The Billion Dollar Secret

by Rafael Badziag

  At that time, I had a little more than five hours of sleep every day. Then, the first 20 years in my career in Fuyao Glass, I had no more than six hours a day. It was 24/7, no free Saturday, no free Sunday. Every day it was the same.

  Manny Stul was working on weekends in his first company. Even today he works a lot: “Most nights I’m working, and when I come home I continue working.”

  Mohed Altrad works on weekends even today.

  All three of them became World Entrepreneur of the Year, in different years. Apparently, if you want to become the best entrepreneur in the world, working 24/7 is what you need to do, especially in the first years of your business.

  With time, when you have organized your top management, you may allow yourself to not work on weekends, but certainly not at the beginning of your business.

  Maybe the billionaire attitude toward hard work is best carried by Frank Hasenfratz’s saying: “I only work half days—from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.” Frank is over 80 and still very active in his company, when other people his age have been enjoying their retirement for over a decade. Billionaires over 70, like Hüsnü Özyegin, regularly work over 60 hours a week.

  You need to put in time if you want to be successful in business.

  Mohed Altrad told me, “If you want to succeed, you can’t succeed with two hours of work a day. It’s not possible.”

  Billionaires always want to work more. When I asked Tim Draper what he would like to change in his life, he said he would like to have more time, so he could work more.

  I only work half days—from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

  — Frank Hasenfratz #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  In the beginning, there is no job too simple for you.

  Fran Hasenfratz’s first job upon arrival in Canada was washing cars.

  Frank Stronach was a dishwasher at a hospital before he found a job at a factory.

  Naveen Jain believes it’s better to have any job than no job, and he speaks from experience.

  When I was in Silicon Valley, one of the companies that I used to work for was shutting down because it was moving to LA. And I did not want to move to LA, so I was essentially not going to have a job, and I had just gotten married.

  So I applied for every job. It didn’t matter at what level the job was, how low paying it was, how dirty it was. And my wife looked at me and said, “You are an educated person. You are a senior manager, why would you apply for this job?” And I said, because this job is better than what I have now, which is no job. Once I get this job, I’m going to find one that’s better than the job I have. And until I get the first job, every job is better.

  And then I’m going to keep applying until I get the job I want. And that is having self-respect to know that you have dignity of work. And even if I make a dollar, honest living is more important to me than taking unemployment insurance and living off that. I would never do that.

  If you want to succeed, you can’t succeed with two hours of work a day. It’s not possible.

  — Mohed Altrad #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  ABB = Always Be Busy

  There is always something you can do to progress your business. Billionaires use their time to the best to do these things. They make their diligence their competitive advantage.

  Jack Cowin explained to me how sports had ingrained it in him:

  I did very well as a college football player, got recognized on the all-star teams that they chose. I wasn’t the greatest athlete, but I think I tried harder than anybody else did. Training’s really important. You’re not the best, but nobody’s going to out-train you. You’re going to push to be as physically fit as you can be.

  This job is better than what I have now, which is no job.

  — Naveen Jain #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Hard work promotes your luck. Peter Hargreaves likes to say, “The more I work, the luckier I am.”

  When I met the American celebrity billionaire Mark Cuban in Monaco, he told me business was an ultimate sport. It is played without end, without interruption, and without rules; and there is always somebody who is trying to knock you out. So if you want to win in this game, you can’t afford to stop competing even for a second.

  The more I work, the luckier I am.

  — Peter Hargreaves #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Sergey Galitskiy shares these views:

  In many sciences, scientists manage to explore something to the end and are done. There is nothing similar in business. What works here is that as soon as you fall asleep, somebody is coming to eat you. It’s impossible to say, okay the next year I am fine, I will feel good. You can’t feel relaxed at any time.

  Take the Hard Route and Don’t Make Shortcuts

  The way to success is to do hard things rather than to take an easier route.

  This is what Tim Draper shared with me:

  I always felt like the way to become successful was to do all the hard things. Do everything you feel is hard rather than try to take an easier route. If you just keep doing that and take the next step forward, that usually works. Easy paths don’t usually lead you to a good outcome. So, do the hard things, and then you can do easy things after the hard things are done.

  Do everything you feel is hard rather than try to take an easier route.

  — Tim Draper #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Ask yourself, are you choosing a life of ease or a life of service and adventure? Life in ease is a life of vanity. But if you take the hard route, you will be rewarded.

  When Naveen Jain got his engineering degree and MBA in personnel management and human resources, he stumbled upon the hardest aptitude test he had ever heard about. Some of his friends took it.

  And the friends said this was the hardest test they had ever taken. I looked at them and said, “Oh, come on. I mean we are all here. We are pretty smart kids. How hard can this be?” And that guy, I swear I looked in his eye and he said, “You know, you have never taken a test like that. You won’t know.” And I said, “Goddammit, I’m going to just go.…” I finished my lunch and I said, “I’m going to go take the damn test and see how hard it is.”

