Successful entrepreneurs build wealth by starting businesses with minimal capital, maintaining zero debt for resilience, treating employees properly to scale operations, and committing fully to their goals rather than being 'in the middle'; they also emphasize the importance of daily habits like being early, giving compliments, and thinking ahead, while recognizing that passion for one's work and persistence through challenges are essential for long-term success.
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I Thought Logistics Was Boring… Until I Met This GuyAdded:
I got a question for you. How did you get rich?
>> I'm so broke I can't pay attention. I'm only kidding.
>> I'm in the money business.
>> The buddy business? What do you mean?
>> Private equity, investing in companies.
>> So, let me ask you this. What are you doing to grow the business right now?
>> Well, right now you have to diversify and you have to pivot and, you know, keep on moving.
>> Took me about 2 to 3 years to learn that once you learn how to pay people and treat them properly, you could build any business.
>> If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
>> Be 10 minutes early to everything you do. Think about tomorrow cuz it's going to come. Give at least five to 10 compliments a day to anyone that's in front of you. Random people, people that you don't know, people that you do know.
>> The best thing that you could do is when you're betting, bet it all in. You never want to be in the middle.
>> Number one.
>> Excuse me, sir. Sir, I got a question for you. How did you get rich?
>> I'm so broke I can't pay attention. I'm only kidding. [laughter] >> How did you get rich, man? I go all over the wood and the richest.
>> So, you see the trucks? I was in the logistics business. I ran a big lo the trucking company, sold it.
>> So, so you're a business owner?
>> I'm a business owner. I started from nothing. Two trucks, empty warehouse, built a lot of real estate.
>> How much did you sell your company for?
>> A lot of money.
>> Give me a range.
>> Over 500.
>> 500 >> million.
>> You sold a company for 500 million.
>> Can I give you for a minute real quick?
Is it okay? Sure.
>> How did you get the money to start your business? Did Did you come from a lot of money?
>> No. My father was just an average guy.
Had a small little business. I took it over with $68 and built it up.
>> So you went from $68 to >> $68. It was a receivable of $68. I took the $68 and I parlayed it and I bought all my equipment and I built it up and from that we were land pigs. So I wound up with a lot of real estate and that's really what I do now. So when I sold the business, we converted more into real estate.
>> So let me ask you this cuz trucking logistics, this isn't necessarily a super sexy business that people don't think about, but you can make a lot of money doing it. How did you end up in this space?
>> I ended up in the space because I loved what I did, right? I love the smell of diesel in the morning. Every morning for me was like Christmas morning. I like to get up, like to get out there. A lot of kids don't want to do that today and that's a big problem. They're looking at what other people do and think it's easy. But you got to fight and you got to get in there every single day and they don't. It's just what you got to do.
>> How do you know?
>> I'm 60.
>> You got almost 40 years on me. Wh whose generation works harder? Yours or mine?
>> Oh, no. You guys have forget about it.
You guys got You're done. I mean, I don't know what you guys are going to do. Truth be told, we are the last of the generations that really could do it.
>> But how can somebody my age stand out?
>> It's like anything else. You watch a baseball player, right? What makes him better than the next guy? It's how much you put into it. And a lot of people don't want to put the time in. I can tell you from every morning getting up, every night coming home late. I had a deal with customers. I had all the big Fortune 100 companies. You name them, which I won't, but everyone that you could think of, every retailer, I brought that freight to that that store.
So, that's what we did. And then from that, like I said, we needed land. And we bought a lot of land. Now, today we have over a,000 tenants in all of our real estate. So, we're doing we're doing okay.
>> So, what's the secret to creating wealth in real estate? Because we know that most millionaires and billionaires, they make their fortune.
>> Don't have debt. I'm a debtree operator, right? So, that's key because if there's a mistake, you can rebound. And a lot of guys leverage all the debt up and they want to talk about how many buildings they own, but they're they're so broke because they they're leveraged up. We have no leverage.
