I Asked Billionaire Investors What To Invest In!

I'm about to interview some of the richest men in the entire world, because I'm in Beverly Hills at one of the most exclusive business conferences on earth, where billionaires, investors, and world leaders all come together to talk money, power, and the future. And I'm not kidding, there's over a trillion dollars of wealth here. But I'm not just here to ask them how they got rich, because three months ago, I flew to New York City to try and interview a billionaire worth $9 billion, and he rejected me. So today, my goal is simple. I want to meet as many billionaires as possible to find out how they made their fortunes. And hopefully, I'll get a second chance with the billionaire who got away. This video is brought to you by Shopify. So with that being said, let's go find our first billionaire. No, but we're interviewing some of the billionaires out here. No, you can't come through here, bro. Why not? Because you gotta have credentials, or you can't get through here. So we can't film? What if we have stuff lined up? You can't come through here, bro. All right, you guys, look, as you can see, he's dead. We have a little bit of a problem right now. I can't even get into the conference. So look, I'm going to be happy to go to these billionaires coming in and out, man. They gave us no choice, but I didn't come out here for nothing, you guys. So it's about time we go find where the real billionaires are out here in Beverly Hills. Come on. Excuse me, sir. Question for you, man. I'm actually on my way to a meeting. All right. Excuse me, sir. A question for you. How old were you when you became a millionaire? Goodbye. Real quick, sir. I have a channel with 22 million followers. I've interviewed 54 billionaires in the last five years. Arthur Blink, Steve Ross, Tom Cruise. Have a good one, man. Excuse me, sir. Question for you. How old were you when you became a millionaire? Sir, real quick. I have a channel with 23 million followers. I've interviewed 54 billionaires in the last five years. Can I get 30 seconds with you? All right, guys. Look, I want to make something very clear right now. As you can see, man, these guys are just blowing me off left and right, okay? And especially a lot of these guys are very unfamiliar with the School of Hard Knocks, with the channel. They don't see what we do, man. They don't see all the billionaires, the A-list celebrities that we interview. So look, I can't even be mad at them. But what I can tell you is that I didn't come out to Beverly Hills for nothing, you guys. Look, I told you there's a higher concentration of billionaires in this conference right now than probably anywhere else in the world. So look, guys, I'm not going to stop. I'm going to keep on going up to these billionaires out here until one of them gives me the game on how to become wealthy. Come on. Excuse me, sir. Sir, question for you. How old were you when you became a millionaire? Liquid or Jurassic? Liquid, sir. Twenties when I became a millionaire, but I didn't get a liquidity event until I was 50. What line of business are you in? I have a channel with 23 million followers. I've interviewed 54 billionaires in the last five years. Can we get 30 seconds with me? It'll be worth it, my friend. I promise you. What line of business are you in? Real estate, finance, really optimizing untapped human potential and skill. Did you come from a lot of money growing up? No, no. I came from nothing. What was your turning point to financial freedom? What was that moment where you said, I'm going to go out there and build an empire for myself? Me. Private equity investment in me. I'm the product. Now, when you talk about real estate, you have to prioritize long-term thinking over short-term wealth. What's the secret to becoming wealthy through real estate? Real estate values never go down. They might recede in recession, but they always correct above the line. Buy and hold. So is that the best thing to be investing in today's world if you want to become wealthy? Real estate has always been a great investment. They're not growing any more land. Do you think everybody's built for entrepreneurship? No. So what's the number one thing that you look for in a young founder that tells you that person's- Grit. Resiliency, grit, self-reliance, believing in yourself. Rainbows only follow storms. You cannot have a rainbow or a storm first. What's the best advice you ever got throughout your career? Take me back to the most life-changing conversation you ever had. What's the best advice you ever received? One second. I mean, just to, I'm the product. John Hope Bryant. John Hope Bryant. James, nice to meet you. The School of Hard Knocks is the channel. Nice to meet you, sir. Have a good day, sir. Thank you. Let me see if I can get in real quick. I want to show you just real quick. I know you're moving my channel. This is me, School of Hard Knocks. So we've done Arthur Blink, the founder of Home Depot. We just did Tom Cruise, Tom Brady Shaq. Let me ask you this real quick. I'm going to get you until you go. It's going to be worth it. 23 million followers we got. Your best sales and negotiation advice for anybody in business. You've got a prospective client leaning towards a no. How do you get that no into a yes? Stop the bullsh**. Stop BS-ing people. Yeah. The more real somebody is, the more authenticity they're looking for. They can see drama and games coming a million miles away. I can read energy instantly. So no one likes inauthenticity. So slow it down. Be real. Really, the product is you. Be authentic. And at some point, the person on the other side will recognize that you're valuable, not what you're selling. You're valuable. They want to be associated with that. Billionaires don't need more money. Somebody with $100 million doesn't need any more money. 