The Story

For those that don’t know me, my name is Chris Hamilton. I was born around mid April in the year of 1988. Known in Australia as the bicentennial year. It was also the year that the world expo launched in Brisbane, Microsoft launched Windows 2.1, Enzo Ferrari died, a truce began in the Iran-Iraq war and then Pan Am Flight # 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie in Scotland resulting in the death of more than 200 people. I’m the type of person who pays attention to every detail. I was born with a substantially high amount of common sense and an immense of patience.

Childhood

I come from two parents who never once let me go without. I grew up with ambition, desire and a strong commitment to complete tasks I set myself, or become the person I wanted to be. I’m naturally competitive and losing is often not an option. When I want something, I go for it. Academically – I was nothing special, I was slightly an above average student and that helped me become the school captain of my primary school when I was 12. I participated in little athletics on Saturday afternoons as a hobby and played soccer (or ‘football’ for the English) on Sunday mornings.

Growing Up

I attended Sandgate District State High School in Brisbane and like most people, made life long friends. My initial grades for my first year of high school were mid B’s to low A’s. Not particularly bad really. I became friends with some of the nicest and most genuine people you would ever meet. Without them, I would not be the person I am today. Despite my arrogance, my bitching, whinging and my ‘asshole’ attitude many years ago, they still stand by me to this day. I believe this is the definition of ‘true friendship’.

Early into my second year of High School, I bought an Xbox (as every 14 year old did) and was recommended by one of my good friends to purchase ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’. I didn’t know anything about this game or what it was even about, but took my mates advice (because he’s a mate right?) and purchased it. The Halo series has become of the most successful in the entire video game series. To sum up, it was a great game. In fact, I thought it was so great, that it was pretty much all I spent my time doing. Playing Halo.

It’s Sunday night, I have a maths exam 9:15 tomorrow morning. So? I had Halo. Winging that maths exam and possibly failing was worth the risk of still playing. As a result, my grades dropped from those mid B’s / low A’s to flat C’s. It’s no coincidence my grades dropped at the expensive of Halo. The game eventually brought out my (overly) competitive side and I became committed to being one of the best player’s in the world – and I eventually did. In 2003, I represented Australia to play the world’s best players from 40+ other countries. No – I didn’t win. But I did place between 10th & 8th. To this day, I still feel that was a massive underachievement.

The Beginning of Success

My success with Halo brought me national recognition within the Australian gaming community. I became the first ‘console’ gamer to be professionally managed and ended up developing relationships with people at game development companies and other successful people in the industry.

I ended up with the opportunity after High School to build up a portfolio of website designs through a gaming business called SPECTRE. Along with this portfolio, I did a 30 day web design course that was actually taught my Adobe Professionals. This portfolio, and the certificates I received from this course landed me a fulltime design job with a new online business called Boomerang.

OMG! Boomerang!

Boomerang was a new online media business with a portfolio of more than 30,000 high quality Australian domain names, including www.creditcards.com.au, www.jobs.com.au, www.mobiles.com.au etc. They even had stuff like www.shoelace.com.au. Chances are that you’ve probably already visited one of their sites without even knowing it.

Our office was based in Paddington in Brisbane and I was initially hired as a web designer. Within a month I was given additional responsibility to manage the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a particular group of sites.

Just before Christmas of 2009, Fairfax Digital became an owner of Boomerang, which in the process, was renamed to Online Marketing Group (www.omg.com.au). Needless to say, the direction of focus for the business was changed, along with many peoples roles and even the location. The business was moved to Sydney from Brisbane. Their office lies on the water in Darling Island with stunning views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I worked for Boomerang / Online Marketing Group since February 2009 and ceased employment with them in August of 2010 to return to Brisbane for personal reasons.

Health & Life’s Complications

The time between leaving OMG and the new year was an incredibly difficult time for me. I was unemployed and my father was not particularly well. He had beaten cancer a few years prior and was still having health problems, which was the reason for my departure from OMG.

Into the new year, things turned up and I was given a new business opportunity which I still work on today. I am also the owner of Hammer Media and do contract design and SEO work for people and businesses within Australia.

Passions, Interests, Hobbies

I’m extremely passionate about Rugby League, and despite living and being born in Brisbane – I proudly support the Sydney Roosters. As a result of this passion, I also run the largest Sydney Roosters supporter website in the web – The Chookpen.

I also have a soft spot for Cricket, as there’s nothing better than sitting on the couch and watching a one day match – for the whole day. I drive a 1998, green, aerotop Toyota Supra which is my pride and joy.

I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. I have a desire to become extremely successful in a hope that one day I can repay my family and my friends for putting up with the person I vowed I would never again be.

If you wish to contact me, for whatever reason. You can email me at chris @ chrishamilton.com.au or reach me on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.