The short answer
Ex-fighter pilot Christian Boucousis traces his path from zero to a $200M business, including the leadership and ownership mistakes that almost derailed it.
Key takeaways
- How Christian built first business from zero to 200 million in 3.5 years
- How a business partner can ruin your company
- How to rebuild after your business fails
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58 minAbout this episode
Have you ever wondered what it really takes to be a fighter pilot? Christian Boucousis can tell you. Born and bred to serve his country, Christian was living out his childhood dream of being a fighter pilot by his early twenties. Honourably discharged by the age of 30, he had his whole life ahead of him--and no idea where to go.
Recognising that his experience in the military equipped him to work in high-stakes environments, Christian partnered with a close friend and colleague and headed off to the Middle East to kick start a securities company. Did he have any experience running a business? No--but he was about to find out.
From anti-corruption programs to mortuary services, the Christian Thomas Group became a multimillion dollar enterprise that protected civilians and supported the post-war Afghanistan rebuild. After returning to Australia and learning--the hard way--how not to exit a business, Christian sought to share his experiences and “Get It Done” military mindset with other up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Now collaborating with small-to-medium sized enterprises looking to get to the next level, Christian’s Get It Done program focuses on instilling high performance behaviours that can help level up your life.
If you’re interested in learning from a renaissance man who has lived in combat zones and believes in the power of the mind, my friend Christian Boucousis is your guy.
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About Christian Boucousis
Over the past 40 years the Royal Australian Air Force trained only 400 fighter pilots, Boo was one of them. More people have played test cricket for Australia! Less than 1 in 10 start-up businesses survive beyond a year. Boo has successfully launched or grown four.
How has he beaten the statics to consistently achieve his goals? By applying the fighter pilot mindset to everything he does, every day.
Boo really started his career as a speaker over 25 years ago, as a mission commander in the Royal Australian Air Force leading 100’s of men and women on complex missions where the margin for error is only 5 secs, all while travelling in excess of 1,500 km/h! He has refined his craft over the past five years as a professional speaker in front of audiences ranging from 40 – 4,000 and his keynotes are some of the highest-ranked on Google.
His successful fighter pilot career was tragically cut short after being diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis. Confronting this significant life challenge Boo decided to leave his young family and start a business in war-torn Afghanistan called CTG Global, today one of the world’s largest humanitarian project support companies. He considers this his real-life MBA, working with multi-billion dollar aid agencies and building teams with people from all over the world to execute in some of the most complex and hostile environments on the planet.
With one successful business behind him, Boo applied the skills learned as a fighter pilot to subsequent business ventures including a record-breaking inner city hotel development, co-authoring a book, and acquiring and growing one of the world’s largest aviation publishing businesses.
Today he is pursuing his true passion as the Australian partner of world-class consulting group, Afterburner, and co-host of The Few Podcast.
Connect with Christian Boucousis
About the show
Buy Grow Sell is hosted by Simon Bedard, founder and managing director of Exit Advisory Group, a boutique mergers and acquisitions advisory firm that helps Australian business owners value, prepare for and navigate a sale. Every conversation draws on real deals and the patterns behind them.