4,500 CEOs doesn't need more money. They want relationships. Not about what you get, but what you have to give. And so when you're meeting with somebody, say, what can I do for you? Tell me about you. Tell me about your family. Tell me about your life. No one asks the other person inside the table about them. They're just takers, takers, takers. Here's the key about relationships. A giver and a giver is exotic. A giver and a taker is neurotic. A taker and a taker is psychotic. Most people have taker relationships. And if you can just surround yourself with givers, get the toxicity out of your life, you'll start seeing that your whole frequency rises. The opposite is also true. If you hang around nine broke people, you'll be the 10th. I love that. Life gives to givers and it takes from takers. Proximity is everything, like you just said. Proximity is everything. Show up as yourself. Be authentic. Yes, sir. Correct me if I'm wrong. You had a big nine-figure exit. What was the most amount of money you made in a single year? You figure it out. You figure that out. I know you. What was the most amount of money you made in a single year? How big was your exit? Tell him. It was none of your business. But you're right with the nine figures. Nine figures? More than $100 million. It was more than $100 million. And what do people get wrong about the exit? My final one. If me and you die tomorrow, one last message for the younger generation. When I got my exit, when the wire came through, I was sitting at Taco Bell ordering a number three. It's not about the money. If you stay small enough, long enough, you'll be big enough soon enough. Amen. Thank you, John. I appreciate the great interview. Have a good one, my friend. So my guy was in a rush to get out of that event and they were trying to rush him out. But you know, I was not going to stop until I got some incredible advice from him. And yes, he said I was right about the nine figures. That was an incredible interview. That guy's renowned in the business space. And we were able to get him to come and drop some game. You have to provide value. Remember, this life gives to givers and it takes from takers. Crazy good interview out here in Beverly Hills. Let's keep it rolling and go find this next interview, you guys. Come on. Excuse me, guys. Question. Real quick. How did you guys get rich? I've seen you. How did you guys get rich? I've seen you. But you're great. How did you guys get rich? The question is, how old were you when you first became a millionaire? Who should we get? Who should we get here? We've done three billionaires today. And any millionaires and billionaires? We're not in the Bs yet. Nice to meet y'all. I appreciate that. Thank you, guys. It means a lot to me. Let's take a picture with this guy. Definitely, definitely. All right, guys. So you heard it from them right there, man. They know the channel. They know the billionaires and the caliber of the people that we're putting on here. But they told us, look, you are in the right spot. So I'm not going to stop until I find some of these billionaires out here to figure out the blueprint on how they got rich and how you can become wealthy just like them. So let's go see who we can bump into. Excuse me, sir. Sir, question for you. How old were you when you became a millionaire? About 31. And how old are you now? 54. What line of business are you in? Are you that guy? I am, yes, sir. I interview the billionaires all over the world. I'm not a billionaire, though. Close, though. Yeah, soon to be. What's up, baby? How you doing? Good to see you. I've got to catch up with you. Yeah, we're overdue. Send me a text. Sounds good. Someone's talking about you today. All right, brother. Let's talk right there. How important is networking for somebody that wants to make it and get rich in business? That young man right there came right out of school. He was a quarterback for UCLA, and now he's working for one of the biggest, actually, biggest family offices. And what do you do, man? How did you make your millions? You got a good energy on you, man. Now I see why you get all the love you get. It's that relentless positivity, man. Seriously. Is that what it is? Yes, sir. OK. Where did you grow up? DC, Virginia. I knew I liked you. I'm from DC, too. No way. I love that. I went to Sidwell. I live in Texas now, though. OK, cool. I live here. All right, what was your question? How did you make your millions? What line of business are you in? What's your best investment advice? Because I know in the VC game, about one out of every 10 companies is really going to hit. Among all the companies you've invested in that actually made it and became successful, what's that one thing they all had in common? A relentless founder. And a big problem. And a deep innovation. You know, everyone says ideas are cheap. I don't really agree with that. I think that's contrarian. So a big idea can move mountains. But here's the thing they don't tell you. You need big ideas consistently. You need big ideas every day. You need big ideas around who you're going to hire. Big ideas on who you're going to partner with. It's a creativity that is continual. And what was the most amount of money you made in a single year? Oh, man, I've seen guys that are making $100 million. Maybe the most I made in a single year is still probably a couple million dollars. It's amazing, though, man. And how did you scale your income to multiple seven figures? How did you scale out to seven figure income? I think I'm still a work in process, man. I don't want to front. Like, I'm done. I'm 54, but I still have a lot of jumping. You stay so young at 54 years old. You look like you're like 40, man. With all this gray, really? Yeah, you