Asking Billionaires If Getting Rich Was Worth It

What's up, you cannot be filming past you any private people The guy that just pulled up in the four or five eight the red Ferrari should go talk to him But you cannot be filming him here. He's a billionaire. Excuse me, sir, sir. Is this your Ferrari? Yeah, how did you get rich man? Well, what did you get a Ferrari? Scooter scooter problem. What was the most amount of money you made a single year? I sold my company years ago. You want to know how much I've seen you do this for you? Like I sold the company for over a billion dollars What's the exact exit price 1.2 1.5 billion pounds not those cheap dollars Kobe Bryant was part of body armor, right? Yeah. So how much did you have to pay Kobe Bryant? Nothing? He paid me he invested six million to start in the companies. What did that turn into four hundred fifty million? Are you serious? Have you ever been broke before? Oh, oh my god, dude I literally had to borrow when I was very my wife with four kids had to borrow $200 from my mom was 13 million in Debt had no money and paid it all back. Yeah You made billions of dollars throughout your career right now. Huh? Oh, wow. You ask good questions. I don't think that's how life works I've interviewed over 40 billionaires and I've asked every single one of them how they truly got rich and how they built their billion-dollar Companies, but there's one question that I've never asked them until now. Are they actually happy? So over the next few days I'll be in two of the wealthiest hubs in America Beverly Hills and Las Vegas to interview not one not two not three but four billionaires tech founders to investors to people who've made billions of dollars in exits to find out if all the Sacrifice and hard work it takes to get rich is actually worth it. So let's go find out if money can actually buy happiness Arch guys, so we are right now headed to go meet up with an interview our first billionaire out here in Beverly Hills You guys who is this billionaire that we're about to meet right now? He's the guy that has built some of the biggest beverage brands in the entire world For example, you ever had one of these right here body armor. Yeah, he sold body armor to coca-cola for over five billion dollars So how about one of these or one of these? These are all companies that he himself has sold for hundreds of millions and billions of dollars Okay, but today we find out if those billions of dollars actually made him happy We're not just gonna be getting the secret to getting rich but whether or not money actually can buy happiness Let's go see what he has to say We were letting them know you built everybody's favorite gas station drink, that's it baby. That's the truth. That's how we roll today We're gonna be figuring out the secrets to building a billion-dollar brand Yep, and we're also gonna be asking you if the you know, millions and millions of dollars actually leads to happiness That's what we're trying to figure out today, right? So we're gonna be talking about everything bad. It ain't bad All right, definitely not that's it right there. He's good How do you today how old are you 68 68 years? So you're 68 year old billionaire and you're still building company and I'm still going in and I love what I do Keeps me young. How much do you work? How many hours a day? Do you work? I don't work I was working all day before you came here. I'm a young 68. Most people think I'm 50. I'm in shape I swim every day for an hour and a half at the pool money stays in shape money stays shape and that's why I do I love what I do. And what else I'm gonna do Atlanta Beach. I'm not that great golf You know, I got it. I got the team. I got my family I got over 500 employees and they're all driven with one goal to win What was the most amount of money that you made in a single day the single day when I sold body armor in October of? 2021 how much did you be a lot? Give me a range how much half a billion a billion? Oh, yeah, and how about for the company? We made five billion five billion. Yeah Yeah, you made billions of dollars throughout your career. Are you happy now? Oh, yeah Yeah, I'm more excited that you're here Why are a lot of billionaires miserable though? Could you hear people talk about all the time how they're not happy because money's not the answer at all I have a great life. I have a great family. I wife my son my daughter and we're very close We're all involved in some fashion in the business everyone. It's great houses. Everybody lives in great places We're good. My senior executives have great lives You helped me a lot of money and they want to keep doing it. So you take care of your people Yes, you have to yeah, I got it Everyone has to get in the game even my assistants They made a million dollars people working in the warehouse You made sure everybody eat when you sold your company exactly we share that the prize You think a lot of people forget about that and they don't take care of their people. Some people do. Yeah I'm gonna challenge you as a billionaire. What is the best piece of advice that you've ever received throughout your career? I would say surround yourself good people make sure the first one works and make sure you leverage all those guys I mean money and your first