When Family Asks Me For Money!

More money, more problems. Yes, yes, I'll tell you something about money: it's a fantastic thing because it buys you freedom, but it makes your life complicated because a lot of people want some of it from you for free, particularly family members. This is a huge issue.

Now, here's how you solve that problem, and I've been doing this for years and years and years. I'm not saying this is good or bad or what you should do; I'm telling you what I do. Okay?

Family members come to me and say, "Look, I want to build a restaurant. I need you to give me $150,000 to get started. I don't want to go into partnership with somebody in my extended family; that really ruins Thanksgiving dinner."

So, what I say to them is, "Look, you've never asked me for money before. I'm going to give you, in that case, $50,000. It's not a loan; it's a gift. I never want it back from you on one condition and one condition only: you never ask me for money again, ever, ever. You never come to me again for money, and we never talk about this again, ever. Here's the check."

And then I go back to polishing my eggs.