>> You don't like debt?
>> No. Zero debt. I ran my business with no debt. So when I sold, it was a cash free, debtree deal. All the money went in my pocket.
>> How did you get the capital to scale though? Because even like companies like Apple, they borrowed.
>> I never borrowed a dime to run my business. I swear to you, in 40 years, I never borrowed a dime. The only thing I borrowed money on was brand new trucks.
So when I bought a brand new truck, I expensed it over one year and I paid it over four. And I that's what we did. and we just we we built it up and we kept the truck for 10 years. So over time we were able to build a good cash net worth.
>> Take me back to the most life-changing conversation that you've ever had. What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received throughout your career?
>> I'm going to tell you. So I'm from New York. I'm Italian. So a a dear friend of my fathers takes me out to uh lunch and he tells me, "Kid, forget about all the bull. Go to work every single day." And I was young and I looked at all the and I thought that's the right way to go. But I got up and I went to work and nothing stopped me. I never left a soldier behind. Failure is not an option. That's all I can tell anybody who's looking at your show or your channel, whatever it is, because I don't know what you do, but I'm telling you, you can't fail. Just attack every day.
>> Let me ask you, are these your kids right here?
>> Yes, they are.
>> They both are.
>> Yeah. And I have two more. They're not here.
>> Let me ask you this. A lot of people when they have families and they pass money down to generations, they end up blowing the money. What's a financial piece of wisdom right here that you were going to instill in them before you leave this earth?
>> Listen, there's no free roles in my in my bakery. They got to work for it. They come to work. My son here, he comes to work. He's a beast. He works every single day. She's in college. I'm very proud of what my kids have done. They're really good kids. But at the end of the day, we decided to sell our business because we thought that the path of real estate was going to be a better one, which is great for them. It's generational wealth.
>> Can I see the watch real quick?
>> Sure.
>> Okay. So, you have you have a house on your wrist right now.
>> I sure do. You have a few of them. A few good cars, too. But no, we we like I said, you know, you have to live large in every category, and a lot of people don't.
>> A trait that I've noticed in really successful people like yourself is that you're in incredible shape. Is there a correlation between physical fitness and financial success?
>> Oh, 100%. If you got the discipline to go to to the gym every single day and take care of yourself, it starts right here.
>> Do you believe in God?
>> Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, buddy.
So, >> how did you know God was real?
>> When I sold my business 2 months later, I had a massive heart attack.
>> You had a heart attack.
>> I had a heart attack. Yes. And my survival rate in the hospital was uh 11%, outside 5%, was in the widow maker.
My son and his dog saved my life, got me to the hospital. You want to wake up?
That's a wakeup call.
>> And you knew that God was with you in that moment, >> 100%. Did you have people that doubted you?
>> Oh, be you kidding me? Look at me. I'm as dumb as a box of rocks. I I got a third grade education. I'm not a schooled guy. You know, >> you didn't listen to them, though.
>> No.
>> Why not?
>> Because I know I was better than that.
And I know what I wanted and I was going to go for it.
>> My last one for you. If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
>> Be 10 minutes early into everything you do. Think about tomorrow because it's going to come. I'm telling you, it's going to come. As much as you were 20 years old, you don't think about it. if you run your life a little bit ahead of where you are. So if today's Monday, you're thinking about Thursday and you're thinking out and fiveyear plans, that's what you got to do because a lot of kids don't do that. I know when I was a kid, that was one of the things that I thought I always did right because I always looked forward from a paper route. I started a lawn route. I started a tree removal business, sold all that.
And then, you know, my father had the small business. Like I said, two trucks in West. That's not an exaggeration.
That's the truth.
>> You got amazing advice, sir.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you so much for your time. And I appreciate you.
>> I connect with all the millionaires and billionaires I interview. Could I get your contact?
>> Yeah, absolutely. Number two.
>> Excuse me, sir. Sir, is this your G Wagon?
>> It is.
>> And how did you get rich, man? Like, how old were you when you became a millionaire?
