In the early 70’s the brightest neon sign on Perth’s skyline spelt out BOND.

It was the heady days of nickel, gold, diamonds and iron ore and fortunes were won and lost on the stock market and in boardrooms across the city. It was like our own real life version of DALLAS the TV show.

All West Australians basked in the glory of Alan Bond’s America’s Cup victory on September 26th, 1983 and the sleepy port town was restored to its former glory to host the defence of the Cup. By 1987 Alan Bond’s wealth was recorded on BRW’s Rich List at $400 million.

The long ride to fame and fortune continued but Alan Bond hit a brick wall by 1990 and was declared bankrupt in April 1992 with personal debts of $500 million. Worse was to follow with Bond being jailed in May 1992 but his fighting spirit saw his sentence overturned on appeal after he had served 3 months.

Always one to do it bigger and better than anyone else Bond eventually was jailed for 4 years in 1997 for a corporate fraud that saw $1.2 billion plundered from Bell Resources. At the time this was the world's LARGEST corporate fraud.

Yes we do things big in the West.

So, here is my question. Should we rejoice or regale at the resurrection of Alan Bond. Can someone with such an amazing past redeem himself? Can someone who makes poor decisions rebuild their lives and regain public acceptance??

In the 2008 BRW Rich List 200 Alan Bond is back! His fortune is conservatively estimated at $260 million. From gold, diamonds and oil – plus some liquorice from his investment in a company called Lucky Country Liquorice.

Last week's front cover of The Sunday Times here in Perth featured a story by investigative journalist Paul Barry. Barry seems to think Bond has no redeeming features and should be hunted down and punished again.

I have a different take on this. I find Alan Bond’s return to wealth and fame an inspiration. It says that it is possible to overcome the worst possible of set backs – poor decisions, poor health, bankruptcy, prison and who knows maybe worse, and make good again.

Some of you will disagree with me. Before you say "What about all those investors who lost their money" I was one of those and I lost money from shares I held in Bond’s companies. I bought them way back then because I thought he would make me tonnes of money. I lost because I was part of the 1980’s "greedy is good culture" and Bond was the biggest and greediest of them all.

Now, he is resurrecting his influence and wealth, and I for one see that as an inspiration.

Bond inspires me to continue to fight against the Australian Government who are bloody minded in the pursuit of me for multimillion dollar fines which are unfair in their quantum and most importantly, have not stopped the flood of unsolicited email which they were supposedly meant to achieve. The outrageous fine they are trying to extract from me is proportionately the highest corporate fine in Australian history.

Compare it with BHP Billiton’s fine for an unsafe workplace where a worker lost his life of only $200,000 and BHP Billiton is worth $160 billion.

So, inspired by these recent events, I will continue to build a business around the globe that helps people gain vocational skills and personal motivation to do better. Will I succeed against the might of the Australian Government??

According to my good mate Justin Herald says: Impossible is just someone’s opinion.