Top 4 Qualities To Be A Successful Entrepreneur | The Geisha Teahouse NFT

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With all the successes that you've had, given— and obviously you went through failures as well as successes throughout your career. Now, if you could travel back in time and meet your younger self, what would be like the piece of advice that you'd like to pass on to the younger self? And it doesn't have to be one specific piece of advice per se, but it could be a couple. Is there any, like, you know, list of lessons or specifically that you like to pass on?

There are, um, you know, over the years, the decades now, and I look at my portfolio of companies that have been successful and those that have failed. And that happens when you're a venture capitalist — you're not going to get winners all the time. But 75% of my returns over the last 15 years have come from companies run by women. Now, they're a wide range of different sectors; everything from technology and wireless charging to commercial kitchens. I mean, there's such a broad number of different sectors represented here, and these women don't know each other.

So I've learned to listen to the information, and here's what I learned. One of my CEOs is a woman that was running an online wedding business where she was basically originating about $500 million worth of gifts to brides, grooms, and bridesmaids. Fantastic business, very profitable partnership with PayPal. And she told me, you know, "Kevin, I'm gonna make an observation for you that you should consider. Most people during their day spend two-thirds of their time talking, only one-third of their time listening." She said, "Why don't you reverse it? Why don't you try shutting up and listen two-thirds of the day and talk one-third? You'll become far more powerful; you'll become far better at investing; you'll have more knowledge of more information."

Well, guess what? She was right. It's very hard for people to shut up and listen. That's what I do these days. I listen. I try and garner information, I try and mitigate my risk, I try to understand each business model. The key to success that I would have taught myself 20 years ago would have been shut up and listen. I would have gotten where I am today much faster because I've made plenty of mistakes in my career by not listening.

That's amazing! I loved it. I think it, you know, it really resonates with our audience as well. That was really, really right, right, right. You know, um, and Kevin over the years, uh, you know, you kind of, you know, how people in looking at Shark Tank used to call you arrogant, but you're just being real with them. And you're just like a numbers guy, and you're so strict about it. But now, you know, you are really, uh, something has changed. I don't know what exactly, but you are more reachable, I would say, in terms of— is that true? Do you feel that change within yourself over the years?

Now, I, I would say something that I agree with you on here. Um, what I've learned about, you know, really great investors and great managers and great entrepreneurs is that they have a balance in their lives. It doesn't mean they don't work 25 hours a day; what it means is for the strength of being entrepreneurial and understanding the numbers and leading a business with all the hardships you're going to have, and you will have them, most of these successful people have another side. For example, I recently hired a CFO; fantastic woman who started her career as a professional dancer, ballerina. She still keeps it up to this day. She still gets up at five in the morning and practices, and so that discipline makes her a better manager. The yin and yang of the arts and the chaos and the challenge of dancing versus her role as a CFO are a perfect match and make her far more functional, far more successful, far more productive.

So, in my life, I'm trying to pursue the arts. I'm a collector, I'm a guitarist, I have a very large winemaking business, and I spend time blending those wines. I'm trying to become, you know, the world's largest watch collector. And I thought I was until I went over to the United Arab Emirates recently and realized I'm a nothing burger compared to those guys. But I'm one of those people out in the watch community that has a very, very passionate desire to buy more timepieces. They all balance me against that, you know, harsh reality of business.

Because I got to tell you, today, we have—we're managing right now 34 portfolio companies. Every day we have chaos in one of them and euphoria in another. Every day something great is happening. Every day 15 of them are being acquired, and we're adding new to—we're adding two new companies this week we're investing in. But my point is, it's chaos. It's complete chaos. You have no idea the outcomes, and you have to roll with the punches, so to speak.

And you know, there's going to be a tremendous amount of volatility, and you have to find that inner space where you think about that guitar riff you're playing or thinking about the wine you were making last week. You just gotta balance the pressure. You know what I mean? That's why I think I'm different than I was, maybe even ten years ago, five years ago.

Amazing, amazing! Yeah, I tuned into your Instagram lives every now and then to watch you jam. It was just one recent few days ago. You are amazing at that! That's such a, you know, at your level, you even trying to— yeah, I can't even imagine, wow. But, um, you know, Kevin, talking about your level, right? You're Mr. Wonderful, right? And here you are saying they are greater investors than you, and here we have, like, roughly, you know, 500, 2,000 people over here that look up to you like, you know, the legend.

One thing at your level, and this is coming from one of my friends who has been really successful, he's been on the Forbes cover and, you know, has some certain level of success. I asked him, what's the trouble being you? And he said he can't fail. You can't fail at that level. Do you feel that pressure?