deal they go in your second deal Then they go in your third deal and then it keeps going Honestly, I can raise 100 million dollars in one day if I start another company because you know all the right people I know all the right people. I've been blessed We talked about how you and all the billionaires that you know, what is that one trait? They all have in common. They're killers. They want to win You want to disrupt and they work their asses off like Kobe my mama mentality, dude He works out until he passes out every morning. You've never seen dedication like him Kobe Bryant was part of body armor, right? Yeah, so how much did you have to pay Kobe Bryant? Nothing? He paid me. What do you mean? He wanted to get in the company. He loved the product. He invested six million to start in the company He invested six million in your company. Yes, what did that turn into four hundred fifty million? Are you serious? well he also got talent marketing shares on top of that because he was the director of sports marketing when Kobe Bryant calls the athletes to come for a commercial They all show up Harden came into body armor because of Kobe give me the deepest life quote You've ever heard Vince Lombardi. My father just say this. It's not the big that eat the small. It's the fast eat the slow That's my famous quote beverage. The speed is important in business Do you know if you sit on your hands the competitions runs you over 68 today? If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to me with the younger generation What would that be do what you love because you won't have a job you got amazing advice, sir Thank you for your time my friend and I connect with all the billionaires. I interview could I get your contact? Yeah, of course. Look you guys. That's a happy billionaire right there. Okay, look He said that money cannot be the only thing to make you happy Well, he made a lot of other people rich right? He had the people that were custodians making money man the janitors I think he said man so it just goes to show the more money you make other people the more money you're gonna make and the happy you're gonna Be great interview out here in Beverly Hills. We get to go find this next billionaire Are you guys how they got rich whether or not that money buys happiness? Come on arts guys So we are right now headed to go meet up with our next billionaire. But this billionaire is not from the United States He's not from America. No, no He's from the UK and he created and built the largest phone retailer in all the United Kingdom One of the biggest ones in Europe, I believe he sold his company back in 2006 for 1.6 billion and according to Forbes He's worth over three billion dollars for the beast We're about to link up with another billionaire to figure out if the sacrifice and what it took to become a billionaire It's really worth it. Let's go see what he says What's going on guys? How you doing, John? How you doing, my friend? I'm James James. Great to meet you, my friend Thanks for coming out to do an interview man. I really appreciate that man, John I have one rule for all my interviews. There's no holding back at all We're gonna give the younger generation a blueprint on how to really become successful make it in today's world like you did Can we make that happen? We try what was your main business for the people that don't know, right? so for the people that don't know and of course they won't know because all my business was UK centric and European century and that was mobile phones and it was every aspect of mobile phones right the way through from service provision retailing distribution Wholesale, it was everything and I built that up from 1986 to 2006 from one man right the way through to 12,000 people and a sellout of 1.5 billion pounds Not those cheap dollars They're about to get a billion dollars worth of game for me right here my man, so let's make it happen Did you come from a lot of money like where your parents rich? Oh, my dad was a traveling salesman and my mother was a post room manager So I suppose you could say definitely not did 20 year old you have any idea that you were gonna become a billionaire You know, I grew up on the back streets of Stoke-on-Trent and the tiny little house had no money and no inspiration There's nobody around me to inspire me at all. So no, I had no clue I always knew I was going to be successful like a childhood dream I had when I was eight years old and my dream was that I would be driving around in a chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce I need five pound notes out to poor people and that dream had to be fulfilled But in fulfilling that dream nowhere in that dream was I a billionaire, you know I was just successful and wealthy and charitable. So you've made billions of dollars throughout your career. You're 73 now. Are you happy today? Happiness is a relative subject, isn't it? You know, I'm always challenged and I'm happy when I achieve challenges So for instance on the 19th of July, I'm doing something It's impossible for me, which is the attack to tour the Tour de France cycling race up in the Alps It's an impossible challenge for me if I achieve anywhere near that I'll be quite happy and then a life is full of happiness and full of sadness and full