Interview: Glenn Upson
Glenn:
Terrific. I was born in Victoria and dad was a policeman, so I guess that was an influence for me, early days.
Leonie:
Yep.
Glenn:
Went to school in Victoria way back when in ’82, I finished high school. Joined the army, full-time army. Then and I went into the infantry, parachute battalion in Sydney, back then. Always had a desire to go to the police because of dad’s influence. So after three years in the military, I went to Victorian Police for four years, from ’86 to ’90.
Glenn:
The military days had sent me to Queensland to the Canungra Land Warfare Center, so I fell in love with Queensland. Decided to make the big move. Left Victorian Police in ’90, come to Queensland and then rejoined the QPS in ’92.
Glenn:
QPS was, you know, all of your normal, general duties, a bit of covert surveillance drug stuff and then had a passion from my military days to try out for SERT, which is the tactical policing unit, so the Special Emergency Response Team. So it’s similar to SWAT teams if that’s a more generic term. So I become a- I went into that whole tactical arena.
Leonie:
Sorry, what does S.E.R.T. stand for? Security-
Glenn:
No, Special Emergency Response Team.
Leonie:
Special … Emergency … Response … Team … Okay.
Glenn:
So, it’s the high-end, it’s all for, based on it’s the counter-terrorism response, hostage rescue, it’s that tier one policing. So it’s that paramilitary part of the police, you know, called out in times of need type guys.
Leonie:
Right.
Glenn:
I did, so I joined SERT in ’99, I went through selection which is, probably the upmost arduous course within the Queensland Police Service.
Leonie:
Wow.
Glenn:
I completed selection: three out of 111 of us-
Leonie:
Wow.
Glenn:
-come through, and I was lucky enough to get on the team. I mean-
Leonie:
So the other 108, they just continued with their current-
Glenn:
Sorry?
Leonie:
So the other 108 who didn’t get through, is that what you said? Three out of 111?
Glenn:
Yeah, that’s right.
Leonie:
So, they just went back to the jobs that they were doing in the police did they?
Glenn:
Yeah, they just went back to general duties. Quite a few get broken along the way, damaged, injured or mental health issues. ‘Cause it is very much, it’s a military based course set up by the SAS, the Special Air Service so it’s very, very challenging.
Glenn:
It’s a three day- well, it’s a one day physical selection, to see if you are able to go on the three day course pre-selection which is just sleep deprivation and a huge amount of stimulus testing of fears and phobias of heights, water, closed environments. At the same time the sleep deprivation, lack of food, and just running, yeah, from dusk ’til dawn. So, following that course it was no [inaudible 00:03:25] left with lots of abrasions, cuts, lost six kilos in three days, it is a full on test of character.
Leonie:
That sounds like so much fun I can totally see why you’d wanna do that.
Glenn:
It’s always been in my dreams, cause I’ve been in the military too so I just, you know, it’s about testing yourself and then committing to something bigger than yourself I think, it’s just try to get to the other end still standing.
Glenn:
Anyway, [crosstalk 00:03:53] as you know, I jumped through those hoops. Went on team start of 2000 and I ended up being in the training circle, plus I was a water operator so … I was ahead of my advance, and I was a team sniper so I was in New Zealand on the sniper awareness course, the sniper concentration in 2002.
Glenn:
But then in 2004 I got a random phone call from an ex-mate of mine, that’s when the Iraq conflict was on, and he was in the military and they were being deployed to Iraq for a protection detail for the ambassador. ‘Cause Australia had a commitment to the Coalition forces so they were looking for 20 guys, they’d had 19 pure military guys and they wanted to trial a PTG, so, what they call a Police Tactical Group Guys, but with a military background so they knew that my head space was around in a war zone. And I ticked all those boxes so in May 18th 2004 I landed in Baghdad with a team of good old boys, and we stood up the PSD, the Protective Security Detail to protect the ambassador and the ministers on the ground in Iraq.
