As Australia's Chief Scientist, our country turned to Alan Finkel for advice on everything from climate change to artificial intelligence, to the pandemic. But at a time when scientists have never been so important, Alan nearly didn't become one at all! Growing up in Melbourne as the son of immigrants who fled the Holocaust and desperately wanted Alan to become a doctor, he had to find the courage to make his own choices - becoming an engineer, neuroscientist, academic, entrepreneur, philanthropist and a clear-thinking leader.