of issues So yeah, I'm overall happy, but I'm not a contented person I'm always struggling to achieve the next thing and you mentioned your dad was a travel salesman. Are you a good salesman? Don't think you're gonna get to where I am without being a good salesman So what was your secret to sales if you could give me one piece of sales advice? It's not taught in a textbook or business integrity You gotta keep your word beyond when people used to ask me. What are these mobile phones? Like I would say they're absolutely dreadful I said there'll be times when all you want to do is throw it on the floor and stamp on it and they said well That's strange. The guy down the road who I've been to said that they're perfect. They're just like the ordinary home telephone I said, well, that's complete rubbish. I said they're absolutely dreadful. But if you need one, what are you gonna do? It's a unique piece of equipment and you're gonna buy one but expect it to be not very good And I never lost a sale ever because the truth and that was the truth But I used the truth to my advantage to gain credibility with the customer So the guy down the road that told him it was just like using a home telephone Correct me if I'm wrong taxes are crazy in the UK. Do you have a tax hack for anybody in business? I believe that you should pay your taxes in the country that you've made your money and there's a lack of Humanitarianism on this planet. So you paid your taxes. I paid all my taxes on the sale of the business What's the most amount of money you paid in taxes in one year 200 million? Yeah, and I could have avoided it by moving to Monaco Why did you not do that? Because I feel that the poor people need help. So you did it for the goodness of other people Well, I didn't want to leave the UK. I support the UK Yeah, I'm very patriotic and if I take my money away from the UK, then what does society do what happens to the country? Would you say that most billionaires would not choose to do that and maybe a little bit more greedy by and large? Yes to some extent I don't find many people that properly agree with me one of the favorite Arguments that they give me as well Don't pay your tax go to Monaco and give even more to charity for the people that say that Surprisingly avoid the tax and don't give a lot to charity or anything I just think we all have to work harder to make the human race better to make the planet better John if me and you Died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation What would that be to the younger generation one more message? Give me the best life advice you could give to them in these last one like I told my kids really which is I'm not Bothered about you being rich I want you to leave the world a better place than you found it and be happy and if on top of that you can be Very successful in your career and your money-making and that's utopia Well, at least try and be happy and leave the world a better place than you found it Can I tell you something? I've done over a thousand interviews. I've interviewed over 40 billionaires This is one of the best interviews I've ever done in my life, man. You tell everybody that no, I promise you I don't you can ask them. Thank you so much for your time. This was incredible, man I connect with all the billionaires that interview could I get your contact sure guys? We just finished interviewing our second billionaire of this video But I need you to listen to me very carefully for one second because next week I'm doing something insane for you as a matter of fact I'm hosting the craziest event that I've ever hosted for the School of Hard Knocks family on Tuesday, March 17 I'm hosting billionaire day number three This is a one-day live event where I'm gonna be hosting three live zoom calls with three different billionaire entrepreneurs You want to know the wild part? You're not just gonna be watching them like you are right here You'll actually be able to ask them your questions directly about your business how to scale how to invest how to sell like millionaires And billionaires do anything but first let me show you who's coming first We're gonna have Vic Keller who built and sold nine companies three of them to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Then I'm having an AI billionaire Come on, David Stout owns a company that's valued at over two and a half billion dollars and lastly Forbes Riley who's known as one of the greatest saleswoman of all time and she herself has sold over two billion dollars throughout her career Look, these are the kinds of people whose advice can change the trajectory of your business overnight And I know that firsthand because the only reason I've been able to build a multi-million dollar business So young is because of the access I had to learn directly from the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview on this channel And now I'm giving you that same access and normally people would have to pay thousands of dollars or something like this But right now if you're still watching this you can join and get access for free. There's only one catch It will be no recordings or replays to billionaire day. So if you're not there live, you're gonna miss it So if you want access to billionaire day part 3 on March 17 All you