Sean Jacobs

Sean Jacobs

Sean Jacobs is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian writer, and government relations and public policy specialist. He is a former Brisbane City Council election candidate, ministerial adviser, United Nations worker, international youth volunteer, and national water polo champion. Sean holds a BA (International Relations) from Griffith University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism from Macquarie University. He also holds qualifications from the Australian National Security College, the Australian Institute of Management and the University of New England. [READ MORE]

Latest Posts

3.2 Lessons Learned On The Way To 32

Edging my way into my thirties I thought I’d reflect and share some of the lessons from my recent book Winners Don’t Cheat: Advice for young Australians from a young Australian (Connor Court Publishing, 2018). A slow start out of high school, and not being able to get into university after eleven attempts, certainly refined my appreciation for adversity. But I worked through my international relations degree and things began to turn around. I had gone from a very poor writer with virtually no skills or experience to working under three prime ministers at the Department of the Prime Minister […]

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A margin of skill at the right time can be all you need

Listening to a recent chat between Russ Roberts – host of Econtalk – and Ryan Holiday – bestselling author and stoic expert – I noticed a great career message for young people, echoing messages in my new book Winners Don’t Cheat. While the discussion focuses on Holiday’s new book Conspiracy, documenting the billionaire Peter Thiel’s long-run campaign to take down the sensationalist publication Gawker, there’s a brief exchange on the anonymous 26-year old who first approached Thiel about the idea. The youngster’s daring approach – basically pitching to a billionaire co-backer of Facebook – opens up a wider discussion on […]

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Episode 11 – Could a Hawke, Keating or Howard survive today?

From social media to our need for 24 hour news, we know that the world has changed. But how would past leaders survive today? And do we put our current political leaders under so much pressure, despite being able to do only so much? Talking through these topics with me is professional economist William Witheridge and Whig Capital’s Jordan Shopov. A special thanks to Sam Muller for his help in producing this episode! Jordan’s point that institutions should be our focus, instead of leaders themselves, is inspired by a Nobel Lecture from the late James M. Buchanan: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1986/buchanan-lecture.html And links […]

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