I do. I don't want to let my investors down. I don't want to, you know, put my name out there. Many people approach me about becoming an investor in their company, and I'm very, very selective, because, you know, I want to be successful as an investor, and I know many people follow my investment strategies. So I want to make sure that I do my due diligence and I understand the risks I'm getting into.

Your friend is right. There is tremendous pressure and a lot of scrutiny that goes on. But, you know, I believe now and particularly over the last two years and particularly on the journey I've gone into on crypto and decentralized finance that there's a direct correlation between social media, media, print media, television, cable, and market capitalization.

So if I'm able to help a company with my millions of followers tell their story, explain the merits of their products and services to millions of people, I'm helping them. And as a result, we attract capital because the more successful the company is, the easier it is, and their cost of capital goes down. So my role as an investor today has changed. I'm selective, I pick my companies, and then I tell their stories all around the world. And I tell the story because I'm an investor. I don't ask for, for, you know, anything more than understand the risk, but I also want people to understand the product and the services why I invested in it.

And I'm a big believer in crypto now because of the productivity enhancement it's going to do to financial services. The largest market on earth is the currency and financial services market, and there's so much promise with all of the blockchain activity and all of the tokens that are available and all the ideas around new level one, level two chains, the H bars of the world, the polygons, the heliums— all of these where I've taken bets and made investments. Because at the end of the day, and I tell people this, Bitcoin is not a coin; it's software. That's what it is. Ethereum is software. If you're willing to invest in Google and you're willing to invest in Microsoft, what are you investing in? You're investing in software. Why wouldn't you invest in crypto? It's software!

Absolutely. Now, we'll touch on your stance on the cryptocurrency space down the line a little bit. But now speaking of entrepreneurship, you once said that entrepreneurship is a state of mind. What exactly did you mean by that?

It's very simple. You should not pursue entrepreneurship out of the greed of money. You will never succeed if that's why you're becoming an entrepreneur. You will never be successful. However, if you're becoming an entrepreneur out of the pursuit of personal freedom, you have a very, very large chance of being successful.

And what I mean by that is, most of the entrepreneurs—most of the ones I meet that have been successful— I always ask them, do you remember the moment that you became wealthy? Do you remember the moment when you just turned the switch and all of a sudden you were rich? Now, what that means, though, is the moment you had the freedom to pursue whatever you wanted. That's what wealth is; it's how you spend the rest of your days. You have that opportunity, and every one of them says to me, "No, I don’t remember. I don’t remember the day that happened." And it was the same for me.

I remember, in the case of The Learning Company, the ten of us that were managing that business, and we'd grown it to the largest educational software company in the world. The day after we got acquired, we went from, you know, guys living on the sofa with sleeping bags to being wildly wealthy. And we all showed up in the office the next morning saying, "What do we do next?" Nobody wanted to stop working. We wanted to just keep going. But at that moment, at that moment, I realized, "Wow, I'm filthy rich. How did this happen?"

It happened because all of us were pursuing our dream of freedom. And at that moment, you know, the first thing I did was go buy a Stratocaster — a guitar that I couldn't afford until then — and I like a camera that I wanted my whole life. Things that I wanted to pursue in my own dream of personal freedom, not because I wanted to be flashy; it was because I couldn't afford one and now I could because I worked so hard. And that's the reason you should be an entrepreneur: to provide for your family, to provide personal freedom, to do the things in life that mean something to you, and give back money to entrepreneurs in terms of investing or just charities you want to work with.

It's a new form of freedom, but you'll find you'll be working even harder. I work harder today than I've ever worked in my life, and after I die, wherever I'm going, I'm going to keep working.

I love that answer; that’s amazing! You know, for me, it was not necessarily making money. Obviously, that was a big part and started like, you know, it was more survival—I needed money. Obviously, I had like fancy taste and wanted to fulfill that. But then when the time came, something was missing—like, you know, what was it? And then go back to work again.

And that's when an act of service came from within and, you know, helping others. You know, I thought this is just something people in the TVs talk about—like, oh, people who have money, they're like, "Oh, money is not important; you know, service to others is," or somewhere around that narrative. And then when you're actually in that sport, you're like, "Oh, actually, that's where it makes sense." That's real as it is.

So it is once your basic needs are taken care of. The truth is, my mother taught me something that really became important later in my life. She was a working woman, but she always said to me, "Don't buy a lot of stuff. When you're going to buy something, make sure it's the highest quality. Instead of having, you know, 20 suits, buy three really good ones that are going to last. Buy a good watch, not a mediocre one. Buy something that is meaningful to you."

And when she passed away and I became the executor of her estate, she had all these Chanel jackets that she had worked for for six months, a year to buy as a young woman that were still in style as classics. And all the women in my family fought over them because they were almost priceless—these classic Parisian Chanel, you know, dresses and suits and jackets that, you know, Audrey Hepburn wore. They were 20, 30 years old, but they become classics. And these things are now vintage.

