The 3 BEST HABITS Of Rich People | Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary

[Music]

Gotta have a hobby, gotta do something else. Can't work all day long.

Beautiful day in the park in Boston. This is the Commons. It's a lovely fall day. You know, swans in the park and all that. I thought it'd be a great time to answer some questions. I've been, you know, falling a little behind on "Ask Mr. Wonderful," but there's one constant theme I get all the time.

This one's from Millie, but it's the same thing: Do you think there are common successful attributes in people? I guess what she's asking is can you find a string of things that is the same for people that are successful? Do they all do the same thing?

Well, of course, they don't all do the same thing. But I have found over time in working with lots of CEOs, and that's in business, but also artists, musicians, photographers, you know, those kinds of watch collectors, there are some elements of their lives that I find are consistent. I want to share them with you today.

First of all, this concept of priorities. Now, I learned this from, you know, a woman CEO years ago to actually carry with you all the time. I have it right here. If I don't have my big notebook, I carry a small one with me—just paper. And what I've got in here are notes, and I carry a pen with me all the time. I love to collect pens. This is a new Egyptian Montblanc. When I know, I—when somebody hits me, wherever I am, I remember to write it down.

And the reason I do that is I build a priority set that I put down each night. Out of all the priorities of the day, I carry three into the next day. Because you can even see here's a day; you can see that a bunch of stuff has been a bunch of priorities there, but I've basically done them. I got them done. But this idea of prioritizing ends up being a really big deal.

So that's attribute number one. Politicians, teachers, generals, CEOs—they build a dataset in their heads of things they've got to get done. And they don't do anything else until they've achieved those. For me, it's sticking out on the mirror each night. I've talked about this countless times, and I don't do anything else to get those three done.

And they're built from the list that I generate during the day. So definitely for all successful people, regardless of what their discipline is, that idea of priority really matters.

Number two—you may find this interesting—but it's looking good and feeling good. You know, I don't go out into the sun, and I've talked about them before: Tiege Hanley skin creams and things that are really healthy for you, particularly from SPF—at least SPF 20.

You know, I got the chrome dome; I got to make sure it's looking good all the time. Before I came out here, I put some moisturizer on. So I dip into my kit, my Tiege Hanley kit. I find my morning application; it's all right on here. It says "moisturizer with SPF 20." Exactly what I need! Protect the dome; don't let it burn around the nose and the eyes.

That easy. And what I like about them is they send me a kit; it's got an instruction card in it. I don't have to think it through. Basically, each vial or bottle or, you know, tube tells me exactly what it's for. It's really easy to implement. It doesn't have any smelly perfumes, which I hate, so I constantly use it.

You know, because they're sponsoring this YouTube video today, I obviously asked them for a deal. They're going to include a free toiletry bag. If you go to the first link in the description, you can get it there. Check that out—Tiege Hanley. I endorse it because I use it. I don't endorse products I don't use. But hey, you got to have the dome looking good all the time, and skin—you've got to keep it moisturized, and you kind of keep it out of the sun. I don't care who you are; that really matters.

Now something else that's really important is—and I can't stress this enough—and the more I experience this with people, the more I believe it to be true: You have to have another passion besides the one that is your discipline.

In other words, if you're a teacher, you have to do something else that's not teaching. If you're a CEO and you're just driven by business—which, you know, entrepreneurs really are—you've got to find a passion. That's really important.

And I don't care whether it's music, or whether it's playing an instrument, or it's collecting watches—I love to do that too! You can have multiple passions. I, you know, I love pens, I love watches, I love guitars, I love photography. They distract me from the intensity of my core discipline, which is business.

I'm an investor, you know, I'm an entrepreneur. I invest in companies; I try and help them work, and that gives me financial freedom, which of course is very important. But I gotta do something else. I have to. And you know, that I find more and more is a really big deal with successful people.

They're very disciplined in what they do well in their main focus in life, yes, but they've also got other passions. It can be a single passion, or it can be multiple. And that yin and yang, which I've spoken of so many times, is so important. There's no question about that.

You know, when I really think through what has helped me so much, and those that I really follow and that I admire, you know everybody's got a mentor. And there's always somebody that's more successful than you, and you can learn from them. I don't care how successful you are; there's always somebody that's better, and you should realize that in your life.

And that's okay; there's always something to learn. But those people to me look good, they feel good, they have priorities, and they make sure that they attempt some kind of yin and yang. I didn't say balance. Because if you're an entrepreneur, there's no balance. You're going to be working 25 hours a day, eight days a week. I mean, that's just the way it is.

But you can find the time to be productive that way. It doesn't mean you know you abandon your family and all that stuff; I'm talking about the intensity of your focus.

And so I wanted to get that out. I really felt that, you know, answering—I've got so many questions along the same line—that's basically the way I feel about it. It's not something that you immediately find intuitive, but you will find over time that these attributes matter.

So let's summarize: prioritization—putting that list together, writing it down really works; looking good, feeling good—taking care of yourself, no question about it.

You know, being extremely focused on your own discipline is great, but have other passions—watch collecting, love that; I've talked about music—all that stuff.

You got to do all that. You have to find that yin and yang, and all of a sudden, you'll find a new energy that comes up. If you try and follow these disciplines, life's really interesting that way. You're always learning from it.

Take care, my friends. Till next time. [Music]