Millionaire - Author - Philanthropist - Success Coach

John Fitzgerald is a self made Australian success story, who with no tertiary education, created his first million at age 23.

At 41years of age John Fitzgerald has bought, sold and developed over 5000 properties and has amassed an extensive property portfolio of residential and commercial businesses and equities. John's JLF Corporation, consists of more than 22 companies with a turnover of more than $300m per annum in property and finance.

John Fitzgerald was born in Melbourne in 1963. One of 5 children, his father died in an automobile accident when he was 8 years old. John completed his secondary schooling at Christian Bros., College in Ballarat with below average grades. On leaving school at age 16 he hitchhiked to Queensland with $200 in his pocket and began working in real estate at age 17 making him one of the youngest licensed agents at the time.

At age 18 he had syndicated over $5m in developments. John started a new national property magazine at age 19 called "Property Weekly Update" and began trading in property as JLF Corporation at age 20.

John is the author of 2 books, the best seller "Seven Steps To Wealth" (All The Things They Don't Tell You About Property Investment) read by tens of thousands of Australians (now into it's fourth edition) and "We Can Be Heroes" - Seven Stories From The Road To Inner Wealth. He is also the author, producer and narrator of 3 CD's "Focus", "Success" and "Accelerated Wealth".

John is the Chairman and founding benefactor of the Toogoolawa Schools Ltd established in 1991. Toogoolawa has fostered more than 100 children who have been categorised as youth at risk or wards of the state. In 1998 Toogoolawa established its first school for non-mainstream students with learning difficulties and plans to duplicate the Toogoolawa schools curriculum in other states. John has been featured on ABC's 7.30 Report and Australian Story for his work with Toogoolawa and was awarded an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for his achievements in the sport of Polo. John is an avid hiker and uses his hiking skills twice a year in outdoor education classes for youth at risk.

John Fitzgerald is a confident man of who was a millionaire at 23 through his own intelligence, drive and hard work. John walks his path with faith, determination and compassion - and a good dose of curiosity. But to John, it's the people he encounters along the way that he believes are life's real answers and rewards. It's this uplifting perspective that makes his latest book, "We Can Be Heroes", such a gift.

John's road to true happiness and financial security began tragically. At eight years of age, John predicted the sudden death of his father. Those two poignant events plunged John's childhood into turmoil. Yet even at this early age, John sensed a greater purpose behind this tragic event and he began his journey to discover what he was put here to be and do, to learn and teach.

From a traditional family environment, John was shipped off to boarding school, where - vulnerable and lonely - and learned unhealthy coping strategies, such as anger and violence towards others.

Strangely, through this time, a spiritual side was also being nurtured. Introduced to meditation, creative visualisation, mind techniques and yoga by his mother, John began to realise the power of the mind and the importance of identifying goals that are in harmony with his purpose in the world. Whatever life had in store for John, he felt it was not going to take place in Victoria. Shortly after completing school, John left home with $200 in his pocket and hitchhiked to Queensland.

At 17, John was one of the youngest licensed real estate agents in Queensland and by the time he was 18, he had syndicated over $5 million in developments. He also started a new property magazine called "Property Weekly Update". This publication was successfully sold Australia wide and has subsequently been purchased by another group of publications. At 20 years of age John established JLF Corporation.

Since then John has bought, sold and developed more than 5,000 properties and has amassed an extensive portfolio of residential and commercial businesses. Today, JLF Corporation consists of over 22 companies with a turnover of more than $300 million per year in property and finance.

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SEVEN STEPS TO WEALTH
John's first book the best seller "Seven Steps To Wealth" (1998, 2000, 2003) shows how an average income earner can build a financially secure future. "Seven Steps to Wealth" lifts the veil on building wealth through investment real estate. How it can be done and how it can't. How to select an investment property for sustained capital growth. How to optimise rental income and tax benefit. How to structure the finance and manage the risks. Seven Steps to Wealth arms people with the information to ask the right questions, it was written as an educational tool based on John's years of learning and knowledge, translated into an easy to read language that everyone can understand. John is a huge advocate for people to educate and investigate in order to side step the pitfalls of losing money by costly decisions. He encourages people to investigate Disclosures -Bank Valuations, Commissions. Land Content, Location, Rental Vacancy Rates, Affordability and Cash Flow.

"...this is a "How To" book that can really work for you. It's also an inspiring account of "Why To" build wealth in today's world. If you're thinking of buying an investment property, this is one book you can't afford to be without..... "

Seven Steps offers practical advice, jargon free, explains the key criteria to build wealth in property, avoiding bad investments. Seven Steps to Wealth provides a practical insight and an easy to understand guide on how to select a property for sustained capital growth, optimise rental income and tax benefits, finance, manage risks and how not to fall foul of bad advice. Readers are encouraged not to be too trusting of banks who have for years been lending money to investors well above their valuation price of the property. This book also discloses the crafty tactics used by the property industry to sell certain types of property and how their tactics have left thousands of Australians with investments that are a depreciating asset.