look like you're like 40. Seriously. Have you prioritized your health while building companies at the same time? No, my favorite word is alignment. It's literally my favorite word. So doing something you're really passionate about. Working with people that you really love, that you would be hanging with regardless. Focusing on a problem you would have solved, or you would have wanted to solve, whether you could make money at it or not. That's my favorite. That's my way to live. Were you ever involved with any, like, product businesses? Yeah. You were? Yeah. Like what? What did you sell? Well, I started a company called MoviePass. So that was a product business. First unlimited subscription. Invested in a company called Ring, which is the first, you know, camera doorbell. I have a company now called Fino, which is the first connected smart toothbrush. Brush all your teeth in at one time. You've owned a bunch of different businesses. Yeah. In the physical product business, have you ever used Shopify before? I have. Yeah, we've used Shopify for Fino now. Is that a helpful platform? It is a helpful platform. I wonder how it's gonna, in this world of AI, I wonder what Shopify is gonna look like in five years. I tell people all the time, the thing that I love about Shopify, they recently launched something called Sidekick, where it's like an AI store builder, where they will literally help build your store for you. And so that way you don't need a huge team, you don't need a huge budget. So like Shopify has been one of the most game-changer things that I've seen for a lot of young entrepreneurs in today's world. Yeah. My final question for you, you're 54 years old now. If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be? The best piece of advice is first you have to know yourself, then you have to love yourself, and then you have to be yourself. And it's much easier said than done. That last part, especially, because there's so many situations where you want to try to be someone else to fit in, and that's not usually the right way to do it. And that ordering matters. Know yourself, love yourself, and be yourself. I love that right there. I've never heard that one before. That's a good one. You've got amazing advice, sir. Thank you for your time, man. I connect with all the millionaires and billionaires that I interview. Could I get your contact? Of course. Is that cool? I got you now, man. Guys, we just interviewed a venture capitalist out here in Beverly Hills who's invested in companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars, just like Ring and several other product-based businesses. And one thing I found fascinating, whether it was the toothbrush company, a consumer brand, a technology company, or the next big product, the products were different, but the playbook was the same. Build a great product, build a great brand, and have the right systems behind the business. Because one thing I've noticed after interviewing over a thousand successful entrepreneurs is that the people who scale the fastest don't just have the right products, they have the right tools behind them. And Shopify is one of the most common tools I've seen among successful product businesses. Shopify is where you can turn your idea into a real business. And with their new AI tools, they're making entrepreneurship more accessible than ever before. Speaking about AI, with Shopify's AI store builder called Sidekick, it's like having an AI co-founder in your company. Entrepreneurs can now launch and operate companies faster than ever before. Sidekick helps remove the friction that used to slow entrepreneurs down, and it frees you up so you can focus on building the business. And that's what I've learned from interviewing so many successful entrepreneurs. The biggest opportunities don't go to the people with the best ideas, they go to the people who execute. So if you've been sitting on an idea, stop waiting. The best time is now. Go down right now to the link in the description of this video and start your store using Shopify today and watch that business come to life. With that being said, let's go get our next interview out here in Beverly Hills. Excuse me, sir. Sir, sir. How old were you when you became a millionaire? I think 18. 18 years old. What's your name? My name is Dr. Shaquille O'Neal. And I go all over the world interviewing billionaires Oh yeah, you gotta interview this guy right here. Who is it? His name is Jeremy Salter. Sir, question for you. How old were you when you made your first billion? I was old enough. Old enough? I was old enough. It was probably when I was about 36. And what line of business are you in? I own all your favorite brands. How many companies do you own? We own around 50 brands. 50 brands? Yeah. Can I interview you for a minute? I go all over the world interviewing billionaires to help the younger generation. Sure, you can. How long have you been a business owner? I've been a business owner for a long time. I'm 63 years old, so I've been doing this for 40 years. You own brands in the apparel business. You work with a lot of top people. What's the number one thing that tells you, I'm going to go after this brand and add it to my portfolio? Look, companies are broken, but brands, they have to have a heartbeat. So whether you're buying Reebok, Champion, Juicy Couture, what's really important about all of those brands, they all have major heartbeats. And that's the most important thing, is when you're buying a brand that actually has a heartbeat and it's alive. I'm going to challenge you both real quick. Take me back to the most life-changing conversations you ever had. What's the greatest piece of advice that you've received throughout your career? Learn to listen. Learn to be with the smartest people in the