>> 26.
>> 46.
>> Yeah.
>> And what lot of business are you in?
>> I'm in the money business.
>> The buddy business. What do you mean?
>> Private equity, investing in companies, loving it.
>> So, how many companies do you own today?
>> Today, 82 84 plus companies and growing.
>> And across all these companies, what was the most amount of money you made in a single year?
>> Uh, a lot.
>> A lot.
>> Give me a range. I don't know. I have had one business that generated over three billion that I own personally.
>> Billion3 billion. Now >> I go all over the world interviewing billionaires to help the younger generation. Can I get a minute with you for the channel real quick?
>> Sure.
>> You have kids today?
>> I do. I have three teenage boys, 18, 17, 15.
>> Let me ask you this. If you could instill one financial principle into your kids before you leave this earth, what will that be?
>> I always say to them, if you spend a dollar, you have to go make two. So realize once you spend that dollar, you've got to go make $2 to get the dollar back. Don't spend. discipline yourself to stack it up and then focus on, as I tell them now, if you're not studying compounding and where interest is, the private equity game is so good.
You don't have to be a genius to be in private equity. Yes, you need some capital, but that's why you want to save.
>> You built businesses doing over $3 billion a year. You're still building companies today. You own 80 companies now. Why still keep building businesses and making millions and billions of dollars? Like, why are you >> Business is fun. People are fun. And I think at the end of the day, fulfillment is the number one deal. You are very fulfilled by what you do. You love it.
You get a high off of talking to other people, right? And you learn so much from it. So I think >> we made millions of dollars from it, too.
>> Exactly.
>> But it comes with loving what you do.
>> You You got to love what you do. And And everyone will find what they love. They just have to be willing to turn over a million more rocks than most people.
Most people that you and I grew up with, they just wouldn't even take the chance of turning over five rocks for fear of what their name may look like for trying three or four ventures and falling on their face.
>> They're worried about what people think about them.
>> It's the biggest mistake you can make in your early 20s.
>> How did you overcome that? Cuz I'm sure you have people that doubt you.
>> I was I was I'll tell you a fast funny story. So before the internet, I was making six figures a month in my mid20s.
And so back then it was life-changing, right? But I was saving, saving, saving, saving. I understood how to invest. Back in that day, there was a phone book. I never will forget one day I'm looking at this phone book and I'm looking in the mirror and I'm like, "You're the biggest liar." I'm looking at myself in the mirror going, "Here's a phone book with every first name and last name within a radius of where I live." And so, I started calling every first name. I' like I'd say, "Hello, David so and so. I can't remember where I met you, but I wanted to give you some updates on my company." And I started going through that, and it was a big game changer for me in my confidence level. I understood the power of leaving voice messages. So I think in today's world the other thing that I would tell all of you is your rolodex is your Rolex. Your rolodex is your Rolex. And if you utilize I've never heard that word.
>> Yep. Thank you. And I believe that. I think everyone has all these contacts.
You've got all these friends. But what are you putting in front of them that you feel has value that you're passionate about and that you feel is something that they need to purchase. If you say, "Trust me, order this. You'll hug me later." You're on your way. So it's true when they say that the more hands you shake, the more money you make.
>> 5 billion%.
>> You got rejected, I'm sure, >> a million times.
>> Why did you not care about that?
>> Found and determined and I love what I was doing. I thought it had a benefit to everyone that I was reaching out to. If you don't feel like what you're putting your name to is beneficial to others, you're wasting your time.
>> How important is it to follow up in business with your customers, clients, whatever?
>> Great question. And I think when you think about fear of loss, that's the awesome thing about follow-up is that you're just giving them updates on what's going on with you, what's going on with the company. And uh so they know things are happening without them. They know it's growing without them or they know that they're missing out on buying something.
>> Right? So I've interviewed a lot of billionaires and I've learned from them that the reason why people go out of business is because they don't know how to follow up with all their clients.
