The Billion Dollar Secret

by Rafael Badziag

  You can’t eat ice cream and cake 24 hours a day.

  — Sergey Galitskiy #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Some billionaires use a simple rule of thumb: “If it doesn’t kill you, go for it!”

  Mohed Altrad’s company went immediately abroad in its acquisition spree. I asked Mohed if it wasn’t too risky to do it in the very beginning. “It was easy. The targets in Spain and Italy were small companies, such as 1 million Euros. You are not taking a big risk. So the idea is to go abroad, assuming what happens if these two go bankrupt? Nothing. You will have a hit on your head and you’ll overcome it. That’s the thing.”

  You’re going to fall many times, and you’re going to fail many times, and you’re going to lose many times.

  — Ron Sim #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  You just give it a try. If it doesn’t work, you improve.

  Tony Tan Caktiong, the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2004, went abroad very early. “We opened Jollibee in Singapore. It failed. So we went to Taiwan. It failed. And this probably was bold when we were not ready because we had the dream that we want to be a global company. So after those we just kept on thinking, how do we make it better?”

  Tim Draper’s action plan is simple: “I experience. I adjust. I act.”

  Business is setting a hypothesis and then proving it.

  — Kim Beom-Su #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Be a Problem Solver

  Entrepreneurs are problem solvers.

  Naveen Jain has an interesting theory about entrepreneurship:

  Let’s just start with the basic thing of what’s an entrepreneur? If you look at all the humans in the world, you categorize them into three types of people.

  One group of people who say I can think about the problem. I can tell you what the problem is. And all of us are very good at it. So we call them human beings. Everyone is the person who can tell you what problems are.

  The second group are the people who would come up with the solutions. They will tell you what the solution to this problem is. These are the visionaries, and these are the people we would call the professors.

  There’s only one type of person who goes out and does something about it. And he says, “To hell with it. I’m going to go out and do it.” And those are the people who are entrepreneurs. You can be an entrepreneur inside a company, inside a personal relationship, or starting a company. So, entrepreneurship is not necessarily about starting a business but about solving a problem.

  Many billionaires consider solving problems as one of their strong points. Michał Sołowow considers himself a crisis manager. “I am rather useful for such difficult situations.”

  I experience. I adjust. I act.

  — Tim Draper #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Problems are a treasure trove for business models.

  When I asked Dilip Shanghvi for advice for people who want to be as successful as him, he answered: “I think the most important thing would be to find a problem to solve.”

  Dilip also learned from his father to always confront his problems, instead of running away from them:

  When I worked with my father in the pharmaceutical wholesale business, if I received a phone call from someone I didn’t want to speak with, I wouldn’t answer. My father would ask me, “Why didn’t you talk to him?” I’d say, “We need to pay him. I can’t pay him today; I plan to pay him tomorrow, so I did not talk to him.”

  My father said, “No, you should call him first, tell him that you cannot pay him today, even though you promised, and that you will pay tomorrow. Don’t avoid a difficult situation. You have to face it, because if today you have an issue and you run away, then you will not learn to solve problems, and people will not trust you.”

  Problems are a treasure trove for business models.

  — Rafael Badziag @BillionairePal #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  For every adversity there is always a solution. Don’t complain; find a solution instead.

  Mohed Altrad’s life was dominated by adversity.

  If you look at my life, it’s a series of adversities. It starts from the beginning, the death of my mother and the fact that my father didn’t want me to live with him so he cast me away. Then coming to France, you have another problem, which is language. You can’t communicate with people. Cultural difference. And then later on, to succeed at the university, and the fact that you don’t have money during your early years in the university. I used to have something like 20 Euros ($25) a month and had to live on that, to eat, to dress, to walk.

  Later on, when I started a business, I needed banks, and no bank wanted to open a bank account for my company because “you are an immigrant, you are Syrian, you are an Arab, you are a Bedouin, and you have a computer science education and you are trying to do business in scaffolding or concrete mixers.” It’s a combination [leading to] disaster, according to them.

  Whatever the adversity, whatever the stage in which this happens, there is always a solution to get out of it. It’s not always a good solution, but when you are at this stage, it’s not a matter of having a good life or a very good life, it’s a matter of life and death. This is the thing, you see. It’s about surviving.

  I went through this all my life. Now, things [have] improved, but believe me, this is still flowing in my blood, in my heart. I don’t forget this.

  Don’t avoid a difficult situation. You have to face it, because if today you have an issue and you run away, then you will not learn to solve problems, and people will not trust you.

  — Dilip Shanghvi #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Unsuccessful people first look for the culprits when problems arise. This is not what billionaires do. They look for solutions. Michał Sołowow codified it as one of the rules for his companies: “We solve problems; we don’t search for the culpable.”

  For billionaires, problem solving is a source of motivation.