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TOOGOOLAWA SCHOOLS
Toogoolawa - Aboriginal word meaning "a place of the heart"

John believes that all things, even tragedy and trauma, teach us important lessons that lead to happiness, self worth, and personal growth. John's challenging adolescence, combined with his developing spirituality, planted the seed, which years later saw him find his own path to inner wealth by committing his financial and emotional support to the Toogoolawa Foundation.

Toogoolawa was set up by John after identifying an increasing number of homeless and abused children and lack of support networks in place to care for these children. The foundation was established as a non-profit organistion to provide long term residential care and educational opportunities to adolescents aged 11-16 years. Conservative estimates indicate that there are more than 10,000 homeless children in Australia between the ages of 12 and 15.

Toogoolawa children's homes and school have fostered over 100 children categorised as youth at risk or wards of the State since being established in 1991. Toogoolawa provides care and opportunity for homeless and troubled young people and encourages young adults to achieve their potential. In establishing Toogoolawa - John sought out dedicated specialists in the field of working with troubled youth - Drs. Ron and Suwanti Farmer.

Wanting more involvement with the home, Fitzgerald moved it to Ormeau, south-east of Brisbane. To the property he added a school. Most of the students have the literacy of children half their age. The aim is to help the students return to mainstream schools. Success is not necessarily measured in academic results, but when a teenager's outlook transforms from bleak to positive. Life at the Toogoolawa home is disciplined, the boys receive counselling, care and their share of responsibilities. John visits the students every Monday to talk about issues and human values. Every second week the students visit his office for a lesson in communication.

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WE CAN BE HEROES
It was at the age of 17, trying to sell real estate on the booming Gold Coast, that John met the first of many mentors. Mentors have played a tremendous role in John's life, both to help refine his method to achieving financial independence and to continue nurturing his spiritual side, affirming that John's purpose was not to build wealth for wealth's sake.

Through his association with Toogoolawa and through other endeavours, John has met people he describes as 'ordinary heroes'. People who have found inner wealth through helping others and whose stories form such an inspirational part of John's second book "We Can Be Heroes".

Lots of people tell us how to create wealth, very few tell us why. "We Can Be Heroes" is the story of building true inner wealth. Wealth that takes us beyond mere financial security to help us 'be all we can be - through helping others'. Unlike the self help books that seem constantly to pop up, present us with a glib formula or two and then quickly become yesterday's news, "We Can Be Heroes" offers real life inspirational Australian examples to illustrate that 'Money doesn't make a difference in people's lives: people do'.

In "We Can Be Heroes" John shares the lessons he's learnt on his ongoing journey towards creating genuine inner wealth through helping others. John's inspirational stories are those of seven extraordinary Australians who are making a difference to other people's lives and shows us how we, too, can start creating inner wealth.

John Fitzgerald's heroes are:

Jim Stynes and Paul Currie, a star footy player and a director and drama coach that have combined talents and now spearhead an innovative and impact filled programme called 'Reach'.

Mags O'Brien, designer and manager of the Goldbridge Rehabilitation Services on Queensland's Gold Coast. Since Mags is a sober recovering alcoholic, she approaches rehabilitation from a place of personal knowledge.

Dorothy and Moyia O'Brien: The Pink Twins. At 79 years of age, Dorothy and Moyia are going strong. When they retired, twenty-five years ago, they started The Sunshine Welfare and Remedial Association in Brisbane, a day care facility for people with disabilities.

John Guy knew from an early age he wanted to be a priest. But his destiny was to live life in various other roles first including being part of a crack Australian SAS squadron in Vietnam - his story.

Linda Kenny is mother to more than 100 kids at a home called Toogoolawa.

Ron Farmer introduced Australia to behavioural therapy and became one of the country's foremost sex therapists. His life disintegrated when panic attacks began. His is a story of transformation and his fourteen-year journey towards wisdom and strength, humility, purpose and true inner peace.

"We Can Be Heroes" is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things with their lives for the benefit of others. It's inspiring and entertaining. It's about real people in real life. It's about heroes and how they became Heroes

At 26 John also realised that the wealthy have a responsibility to those who are not; that they are custodians of the world's wealth in society. This realisation saw him make a commitment to continue to build wealth and pursue personal growth, but to do so specifically so that others could benefit - either directly through financial investment or through the passing on of empowering knowledge.

John formed Custodian Wealth Builders - a development and investment group in 1998. John has also written an educational programme called "Untold Wealth Success From Scratch" where Australians can share the wealth building structures and strategies that have worked for him to build a financially secure future through residential real estate investing.

John's advice includes:.... "People who give property advice and don't talk about land content, location and timing, don't know what they are talking about". "A lot of seminars are presented by people who make more money out of seminars than out of their far-fetched ideas".

Through his books, CD's, seminars and workshops, John has provided people with the tools they need to attain financial independence and find their passion and purpose in life. A self-described 'compulsive mentor', John continues to work through his writing, business interests and seminars to help people find happiness, by guiding them towards discovering their inner wealth - their passion and purpose in life.

John lives with his wife Deborah and two children on Queensland's Gold Coast.