room. Met this guy because I was walking on Hollywood Boulevard, and I saw 50 people walk by me with Elvis Presley t-shirts. And I said to myself, he's been passed away for a long time. What's going on? How does he do it? So I met Jamie from Authentic Brand Group, smartest guy in the room. I love a lot. Surrounding myself with people that are way smarter than me. I mean, the most important thing that I've gotten advice from my two mentors that unfortunately are not with me anymore, they would always say, do what you say you're going to do. Your word is your bond. And make sure that you keep your word, even if it costs you money. How much money your company is going to make this year across the board? We will do 40 billion dollars, and I actually think we'll do a lot more than that. How old are you both today? How old are you? I'm 63. How about yourself? How old are you? I'm 54. Final question for you both. If me and you died tomorrow, and you could leave one message for the younger generation, what would that be? Money is just a scorecard. What's really important is to make sure you wake up every day, you have a great time doing what you're doing, and if you're having a great time doing what you're doing, you've won half the battle. So always focus on happiness. My final one for you, your last message to the younger generation. Two things. Listen to your mom and dad, and follow your favorite mentors. Jeremy is one of my favorite mentors ever. So mentorship was one of your secrets to success? Yes, it is. I love that. Thank you both for your time. Y'all have amazing advice. Great to see you. Now get out of here before you get arrested. I got you, my friend. Thank you, sir. Great to see you. My man is over there. All right, guys. My guy Shaq comes out of the conference. I think he was speaking, and you know I had to stop him, and yes, he did remember me from the last one that we did. Nonetheless, I got some great advice from the both of them. Remember what Shaq said? You have to listen. We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen twice, talk once. Great interview out here in Beverly Hills. Let's go find some more billionaires. Come on. Sir, question for you. Yes, sir. How old were you when you became a millionaire? Stop that bulls**t. What? Stop that bulls**t. I have a channel with 23 million followers. I've interviewed 54 billionaires in the last five years. I love it. I love what you're doing. Keep doing it. What line of business are you in? We are a trader. We trade all the pre-IPO shares, and we have our own hard money lending platform. Are you an entrepreneur? How long have you been a business owner? Oh, big time. Big time. I work for companies in Wall Street. Now we work for ourselves. I love that. So you learned that you can't get rich working for somebody else. You can never work for anybody else and get rich. I love that. You have to have your own desire, especially now with all the AI applications coming on. Work for yourself. Find something to do. Where are you from? I'm originally from Manhattan, but born and brought up in India. Where's the best city to do business in the world today? New York City. And the youth needs to learn the value of capital markets. Booth needs to learn that nothing is free, especially your age group. People need to learn when some politician promises them, oh, everything is free. I'm going to get you bus free or whatever. Somebody's got to pay for it. Who is that going to be, sir? It's you and me. I think we're watching right now. Yeah, baby. It's you and me. What was the most amount of money you made a single year? I can't talk about that. In my Wall Street days, we traded billions of dollars. You grew up with a lot of money. Did you have rich parents? No, I had zero money when I landed in New York City from India. What was your turning point to financial freedom? Financial freedom is subjective in America. You could be financial free with nothing in your pocket, or you could be financial free with a million dollars, and you'd still be miserable. You've got to be happy is what you're saying. It's about more than money. Exactly. You have to be happy and find happiness in what you do. Share wealth, enjoy the family, enjoy the life. What's your name? My name is Rich. How are you today? I can't talk about that either. I'm younger than you in my mind, but my body is more older than you are. But you stay young though, and that's one of your secrets. You have to stay young because mentally you have to be very strong, and you can't worry about little aches and pains. It's all here. I love that. If me and you died tomorrow, and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be? I say young generation to be free and absolutely liberated with the thought, create something. Create something of value of society. Don't ask for ---- for free. Create some value. You know, I used to teach students, and I still do, and I used to say you hit the lotto when you're sitting in my auditorium. You know why? Why? Because imagine you were not born in America. You were born in Africa. You were born in India. You're Middle East or South Africa or whatever. What do you got? So you hit the lotto. Just put your drive together. Get your access. Get your act together. Don't blame the society. Blame yourself. I love it. Thank you for your time, sir. I really appreciate the awesome one. Thank you, sir. Have a great day. All right, guys. Look, a couple months ago out in New York City, I went up to one of the richest men in all of New York City, the billionaire Bill Ackman, okay? Real quick. Check this out. I have a channel with 20. I know, real quick. With 22 million followers. I just need to get Arthur Blank. I did Tom Cruise. Could I get a contact? Can I get your contact? Is that cool? He's one of the