Mike Cannon-Brookes: “Real Wealth Is Being Able To Afford A Servo Phone Charger”

PREVIEW

One of the nation’s youngest living treasures has revealed during an interview with The Advocate‘s weekend lift-out, In The Lignum, that he didn’t really feel ‘rich’ until he found himself able to flippantly purchase a phone charger from a local petrol station.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, a co-chief executive of tech giant Atlassian, is one of the country’s richest people – and with that, he says, comes a great responsibility.

“I found myself standing in a Caltex in Sydney, twirling my Amex through my fingers. Daydreaming,” he told The Advocate’s ERROL PARKER.

“When I spotted a rack of mobile phone accessories. You know, I’m not a poor man by any stretch of the imagination but that doesn’t mean I’m a reckless with money. I was once just a regular IT worker without two cents to rub together,”

“I noticed the iPhone car charger was $35, which is just not on. How absurd! But then, I thought, why don’t In just buy it because I can afford to? I don’t even have an iPhone because I’m a grown up. But that didn’t stop me, because that’s what real wealth is,”

“Buying things like a useless phone charger at the servo and not even flinching. That is real wealth.”

The 39-year-old Scorpio went on to explain that he’s often reckless with money in a philanthropic nature but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Mike Cannon-Brookes’ full interview with The Advocate will be published in this weekend’s In The Lignum, available on Saturday morning locally.

More to come.