Michael Allen will forever be grateful for the life lessons he learnt from his mum and dad. 

His mother, Margaret, taught him to be positive and optimistic, to believe that anything is possible – and pushed him into public speaking and debating to “burn off any shyness”. 

And his father, Theo, a reserved, good man, taught him two of life’s great lessons: the benefits of patience and hard work. 

Michael is now the owner of highly successful Darwin-based solar and electricity company Rimfire Energy and is increasingly an in-demand public speaker at business events. 

It took courage and belief in possibilities coming true to step into the private electricity supply industry in 2014 and then expand to solar installation and maintenance. 

Michael was the youngest of five children and grew up on a sheep and cattle property near Goondiwindi in Queensland. 

“My early years are nothing but fun memories with one enjoyable episode following another. Anything that had to be done on the land was, from a child’s point of view, pure fun, and was only interrupted by a school program that no one could consider arduous. 

“I used to follow Dad everywhere and ask questions incessantly. He was a man of great patience. 

“I remember learning to drive at seven years of age and jumping at every opportunity to drive any and everything. I recall filling in the daylight hours around the workers when they were scarifying, ploughing or planting. I would be up to have the tractor going at first light – 4.30am in Goondiwindi in the summer – until the workers started. 

“I would also do the lunch break and then from when they knocked off until sunset. This gave Dad a few more working hours in a day, which was lucky as I was not as useful when it came to mustering, drafting and branding.” 

His pride and joy was his Yamaha YZ80D, which he owned from the age of 12. 

“I didn’t weigh much so it was quite powerful and very quick. I remember thinking at the time, and even now, it is hard to imagine a better way to grow up.” 

The family bought a house in Brisbane and he started year 7 at school there– “a rude awakening for me”.

“I realised how little I had done in the six years of school prior and had some catching up to do. Even considering years 11 and 12 at a fairly academic school, year 7 is burned into my memory as the hardest I worked throughout. 

“Leaving school, there were four things consuming me as to what I wanted to do: finance, living overseas, learning a foreign language and flying. Starting my own business was certainly in the back of my mind but still a long way off.

“I played briefly with the idea of joining the airforce to learn to fly. This was back in the era when Australia flew Mirages, F111s, Iroquois, Chinooks, Caribous and Hercules. As an airforce cadet, I had flown in all but the fighters and was pretty much hooked. 

“I thought it best to pursue finance with flying as a hobby as the way to hit those four goals I had on leaving school. I have managed to complete licences in gliders, fixed wing and helicopters in this way.

“Flying is still something I love but I don’t spend time on it because of family and work commitments. I hope to get back to it one day.” 

Michael spent a year in Tokyo as an exchange student.

“A big driver for me at this early stage was that I always wanted to know what I could do or, more accurately perhaps, what others could do that I couldn’t. 

“Tokyo seemed the spot for this given that at the time Japanese banks were the biggest and considered the best. It taught me there would always be people smarter and more experienced and positioning and preparation levelled the playing field on most occasions, and oftentimes tipped it in your favour. “ 

He returned to Australia from Tokyo for about 18 months as his father was ill and, following his death, went back to working for an old employer, Fuji Bank, in their Singapore office, arranging project finance transactions. 

The Australian country boy worked mainly on power generation, minerals extraction and real estate projects in Thailand and Indonesia. 

“I was fluent in Japanese at this point and managed to negotiate a couple of projects in Japanese with only Japanese banks and borrowers.” 

He returned to live in Brisbane in 2000 – and an extraordinary stroke of luck changed his life. 

“Walking to my car one day, a graduate student walked up to me and asked for directions to the ferry. I noted that it was too far to walk and that she should jump in and I would give her a lift. I guess she decided I looked harmless enough and jumped in.” 

The woman was Maria who was on exchange from Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. The couple hit it off immediately but she was going home for five weeks in a few days.

Michael picked her up from the airport on her return and, overcoming minor obstacles such as “I don’t want a boyfriend” and “Australia is too different and too far away”, they started going out that day and have been together ever since.

That was 25 years and three children ago. 

Michael began working for project developers, instead of banks, preferring to work closer to the equity in deals and feeling the risk/return profile better suited his own outlook.

His final position before starting Rimfire was as CFO/EGM Finance with a company he considered among the most entrepreneurial in the country, ERM Power.

He was enormously successful in attracting project financing – in his first 12 months the company grew from 65 to 130 employees and was the No 1 developer of new power generation in Australia.

Michael had thought about setting up his own business for many years and his enriching experience at ERM Power gave him the confidence and knowledge to give up a well-paid, steady job and go it alone.

“I always wanted to try my own business and had looked at a number of different businesses and industries. There seemed to be opportunity everywhere but reading about what Warren Buffet had to say made me concentrate on sticking to what I know, which is finance and project development.”

His mum’s mantra – “anything is possible” – rang in his ears and he started Rimfire Energy. TQ