Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith. Photo / Richard Dobson
Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith. Photo / Richard Dobson
Wealthy businessman Dick Smith has revealed the extent of his failures at school where he assigned himself the name “Dick Miff” and came close to last in his classes.
The multi-millionaire on Saturday – his 79th birthday – discussed his infamous “rags to riches” story with Sydney 2GB host Michael McLaren, revealing the little promise he displayed while a student on Sydney’s North Shore.
“I was absolutely hopeless,” Smith told McLaren.
“I went to Roseville Public School and I’ve still got my fifth class report and I came 45th out of 47 in the class, so I was pretty hopeless at school.”
Smith encouraged listeners with academically challenged kids to consider the trajectory his life ended up taking, despite the difficulties he faced.
“My message to any parent or grandparents who are listening now, if you’ve got a child who’s pretty dumb at school, don’t rule them out, they can still do OK,” he said.
Smith recalled beginning his enormous electronics empire with just A$610, which saw him set up Dick Smith Electronics at Big Bear carpark in Neutral Bay.
“In the first year, my accountant said ‘you’ve made more money than the prime minister of Australia’, who in those days got about A$30k a year,” he said.
“My business did well right from the start because I surrounded myself with capable people and I really worked hard.”
Dick Smith founded the successful electronics brand. Photo / Herald on Sunday
The multi-millionaire also addressed the crushing housing crisis being felt by people across the nation, with interest rates rising for a 10th consecutive time by 0.25 per cent to 3.6 per cent.
After early success with his business, Smith and his wife, Pip, bought a house in Sydney with a backyard for A$30,000.
“What I’m concerned about now is these days, that young couple can’t afford to buy a house with spare land in the front and back for the kids to have a cubby house and play cricket,” he said.
“You would think every generation would be better off, but we’re actually worse off when it comes to housing affordability and that’s because of our incredible population growth.”
Smith raised concerns for potential consequences if Australia’s population reached 100 million people.
“I’m pro-immigration but that’s a lot of people, and there’s not a lot of people who would think that 100 million [people] is sensible for a dry country like Australia,” he said.
His comments came after he claimed wealthy Australians “can and should” pay more tax, after the federal government announced people with more than A$3 million in superannuation would lose tax concessions.
Australians with more than $3 million in their superannuation accounts will have their concessional tax rate doubled from July 1, 2025, in a move predicted to save the budget $2 billion a year.
Smith argued rich people should be paying more because the “country needs money”.
“It’s a fantastic country, it’s got incredible education, roads, military, everything and it needs money to pay for that and we’re into great debt, and we should be paying the debt off and not letting our kids have to do that in the future.”
