Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and Donald Trump all connect - each defied convention, broke the so-called “rules,” and, in doing so, carved out their own paths to success.
Corrigan, the American aviator, was officially denied permission to fly to Ireland, yet he took off from New York in 1938 and miraculously “mistakenly” landed in Dublin, thumbing his nose at bureaucratic restrictions and achieving his dream.
Likewise, Bjelke-Petersen, the long-serving Queensland Premier, ignored political niceties and wielded power with an iron grip, building infrastructure and transforming the state’s economy while defiantly sidestepping traditional media and parliamentary norms.
Trump, in his own way, stormed into U.S. politics by disregarding the usual playbook ...discarding polished diplomacy for blunt rhetoric, bypassing legacy media through social platforms, and upending the globalist consensus with an unapologetic focus on national interests.
"Wrong Way" Corrigan was the nickname of Douglas Corrigan, an American aviator who became famous in 1938 for allegedly flying the wrong way across the Atlantic.
Douglas Corrigan was a skilled pilot and aircraft mechanic who worked on Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. He long dreamed of making a solo transatlantic flight, but the U.S. aviation authorities refused to grant him permission due to concerns about his plane’s airworthiness.
Despite being denied approval for a transatlantic journey, Corrigan took off from Brooklyn, New York, on July 17, 1938, supposedly bound for California. However, he ended up flying eastward instead of westward and landed in Dublin, Ireland, 28 hours later. When questioned, he claimed that a faulty compass and poor visibility had led him in the wrong direction.
Many suspected that Corrigan had intentionally ignored his flight plan and carried out his dream of crossing the Atlantic, but he stuck to his story. The U.S. government suspended his pilot’s license, but he returned home to a hero’s welcome, even receiving a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Corrigan became a pop culture icon, inspiring jokes, cartoons, and even a 1957 movie, The Flying Irishman, in which he played himself. His story remains one of aviation’s most amusing legends.
Australia has had plenty of larrikin legends - people who thumbed their noses at authority, bent the rules, or had a cheeky streak while still being admired.
However, my favourite has to be Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen.
A lot of people loved Sir Joh, especially in rural and regional Queensland, where he was seen as a no-nonsense, get-things-done kind of leader. He built roads, dams, industry, cut through red tape, and wasn’t afraid to thumb his nose at Canberra.
His anti-elite, pro-development stance made him a legend to many, especially farmers and small business owners who felt ignored by the federal government. And let’s be honest - his “Don’t you worry about that” routine was pure gold. He managed to steamroll the opposition and run Queensland for nearly 20 years.
People either loved him or loathed him, but you can’t deny he had real charisma and old-school leadership...a bit like a tough bush boss who ran things his way. If nothing else, he was one of the most uniquely Australian politicians ever.
Sir Joh ran Queensland like a business, and his focus on zero debt, big infrastructure, and economic growth set him apart from most politicians then (and now).
✅ Debt-Free Queensland – Unlike today’s governments that rack up billions in debt, Sir Joh kept money in the bank and made sure Queensland lived within its means. That kind of fiscal discipline is almost unheard of now.
✅ Golden Casket & Hospital Funding – Instead of relying on taxes, he funded Queensland’s public hospitals with a state-run lottery. It was an innovative way to pay for healthcare without burdening taxpayers.
✅ The Bradfield Scheme & Drought-Proofing – He was one of the first leaders to push for diverting northern floodwaters inland to make the Outback bloom. While the full project never happened, he kickstarted serious water infrastructure for drought-prone Queensland.
✅ Massive Infrastructure Boom – Highways, railways, mines, dams—Joh built things. His pro-development policies turned Queensland from a sleepy state into an economic powerhouse, bringing in mining, tourism, and industry.
✅ Stood Up to Canberra – He hated federal interference and often told the Prime Minister (especially Whitlam) where to shove it. His strong state rights stance made him a hero to those who saw Canberra as an overreaching bureaucracy.
Yes, love him or hate him, he got things done and didn’t waste time with political correctness or bureaucracy. Compare that to today, where governments take years to approve a single road upgrade for fear of upsetting a green newt or a rainbow serpent.
If he were running Queensland today. he'd send Lady Flo in as the "good cop" with her famous pumpkin scones, while he played the bad cop, making sure everyone "pulled their socks up" and stopped wasting time and money.
I can just imagine him looking at today’s politics, shaking his head, and saying: "Well, we never had this sort of nonsense in my day! Don’t you worry about that - you let me worry about that. "
Meanwhile, Lady Flo would be quietly winning people over with tea and scones, and before you knew it, they'd all be agreeing with Joh’s no-nonsense approach.
Sir Joh was the kind of leader who lost because of something that we are only now starting to realise: that a good person with a good heart will ultimately lose to the many people with greedy hearts and self-gratification as their goal. Benevolent dictator Lee Kwan Yu in Singapore said, “Citizenship is essentially a question of loyalty. A man is a citizen of a state and has the right to determine the future of the state because he is part of an entity.”
He further said
‘Although our house is small, in our house, how we arrange the tables and the chairs and the beds is our own affair. Not our friends’ or our neighbours’ affairs. No one has the right to say that the bed should be moved over there, the chair should be moved over here. This is our house. Although it is small, it is our property.
And Sir Joh once famously said – in relation to what we now call MSM on news conferences: “I call it feeding the chooks.”
Queensland could use a bit of that old-school "get things done" attitude again! What do you reckon - would Joh’s style still work in modern politics, or has the world gone too soft for a leader like him? Personally, I think we are crying out for it.
To wrap up today's post. I guess it shows that what bureaucrats and politicians THINK the people want is not what the people want but what THE POLITICIANS want.
What unites these three figures is their willingness to ignore the dictates of the establishment when those dictates stood in the way of their goals. Corrigan’s "wrong way" flight was the only way he could achieve what should have been a simple ambition.
Bjelke-Petersen’s brand of "Don’t you worry about that" governance frustrated critics but delivered results.
Trump’s refusal to play by Washington’s rules shook up the political landscape, proving that disruption was sometimes the only path to real change. In each case, it was the so-called mistake, the defiance, or the rule-breaking that ultimately led to a success story - because sometimes, the only way to do things the right way is to do them the "wrong" way.