Glenn:
That was always destined to be a 12 month gig, and I was only gonna do that for 12 months and bring the knowledge that I’d picked up in that world back to the team here, back to the unit. And that was all agreed upon within SERT and the Appalachion, until a few other guys started to jump ship, influenced, primarily just by myself and other guys from other states leaving. And then the [N.L. 00:05:46] got all political so they made it too hard for us to get back in. So my 12 months in Iraq finished after four years in Iraq, then two years in Kabul in Afghanistan, so I was over in that world until 2010 which was certainly interesting, that’s for sure.
Leonie:
Wow, I bet it was.
Glenn:
You know, a lot of exposure to, you know, to the real world, I suppose. What goes on in that world, I lost a lot of good friends in six years, a lot of good mates went over, didn’t come home. All good boys, you know, all good guys just doing what we needed to do over there and come 2010 I thought “That’s really a lottery, it’s rolling a dice. The more times you go, the more chance you’re not coming home and how much money is that risk worth?” And guys do put a dollar amount on it, they won’t go in countries for $520 a day, won’t risk their life, but they’ll go for $550 and I think “funny little equation guys have put in their head.”
Glenn:
So, I did my time there and I tried to come home in 2007, and I went a friend’s, an ex-cop mate of mine had a job at ESU, the Ethical Standards command of a Unit in Brisbane, as an investigator in the health complaints in Queensland health. But, yeah, I got there and I’d come from, you know what they often call the sand pits. Literally, the cowboys over there must have wild times and next thing I’m sitting in a cubicle in Brisbane, watching a wall clock go “tick, tick, tick,” through a pile of files and I lasted four and a half / five weeks.
Glenn:
I took a contract back in Kabul in January 2008 so, and then two more years there and I met my now-wife, Michelle back in the end of ’08 end of ’09 and she wasn’t too happy with that world and the rotations. ‘Cause you’re eight weeks away, three and a half / four weeks home at a time so we talked and I said “alright I’ll transition” and I came back and again, went back to Queensland health and finished up the big Gold Coast as the principal investigator of a case manager in HR and that was a strong, that was a long two years I did there but with the views, and it was back in that time, probably a little earlier, that I bumped into Randall. Somewhere in that transitioning period and he was kicking off his business maybe a little bit earlier than that. Picking up his business and I was kicking off mine ‘Cause I’d just been in with Cook, setting up my security company in 2005 with a view that’s slowly building.
Leonie:
Right.
Glenn:
Yeah, so we met back in the day and he was great, he was working out of his garage at home and then his first little office and I was talking to him at that stage about what I needed to do and he helped me with the first quals I think the first one was the Diploma of Security & Risk Management ‘Cause he was giving us the advice for ex-police and military guys of what he could do for us and how they’d help me.
Glenn:
So, I started to grab a couple of those qualifications along the way and then lasted two years in health ’til about 2012 when I thought “I can’t, I’m not gonna build a business successfully if I’m working for the man, so to speak, it’s gotta either be 100% commitment or not.” So I jumped out of health in early 2012, and went boots and all into [inaudible 00:09:26] for the security company.
Glenn:
And primarily in that day I was getting government investigations, which I still do today, directed to me from Gold Coast health. They knew me as their investigator and now they were just outsourcing to me as a private contractor and then …
Leonie:
So, what sort of investigations are you doing for health?
Glenn:
All the code of conduct stuff, all internal misconduct and everything from breaching IC security to stealing drugs to bullying, harassment, anything out of their code of conduct.
Leonie:
Okay.
Glenn:
So we do that now, ‘Cause, I’ll continue with the story, I’m gonna tell you about the company restructuring, we’ve grown.