  Manny Stul just loves problem solving.

  The more complicated the problem is, the more I enjoy it. The reality is our whole business life is like a game of chess. And it is only a game. People need to be mindful of that: it is only a game, and not to take it too seriously. All that happens as you get bigger is the numbers get bigger, but it’s still the same game.

  Michał Sołowow shares a similar attitude:

  I am motivated by problems. Every day I want things to work better. Those problems that I encounter in everyday life lead me to solving them. In other words, it’s a self-propelling mechanism. I like my work, I like what I do.

  The more complicated the problem is, the more I enjoy it.

  — Manny Stul #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  After a Failure, Get Up, Improve, and Never Look Back

  It’s okay to fail. But quickly pick yourself up and get back into the game. Don’t let a failure or a mishap stop you on your way.

  Michał Sołowow pretty much sums up billionaires’ attitude toward failures: “Determination is needed, an ability to stand up after defeats is needed. You need the ability to accept those defeats because they keep happening all the time. They happen daily. Every day something happens in a way that we would not like it to, and one needs to accept that and do one’s best to improve it. One important thing is also the ability to draw conclusions from those defeats. To continuously learn and after all self-improve.”

  Whole business life is like a game of chess. And it is only a game.

  — Manny Stul #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Petter Stordalen gives a perfect example of how you get up immediately after you fall. He was fired from the shopping center development company at the peak of his success. Just in the moment when he thought he knew it all and became invincible, he lost it all.

  “Okay, what do I do? Definitely not shopping centers. I’m done with shopping centers.”

  I was looking to different possible options, and I thought, “Okay.” Private health care was in the early beginning in Norway. That could be something. Then I saw hotels. Hotels. No
t much had happened in the hotel industry in the last 20 years. It’s the same players, run by old men in dark suits, more than 50 years old. I was around 30. So I decided hotels.

  I set up a press conference and I told them, “I’m here to tell you.” Everybody thought I would talk about shopping centers. “My new business is hotels.” They started to laugh. “I know why you laugh, because my ambition is to make the biggest hotel company ever in Norway.” They were like, “Ah ha ha.” Then I said, “I know why you are still laughing, because it will be the biggest one in Scandinavia,” and they literally had to carry people out. One guy asked me, “So Petter, how many hotels do you have?” I said, “I have one. Bought it yesterday out of a bankruptcy.”

  And from that day, we added on average one hotel and 50 people every 14 days. I went from one hotel to 100, from a few employees to 5,000 in less than three years. And people stopped laughing.

  As I am writing this book, Petter has close to 200 hotels in his Nordic Choice hotel chain including the brands Clarion Hotel, Comfort Hotel, and Quality Hotel. It is the largest hotel chain in Scandinavia. Nobody laughs at Petter’s claims anymore; they call him the Hotel King.

  I am motivated by problems.

  — Michał Sołowow #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Jack Cowin’s attitude is, “If you have not had a few failures, you haven’t tried enough. You’ve been slack and lazy.”

  So never look back. Don’t dwell on your failures. Instead, focus on what you can do now to improve the future.

  I asked Jack what he would do differently if he were 21 again.

  My basic make-up and attitude is a positive one. I look on the positive side of life. If I was 21 again, there wouldn’t be too many things I’d do different. Sometimes I might’ve gone harder or things like this, but I think it’s really important not to dwell on things that didn’t work. Get on with it, next. Let’s put our energy into something that’s going to work. And I’m not trying to be dismissive, because I say we’ve made lots of mistakes, from the start.

  If you have not had a few failures, you haven’t tried enough. You’ve been slack and lazy.

  — Jack Cowin #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Hüsnü Özyegin recommends to learn from your mistakes instead of dwelling on them:

  I have missed more opportunities than I grabbed. I never regret that, because I’m very satisfied with what I’ve done, and my character is such that I don’t look back at what I missed; rather I try to learn from my mistakes, not dwell on what I missed but try to understand what I did wrong, so to speak.

  Frank Stronach is even more radical with respect to this: “I see nothing as a failure. If something doesn’t work out, you learn from it. Don’t look back. Don’t get angry. And just look forward.”

  Frank Hasenfratz likes to say: “If you’re looking back too often, you’re going to trip going forward.”

  It’s really important not to dwell on things that didn’t work. Get on with it.

  — Jack Cowin #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Accept and Embrace Change

  One of the recurring concepts during my interviews with billionaires was the concept of change. Most people have trouble with the fast-changing world we live in. They want things to stay as they are, do the things as they did yesterday. Most of us have difficulty accepting change and adapting to it.

  Billionaires have a completely different approach. They not only accept change and are prepared for it, they embrace it and take advantage of it. In most cases, they are the change agents who cause the world to change.

  I don’t look back at what I missed; rather I try to learn from my mistakes.