There's a business I use. It's called Go High Leo and essentially what it does is it automates your entire follow-up process. So, even if you have different businesses, different customers, different clients, it literally automates the follow-up process. Reaches out to all them so you never lose money or never lose a deal.
>> Absolutely. I'm going to check it out today for sure.
>> Let's do it. How old are you now?
>> How old do you think I am?
>> 50 54 55.
>> If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
>> Give at least 5 to 10 compliments a day to anyone that's in front of you. Random people, people that you don't know, people that you do know. But make a habit every day to compliment people.
And remember that we're all equal. So don't think that you're better than anyone else. And when you stay humble, blessings come.
>> Got amazing advice, sir.
>> Pleasure. Thank you.
>> I connect with all the millionaires and billionaires I interview. Could I get your contact?
>> Yeah.
>> Number three.
>> Excuse me, sir. Sir, >> how old were you when you became a millionaire?
>> Um, sorry. Give me maybe next time. Hey, real quick, sir. I'm I'm from the United States. I grew channel to 18 million followers just interviewing successful business owners.
>> I got to finish this off. I'll talk to you in like minutes. All right, brother.
Appreciate you. Sorry, I'm too shy.
>> He's wearing pajamas.
>> It's all good. Well, are you from Hong Kong?
>> Yeah.
>> What is it that you do for work?
>> I work in the Well, family business.
>> What do you do? What do you guys do?
>> We are a Christmas ornament manufacturer.
>> Are you serious? Yeah.
>> Are you one of the biggest in China?
>> Yeah. The biggest? Yeah.
>> Actually.
>> Yeah.
>> Hey, bud. I'm too shy. Yeah. So, >> one question though. I came all the way from Texas to interview people out here.
I wanted to ask you, how did your family get into the business?
>> We've been doing it for 50, 60 years, >> actually. Do you run the company today?
>> I run the company today.
>> So, let me ask you this. What are you doing to grow the business right now?
>> Well, right now you have to diversify and you have to pivot and you know keep on moving. So, >> so do you own like different verticals like you own the manufacturing?
>> Yeah, we're a vertically integrated company. So, we own the entire supply chain.
>> Explain that. What are the different verticals that [laughter] you own? Bring me on the spot.
>> What are the different verticals that you own?
>> We import raw materials, buy them raw materials. We blow injection mold. We have a lot of different types of production lines all vertically integrated. We pack it, we distribute it, we ship it to America or ship it to the UK or Europe. And then our customers, they sell it in their retail stores.
>> Have the tariffs had a big impact on your business?
>> Oh yeah, huge. A lot of uncertainty. It has created a lot of like ups and downs.
So it went up to 145 and then went back down to 30. My category was at 0% tariff and now it's at 30% tariff. A lot of customers don't feel very certain about the future.
>> What's the most amount of money the business has generated?
>> I mean, we've done hundreds of millions of dollars >> in one year.
>> Yeah.
>> I appreciate you and your time, man.
That was awesome. And and why are there so many successful entrepreneurs in Hong Kong? 20 30 years ago, Hong Kong was the gateway to China. And in the 80s and 90s, a lot of people from Hong Kong opened factories in China because at that time, China was a fishing village.
They opened the economy up. And then after that, there are hundreds of thousands of people came in, migrant workers, to find jobs. Hong Kong has over the last 30 years, 50 years has just been economic trading hub.
>> You got great advice, man. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you.
Where would you say what I find the wealthiest entrepreneurs in Hong Kong?
Is this a good place to be?
>> This is a good place to be. You can go to the Rosewood. All the young entrepreneurs, they'll be around this area for sure.
>> Awesome, man. Great to meet you, man.
What was your name?
>> Charlie.
>> Charlie James. Thank you for your time, man. I appreciate you.
>> Number four.
>> Yo, sir. Question real quick. Is Is this your Rolls-Royce?
>> What are you doing?
>> I'm going all over Beverly Hills the richest people. Is this your Rolls-Royce?