Glenn:
So I was doing that but, you know, to be honest, I was always, I guess, as the boys say it, I’m always an operator, always on the tools, out and about in foreign land so I started to put my name out there again and picking up individual contracts. So, back, even when I was talking with Randall I was training a lot of, in Qatar, Doha Qatar and the UAE so I was training with special forces and whatnot on big crisis management, [inaudible 00:10:47] survival, urban warfare and in all those jobs so I’d just appear [crosstalk 00:10:57]
Leonie:
Sorry, sorry Glenn, I’m actually holding back a number of questions I want to ask you. I just wanted to pop a couple in. So you were doing the training yourself and you were going over to Qatar and UAE to deliver this training through your business contract?
Glenn:
Yeah, and supported by Randall, because a lot of the training we were delivering they were wanting qualifications. So Randall would be, [crosstalk 00:11:20] he was on comms with me at 2:00 in the morning, [crosstalk 00:11:24] in Qatar and say, “Mate, could we build a qualification? Could we do this? Could we do that?” So, aligning with him we were doing stuff, fire rescue stuff out of Doha Qatar, we were running fire training courses. It wasn’t my specialty, but I had guides and grace to do it and a multitude of other sort of, tactical courses.
Glenn:
And then as the company grew, my reputation grew so I did that-
Leonie:
So, I’m sorry Glenn, just to clarify: So, with Randall you were designing training courses that were then attached to a national qualification?
Glenn:
Yeah, we were doing our best, whether he just, he endorsed it as a statement of attainment or we’d give out a formal qual. So, I trained the guys ahead of Qatar Patroleum. Randall issued in, I don’t know, three or four quals for us. So we had a partnership arrangement way back when and we were just, you know, spreading the word.
Leonie:
Yeah, great.
Glenn:
[crosstalk 00:12:31]
Leonie:
And I cut you off, you were saying, when you were mentioning going over to Qatar and UAE, you were going to say that Michelle was happy that you were gone?
Glenn:
Yeah, she was on board because I wasn’t in the sandpit, I wasn’t in the badlands. It was still a little bit risky but nothing like, I wasn’t, I don’t know, if I speak honestly with you, we were in so much stuff over in that world. We could be in fights every second day, and cars getting blown up and hotels.
Glenn:
I was at Serena hotel when they attacked us, you know, in the hotel, blew the gates and entered the hotel. I was at the end of the [kijaf 00:13:12] When they overrun the embassy and we lost guys everywhere. It was just a whole ‘nother world, a different episode altogether that place.
Leonie:
Wow.
Glenn:
But, yeah, I got home, Michelle was happy that I did that and then I sort of built, I became a bit of a collar and tie guy in the investigation space and now throwing my fatigues and bush kit and disappear and do a dig so what Trish mentioned, I work for ICC then, they got a hold of me and I was in Bangladesh in NDM or high risk places, cause I looked after the Australian team.
Glenn:
There was a lot of individual jobs stood up between I guess, that timeframe of health in 2012 to current day, with the things I’ve gone and done and now, well, we’re still doing. I mean, our most recent stuff, you know, 2015, ’16, and just in November now. We just looked after Taylor Swift, you know, so we’re into the entertainment game now, looking after the high end people.
Leonie:
Oh, wow.
Glenn:
So we just had her for five weeks on her world tour, so know her pretty good.
Leonie:
Did you get a t-shirt signed?
Glenn:
Yeah, she gave us lots of stuff, including her hairdryer and hair wand for my daughter so she’s pretty happy about that.
Leonie:
Aw, that’s great. So Glenn, how many kids have you got?
Glenn:
I have two, older ones now, and Michelle has two, so we’ve had four under the roof.
Leonie:
Okay, and so, how did the kids handle you being, you know, over in the sandpit, and then also in the slightly less risky, but still much more risky than Australia locations?
Glenn:
Look, an interesting question. When I split it was ’02, so I was still on the team and [inaudible 00:15:04] team and the kids were six and three and it was tough. Cause, to make ends meet I deployed not after that, 18 months or something in ’04 and I wasn’t seeing the kids for a long time. But as they got a little bit older they understood.