most renowned legends in the finance space. I'm out here in Beverly Hills. Gonna be interviewing a billionaire later tonight. And none other than Bill Ackman is straight ahead of us, right? I guess he just finished up speaking. He's out here for the conference, man. So you already know we gotta approach him again because I can't go 0 for 2, man. I'll take the first one to the chin. We're gonna try and run it back with him and figure out how Bill Ackman made his billions, you guys. Come on. All right, you guys. Looks like we tracked him down, but we did not get a chance to stop him before. He went in to have a lunch. I'm assuming for some meeting to talk about some more big business. But look, we're camping outside here, man. We've been out here waiting for over an hour for him to finish up. So that way we can go over to him and try and get this interview once and for all. This is a couple months in the making. To finally actually meet and interview the billionaire Bill Ackman, let's see if he's down for the interview. Come on. Excuse me, sir. Bill, how you doing, sir? Great to see you. I went up to your car in New York City. And I have the channel with 25 million followers, sir. Could I just ask you two or three quick questions for the channel? What's your name for the people that don't know? Bill Ackman. And what line of business are you in? Investment management. How did you get into this business? Give me the turning point for the people that don't know your story. I've got 23 million young entrepreneurs that follow me. How did Bill Ackman get into the finance business? I wanted to learn how to be an investor. So I went to business school to learn how to be an investor. I got there and they had no classes on how to be an investor. So I started reading books. Among yourself and the most successful people that you've met throughout your career, what's that one trait they all have in common? I want you to think about your smartest, most successful friends and assistants. Never giving up. So you never took no for an answer. That's right. Is there a time that you faced a lot of rejection in your career? How did you overcome that? Persistence. Optimism. Did you have innate self-belief? Yes. I don't know what is innate. Like, were you bored with it? Because a lot of people, they doubt themselves. I don't know. It's hard to know. But yeah, I come from a very persistent family. Is there a time when people doubted you in business? Sure. Of course. Happens periodically. It does. What's more important in business? What you know or who you know? I would say what you know is more important. The ideas are more valuable than the relationships. Why do you say that? Because if you have a great, creative, brilliant idea, the capital will find you. In other words, if you build it, they will come. I think that's generally true. In the next one to two years, what's the best industry people should be looking to get into right now? What are you investing in that you're seeing? I think the best thing, if I'm a young entrepreneur, is learn everything there is to know about AI. Start learning how to code using cloud code. Build a company. Build a website. Build something. It's the greatest period of time in history for entrepreneurship. For the people that don't understand artificial intelligence, how are you applying AI in your companies today? You can use it as a productivity tool. We're using it for both. How are you today? I'm going to be 60 in about a week. How do you stay so young at 60 years old? Always had a lot of energy. Very motivated. You have to be optimistic in order to be successful. Before you had credibility, before you had great relationships, how did you network with the people that were maybe above you in the business world? I think successful people are inspired by young people who are trying to make it. You know, I remembered, you know, smiling and dialing, getting rejected. And I said, look, someday when I'm successful, I'm always going to take that call. A lot of people look up to you in the financial world. What's your best investment advice for anybody watching this right now? Almost everything you need to know, you can learn by reading. And being able to have a longer term view gives you a huge advantage. Biggest challenge when you're young is you want to make money really fast. It's almost investing a guaranteed bad outcome. So you think in decades, it's safe to say. Yeah, I think being able to be long term in a world of short term people, that's a huge advantage. Now, are you happy today? Very. Very happy. Where does your happy and fulfillment come from? Does money buy happiness? No, but it's helpful. 160 years old this year, you said, right? If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be? Never give up. Amen. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. So I couldn't work with you before. I was rushing. It's all good. I like to connect with all the millionaires and billionaires at AW. Can I get your contact? Yeah, sure. Nice. That's a wrap on today's video. I got to say this hands down, maybe one of the craziest YouTube videos that I've ever filmed. I mean, the amount of billionaires that we ran into and got some incredible game for everybody watching right now. But look, I want to go a step further and give you direct access. I want to connect you directly with the billionaires that I interview on this channel. I host live zoom calls every single week with the eight, nine and 10 figure entrepreneurs. I interview on the School of Hard Knock. And you can get access by going down to the link in the description of this video and joining the School of Mentors, the number one entrepreneur community in the entire world. I can't wait to see you on the inside. That being said, see you in the next video.