Leaving school at the age of 16, John decided to find his own way in the world and set off to hitchhike to Queensland with about $200 in his pocket. Fortunately, he turned up in the middle of the real estate boom and, at the age of 17, he was licensed to work in real estate.By age 20, he had syndicated over $5 million in developments, started a national property magazine, Property Weekly Update, and begun trading property through his newly-formed JLF Corporation.In the years since, he has bought, sold and developed over 15,000 properties and has amassed an extensive portfolio of residential and commercial property. The JLF Corporation now consists of over 22 companies in the fields of property and finance.He is a sought-after public speaker and seminar leader. In 1998 he wrote '7 Steps to Wealth' which has since been republished and updated 8 times to 2018, being endorsed by 3 Australian billionaires and read by hundreds of thousands of Australians. It is considered Australia's #1 book in Real Estate Investment, and has been rated in top 10 books for Money & Finance. John is the Founder and Chairman of the Toogoolawa Children’s Homes Ltd, established in 1991. Toogoolawa, meaning ‘a place in the heart’, has fostered over 1,200 children who have been categorised as youth at risk or wards of the state. In 1998, it opened its first school for non-mainstream students with learning difficulties in Queensland. There are plans to continue duplicating the Toogoolawa Schools’ curriculum around Australia. John’s work with Toogoolawa has been featured on ABC TV’s Australian Story and inspired his book, We Can Be Heroes – a collection of true stories of famous and ‘ordinary’ Australians who have gone the extra distance to help others in need.Specialties: Motivational speaking, public speaking, coaching, mentoring, youth at risk education, educational reform, philanthropy, property investment, property portfolios, wealth building, goal setting, polo