Glenn:
Initially they didn’t know, dad just wasn’t here, he was on a job. But as they got older they started to realize, and would see on the news, you know the stuff and once I realized it was starting to impact them. You know, they wouldn’t sleep at night if I was away and a lot of little things going on with the ex. I made sure I was home so by the time my boy turned 14, he’s 22 now, and when he turned 14 he came to live with me full-time. So that was the transition in 2010 to come off contract and come home and then my daughter, Emily, she come and , when she turned 14 she came and lived with me full-time as well. Just cause of the stability I gave ’em when I was planted back at home, I promised them they’d stay at the one school and whatnot. Got them through school and then Michelle and I come together, living together, we’ve been together for 10 years, but living together in about three and a half / four years ago. Got married last year.
Leonie:
Aw, congratulations.
Glenn:
Yeah, so it was all sort of slowly coming together, but you know the industry as a whole, and the background as a whole, even now, if I’m brutally honest with you. I struggle to be- I’ve never classed myself as a business man because its something I’m learning all the time. I love being on the ground, operational in that state so that’s the business as of November last year, I opened the doors to three other directors who’ve come in.
Glenn:
Oh, because for the last few months I got, I was dragged down and I was one of the security managers for the Commonwealth Games. So I did 18 months working on the Comm Games and I delivered security for them for the venues in the Gold Coast. After that- [crosstalk 00:17:06]
Leonie:
So did you get an attender to do that, or were you personally employed in that security capacity?
Glenn:
Yeah. I got a phone call from the security, overall security manager who is now one of the business directors who has come in with us. He was the head of security for Commonwealth games, I got a call and said “mate, what are you doing? What do we need to do to get you down here?” And I knew him from my early Gold Coast policing days, way back when, and yeah it worked for us cause Michelle loved it ‘Cause it nailed me to the floor for 18 months
Glenn:
It kept me home and that finished in June last year for us and then I was stuck with no gigs so then I fished up Taylor in October. That was five and a half weeks, had some downtime and now I’m just looking at a contract in Malaysia and was just down the MCG yesterday in Melbourne with a meeting so I’m- Keith Urban was on so we were at the concert the night before and having a talk to his tour production people and now Lady Gaga and a couple of others, I’m hoping to be future clients so, we’ll be serving in that space.
Leonie:
Wow, so that’s a huge change from doing security for government officials over in Afghanistan to doing security for Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
Glenn:
It is, you know what, it’s so much more rewarding, financially, working in the event space. Look, low risk really and we work with a lot of good security lads, but so much more rewarding. I mean, we’re living in five star hotels on corporate sets instead of living in a bombed out villa with no power, no water and no electricity and everyone wants to shoot ya.
Leonie:
Wow, that’s a huge world of difference, isn’t it?
Glenn:
It is, it’s a mental transition that one, for sure.
Leonie:
Yeah, so, I mean, it’s definitely great to be financially rewarded but is, obviously you must have been that, of a certain personality type that you like to live with a big of danger and a bit of threat and have that challenge. So, even though you’re much more financially rewarded, are you still finding the work satisfying?
Glenn:
Really good questions, cause I’m challenged all the time by that and I would if I could, go and play in the badlands forever and that does sound funny, I know, but its just something that is. In the genes, I guess if a guy’s similar, those military guys and whatnot. The old pain, you don’t wanna train for a grand final and just continue training, you eventually wanna go play, so there’s so much training in my earlier days, you just wanna go and see where you fit on the field. And I do love it, I mean, I just turned 54, so I’m still fit and healthy and nothing is broken too much yet to stop me. But it is a young boys game too.
Leonie:
Okay, and then it’s a bit the balance of having your family and having other people in your life to look after I guess.
Glenn:
That’s hard because, to be true to yourself you’d be away, but to be good partner and husband and father and all that, you need to be home.
Leonie:
Yeah.
Glenn:
You know there’s a fine line there to having everything.
Leonie:
Yeah there is, and life is always about making some compromises so that you can’t have all the things cause otherwise you’ll miss out on something, it’s always the balance isn’t it.
Glenn:
Yeah, nah, gotta promise Michelle, you know, I’ll stay, as best I can, I’ll stay out of the badlands and be more of the corporate guy. I mean, but my job, my industry, the business that I currently run, the [Bopique 00:21:37] security company so I don’t supply security guards to look at pubs or anything. We’re a niche, specialized organization and when the phone rings it’s “Are you available for this? Can you do this?” And I, we go job to job. There’s jobs that I won’t take cause of risk, or they’re not the right, I say “Mate, call MSS or call one of those companies ‘Cause we won’t do that.” [crosstalk 00:22:08]
Leonie:
So, when you say ‘niche market’, is there a particular market segment that you cater to, or do you mean more that you pick and choose?
Glenn:
I guess it’s, we’re very selective, we’re looking for the upper echelon of clients, from the CPP space. We won’t just take on anyone of the clients, the client’s gotta actually work within our model and our parameter as well and the same with other jobs now because of the experience of the Commonwealth Games. We’re now-
Leonie:
And the cricket, did Trisha say that you also did security for some cricket teams?
Glenn:
Yeah, ICC world cricket, so I looked after, I was in Chittagong in Southern Bangladesh, that’s a high risk area cause of Myanmar, you know, there’s a lot of issues with people getting listed over there, corporates getting taken so, no I looked after the whole, I was a city security coordinator in 2016, Chittagong Bangladesh and same again in Punjab in Northern India and later in 2016.
Glenn:
And I still, I just got a call from them last week actually, can I do a job in Cairo for them, for 14 days in March. So there’s a chance I’ll get over to Cairo for 14 days if it all stacks up. So they now have a list of go-to guys to do certain jobs and we can supply the right guys to do those jobs.
Leonie:
So it sounds like your business is, I mean, it’s obviously, you know, providing you with monetary incentive, but also fills a bit of that excitement which sounds like is really important to you.
Glenn:
Yeah, I try to make [inaudible 00:24:03] if possible. I’m not designed to sit a desk all the time it does my head in and as I say, that, the year I’m sitting down to take on an investigation for the gold coast that come in yesterday.
Glenn:
So Michelle, in her head, she works with the director in Queensland health. So she drives off to work and she goes great, I know you’re at the desk and you’re reading reports and helping reports and I just sorta smile at her, and go “yes, I’m safe for the next 14 days, whatever it takes to knock this over.” Because she knows Cairo’s on the book and she doesn’t really want me going to Cairo so that’s the trade-off that we have now.
Leonie:
Okay, then maybe she can go over with you for a bit of it and you can, sort of, sail down the Nile or something.
Glenn:
Yeah exactly. Like, I do take her away on like the right jobs if the client’s okay, I’ve brought her down to Sydney when we moved Taylor’s three days stay in Sydney and I got her down to, she stayed at a hotel with us down there and yeah, we do the best we can. But, sometimes the travel and movements just don’t work for her either. With her work.
Leonie:
Yeah, fair enough. Glenn, I know that I’ve already taken up already almost half an hour of your time, I just have a couple more questions if you’re okay with that?
Glenn:
Yeah, alright.
Leonie:
Yep. So first of all, I was just interested to go right back to ,sort of, the beginning of your story and you mentioned when you were talking about doing the training for SERT, you mentioned being part of something that’s bigger than yourself?
Glenn:
Yep.
Leonie:
Can you just talk to me about that a little bit?
Glenn:
Well I guess for me, and it all comes down to how you’re raised and whatnot but dad always taught us to chase dreams and whatnot. Now, as I joined the army and left the army, I’ve always wanted to be in the SAS, the Special Air Service. I wanted to get there cause that was the tier one, top end of the military, and I didn’t have that opportunity ‘Cause I was driven to be a cop as well, so when I left the army to join the police I wanted to be a part of something bigger and that was within the police.
