I get asked a very weird question sometimes. “Why do you waste your time hanging around a bunch of people who are just using Australia to get a degree?”

It’s usually said with the kind of dismissive snort reserved for people who still think MySpace is a valid marketing channel.

Now, if this was 1825, I might’ve understood the xenophobia. But in 2025? From people who somehow forget this country has been migrant-built since 1788?

Look—I’m no saint. I’m not out here running soup kitchens or building homes for orphaned lemurs.

But I do give a decent chunk of my time (and yes, money) to a group that isn’t on the radar of most business people I know: international students.

And I do this because I believe in something ancient. No, not religion. Tithing.

Tithing, in the traditional sense, meant giving 10% of your earnings to the church or your guru or whatever spiritual powerhouse you subscribed to.

I don’t do churches anymore (unless it’s a brunch spot with good coffee and fast Wi-Fi).

But I do tithe.

Not in guilt. In gratitude. In strategy.

About 10% of my time each month is intentionally spent mentoring and supporting international students in Darwin.

They don’t pay me. They can’t offer me anything in return.

And that’s kind of the whole point.

But there is a return. It just doesn’t show up as a Stripe notification or PayPal invoice.

These students will go on to be engineers, developers, business leaders, accountants, and marketers.

Some will start businesses. Others will become hiring managers.

All of them are building a future here.

A future I want to be a part of.

They're doing it without Austudy. Without student loans. Without a safety net.

They’re doing it while working the jobs most Aussies don’t want. They’re studying full-time, adapting to a new culture, surviving racism, and still managing to be more driven than 90% the people I went to school with.

They’re not just studying. They’re investing. In themselves. In Australia. And whether we like it or not, they are the future workforce.

They’re the ones who’ll be signing off on projects, allocating budgets, hiring teams.

So while my peers are busy ignoring them because “they’re not real clients,” I’m helping them because they will be—in 2027, 2030… maybe even sooner.

A tithe isn’t charity. It’s long-term strategy.

You don’t have to be spiritual to tithe. You don’t have to give up money. But you do have to give a damn.

10% of your time, intentionally given, could be the most powerful business development strategy you’re ignoring.

You never know who’s sitting in front of you today... ...who might become the decision-maker tomorrow.