Mark Bouris emotional tribute to his Greek heritage at the 104th Kytherian Debutante Ball in 2026

We're honoured to welcome our guest of honour Mark Burrus AM. Mark is well known to many members of the Katherian community, the Greek-Australian community, the Australian-Australian community and everything in between. He's an Australian businessman best known as the founder and chairman of Wizard Home Loans. He's the founder and current chairman of Yellow Brick Road. Mark was the host of the Celebrity Apprentice Australia from 2011 to 2015. He's also hosted The Apprentice Australia and The Mentor. He's written books and appeared on podcasts. Perhaps like his counterpart on The Apprentice in the USA, he should consider running our country. This evening we are privileged to welcome Mark as our guest of honour. Please join me in welcoming Mark Burrus AM. Your Grace, esteemed dignitaries of the Katherian Association, debutantes and your partners, family, friends of the debutantes and family and friends of the Katherian and Katherians and Greeks and anyone else who I've left on. Welcome and thank you very much for giving me the honour of having opportunity to speak to you tonight. It's interesting when I was watching that video then, people refer to me as an entrepreneur and I think the entrepreneurial spirit that I have in my life, that I have had in my life, comes from my father and his family because when they came to Australia they too had a cafe, restaurant in George Street called the Jubilee Cafe and that's where my father met his mother, my mother, his wife and my mother taught my father to speak English as a result of working in that cafe. And one of the things that I get from them is, and this is what an entrepreneur is about, entrepreneurs aren't just about coming up with an idea and turning it into something. Entrepreneuring, being an entrepreneur is, as far as I'm concerned, goes to the very heart of Greek personality. It's about resilience. It's about emotional honesty and resilience in every aspect. In other words, every time you have a downturn you will stand up and you'll keep going. It's about raising a family to honour your family traditions and where you come from and it's about remembering your heritage. And tonight's an opportunity for me to think about that and maybe some of you will know that the music I walked into, because I was asked what music I would like, I asked for the music from one particular version of the Zebeka book, which is written by Manos Louazos in 1965 or something like that, for a movie. Why I wanted that music to be played and why I love that piece of music, and there's no singing to it, it's just music, and why I love the dance itself, maybe the modern version of the dance, not with all the flarey stuff, but the more deep-seated, soulful part of the dance, is that it epitomises, to me, the importance of being Greek. And that is this, we feel things and then we make it happen. A lot of people don't understand what that is, and the dance itself is about feeling something. There's no real words to it, it's just an individual dancing in a square, but this individual is feeling everything he does, and today women do it as well, it wasn't once upon a time, a man's dance only. Being Greek is about dance, being Greek is about language, being Greek or Hellenic is about food, is about this, it's about being integrated into this great country, Australia. But at the same time, but now to do this, this is what we call integration. My parents, your families, this is integration. And talking about politics, James, that's what I think some of our politicians, and I won't name names, they should come to one of these things and experience what our forebears did in terms of keeping their traditions, honouring their culture, but integrating into this society. And we still have the debut of the undebatons, beautiful, poised, they were so magnificent. Actually, I felt a little bit emotional, like a bit teary when I watched them, just dancing here with their partners, entertaining us, thinking about every move they're making, trying to impress their families and their friends, they've probably been practising this for months. What a wonderful event. And I do want to say one thing to the debutants and their partners and every young person, I have something I want to read to you, and I'm going to finish off with this, if you don't mind. And I tell you why I want to read this. This to me is one of the most important poems that exist in the world today. And the name of the poem in English is Ithaca, in Greek it would be Ithica. And I'm going to read it out to you. Now, this is about an ageless story about Odysseus. And you talk about entrepreneurialism, Odysseus was the greatest entrepreneur of all time. He had to deal with every problem you could possibly think of. And this poem is about resilience. And it goes like this. And I'm going to read the English version, of course. As you set out for Ithaca, hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laskaronians and cyclops, angry Poseidon, don't be afraid of them. You'll never find things like that on your way, as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laskaronians, cyclops, wild Poseidon, you won't encounter them at all, unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you. I hope your road is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure and what joy, you enter harbours, seeing for the first time. May you stop at a Phoenician trading station to buy fine things, mother of pearl, coral, amber and ebony. And may you visit many Egyptian cities to learn and go on learning about their scholars. Keep Ithaca always in your mind. That's where Odysseus wanted to go to. He wanted to go to Ithaca. That was his goal. It's typical of an entrepreneur. It's everything in between that, that becomes important. Arriving there is what you're destined for, Odysseus. But don't hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, just like our grandparents, just like our parents. So you're old by the time you reach that island, wealthy with all you've gained on the way, not expecting Ithaca, not expecting your goal to make you rich. Entrepreneurs don't go into business to become rich. They go in there to do all those things that they need to do in order to get to their goal. Ithaca gave you the marvellous journey. Without her, you wouldn't have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you. Wise as will you have become, so full of experiences you'll have understood by then what all these Ithacas mean. That is the true spirit of an entrepreneur. That is written about probably one of the oldest stories in history, written by Homer about Odysseus leaving Troy, going back to his island where he was a king of Ithaca, hoping to meet up with his wife and children, the queen and his child. But it was about everything he encountered and entrepreneurialism about that. And that is, in my view, Greek spirit to the very heart of entrepreneurialism. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks very much and I'll leave you with one thing. Five guiding lights, for my life at least. God, family, country. A simple one. Hard work. And last one, curiosity. Go with it.