  One day I took a test, aced it. Next morning I got a call from this company called Barous Corporation, which is a computer company. He said, “We looked at your test scores and we’d like to offer you a job of computer programmer.” I said, “I’m sorry I have never seen a computer in my life. I don’t even know what a computer is. How would I program something like that?” And they’re looking at my score and they’re saying, “No, but you have an absolute aptitude for computer programming. Do you know the difference between a bit and a bite?” And I said, “Of course I do.” And he said, “What’s that?” I said, “Small is a bit.” He said, “There you have it.” [laughs] And next thing I know, they say, “Well, we’re going to teach you computer programming. And we’re going to hire you. We’re going to take you to the United States. But we’re not going to pay you much. We’re going to pay you $500 a month.”

  Five hundred dollars a month seemed a lot from the perspective of India, but it turned out to be hardly enough to survive in New Jersey, where he ended up. On top of that, he had never experienced a winter before.

  There’s no insulation in the house, the cold wind is blowing, and now, I have no clothes, I have no boots, I am walking in snow with my leather sole shoes. I have decided that I have had it. This is not a country I can live [in]. This is a nightmare and I want to go back to my country, and I’m done with this experiment now.

  But Naveen stayed and was greatly rewarded for the challenges he took. Soon, he went to California. Later he got hired by Microsoft and started earning good money. Then he founded Infospace, one of the giants of the dot.com era that made him a billionaire. And since then he has started numerous other companies. He became a visionary, a role model for legions of ambitious entrepreneurs around the world.

  Do you want to drift aimlessly through life or do something of importance? Do you want to just consume, or do you w
ant to create something of value? Do you want to observe from the back row, or do you want to participate in the game of life yourself?

  Chip Wilson, the Lululemon founder, shared these thoughts with me:

  I think it’s a matter of, what’s my life worth? And do I want to cruise or do I want to create? I want to create as much as I can before I die.

  Do I want to cruise or do I want to create?

  — Chip Wilson #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Go Full Speed, Give 100%

  If you want to outcompete others, don’t slack. Go full speed; give everything you have. Be willing to go the extra mile. Only this way are you going to win in the game of business.

  Petter Stordalen is probably the most energetic person I know. I asked him about his secret of sustaining such a high energy level.

  That’s a very good question, because if you give a lot of energy, you get a lot of energy. It’s like training. People think training takes a lot of energy. No, it’s the opposite; it gives a lot of energy. So after I’ve done my exercise, the running in the morning, both mentally and physically, I’m filled up with good energy. It’s a good way to start the morning. The dog is happy, my wife is happy, I am happy, and it doesn’t matter if it’s cold, warm, snow, rain. So when people say, “But you work a lot …,” it’s because of that.

  Tim Draper gives everything each and every day, doesn’t hold back anything, and falls asleep completely depleted.

  When I hit the bed at the end of a day, I have done as much as I felt I could.

  If you give a lot of energy, you get a lot of energy.

  — Petter Stordalen #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  If you don’t want to spend your life wondering “what would happen if,” always give 100%. This is what Chip Wilson learned when he was a competitive butterfly swimmer.

  I always tell the story about being at the end of a swimming pool when I was 10 years old. And at that time people always tried to sprint to the end and to make themselves look good at the end of a race. My dad said, “Why don’t you go full-out right from the very start? And if you can’t make it, then you can’t make it. But try that.” It was really him telling me not to hold anything back, to give it and do it right from the very start. Of course, I broke a Canadian record because of that.

  And then because of that, I always think that if I don’t give 100% on everything, if I only gave 98% and I failed, would I regret that I didn’t give the other 2% my whole life? Would I go to my grave going, “I wonder if…?” And I never want to be in a “wonder if” position.

  Key to Diligence and Resilience: Passion

  Passion is one of the most important qualities of a businessperson and part of the success secret for many of my interviewees. If you have passion for what you do, you will be self-motivated, driven, and relentless. Only passion can help you endure through the harsh beginnings and overcome the many obstacles that you are going to encounter. So better be driven.

  Following Peter Hargreaves, “the biggest advantage that you can have in business is loving the industry you’re in because you’re not working then. It’s almost a pleasure to come to work. It’s almost a hobby. And I do love this business, and I do love this industry. I have other small ventures outside this business, but I don’t love them, whereas I love this. So that makes a big difference.”

  It is also important for Tony Tan Caktiong:

  You have to make sure that whatever you do, you have a passion for it. You have to have some interest.

  Jack Cowin concurs:

  If you’re interested in something, you can’t tell the difference between work and play. If you’re interested in it because you really like it, then it comes easy to you. Because if you don’t enjoy it, eventually you’ll fail. That’s the most important thing. Being able to identify where you belong and what makes you happy.

  The biggest advantage that you can have in business is loving the industry you’re in because you’re not working then.

  — Peter Hargreaves #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  You don’t need time to relax when you enjoy what you do.

  Because of that, Manny Stul can work up to 18 hours a day:

  I don’t get stressed. There’s good stress and bad stress. If you love what you’re doing and there’s passion in what you’re doing, you can work 18 hours a day and it’s not stressful. If you hate what you’re doing and you hate being there, you can work three hours a day and you’ll probably end up sick because you’re miserable or you feel trapped.

