight reach meant my legs collapsed from underneath me as the excruciating pain tore through my lower back.

Last week, I was privileged to spend time in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada with some of the top Small & Medium Enterprise business advisors from the USA, Canada, Spain & Australia.

I knew things weren’t good when I turned up to my meeting with one of my long standing great clients. The atmosphere in the room gave it away immediately. There had been some bad news.

The noise can be deafening, yet also exhilarating. The smells can be strong, yet also subtle. The passion is usually emphatic – there’s no in between there!

Like most families, my own has plenty of stories from our past. In my mother’s case, there’s the story of how they came into contact with Pixie O’Harris, the Australian children’s author and artist, who was a contemporary of May Gibbs. My mother, to this day, still has the portrait of her as a 6 year old, painted by Pixie O’Harris, hanging in her home.

Family businesses are great at evolving. Often they start in the lounge room or the garage and move on to bigger and better things. The beauty of spending 30 years working with family businesses is that I’ve heard a lot of stories of how it has all started and what humble beginnings most of those family business owners have had.