Why is annette presley successful

Despite not knowing much about running a business, Stratum grew rapidly and by the time she sold it four years later, it was one of the leading IT recruitment firms in New Zealand. It was around this time that she met her future husband and business partner Malcolm Dick, who was then the managing director of telecommunications business Netway, a Freightways-Telecom joint venture.

When Netway was sold, Dick signed a non-compete agreement, which Presley said forced the pair to move to Australia. Staying in New Zealand and doing something different doesn't seem to have crossed her mind at the time and the move to Australia was an "obvious one".

She points to a few pictures on the table - a slightly younger looking version of herself with longer hair next to a smiling man in a retro looking shirt - Dick - in the middle of the garage which in served as the first Call Australia office in their home in Sydney. The smiles in the picture belie the stress of that time as everything went wrong.

The pair were supposed to have a third business partner but at the last minute he decided the risk was too great and backed out. The company that was supposed to supply to them also seemed to waver before backing out as well, at which point Presley thought things were pretty tough. She says that everyone was telling her the company was going to fail, they were never going to make it and would be broke within a few months.

They succeeded because they refused to give up, Presley says, although she notes that if Dick had been less confident she too might have backed down. Against all the odds - and advice - the company began to succeed.

Setting up their own reseller in Australia may seem like a reasonable feat in itself, but at the time when the pair first set up Call Australia, they were the only reseller in the country.

We were literally the first in Australia, now there are hundreds. But we were the first. By this time Presley and Dick had married and had their first child, son Brandon, and back home New Zealand had deregulated its telecommunications sector. Similar to Call Australia's start, CallPlus began in a small office in Parnell, and while better than a garage, with six staff and a bit more money to invest, Presley says it was still tiny, particularly when compared with the staff that CallPlus employs today.

At the time Telecom operated an almost monopoly on the market and Presley says it ended up being the most difficult and terrifying time in her business career. That the resilience I learned in my childhood And the more resilience you have, the more successful you're going to be.

But she's sick, and I think it's sad to exploit people, to put them in that position. The face, the sudden caution in the voice, tell you there is stuff in there you'll never be told, deep, mysterious wounds covered with the hard lacquer of resilience. Go near them, even imply them, and the velvet wall comes up. I've become alert over the years to being deflected during interviews, but Presley flicks me away effortlessly.

I don't realise it until later. But the resilience and the toughness too! What a story it is, of how Presley and Malcolm Dick made their fortunes in Australia. We had no furniture. We started up in a garage of an apartment. All the experts who came to see us said, 'You're going to fail. It's just a matter of when'.

Our third business partner-to-be backed out because we were going to fail. And I broke my leg in a car accident. I mean, we had everything against us and three legs. He had no business. He had no idea what he was doing, business-wise, and I did a deal with him where we could re-sell his service.

And that day we stayed. Presley, now 43, is a keen student of the lessons of her journey. She has an acute understanding of the opposing forces of life. It's all there in the speeches she gives round the country. If you're not failing, she says, you're not learning. If you're not making mistakes, you're not risking. If you're not risking, you can't succeed.

So you'll succeed, but you'll fail too, she says. You'll get it right, and you'll get it wrong. If you aren't feeling the fear, you aren't trying something big enough. If you stay in your comfort zone, you'll go nowhere. Profit, fame, fortune and success are all a function of risk and danger, she says with the ease of someone who's said the words aloud, like a mantra, many times.

And Vulnerable Annette's made danger a friend. And I believe that's one of the keys to success. If I'm not scared, I'm not going to do my best, and if I'm not going to do my best, I'd rather not do it. And does she care? Being honest. Depends on the day. And people always have an opinion. I'm sure some people, because I call a spade a spade, find that challenging. I can't stop being who I am.

I take the good and leave the bad. If it's true that you can learn a lot about people by examining the causes they embrace, Presley's are worthy of study. I think that's the reason I support them. That's the battling side of me that makes me help underdogs. Annette designed her winter home to be a haven for not only herself but also her guests.

The nuns taught us to value academic achievement, but lots of my friends thought it was cool to flunk off and hang out with boys. Not at all. I guess I was brought up tough. I wanted to get out, to get away from there and have another life. In that environment, you have to have an edge of toughness to make it out.

I dreamt of an independent life with choice, a flash car and nice clothes and a boat to sail away on. Her grandmother, with whom she went to live at 15 after her mother put all her clothes out on the lawn one day, supported her dreams and told Annette she was the best saleswoman she had ever come across.

Annette was, she later came to realize, passionate about people. When decorating, Annette chose colours that exude warmth, using earthy tones and embracing the local elements by exposing raw materials throughout. The change is unbelievable. At the end of the workshops they have to do a skit and all of them participate; they feel that empowered and strong.

No one is too scared to get up on the stage. I want to help young women to show them that they can get out and create independent lives and live their dreams. The young seller of golf balls and fake flowers went from a computer programming student at AUT, to a computer saleswoman, to starting and selling an IT recruitment company Stratum.

It is a subtle personal signature of mine. She loves giving back. Annette and her guests spend their time at Yellowstone skiing hard and fast. Be kind.