Right now if I look at Google Maps, I can tell you that three streets away there is a bank up of traffic leading from the city to the western suburbs. Of course Google knows everything but this ingenious bit of software began as a start-up by an Israeli army officer with an engineering degree.
It was sold to Google for $US1.3 billion and the deal ensured that each of the start-up's 100 employees would receive an average of $1.2 million
That's the work of Uri Levine, the co-founder of WAZE, who is in Australia from Tel Aviv to tell his story. Uri is responsible for two to three start-ups a year, yet has his feet on the ground. He's got five kids and all the usual concerns of a modern family man. So instead of being swallowed up in the new corporate world of Google, Uri decided to start a new venture to expose the hidden fees of financial institutions. It's called FeeX and Uri has moved his new company to the US to launch it globally.
My recent trip to the US confirmed that this trend is also on for Australians. A week ago I spent time with a dozen or so young Australians who have moved to New York to invent and disrupt to make the world a better place. And they are not doing it just for the money. They are genuinely excited about making a positive difference.
I suspect many of them will become fabulously rich and good for them. But does everyone have to go to the US to do it?
Israel was stung by the exit of many new companies such as WAZE, to the US and other places so it brought in new tax breaks and deregulation to keep its brightest and smartest at home.
Interestingly, both the US and Israel actively foster a culture of risk taking by accepting that it's OK to fail. The new world of innovation in both countries runs on the belief that "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly".
"Let me think about that for a minute," ponders Louise.
"If you don't have the chance to fail, you simply can't win," retorts Charlie.
The Israeli and US economies have benefited from this approach. New York is jumping again because of innovation, despite what might seem to be a troubled world.
Back home, Victoria, in particular, is starting to reset the environment for innovative business, but we have a way to go.
The world is reinventing itself led by creative business people and responsive governments.
It's very noticeable in New York and Silicon Valley, despite a messy presidential campaign, police shootings and the midtown Manhattan bombing.
The torturous machinations of the UN when I was in New York were a worry. Stopping warfare is one of its many humanitarian tasks.
It was dispiriting to see bombing breaking out again in Syria while countries with leadership roles and responsibilities in conflict resolution were meeting to negotiate a ceasefire, as a step towards a lasting peace.
The abrupt departure of the Russian ambassador from the meeting seemed to suggest that not everybody in the room had the same intentions.
But what's new about that?
And there is also nothing new about inequality increasing either. Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, a New Yorker, spelt out the problem for all to see in his book The Price of Inequality.
Societies have risen and fallen with these very same problems for thousands of years and one thing is clear: wringing of hands and getting stuck admiring the problems instead of actively working at solving them just makes matters worse.
Positivity is what's needed in all difficult circumstances – particularly in what might look like failure.
So what disrupts negativity and converts it into positivity?
Seeing opportunity and pursuing it.
We need to be more of a "have a go" people, rather than bystanders calling for a "fair go". Fairness needs to be the result of action, not an alternative to it.
And we have definitely got it in us. Perhaps the "have a go" spirit of Australians is the most unifying part of our culture. It has certainly driven the ambition of almost every migrant family from every culture for a couple of centuries now.
It also drove my 95-year-old father in the sawmills of the Victorian high county and it has driven me.
I'm off to Israel in a few weeks to keep learning. Age need not be a barrier to seeing opportunity and at 74 I'm not finished yet.
Neither should you be. And for all of us who will be watching the footy finals this weekend, listen to the barrackers and take it personally when they shout "have a go ya mug"!