Glenn:
The top end team is SERT, but they sit on the cusp and you know, they’re the guys you don’t really hear much about because they’re kept under wraps. If you’re ever watched the TV and that, in the sieges you never see them. They’re all balaklava’d up and you don’t read much about them in the paper cause they’re kept under wraps. But I think for me the comforting part was, to be involved in something where you do real good without actually any accolades whatsoever. Those guys jump through, do super dangerous stuff day in day out without ever getting an accolade.
Glenn:
I mean, I got the highest award from the Queensland police, the Bell award, I was awarded that for rescuing some people as a general duties cop in Nerang, in the floods and rescuing off her car and I got the Bell award. And yet, I went to SERT, and there were guys who were- and I ended up doing way more dangerous jobs, but because of the nature of the unit, you never recognize. And I felt, you know, just being a part of something. It’s not about you, its not about getting medals, it’s just about the team and the guys and you know, getting people safe. And that’s what the boys were all about.
Glenn:
I think they’re an amazing group of guys and as a family, as a motto ‘we serve as brothers in arms’ and that is what it is. You know, guys get hurt, guys get sick, and it’s a big family with a [inaudible 00:27:57] around them, it’s the same with the military. And I do love that and hence, you know, the brotherhood of just the normal QPS and Randall and I met, way, would be 10 years plus ago, but as soon as he said “Oh, I’m an ex-cop”, “Oh, me too.” There’s a bond there straight away and a mate-ship that a lot of people don’t ever experience and I think that’s great.
Leonie:
Yeah, okay I can see that. I mean you must have to have a particular personality type to want to go to that elite level of you know, shooting for SAS or SERT. But, yeah, to have that personality type where you wanna serve and you wanna be part of something and part of a team and you know, really helping and not needing those accolades to do it.
Glenn:
Yeah, I do, I mean I’ve got my own little memorabilia cabinet. Like, you know when you buy [inaudible 00:29:00], memories of things you’ve done and what we were exposed to and memories of guys that aren’t here still.
Glenn:
That was always just the nature of it so I’ve still got good mates from my military days, and good mates from my team days and good mates from my Iraq and Afghanistan days, and they’re really good bonds. The business, my business recruitment is, is amazing it’s simply: I put the word out on the vine, “I need a couple of good guys,” and that word just filters out and comes back so, I don’t have to sit at the desk and do interviews, I just get mates who ring and say “I worked with this guy over here [crosstalk 00:29:44] he’s rock solid and he’s like-minded mate, he’s good to go.” And that’s the terminology.
Leonie:
No, that’s interesting. One of my couple of remaining questions was what’s your advice on getting into the security industry? So, it would just be that someone has to meet someone that knows you and then they’ll go up the grapevine, is that pretty much your advice?
Glenn:
Well, look yes. I’ve met guys who’ve come to me with a qualification and, you know, younger boys, including my young bloke who’s come and played on a couple of jobs and he understands that there’s a hierarchy to it. He understands that you can’t just go and get a diploma of A. B. C. And D., not to work at my place, to work in someone else’s security, yeah. But you can’t just go and get your crowd controllers’ license and then, say, apply for a job to do protective security details over the Saudi prince. You’re just not ready to play.
Glenn:
So, it comes with knowledge-
Leonie:
Yeah, so I guess you’re, in a way, better off to do it the other way. Get out there, get on some jobs, get some experience and then if you wanna move up, then have a look at maybe RPLing, getting some certifications and doing it that way, that’s probably a better way to do it, isn’t it?
Glenn:
Absolutely spot on, I think so, get some life experience under your belt. You know, get out there in the real world and have a look and then you can use an organization like Churchills who you can then sit down with and say “you have a look at me, what can I get because I’ve got 10 years of experience, but what does that mean in [inaudible 00:31:31] street? In the civilian world, how does that translate?