>> Do you want to get ran over here?
[laughter] >> Is this your Rolls? Is this your Rolls-Royce?
>> Yeah, this is one of them.
>> How did you get a Rolls-Royce?
>> A plumber, baby.
>> You're not a plumber.
>> Hell yeah.
>> A plumber got you a Rolls-Royce.
>> Plumbing and air conditioning.
>> How long have you been a business owner?
For the last company I flipped, I was owner for about 7 years.
>> So, what was the most amount of money you made in a single year?
>> 2022. I made a little bit over 100 million.
>> As a plumber, >> plumbing, air conditioning, and uh electrical.
>> Hey, can we pull off to the side for one minute? I'm going >> Hey, you need to >> for one minute. Just off the side. Let's help the younger generation. I'm interviewing the richest people in Beverly Hills. Can we get one?
>> You want to get a ticket? You're paying for this ticket.
>> Can we get off to the side?
>> I'm telling you right now, you're paying for this.
>> Hey. Hey, bro. Hey. [laughter] He's pulled up, man. He's pulled up, man.
Come on. Hey, only at the school of Hardox, bro. You get people to stop in the Rolls-Royce, man. Come on. A lot of people think they got to go and vet a new tech company. You became a nine figure entrepreneur. Plumbing, fixing toilets, man. Talk to me about that, >> man. It's probably one of the dopest journey, man. You know what the dopest thing is? That not a lot of people know about this, man. And I think it's like our duty as as entrepreneurs, you know, to talk to these generation about what's possible in air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical.
>> Why do you like that industry as opposed to say tech or real estate? Why do you like the trades?
>> Dude, we've been through uh recessions.
We've been through the pandemic. You know, in the pandemic, I went from $30 million in revenue to over $und00 million in just a two-year span.
>> What did you do to scale? How'd you grow 3x that quickly?
>> Bro, we hired, honestly, the last company that I exited, we had the best of the best plumbers in California. We had the best of the best people in that industry. Took me about 2 to 3 years to learn that. Once you learn how to pay people and treat them properly, you could build any business. I don't care if it's a plumbing, air conditioning, a tech company, or whatever it is. As long as you're taking care of your people, that's where the biggest opportunities are.
>> People's everything in business.
>> All day, baby. All day. I would have only been been able to fix two to three toilets a day. I had a little bit over 200 plumbers working for me when we were at our peak. So, >> how did that marketing spread? What did you do to like grow the was it word of mouth? Was it ads?
>> I think I took one of the biggest risk in 2022, 2021, we were already doing a little bit over $60 million in revenue.
And I went ahead and I got a little bit over 290 billboards all at once. Just put my my brand NextG air conditioning and plumbing on it. And uh from putting up almost 300 billboards to you know doing having the right marketing mix is what got us to keep those uh phones uh ringing all >> Were those billboards expensive?
>> Yeah, they were. They were. But what was more expensive is not making the money.
>> Scare money don't make money.
>> Yeah, scare money don't make money, man.
>> Did you come from a rich family? Did you come from a lot of money?
>> No. No. No. We actually me and my brother got smuggled into the United States when we were 5 years old. I was five. He was He was turning 7 years old.
We were smuggled through um San Diego.
>> But you didn't let that define you.
>> Hell no.
>> Why not?
>> What do you mean? Hell no.
>> What was your turning point, man? What did you see that made you want to go out there and build an absolute empire, $100 million company?
>> I saw other people doing it and I'm like, they're not they're not smarter than me. They don't work harder than me.
They don't have nothing special. We're all human. And if I could do it, you know, 5 years old, I didn't even know how to speak speak English. So, if I could do it, the opportunities are endless, man.
>> So, did you have people that doubted you in business?
>> All day, man. All day. Some of those people were family members. Some of those people were close cousins and friends that I had for years, and they doubted me. But guess what? We just did what we had to do.
>> At any point in time, did you almost go broke? Did you almost fail?
>> Hell yeah. We were in debt. 8 8.2 $.2 million in 2020 right before COVID hit.
We were in the the the company was in debt $8.2 million, but I knew that we were growing at at such a high high pace that the company was always going to be worth more than the debt.
>> So, you weren't afraid to go take on debt. You took on debt.
>> Hell no. Hell no. There's only two ways to make to grow a business, and that's capital or debt. You choose which one you want to do. Some people, if you have a million dollars, of course, it's going to be easy to grow any type of business.
Or you could get grab a million dollars in debt, and it's the same thing.
>> What part of trades right now would you get into if you were starting over in today's world? The biggest opportunity right now is the electricians. They're about to make bank. They're about to make the most money. The next hundred million dollar company is coming in the next year in the electrical business. I promise you. Look, private equity already came into our business. They bought all the solar people. They bought all the air conditioning people. They're about to buy all the electricians. AI cannot exist without electricians.
They're about to go into a mass hiring spree of electricians. If you have a pulse and you have a brain, you could make two, three, four, your first year of being an employee.
>> That's game right there.
>> Yes. Hell yeah. Imagine being 19 years old and somebody telling you, "Hey, I don't know what to do with my life. Hey, go join the electricians or go into trade school." Your first year, you're going to make 100, 200, 300,000. Imagine if they would have told us that 20 years ago or 15 years ago or 10 years ago.
They keep wanting to put us in college and put us in debt. They >> They don't teach us in school. They don't teach us. What's your name?
>> My name's Ishma Valdez.
>> Wait, why don't they teach us in school?
>> No, they don't want to teach us in school, man, because they're they're programming a bunch of employees. Now, you got to you got to get out there.
>> I'm going to challenge you right now.
Take me back to the most life-changing conversation that you ever had. What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received throughout your career? Give me the best advice you ever got from a mentor.
>> In order for everybody to eat, somebody's got to sell. Listen to what I said. In order for everybody to eat, somebody's got to sell. Sales is the most pivotal part of the business. You got to learn and master sales. Once you learn and master sales, everything else could be taught and learned. But if you can't learn step number one in the process is sell, sell, sell. If you can't learn that, don't wor don't worry about step number two or step number three. Did you use an LLC when you started your business?
>> Hell yeah. We went No, we we used the corporation right when we started our first business.
>> How important was it the entity structure building?
>> Oh man, if you don't know how to structure the company properly, how do you expect to scale it?
>> The foundation has to be there.
>> The foundation has to be there in the business in order for it to scale. The scale will never happen in the business if the foundation's never there.
>> Let me tell you this right now. I talk to a lot of billionaires and they always say that the reason why companies fail is because they don't set themselves up for success from the beginning. I used to I used a company called Busy to start my business for my LLC and I turned it into a multi-million dollar business.
And it protects you.
>> Making sure that you're shielded properly as a person, right? You want to protect yourself as you keep growing your wealth. That's one of the most pivotal parts.
>> And also with the energy destruction, you save so much money as well.
>> Amen.
>> How old are you now?
>> I'm 38.
>> If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation. What would that be?
>> Look, the best thing that you could do is when you're betting, bet all in. You never want to be in the middle. I'm going to write a book later on when I retire, maybe in a couple years from now. It's going to be called Never in the Middle because you never want to play the middle. Either you're 100% in or 100% out. If you're not 100% into whatever you're going to do, guess what?
You're going to fail. no matter what because there was a million times that I wanted to quit and say, "Hey, you know what? This is too many employees." We had thousands of employees already. You know what I'm saying? And and and and there's days that you want to give up.
And if you're not 100 million% committed to the goal or you don't have the vision or you don't see it, you're going to fail.
>> You got amazing advice, sir. Thank you so much for your time. I got to ask you.
>> You guys are killing me. Hey, >> I got I got to ask you. I connect with all the millionaires and billionaires I interview. Can I get your contact?
>> Of course. Yeah.
>> How you
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