Marc Ellis

Lots of people leave school at 15 and go on to do amazing things.

But I think there's probably a higher proportion of people who go out with a university degree who end up getting the success that comes with it.

I mean, I look at all my cohort of students

absolute fucking retrobates from Otago University and these guys now I won't mention names but running you know everything from the bloody financial sectors to the banks to you know almost airlines you know but it's all over the world yeah and I go wow shit we were

We had a lucky cohort, but if you look at it statistically, we didn't.

If you come out with a degree, you're in the top 1% internationally of learned folk, apparently.

Not that I've ever put myself in that category.

I've learned from the school of hard knocks and fuck-ups more than I've learned from what I've done.

We had Billy Bathgate from school and Johnny the Greek.

And so they were the two sort of main mates that I had down there.

And I ended up getting put into Cumberland House into the nurse's wing because they'd oversubscribed Cumberland.

And I thought, well, look, you know, glass half full, it's the nurse's wing.

You know, so I might be the only guy in it.

But I'd just broken up for a long-term first love relationship.

Oh, yeah.

So I was a bit sort of melancholic.

Was that all through school?

Well, you know, last couple of years of school.

Oh, yeah.

When the Mizuno's came.