#64 Rob Johnson: From Poverty to Success & Giving Back
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What inspired Dave and Rob to discuss success, purpose, and giving back?
Just had an amazing episode, really inspiring with a guy called Rob Johnson, who's worked for some of the biggest companies in the country, you know, helping to form Genesis energy and so many other amazing things. Driven by the why at the start was to not want to go back. To being poor to where he grew up. I don't
know if it was aiming at us, but it definitely had the shotgun out and chased us from his field. And just stealing just stealing food. As my mum
said, you know, I struggle to make ends meet. And wanting to sort his mum out and sort his family out with a house and
it wasn't like ever set a goal to have like A hundred million dollars in the bank or anything like that. All I wanted to make sure was that my mum was all right. My grandma, my auntie was
in a house that I owned. That moment where he talked about that, that was so special. I I got a little bit choked up. It was just an amazing moment for him to share with me. This is the first ever podcast he's done. He knows so much. He's helped a lot of businesses, a lot of entrepreneurs set up things that do good and help others. And that's what it's all about. If the owners of the tech companies won't let their kids use it, There's a reason why they want. So please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. A very inspiring episode. Rob Johnson, enjoy. This podcast is made by the amazing team at Fanaticals. They put out with me, so they're pretty epic. Rob Johnson from No Might R, thank you so much for joining me.
How's it going? It's going good, mate.
Yeah.
You don't normally do a lot of these or if any, you're sort of the man in the engine room behind the scenes, co founder with Ezra and also Ben Armstrong. Yeah. What's been some of your jobs? Before we dive into where you come from, what's been some of the the jobs that you've done? um throughout your career.
Um well I was a A trainee accountant for six weeks. Stopped that because everybody told me I didn't look like an accountant. I didn't act like an accountant. How's it what's an accountant mean to look like and I I've no idea, mate, but even the people who employed me suggested that it wasn't a good course of action. Um and so I listened to them right and then kinda got into um technology. Well, it's uh as a computer programmer. Um and so I started my career as a programmer then. And I wasn't ac like I wasn't Great uh technically. Right, but what I could do is talk to people.
Yeah.
Right. The place I was working, which was a big industrial gas company. Uh Kinda said, Well You know, you should talk to our lorry drivers and see what they want. So build a computer system. That generated the biggest revenue month for that industrial gas company Europe wide. Wow. Yeah. But the next month was the biggest credit month because I got one of my calculations wrong then Three tankers turning up to every every site in Europe. Uh for the month and then the next we're turning up. So the next lesson I learned was um Built a computer system with a team of people. I was kind of the lead, right? Um that was a system that took information from radio. Фром ТВ, фром поліс рекорд. And calculate it the best route.
for lorry drivers to take To deliver their deliveries, right? That's long before Google Maps. Yeah, Goog that's long before Uber and Google Maps, yeah. And so we built this system and it it was kinda cool. It worked like you know, it was good. But um none of the lorry drivers used it. Right, so we would give them a Like a route and they'd go their own way anyway. Right? And so I thought, well So I go ahead and ask him, I said, look, why? Why are you not using it? N S N oh no. It's not the best route. I know the best route. I've been driving the best route for like, you know, fifteen, twenty years. 'Cause I was only young, right? I was only about You know, twenty three, twenty four. Right. And I go up really no, it's the best route, you know, there's
Accident on the road. Oh no, I didn't go that way. I know back road. Right. Okay. Right. And then I met another low driver he said, Matt Yeah. I like you. All right.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What inspired Dave and Rob to discuss success, purpose, and giving back?
0:00–5:27
2
How did Rob transition from a trainee accountant to a tech innovator and early‑career programmer?
5:27–11:13
3
What lessons did Rob learn while building the early logistics routing system for an industrial gas company?
11:13–16:51
4
How did growing up in poverty shape Rob’s drive to support his family and community?
16:51–22:40
5
How did Rob become involved in establishing Genesis Energy after moving to New Zealand?
22:40–29:01
6
What motivated Rob to create the Imagination School to mentor young entrepreneurs?
29:01–34:41
7
How is Rob tackling power poverty through the Nau Mai Rā initiative?
34:41–40:31
8
What core philosophy drives Rob’s commitment to give back and improve lives?
40:31–46:34
Speakers
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