BY BUCKY LASTARD, ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT

There was a homeless man, living in Sydney Australia, who spent his nights sleeping rough around Martin Place in the city centre. This man, who we shall call Stan, had had a sad life. He had been in the army, where, during service in Afghanistan, he had suffered PTSD. Upon leaving the army, he found it hard to re-enter civilian life. He got married, but it failed. He began a business but it failed. He got married again, but it failed.

Stan lost everything. He began to drink and was soon living on the street. For five years, he lived on the street. He was beaten up, robbed, sexually assaulted and driven to suicide.

Until the day he paused to smell a rose in a window box. He smelled the rose and looked in the window. Inside was a man standing, staring at him. Stan froze. For the man looking at him was himself.

Being too drunk to realize it was his own reflection in the glass, Stan backed away in horror. In doing so he backed on to a road along which a large heavy vehicle was travelling. The heavy vehicle struck him.

Stan spent months in hospital. The only item he had when he left was a business card with the telephone number of a lawyer on it.

The lawyer sued the company that owned the truck that had struck Stan, and the truck company’s insurer settled the case rather than take it to court. Stan received $450,000.00 in compensation.

The lawyer helped Stan buy an apartment with the settlement money, which Stan sold two years later for $900,000.00.

Stan completed five more such transactions, each time selling his property for twice what he had purchased it for. He now had $30 million.

He toured the world and met a nice lady from England and bought a fine house by the beach. They had two children.

Stan invested his money in shares. Each year he doubled his money. Twelve years after smelling the rose, he was a billionaire.

Then his wife left him …