The Country 29/07/25: Pita Alexander talks to Hamish McKay

An agribusiness accountant, who has been in the industry for 50 years, shares his “Lessons for Life in 2025”.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What about lessons for Life in New Zealand and twenty
twenty five. Every accountant, very knowledgeable person is Peter Alexander
and it's come up with these lessons for Life in
New Zealand in twenty twenty five. And I'm going to
go straight to number nine, which is which I'm sure
would be the one my dad would go because he

(00:20):
used to say, these things are an inanimate piece of junk.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Don't purchase a car until you have an income. Pet
did eight?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
How are you a much good afternoon?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Great to chat.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Look, this is a magnificent We were not going to
have a time to get through to number number seventy
one in but I tell you what, Gee, you've nailed
it here, haven't you. You've obviously put a bit of
thought into this, and I tell you what it's worth its.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Weight in gold. I'd love to park in front of
my twenty one year old now.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yes, I enjoy this writing these art oficlese I've had
a long practice with this type of thing. I think
every high school person in the country should be reading
something like this. Everyone's got a different perspective. But a
lot of our high school students are leaving school it's
not good enough financial knowledge and they hit a wall

(01:15):
out in our hard society and they need to get
the hang of these type of lessons.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, look number two, I'll go to number two here.
Listen to mum and dad around the kitchen table. Learn
from their pain, their mistakes and their experience and all
that in there, the wins and losses. Because as a
parent now of kids from twenty one to twenty five, Hell,
that's pertinent because I thought they need to see it all,

(01:42):
don't they And they need to listen to it all
because it's both sides of the coin.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yes, round the kitchen table is about eighty percent of
the exercise for our young school leavers leading up to it.
Round that kitchen table, Mum and Dad can teach them
something enormous. Their school our schools is not really helping
them much in this area. They think they are, but

(02:08):
they're not really hamiss Mom and Dad are way ahead
of it around the kitchen table.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah, And then you know, we've got never
lose your sense of humor practice at work on it.
Because this is my current sort of mantr. My current
motto is from joy come strength.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yes, no, a good sense of humor with communication today
is so important. I mean, our business people need to
be preferred employers. It's so important you come to all
the work yourself. The sense of humor with working colleagues
is a very important issue, like job satisfaction. If you're
not getting job satisfaction, then whose fault is it? It's

(02:50):
your fault.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, yeah, you got to nail that. How long did
it take you to come up with this with this
current article, this list of of seventy one plus lessons
for life?

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh, probably a couple of hours. And then I get
my partner and my office staff and cross suge to
peer review it. Because I was bottom of the class
in English, top of the class in mathematics, and some
people are surprised that I can write this sort of stuff.
But it's all about life's experiences. I spent three years troubleshooting.

(03:24):
If you learn an enormous amount when you're helping a
couple who are going through a low patch financially, you
really learn.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, And one of the things I've learned, having had
a few moments of my own in recent times, is
that people go through those patches, but you can come
back from it if you apply the right sort of
you know, the right practices and support and not be
sure to ask for it.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yes, it's very important. For example, with your partner. They
may not know as much as you do ha much
about the business, but your part and knows your weaknesses,
and those weaknesses are really worth knowing. And you're quite right,
you go through a low patch. Thirty percent of the
people in this country are probably living beyond their income

(04:13):
and that is very hard going. And there's nothing on
the horizon as at the moment just kind of change that,
and it makes these household budgets very hard work.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, I like your personal growth should always be
with a capital G. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, it's so important. I mean you could mark time,
but growth, I mean, look at our company, look at
the world's countries. Every chancellor of the executives talking about growth.
But both involves hard work. It involves planning five years ahead.
It doesn't come overnight.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
No, And you know what you talk about growth and
planning ahead. I like number fifty seven. Set goals, but
not too many goals, not like years of way, review
them at intervals, change direction when required. I guess that
means pivoting and always think long term, but be prepared
to change. Simple but effective.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yes, you can't think years ago. We used to do
budgets five years ahead. That would now be just not
very practical. Yeah, but you do need to think twelve
months ahead. I mean, nothing good happens overnight without you
putting it in place.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, Petter, how are going to We're going to have
to make this available to people, So we'll work on
that because it is absolutely brilliant.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
That is Peter Alexander Agri Accounting