Last Monday was an important day. Christopher Pyne and his energetic Prime Minister had their "Innovation Day".  Words like "generator" and "incubator" started to float through the airwaves.  Australia was gearing up to become a "clever country". 
"I thought we already were," says Louise.  
Exactly!
You see, while the innovation statement was being delivered I was having lunch with people I worked with 40 years ago, before I started my own business. 
I can't believe that it was so long ago that I worked at an advertising agency led by a slow-talking Queenslander called Len Reason. He was a truly great leader.
He knew how to support young people with their new ideas, while maintaining the business rigour to make the new possible. Our whole executive team was under 30.  I was 27.
The young Peter Carey, about the same age, was one of our copywriters. There were many more who made up a group that went on to become the most successful advertising agency of the '70s. 
My Monday lunch reminded me that we didn't need words like "incubator" and "generator" because we were innovators every day. It's just what we did and in fact, that's the story of Australia.
When I started our business in 1976 it was a new industry called media buying. Today it would be called an "interrupter business" because it changed the known landscape.
No big deal
But it didn't seem to be a particularly big deal to any of us. It's just what you did if you wanted to be in business and Australians have proved to be very good at it: Google Maps, the Stump Jump Plough, the Black Box Flight Recorder, Spray On Skin.
In my case, I went on to start one of the first digital companies in Australia in 1999 and then embraced Asia in 2010 by selling into an international company and becoming the second biggest shareholder, so we all had the ride up to success.
So how did my Monday lunch friends, who went on to start many different ventures, get by without the tax breaks, innovation funds and friendly committees?  Well, it turns out we didn't have a committee in our pockets, we had a culture in our blood - a culture of having an open mind, a powerful work ethic and a belief that Australians can succeed at anything they commit themselves too. 
Part of this week's innovation package talked about reducing the consequences of failure.
"Absurd" says Charlie. I can tell you that our group of people who went on to do so well, never considered failure as an option. In fact, the fear of failure was the basis of success.  
We didn't have the clever start-up packages. If fact we had to battle to get any backing at all.  We worked twice as hard as anyone else, earned nothing in the beginning and mortgaged our houses to the hilt to have enough money to pay overheads.
A great motivator
I started my business in 1976 with $2000 of holiday pay, half of which was used to pay my secretary in advance. The other $1000 was used to buy a computer. If I failed, I was left with nothing. "Now that's a great motivator to succeed" says Louise.
But I do compliment the Prime Minster for pushing innovation to the top of the conversation, just let's not forget we've done it all before.  It's the culture of Australians to have a go. Just like my Monday lunch of a group of 70-year-olds who took on the world and won.
And more than a few of them have resolved that they've not finished yet even though they also resolved on Monday that this would be the last lunch on the first floor of our favourite restaurant. Only half of us could get up the stairs.
Next year, we're going to move to the ground floor and take the table off the 80-year-olds who have been hogging the best seats in the house for years.
Their knees and hips might be gone but their brains are still agile as every older reader to this column knows.
But to the start-up kids in a hurry. Go for it.