Australia has always been a cradle of entrepreneurship.

Its tradition of no-nonsense, manly self-reliance, which judged a man solely by what he could wrestle out of a hard land, not by pretensions of class and education, has forged entrepreneurs who have found success all over the world...

...Which is rather the problem. Australia may have more natural entrepreneurial potential than any country in the world, but also has an egalitarian suspicion of success.

This means Australians often feel they have to go abroad to succeed.

However, Australia is changing. Where a young Australian’s wanderings often used to take him to Earl’s Court in London, it is now more likely to take him to his own backyard, the Pacific Rim.

The same is happening to Australian business, which is focussed more and more on Asia. The election of a Prime Minister who speaks Mandarin is deeply symbolic.

Australia is therefore becoming part of the most dynamic economic region in the world –but also the most competitive. If Australians really aspire to play in the same league as the “Asian Tigers”, they need to want success as much as the Asians do.