Jim Penman launches his most powerful book yet: No Other Success
Announcement posted by Invigorate PR 29 Aug 2025
Why Australia's most unlikely business success story says money means nothing without family, purpose and values
Jim Penman, founder of Jim's Group and one of Australia's most recognisable entrepreneurs, has released his most powerful and personal book to date, No Other Success.
The book is both a brutally honest memoir and a guide to redefining success, challenging the widespread belief that money and status are the ultimate goals in life.
Penman, who built a $600 million-plus franchise empire from a $24 lawnmower and sheer tenacity, said the book is his most important because it asks the uncomfortable questions too few people dare to face.
"Business success means nothing if you fail in your home, your relationships or your character," Penman said.
"I've made dumb mistakes, lived through divorces, battled my own shortcomings and failed people I love and yet what I've learned is that the only success that truly matters is family, community and living with purpose. Everything else fades."
An unlikely success story
In No Other Success, Penman strips away the mythology around entrepreneurship, admitting his flaws openly. He confesses to lacking business training, struggling with discipline, poor management skills, social ineptitude and personal failings. Yet, despite this, he built Australia's largest franchise system with more than 40 divisions, 5,000 franchisees and over one million customers a year.
His story is not polished, but raw and real, full of blind alleys, crises and dumb mistakes as he describes it. The book reveals how family, faith and an obsession with customer and franchisee care drove him to create a business unlike any other.
Why this book matters
Penman insists No Other Success is not just a business book. It is a manifesto for living with integrity and balance, a challenge to the reader to ask what really matters.
"A man once told me he left a successful supermarket career because his four-year-old son begged him to stay for breakfast," Penman recalled in his book.
"He didn't earn more after he changed jobs, but he gained something priceless, time with his son. That's real success."
In his own life, Penman balances the responsibility of more than 5,000 franchisee families with his role as father to ten children. He is determined never to let wealth or growth replace time with family or the core values of the Jim's brand.
He has pledged never to sell Jim's, vowing instead to pass it down to his children and their partners to preserve the ethics of the business and protect franchisees.
"The best measure of success is not money in the bank. It's the children you raise, the communities you serve and the purpose you live for," Penman said.
"That's why this is the most important book I've written. Ultimately, no other success can compensate for failure in the home."
Jim Penman's latest book demonstrates that people can achieve what they want in life as long as they stay true to the most important things around them, family and community. The book is an inspiring read and available from all good book stores and jimpenman.com.au.
About Jim's Group
Jim's Group was founded by Jim Penman in 1989 and now has some 5,550 franchisees in more than 50 divisions. It is the largest franchise chain in the Southern Hemisphere.