You have to do the right things before you can enjoy what life has to offer ... that piece of advice came from motivational speaker Zig Ziglar.

I first saw him at Cloudlands in Brisbane ... before it was pulled down by the Joh Bjelke Petersen government.

I didn’t know Zig Ziglar.

I didn’t know anything about him. But I was there at 7am for a breakfast.

So were about 1500 others.

What I didn’t know at the time was the impact he would have on my life.
I remember it was such a sunny day … well, it always is in Queensland.

And Zig telling a couple of stories. One was about two shoe salesmen who were sent to Africa.

After a few weeks one salesman wired back to head office in New York. “It’s hopeless, no one wears shoes.’’

The other wired back: “Send more shoes. Nobody has got any.’’

That message about recognising opportunity came back to me last week when I heard ANZ Bank’s head of Australian economics Tony Pearson speak.

Australia must reduce carbon emissions and introduce a carbon trading scheme, he said.

Why do this when Australia has such a small population and is making such a small impact globally?

We are the bad boys on the block. We are by far the most polluting of the developing countries.

We have a moral imperative to do something.

We have extensive coal-powered electricity generating, extensive grazing and long distances to transport produce.

Yet don’t look at the risks and costs, Mr Pearson said. Look at the opportunities.

There are only about 1000 heavy carbon-emitting companies in Australia.

It will not impact on everyone. And there will be a lot of exclusions initially.

Agriculture will have until 2015 and there will be exemptions if it can be shown that a company will be internationally disadvantaged.

So instead of worrying about the cost of introducing such a scheme just think about the costs if we don’t do something about it.

Many initiatives will be supported by the government.

When you are in business it doesn’t get much better than that ... to have government backing.

Climate change will be the biggest threat, not for the next decade but for the next century.

We have the chance to lead the world in new industries such as solar energy, wind energy and natural gas.

They say the longest journey starts with the first step. Well here is our chance to rebuild our international reputation.

If everyone waits for someone else to start, it will be too late. We won’t be worried about a slowing economy.

There will be no economy to worry about. So let’s start doing the right things.