Patricia Ilhan remembers the moment like it was yesterday. It was September 2003, and her husband, “Crazy” John Ilhan, had just been named as No. 1 on the inaugural BRW Young Rich List of self-made entrepreneurs aged 40 and under. His fortune was estimated at $200 million.

For the pair, it was more than a number. To appear at the top of the first Young Rich List felt like recognition that John’s audacious bet on the nascent mobile phone business – and himself – had paid off. Born in Turkey, he moved with his family to Australia when he was three years old and grew up in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows.