How YOU Can Make Money with NO MONEY! | Ask Mr. Wonderful #7 Kevin O'Leary
Hi Mr. Wonderful. My main question is how do you make money with no money? This is Andrea. Andrea, do we need a quick musical interlude here? [Music] Yeah, that was good. Just, you know, takes the edge off. So how do you come up with a good business idea? It seems like there's just too much competition everywhere, and all the good business ideas are taken.
Andrea, don't sound depressed. I don't like that tone. I'll tell you something: nobody has a monopoly on great ideas. Nobody. There's always somebody with a problem that needs to be solved, and that is the essence of a great business opportunity. Look around you in the world and see the problems people are having. Keep your eyes open, and when you discover one that you think you can fix, that is the beginning of a business, my friend. That's how it starts.
So don't be down, and don't say that all the great ideas are taken. That's never the case. There's always the next great idea, and that's what's wonderful about being an entrepreneur. You've got to keep your mind open, and your eyes open, and always be looking for opportunity. And don't be depressed; I don't like that tone. Let's get happy, and let's get focused, and let's get to work!
And by the way, the greatest companies ever started were many that were started with no money. It's not about money; it's about solving somebody's problem. If you can solve a problem, you can start a business, even with no cash. You're going to provide as much as you can for the little as you can to start it and prove it out. You get a product or service that people are buying, and they're saying, "This works for me," or solving a problem. That's the beginning of a great journey. Good luck, my friend!
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Hello, Mr. Wonderful. If you were mid-20s again and had $300K liquid cash that’s Granny being invested, what would you do with it?
Oh, definitely a meal. Oh, it’s a great question! 300k, that’s a lot of dough! I’m impressed. I don’t know how you got that, but it sounds pretty good. At that young age, I would generally go into more equities than fixed income because you’ve got a very long horizon. But the key is the markets are at all-time highs these days, so you’ve got to layer in. You can’t put it all to work at the same time.
I would put 15% to work today and wait three months, then put another 15% to work. You just don’t know when there’s going to be a correction, and if you go in over a long period of time, you’ll buy somewhat lower prices than they are today—maybe. And I don’t know this; nobody does. That’s the whole point. But the key to successful investing is diversification. That’s why I like to use ETFs, exchange-traded funds, that have many, many stocks in one ticker. They’re inexpensive and very low-cost, and what I like about them is they’re transparent. They’re very tax-efficient. That’s probably the easiest way to do it.
But definitely, prices have really gone up quite a bit, and you kind of want to wait, I think, and put in fifty percent—fifty percent three months later, maybe fifty percent three months after that—and keep some cash around because you don’t know what’s gonna happen. Great investing is there, you know, investing when things are low and waiting for them to go higher, but you never know what the markets are going to do. So layer in over time. Great question! No, thank you.
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Instead of an Allman Brothers, kind of bluesy kind of thing—perfect to set up for George. Let’s see what he’s got.
Hello, Mr. Lee. My name is George, which is really calling in from California. I'm 21 years of age, and I've always known that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. The only issue is I cannot find my passion. If you watch any YouTube video, the main advice they give you is to find your passion and excel in it. The thing is, I know I can excel in anything I put my mind into, but I don’t know what to put it into. So my question would be: how can you identify this passion? What’s the best way of exposing yourself to certain situations that may give you a spark or something?
George, well, I should call you Passionless George. Don’t worry about finding the passion. The key to entrepreneurship is to really look for opportunity. And what I think is great is, instead of just saying, "I’m gonna start up on my own," when you find something you are interested in, whether it be technology, manufacturing, or the arts, or whatever it is, be an apprentice for a year. This is old school. That way you can find out if the passion is really in you. You can actually steep yourself in and say, "Look, I’m a really good worker."
Let’s say you find a company you want to work for. You go and see the CEO, the man or woman running it, and say, "You don’t have to pay me. I’m so passionate; I’d like to show you how good I am as someone who can create value for you." I know this sounds—what do you mean, don’t pay me? You know what I mean. Somebody comes up to me and says, "I want to work for one of your companies, and I’ll do it for free because I’m so good at what I do, and I can make things much better for you. I can solve problems. I can enhance profits. I can help you achieve your goals."
You don’t think I listen to that? There’s somebody that’s got passion—the passion to try and work and help. And, of course, if they can actually achieve the things they’re talking about, I’m going to hire them. An apprenticeship gets you in the door, is my point. And you don’t have to know with certainty what it is that you love, but you’ve got to go try.
And the key is apprenticeship. I got lots of people that work for me for nothing, just to be exposed to all the things that we do around all the companies I’m an investor in. And those are the men and women I think are just terrific because they’re doing it because they want to try. You think about that. That might be the solution for you—an apprenticeship.
Now, like all these questions, you guys are terrific out there!
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Hey, morning, Ken! This is it! This chart, thanks, man! Right here, these tables, these chairs, right here, baby! This is where it happens! Come down that corridor! It’s got to take a lot of guts to walk through that thing and the doors are closed, knowing what’s on the other side.
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