Last week marked the launch of The Employables...

Last week marked the launch of The Employables – an SBS documentary I helped create to shine a light on the power of business to give marginalised job seekers hope, skills and potentially financial independence by creating their own startup.

I remember the frustration and humiliation of being unemployed all too well. At the age of 20, I finished a commerce degree at the Australian National University complete with a host of extra-curricular achievements and it wasn’t enough to land a job for over six months. I still have the 150 rejection letters to remind me that you should take nothing for granted. That was my experience being an educated, articulate white heterosexual male in 1992 – I can only imagine what would it have been like if I had a different race, sexual orientation, or any visible signs of disability.

Fast forward 26 years and Australia’s economic prosperity has helped sustain impressively low unemployment rates for the past two decades from their peak at 11.2% in December 1992. Yet for some segments of society, securing a job in a strong labour market is still a massive struggle – let alone if unemployment rates take a turn for the worse.

Indigenous Australians, immigrants and refugees, the LGBTQI community, people with disabilities, youth, the elderly, single parents and former prisoners all face a significantly higher incidence of prejudice or discrimination and a greater chance of being denied employment opportunities.

So is self-employment the answer? To find out if helping marginalised job seekers start their own business would help turn their lives around, I count myself fortunate to have been involved in a social experiment like no other. From watching Lazarus climb a mountain in a prosthetic leg, to seeing Yarrie invoke her Sierra Leonean Grandmother at the investor pitch at Canva, the program was an inspiration from beginning to end.

Though it was not without its challenges. The Employables was more complex than helping township South African’s start their own business as part of my seven-year journey with the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship. It was more taxing than helping subsistence farmers along the Kokoda track start their own tourism businesses. I would face even more confronting stereotypes than through the work we do at Investible supporting indigenous Australians scale their businesses. And ultimately it would prove more challenging than helping kids start their own business as part of my wife’s and my Club Kidpreneur Foundation that has helped over 14,000 kids start a micro-business across 700 schools through the Kidpreneur Challenge.

But like most social missions I gained as much as I gave.

I learnt a lot about myself and what it means to embrace a diverse and multi-cultural Australia. I challenge any white Australian not to question Australia’s past and future upon hearing Achan’s heart-breaking arrival in Australia as a refugee from Sudan, or Daniella’s stories of being part of the stolen generation.

I learnt a lot about business and what it takes to be successful when the odds are stacked against you. From Vicki’s hopelessness at being rejected from jobs once her incarceration became known, or Graham’s realisation that no employer wanted to give someone over the age of 50 a chance.

And lastly, I was continually inspired by the founders who were brave enough to embark on this crazy journey with me and our incredible team of mentors and supporters.

If you want to laugh, cry, learn about business and discover diverse Australia – watch the Employables, 8.30 pm, Wednesday August 29 on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia.)