This is really something to think about. When you make an investment, you're taking money that could be invested for the future and you're putting it into something. Make sure what you're buying goes up in value too! And you can do that; you don't need to buy a lot of junk. I don't spend a lot of money, but when I do, I buy something really valuable, like a watch, which, you know, I love.

And my wife thinks I'm crazy. I have so many watches now; if I wore five a day, I could never get through them in a year. So it's crazy, but I do it as an investment, and so far it's been one of my most successful in the last two years.

Wow, yeah! I was looking at your video with some interviewer, and it was your first watch was Omega, I believe, right? The Omega Speedmaster 1975 edition that they made — one of the calibers that they were worried about were going to space. So they really worked hard on those first models and those late '70s vintage pieces. And now there's a new Omega Speedmaster called the Snoopy, which has Snoopy on a rocket ship going to the moon on the back through the crystal.

And that watch has set the brand on fire. It is one of the most collectible pieces in the world; very, very hard to get. Omega is going to make me a one-of-a-kind with a red strap for Shark Tank season 14! I'll be wearing it. But that watch took off at Bitcoin 2021 when somebody said "to the moon" on stage wearing a Snoopy, and that watch went up in value a thousand percent. Everybody in crypto wants one now!

Yeah, now it's an investment. Um, because I got to—Omega Seamaster over here, and this I got it from my dad, which he bought—it's pretty much, it's one of the ones in the James Bond time, the iconic blue Omega. And, uh, he bought it, I guess, back then before I was born at like for $900 or something like that, and right now this thing is going for like $12,000! I'm like, okay, now that is some, you know, good returns over there for your $900!

Don't sell that watch! You'll never get another one, and the emotional attachment to your father, right?

Yeah! Yeah, absolutely. This is not going—this is going down to my daughter, absolutely. And you know, my wife is stealing all my watches now. Women are wearing the larger dials all over the place—my FP Journes, my Rolexes. I always see them on her wrist, and she says, "Oh, I had two links removed," and I lost them. Another way of just stealing my watch!

That's it. Uh, I want to go back to a question about entrepreneurship, right? What would that one advice be? Like, for instance, like for me, 24 years old as an entrepreneur, one thing that I should do and should, you know, pray every day on—what would that one advice be?

So let me give you, um, three points that I think are very important that I would have said, you know, 10 years ago with the three points, but now there's a fourth that are essential in you as a CEO, as an entrepreneur that you must have the ability to do. And this— I've seen this over decades; this is the definition of leadership.

When you're an entrepreneur and you're starting a company, number one, you have to be able to explain your opportunity or idea in 90 seconds or less. Why? You have to be able to do that; people will follow you if you know where you're going. And if you can't explain in 90 seconds or less your big vision, your idea, what is it, what product or service are you going to create that's so incredible, then you'll fail.

Number two: Explain why you are the right entrepreneur to execute on that idea. Great ideas are diamonds; executional skills are very, very hard to find. So what is it about you that can execute on this plan? Have you done it before? Have you worked for a competitor? Have you failed three times? Now you know what you did wrong, and you get it right the fourth time. Whatever it is that attaches you to that idea is very important to be able to explain.

Now number three, and this is extremely important: Know your numbers! How big is the market? How fast is it growing? What's your break-even analysis? How many competitors are there? When is your volume going to reduce your input cost? Everything about the business model you need to know. If you don't know, have somebody with you, because investors are going to ask you that.

In the context of Shark Tank, all around the world, you get the first right, and everybody wants to invest in you, including me, and then you don't know your numbers? You deserve to burn in hell, and I'll put you there! I mean, you have to know your numbers; that's it!

Now lastly, and this has happened over the last three years, consumers all around the world are getting hip to ESG. It's not just a marketing scam anymore; they want sustainability. They want companies with a mission. They want companies that give back. They want companies that understand we're all human beings. This is not a marketing scam—if you're a company that's only in it for profits of your shareholders, you'll be shunned by consumers. They want to see that you care about other people too.

Now that doesn't mean you have to be less profitable. What it means is you have to show compassion, you have to give back to the community, and you have to work under an ESG mandate. Here in South Florida, where I am now, or when I go, you know, anywhere in Asia, people care about plastic in the ocean now! They don't want that anymore, they're actually thinking about it!

So they care about what you do as a company to help sustainability, and it's the companies that are providing those mandates in their mission that are wildly profitable now, are far more profitable because they attract very loyal customer bases. Think about that!

Get these four points right. This is the essence of entrepreneurship and leadership because you have to have a mission in addition to being able to operate a business with great executional skills. If you like that video, where did you see my next one? Don't forget to click right over here and subscribe!