  Make sure that whatever you do, you have a passion for it.

  — Tony Tan Caktiong #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  If you like what you do, you will become good at it and inevitably successful. I got this advice from Frank Stronach:

  You must do something that you like, that you enjoy. If you like something, then you’re gonna be good in it. If you put in that extra effort, you could be one of the best men or women. Whatever it is, be one of the best. Then money is always a by-product. Whatever you do.

  How to Find Your Passion?

  If Naveen Jain could call his 20-year-old self, he would advise him to find his passion.

  And the best way to find your true passion is imagine if you had everything in your life, a billion dollars, a lovely family, everything that you always wanted, what would you do? And always remember making money is a by-product of doing things that you love doing because if you love doing something, you do it for long time. You become really good at it. And then when you’re good at it, you obviously make a lot of money.

  Imagine if you had everything in your life, a billion dollars, a lovely family, everything that you always wanted, what would you do?

  — Naveen Jain #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Would you do what you are doing for no money?

  This is the question Chip Wilson, like most other self-made billionaires, answers with a clear “yes.”

  I would’ve done everything I did for no money. It was really the absolute love of going, “I have an idea. I have a concept. I wonder if people really want it.” And being able to want to take that to fruition, and being able to stay up those extra five, six hours a night to make something nobody else would make, and being able to get into the store in the morning and look at people’s eyes and see if they actually want it, and then what price they want it at.

  Billionaires love and enjoy what they do. Frank Hasenfratz is a typical example:

  Let me put it this way: in all fairness, there is nothing—nothing—I would rather do than what I’m doing. There is nothing. If you ask me to be prime minister, no. I have the best job in the world, and I did all the years.

  Be Proud of What You Do and Create

  Billionaires are proud to do business and proud of what they create.

  Peter Hargreaves gave me this perspective:

  People forget that without business, and without the profits it creates and the jobs it creates, they wouldn’t be able to live the lifestyles they do. And I think people ought to be prouder of their businesses. I mean, in a lot of countries, athletes and footballers and singers and actors are given far more acclaim than businessmen, and to me, that’s really quite sad.

  And indeed, Peter is extremely proud about his unique expertise in his industry.

  I have the best job in the world, and I did all the years.

  — Frank Hasenfratz #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Tony Tan Caktiong, the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2004, is proud when customers say: “Wow, your food tastes very good.”

  We are so happy when we receive those kinds of comments, like “well, we went to your store and your food tastes very good.”

  Cai Dongqing, similarly, is proud of his achievements and the value he brings his customers:

  I feel proud of turning the company from a toy manufacturing company into a pan-entertainment group engaging in comprehensive businesses including toy manufacturing, comic, animation, licensing, movie, game, and smart science. And I am proud t
hat the characters we create bring happiness and memories to people and become part of their lives.

  Enjoy the Process, Not the Result

  You need to enjoy the process more than the result. Billionaires like the process of building a company more than having a company. They enjoy making money more than having money.

  Cho Tak Wong, the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2009, has achieved a lot of fame and riches. For him, “it’s not the most important thing. In reality you enjoy more the whole process how you build up enterprises. This is the real enjoyment.”

  Naveen Jain likens business to having sex:

  Think of making money as having sex. You can’t focus on the end goal. You have to enjoy the process.

  In reality you enjoy more the whole process how you build up enterprises.

  — Cho Tak Wong #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  The path to success and happiness is thus to find something that you are good at and passionate about and want to do and then enjoy your life doing it.

  Peter Hargreaves shared this insight with me when we met at his office in Bristol:

  I was never very good at anything. I mean, I did the running, but I was never very good at it. I never won anything. I never won anything at squash or tennis. I was never in the school teams or a sport or anything like that. The one thing I found I was good at was business, and I think if you find something you’re good at, it’s wonderful if you can do it. I mean, some people are good at things and they don’t want to do it, and that’s really sad. I’ve known people who are just natural athletes and didn’t want to do it. But I found something I was good at, and I enjoyed it. I think it’s as simple as that.

  Think of making money as having sex. You can’t focus on the end goal. You have to enjoy the process.

  — Naveen Jain #BillionDollarGoldNuggets

  Not Enjoying? Get Off the Train!

  But what if you don’t enjoy what you do?

  The best advice in this point I was given by Jack Cowin, when we talked on the porch of his house in Sydney:

  I think probably the most important thing is you have to want to do it. If you’re swimming against the current, it’s hard. If you’re making yourself do something, it’s tough. You have to really want to be able to do it. You’re going to run into obstacles, and if you don’t really enjoy what you’re doing, you’re going to get sick of it, you’re going to get tired, you’re going to quit because it’s too hard. But if you enjoy it, you’re probably going to be good at it; if you’re good at it, you get positive reinforcement, and the positive reinforcement makes you want to do more of it. Success is contagious; so is failure. So enjoy what you’re doing, and if you’re not enjoying it, you’re probably on the wrong train. You’re going in the wrong direction. Get off the train.