have to do is go down right now click the link in the description in this video to grab your spot now I can't wait to see you live next week on March 17. With that being said, let's go get our next interview Excuse me, sir, sir, sir. Is this your g-wagon? Yeah, how did you get rich man? What did you do to get a g-wagon man? I recognize you. I know your stuff from the internet What'd you do man? I worked in the entertainment industry for a long time and invested in entrepreneurs. You do good stuff, man I've seen it before. What's your name? Scooter. Scooter Braun. Scooter Braun. What was the most amount of money you made a single year? I sold my company years ago. You want to know how much I've seen you do this for you I sold the company for over a billion dollars over a billion dollars. What was the exact exit price? 1.2 I mean I go all over the world to be billionaires. You've seen the channel before. I have seen it That's why I'm so uncomfortable right now, but I appreciate what you do Yeah, sure. How long have you been an entrepreneur since I was a kid? I'm always trying to figure out a way to not be dependent, but I started the company when I was 19 in college What was that defining moment in your life where you had that mindset shift where you're like, man I'm gonna go out there make a name for myself become one of the biggest in the entertainment space that has ever seen for Me it was I was really really young when I started so I was probably too dumb and too Ignorant to know that you probably shouldn't be able to do this. I think it was that blind belief I saw someone do an interview recently and they said that really great entrepreneurs are delusional And I definitely was probably a little delusional as younger that you can go and do this and I think nothing great ever came from Realistic ideas only great things come from being unrealistic. Have you ever been broke before? Yeah, when I was first starting everyone thought I was killing it But really I was every time I'd make money I'd spend it you know to kind of fake it to make it and I remember ordering Domino's pizza and realizing I did not have enough cash to pay and I had like this change jar that me and my roommates have by the Door and I had to open it up and pay for Domino's would change and I never forgot that Because I always say success and failure really live next door to each other I really live next door and whenever you think you just it's gonna fall apart That's when you got to go that extra mile so that you find out success is right there What year was that that you couldn't afford pizza probably 23 years old. I'm 44 now. So 21 years ago 20 years ago Would you have any idea then that you would end up selling a company for over a billion dollars? You know, what's really funny when I first started I wanted to you know do that I wanted to achieve that billion dollars and then I realized making 10 grand was really hard and I went and spoke to a guy in Atlanta that I really admired and he gave me a number of 10 million of like that's what it would take to have his Lifestyle and I really that was my goal. I was like, I wanted 10 million I want a beautiful family one of kids and you know my life changed and I remember when I passed that number I felt like You know, what is it all for it felt empty and then my pops gave me some really good advice He said well, what do you love to do? And I said, I love being with my friends. I love giving away tickets I love, you know talking to a random entrepreneur and helping them I love the adventure of life and he goes well I think money could be a way to make you you know Burdensome and you could be tied up by it or money could be something that sets you free to do all of those things more And more in your life. So you are now the 44th billionaire that I've interviewed. Are you happy now? I don't think that's how life works I think life is ebbs and flows and there's days where you're really really happy and there's days where you're sad and everybody whether you $10 or a billion dollars or someone who has a hundred billion dollars Everyone's having a human experience and what I've seen from people that have a lot more money than me I've become friends with you know, they at times can feel very very empty And I think you don't need 200 billion dollars to start the work of going inside yourself and and figuring out who you are So if you want a tip you want to you know a cheat code for the endgame of success start doing work on yourself now and start seeing who you are and Valuing yourself and that's gonna be a lot more important than making any amount of money You were in the entertainment business for decades for the people that don't know What was your business like what business made you the most amount of money throughout your career? We built a record label. We built a publishing company. We built a TV and film production company, you know for me I never wanted to be defined by one industry I wanted to be defined as an entrepreneur and that to me is just living in adventure every single day Did you have people that doubted you in the business? Yeah, of course I was a knucklehead 19 year old kid from Atlanta, you know, Atlanta, Georgia Who's coming up in the hip-hop industry and that they're all throwing