Glenn:
Now, these days I’ve looked at, Randall’s helped me with a couple of other quals things over the years with specific areas, but these days no one ever asks me what other quals I have. I don’t get asked that question because they know me or another client recommended to me and that’s all they need to know. But, one of the other business partner’s said, he’s 40 years in the police, he just went to Randall, I don’t know, three months ago? And got, I don’t know, seven / eight grand worth of quals from memory, three or four qualifications from memory, ‘Cause he too was in that place. There’s my credibility on paper and on the website when people are talking to us, ‘Cause he’s new, he needs that actual credibility to move forward with. So, guys with his experience, as Superintendents from the Gold Coast, still doesn’t have it translated to a piece of paper that he can utilize.
Leonie:
Yeah, credibility is the key word in there with the civilian world, isn’t it? And qualifications as a sort of the bridge between the inside of police and defense and helping civilian world to understand that, the way it works, yeah.
Glenn:
I think primarily with government, not so much in that corporate space. Corporate people look at really, who you are and who’s recommended you to come in. But the government world, they want CVs of everybody that I put forward for an investigation or a job. They want the CVs, they want to see qualifications, especially quals that they have so it’s almost mandatory, you know, to teach investigations in the government. That’s what we do, we teach investigations, you’ve gotta have your certificate four in government investigations or otherwise they won’t let you do it.
Glenn:
Or even if you’ve been a detective for 30 years, you’ve gotta go in and get that qual.
Leonie:
Yeah, right. And you’ve done a few transitions in your career, Glenn, what are your tips for smooth career transitions?
Glenn:
What do I attribute?
Leonie:
Well, what are your tips for smooth transitions, ‘Cause you’ve gone from defense to police to government to private sectors to running your own business. So, there’s quite a few transitions in there.
Glenn:
Look, I guess I was always … I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the concept ‘concrete boot’?
Glenn:
What my dad taught me was, he said “Mate, unless you’re getting trained in the canal by the mafia, don’t wear concrete boots.” He said “Be flexible enough to move, and when you need to move and back yourself to make those moves.”
Glenn:
So, my dad was old-school police, so dad had a very, I guess a very modern approach to life. Saying “the world changes mate,” he said, “don’t get bogged down, try and be flexible, chase your dreams and never underestimate yourself.” All that, sort of general dad stuff that I look back on now and it’s just made me who I was, I never put my hand up and say I can’t do it, and I’m a risk taker, like I think Randall was. Jumping from across the [inaudible 00:34:56] and going, “could I make this worse?”
Glenn:
If you don’t have some ambition and desire to, think you’re gonna succeed and then there’s a thousand other acronyms that you’re taught through the military and police as a young bloke, you know. All the stuff about pride, preparation, planning and all that sort of stuff, so, I would never make a random move. I would never take on a client, for example, without doing homework and having a look at them. I accept the risk on each job, or accept the risk on each venture and away I go. Hope it stacks up.
Leonie:
Yeah, that sounds like great advice. It sounds like your dad was a bit of an inspiration to you Glenn.
Glenn:
Oh, look, absolutely, he was, well dad’s still with us, he’s just in a home now, he’s 84 and he’s not with it anymore. But he was just a rock-solid dad, he was amazing like that. There was a time in my life he said, “don’t give up we’re almost done, what are you sticking around for? Get out and go.” And that was dad and I think that’s great.
Glenn:
I think our young ones now, our young ones that are hitting the street and having a look at the world. I’m thinking it’d be the same advice to them. There’s just too many people who say you can’t, or don’t but you can do anything you wanted to do.
Leonie:
Yep. That is really good advice, I love that concrete boots metaphor. I think that’ll definitely be in the case study.
Leonie:
Well, Glenn, I think that I’ve taken up enough of your time. Thank you so much, it’s been such a pleasure to talk to you. You’ve got such an interesting, you’ve had such an interesting career and I think it’s really, Trisha was right to highlight you as a great potential case study because it gives an example of the huge set of possible careers and jobs within the security industry that I think a lot of people wouldn’t really think about. So thank you.
Glenn:
Well, I’m-