The skills that made Malcolm Turnbull his fortune aren't necessarily the ones that make a good prime minister.
Nor does having a cool $200 million necessarily help in a country where the ideas of equality and the fair go are entwined in the national ethos.
Australia's wealthiest prime minister, who came to politics with a fearsome reputation as a corporate deal-maker, appears to be heading out of office leaving a paper-thin majority in the lower house, an anarchic Senate and white-anting conservatives on the ascendancy in his own party.
Not that Turnbull was born rich. He was brought up, from the age of nine, by a single father. They lived for a time in a two-bedroom rented flat.
He excelled academically at Sydney Grammar and completed an Arts/Law degree at Sydney University despite a multitude of distractions which included political journalism for mainstream media and student politics.
A friend from those days said in a 1991 Good Weekend profile that Turnbull paid others to take notes for him.
He went on to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar for more legal studies and political journalism and marriage to the well-connected Lucy Hughes.
Back in Australia he flirted with politics and joined Kerry Packer, the biggest piranha of the corporate world. He ran his defence against the claim that he was the crook codenamed Goanna by the Costigan Royal Commission.
Turnbull really made his name as a lawyer in the 1986 Spycatcher case in which he routed a battery of British QCs and Margaret Thatcher's top bureaucrat by winning the right for former British spy Peter Wright to publish his memoirs.
In 1987 he co-founded an investment bank and in 1998 became a partner in Goldman Sachs. His biggest coup was investing $500,000 in internet service provider Ozemail in 1994 and selling five years later for $57 million.
Turnbull's main political activity at this stage was heading the Australian Republican Movement, which culminated in the failed 1999 referendum and his denunciation of John Howard as the man "who broke a nation's heart".
His interest in politics revived, Turnbull turned his attention to the safe Sydney seat of Wentworth and after a bitter preselection battle dislodged the sitting member, Peter King.
He came to federal parliament in 2004 and was a man in a hurry. Before his first term was over he was in cabinet as Environment Minister.
The 2007 election brought Labor back to power and Turnbull challenging for the Liberal leadership. He lost by three votes to Brendan Nelson - and may well have won if he'd been more consultative.
He didn't have long to wait. With Nelson languishing in the polls, Turnbull challenged in September 2008 and won by four votes.
But he still couldn't wait, his impatience leading to the Godwin Grech affair.
Grech, a Treasury official, leaked to Turnbull an email that purported to show Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan misused a government program to help a car dealer mate.
Turnbull went in all guns blazing without proper checks. The email turned out to be fake and Grech clearly disturbed.
Even more damaging was Turnbull's support for the government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which split the party.
Tony Abbott challenged and won by one vote. Turnbull retired to the back bench and dithered over quitting politics.
After Abbott took the coalition back to power in 2013, Turnbull became Communications Minister with the job of sorting out the NBN.
As Abbott struggled, Turnbull positioned.
On September 14, 2015, after 30 consecutive Newspolls had put the Liberals behind, Turnbull challenged and won by 10 votes.
That move left many conservatives in the coalition partyroom and broader party organisation without a champion in The Lodge but they persevered with the moderate leader.
In May 2016, Turnbull took a big risk and called a double dissolution election.
He won - by a single seat, the closest result since 1961. The new Senate was more unruly than ever.
Through his term he struggled with the polls, though he remained preferred PM over Bill Shorten. This dichotomy was underlined by the "Super Saturday" by-elections last July.
Labor has maintained its attacks on his wealth and privilege, with witticisms like "Mr Harbourside Mansion" and "the member for Networth".
Turnbull has tried to defuse them. He donates his salary - more than $500,000 - to charity.
He also, more controversially, gave $1.75 million to his party for the 2016 election campaign.
However, he never quite came to grips with how a self-made multimillionaire presents himself as a man of the people.