  — Hüsnü Özyegin #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  That’s what Jack Cowin likes about business: “One of the beauties of business is the fact every day is different, it’s a challenge.”

  I see nothing as a failure. If something doesn’t work out, you learn from it. Don’t look back. Don’t get angry. And just look forward.

  — Frank Stronach #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  For Frank Hasenfratz, “Every day, you’ve got to change. If you don’t change, you die.” Frank is well aware of the changing world. And of the need to adapt to changing conditions.

  One thing is sure, things will change. Does business change? For sure. If you don’t change, you won’t be around. And I can show you something; I just got it now. The Chamber of Commerce puts out a publication. I asked my assistant, “Get me the 1964 book if you can find it.” That’s when I started a business. She found it in the library. There were probably 100 manufacturing plants in this town. How many do you think are left?

  Three. They’ve all gone by the wayside. And why? They didn’t change.

  I’ve been here for 60 years. And if you’re not a little bit apprehensive, if you don’t think, “I’ve got to do better tomorrow, I’ve got to get a different product or a more advanced product”—if you don’t do that, you won’t be here for long. To me, have I got it made? Absolutely not! Don’t even think about it.

  If you’re looking back too often, you’re going to trip going forward.

  — Frank Hasenfratz #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Manny Stul says you need to constantly adjust to what’s going on, and adapt. He considers innovation to be an imperative element of his success secret.

  Every day, you’ve got to change. If you don’t change, you die.

  — Frank Hasenfratz #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Lirio Parisotto is the master of metamorphosis. In the course of his business career, he managed to change his business model several times, going from a small company with revenues much below a million dollars to a multibillion-dollar industry giant. At first, he was in electronics retail. Then he went into video rental. With his Videolar, which initially was just a video recording business, he was constantly surfing on the wave of disruption. As different carriers came and went, starting with VHS, through CDs, DVDs, blu-rays, he reinvented Videolar over and over again, spotting the decline of one technology just in the right moment, to be on time for the next opportunity. Simultaneously, he was moving his focus from the video recording business to industrial media production. When it came to the final dematerialization of storage media, Videolar was confronted with the risk of bankruptcy. Lirio had to mobilize huge financial resources from his stock market investments and make an enormous effort to move ahead and change the focus of the company to the petrochemical business. He once again managed to reinvent his company and move to large-scale production of plastic materials and products.

  Let’s end this chapter with the strong warning I got from Kim Beom-Su when I asked him about a message he would like to share with the world.

  The future is something that the history of humanity has never lived before. You need to be prepared to move on from your previous world and space to a new world in the future. You must prepare to move on because just settling in the present could become a very dangerous decision.

  There were transitional, revolution periods before, but with the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, an unpredictable and uncertain future is fast approaching, and we need to get people ready to adapt, find jobs, survive it in a safe manner, but I think we are weak at that, so I’m looking for a way to help people do that.

  The digital and virtual world is becoming more and more important, and in reality it’s becoming more important and more influential than a minister. In addition to that, another completely different world, the world of artificial intelligence and robotics, is opening up, and we need to seriously think about this, more deeply and more diversely.

  There’s going to be a whole new future and whole new world that we are not prepared for, and I believe that there’s not enough serious and important discussions going on, on how to prepare for that future, and I see a lot of people are very unprepared.

  Someone who is able to securely and adventurously go with this world will adapt well, but those who can’t will experience an even bigger g
ap; whether it be gap in income or gap in living standards, it has the possibility to become extreme. These people have never seen this world, learned about this world, heard about this world … perhaps they’ve heard about it … but if they don’t adapt to it, they will face existential challenges.

  What is your attitude to problems and obstacles in life, dear reader? Do you see them as opportunities? Are you willing to experiment, to fail and learn from your mistakes? Are you a problem solver? Do you get up after every failure to move forward without looking back? Finally, do you accept and embrace change?

  - Drifters don’t act, because they are afraid of making a mistake.

  - Millionaires act but try to avoid mistakes, and they spend too much time dwelling on their past failures.

  - Billionaires are willing to fail, accept their failures, learn from them, improve, move on, and never look back. They test their ideas and know that mistakes are inevitable to tell their good ideas from the bad ones and to move forward.

  For more stories on this topic, go to:

  http://TheBillionDollarSecret.com/resources

  CHAPTER 12

  Keep Fighting to Win

  Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

  —Thomas A. Edison

  Realize that creating anything of note can’t be easy. When building a business empire, you will have to demonstrate grit, determination, and resilience. You will encounter numerous obstacles that you will have to overcome. You will have to persevere through hardships. You will have to fall and get up many times. You will have to keep fighting until you reach your goals.

  Get Serious and Commit to Success

  If you want to achieve great things in business, you need to commit to success. Stop playing games and get serious.