My advice is very simple — don’t give up on the dream. I grew up in Melbourne in a fairly ordinary family and started working when I was 12 years old to pay for my flying. I left home at 18 and flew anything, anywhere, just to build hours. It wasn’t a straight line. I lost jobs, moved countries, had to resit my licences, and even worked cleaning aircraft at Gatwick while trying to get back into the cockpit. But if you truly want to fly, persistence is everything. This career will test you — recessions, airline failures, setbacks — but if you keep believing in yourself and keep moving forward, the opportunities do come. Forty-four years later, more than 29,000 flying hours, and I still feel incredibly lucky every time I walk onto the flight deck. So my advice is simple: keep going, work hard, stay humble, and never stop believing that one day that cockpit seat can be yours.