parties Everyone was like what the hell is he talking about? He's gonna build this and build that I'm assuming good people thought you were crazy Yeah, they thought I was nuts but every great entrepreneur I've ever met has that story Like I said in the beginning if it was realistic, it wouldn't be great. It has to be delusional It has to be unrealistic. It has to be something It's this idea that if you are playing baseball if the Cy Young Award winner was pitching and Everyone got to get in line and try and hit that ball If you take as many swings as you want and the winner, you know If you hit it out of the park you get a million dollars It's the person who shuts everyone out who keeps swinging and everyone's saying you're a bum You don't have it that who just keeps swinging keep swinging keep swinging until they hit that home run the person who shuts out The noise that's the person who becomes the great entrepreneur I want to shift real quick to investing you've invested in some of the biggest companies in the world early on, right? What's the number one thing that you look for in a business when you're making an investment into them? I try to see if the entrepreneurs burn the ships It's never about what the business is me You said burn the ship burn the ships It's never about the business like everyone else wants to look at data and everything for me personally I just like to look at the eyes of the founder and how psychotic are they like how crazy are they? How driven are they will they burn the ships will they shut out the noise and I've seen that before I've seen it You know Travis from uber he had that, you know, Daniel like from Spotify he had that like there are certain people that are so driven and Determined that you look them in the eye and you're like, they're gonna find a way I love that man. You got amazing advice and I connect with all the billionaires. I didn't you could I get your content? Yeah, of course guys, we just wrapped up with the billionaire scooter brahman And he just gave so much incredible advice in that interview, but guys, I think he just gave us the secret right there He said the money does not define happiness He said whether you make ten thousand dollars a hundred million a billion dollars We're all going through the human experience great interview out here in Los Angeles We gotta keep this one rolling and go get this next one. You guys come on I forgot to look as you can see babe. We got a change of plans right now We are right now about to fly out from Beverly Hills to Las Vegas to go meet up with some more billionaires you guys We're going from city to city. We'll find our next billionaire figure out how they got rich whether or not they're happy you guys Guys we just got to our destination Las Vegas some millionaires and billionaires playground and look we got a mission We got to find another billionaire to complete this video to really figure out and ask them if money truly buys happiness It's after they amassed that billionaire status that billion-dollar network if that money buys happiness So we're at a destination some of the richest people come to be here in Las Vegas. You guys come on Look, I had a question for you. How did you get rich, sir? Excuse me, sir question for you. Yes. Is this your Rolls-Royce? Is this I have a channel where I interview millionaires and billionaires all over the world to get advice to the younger generations Is that your Rolls-Royce? How did you get rich? Yeah, you private guy I got you my man, excuse me, sir, sir, how did you get rich? Oh, I'm not the person to ask no, no, no, but I've seen you guys on either. Yes What line of business are you in sir? You said medtech? Look as you can see man, look these guys out here in Vegas man, the millionaires and billionaires playground Look, they don't want to give out the game you guys but look I'm not gonna stop until I find another billionaire to make this video even better for you guys. Come on What's that you cannot be filming there's too many private people The guy that just pulled up in the four or five eight the red Ferrari should go talk to him But you cannot be filming him here. He's a billionaire. You know him. Yeah, I know. What's he do private equity? I will go talk to him. Excuse me, sir, sir. Is this your Ferrari? Yeah, how did you get rich man? Well, what'd you do to get a Ferrari? I know you did get rich man private equity. Well Wall Street guy Yeah, how long are you in the money business 36 years with these 36 years? What was the most amount of money you made a single year on paper a billion six, maybe 1.6 billion. Yeah Well that I took a company public down half of and it first opened it like 3.3 billion 3.5 billion or so Can I interview you for a minute? I'd be billionaires all over the world to help the younger generation. Sure for sure Yeah, I got one rule for all my interviews, there's no holding back We're gonna give them the blueprint right here on how to build a million a billion dollar company. Sure Can we make that happen? There's only three ways to make money. You only leverage people you leverage time or you leverage money, right? That's the only way to make money. You have to do one of those three, right? Like let's say you're a lawyer and you work for somebody else. You're