Profile of Chris Liddell

An interesting profile of Chris Liddell in Stuff. Like many top flyers, he comes from a very modest background. Some key details:

  • After all debts were settled, Laurence Liddell (his father) left his family with $5.
  • Mum worked at a cafe where she was able to bring home any unsold food to help feed five children.
  • In recent years, he and his brother John have donated $1 million to Mt Albert Grammar. And Liddell has contributed $450,000 to send University students to do postgraduate studies at Oxford – providing young “all-rounders” the scholarship he missed out on.
  • try to never forget that in my good years, I have earned in one year more than my father earned in his lifetime. Perhaps because of that I value experiences much more than possessions. I'd like to eventually give away all the money that I have earned during my lifetime.”
  • Liddell had expressed increasing alarm at the depth of intergenerational social problems in , according to Hinton. Many people of their generation had, naively, grown up thinking such social deprivation happened elsewhere. “He and I would have a problem with a lot of theory on the Left that throwing money at something is the solution.”

150 years ago if you were born into a poor family, you would probably spend your life poor. Today we have numerous examples of people born into poor families and doing incredibly well – John Key and Chris Liddell being great examples.

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