selling your time. You're not gonna get rich You'll be comfortable you leverage people by becoming a lawyer and then starting a law firm now You're making money on all the people that are working for you. So you're leveraging time and money, right? Yeah, right and there you go I cannot I'm not unemployable. No one hire me why because I'm a lunatic like are you crazy? I'm crazy. Yeah, and you couldn't pay me what I want to get paid. And then if you leverage I'll give me example I think I'm meeting one of my analysts right here Jason. He works for me. I leverage him. So Jason This is Vegas, so he is a total professional gamble the best blackjack player ever But I when I started my hedge fund again, it's seven eight years ago So he's a he's a mathematical genius I'm not so I leverage people by hiring good people that have a different skill set and then put them to work and let them Do their thing you've made a ton of money throughout your crew. Yeah, you happy today Oh, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. I'm 56 you're really happy. Yeah, I've been married to the same woman for 22 years at four kids You've been faithful. Well, you know, that's funny you say that when I married her I told her it's a really interesting story I said, I can't be faithful. She's like what the hell I go I can't be but if you're with me on the journey, we can do everything together But ultimately over time I just dug her so much and she became she's such a great human being that I became Massively only thinking about her and so I'm completely faithful, which is crazy But you're the happiest you've ever been the happiest I've ever been. Have you ever been broke before? Oh, oh my god, dude I literally had to borrow when I was married to my wife with four kids had to borrow $200 from my mom was 13 million In debt had no money and paid it all back. You did not. Yeah, you were negative 13 million dollars in debt What were you telling yourself? And I had a I've had a mentor named Steve Caspi is one of the richest developers in New York City and he stuck with Me even when I lost the money he gave me and he made it all back tenfold But you need to have people that you can network with I read a book when I was young called think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill and people don't read it today But if they read it, they understand that you can you can network with people and this is gonna sound a little crazy But you've got to put yourself in a position to understand what others would do that have made it and get the best advice Even if they're not around read about it. I do a ton of reading I read so many books people would just their head would spin but I probably consume 50 books a year. Do you actually yeah? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah What is your number one book recommendation for anybody in business think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill the road less travel Which is a psychological book by M Scott Peck if you're not God fearing like I'm a God fearing guy you believe in God Oh for sure. I do. I absolutely know that God exists How do you know because I effectively believe that everything that's put in front of you is for a reason and you have to learn How to pay attention to the reason so I don't believe in God in a sense of organized religion I believe that there's some greater scheme for you and you're getting the message the whole time But are you really paying attention to it? Are you really being honest with what you're being told my failures have only led to my success those failures happen for a reason And if you look at it that way, it's easier to deal with but I completely believe in God How do you know 56 mean you died tomorrow and you had one more message to meet with the younger generation? What would that be? Oh, wow, he has good questions You want to go as fast as you can But you also want to take your time none of these things you see like on the social network and all these things where the Person started in their dorm room and suddenly they were billionaire that doesn't exist. It's not real. It's Hollywood I've been doing this literally 36 years since I was 20 I think all my failures were lessons that I was doing it wrong and I needed to pay attention, but I never quit That's one thing I'll tell you is my wife will say this I never give up never never never you're gonna have to kill me and then even then I have a legacy of kids Appreciate it every time and I connect with all the millionaires and billionaires that you could I get your contact? Oh, yeah for sure Yeah, absolutely. Yes guys. That's a wrap on today's video, man I need you guys to like and subscribe for amazing content coming every week to the school of hard knocks man We just interviewed four billionaires in one video supply can subscribe like I said and go down right now to the link in the description of this video because You can get access to the number one most powerful Entrepreneur community and network in the entire world called the school of mentors where every single week you can hop on live calls You get mentored directly from the millionaires and billionaires that I interview on this channel I can't wait to see you on the inside that being said see in the next episode