Belief and Confidence
If you don’t believe in yourself, success in business will be difficult. So believe in yourself! This is the advice Frank Hasenfratz would give his 20-year-old self.
Ron Sim is quite pragmatic: “I always say that you can have nothing, but when you believe in yourself, you can build something. You’ve got to have that. Don’t listen too much. Focus on what you believe and what you want to do.”
When I asked Petter Stordalen what piece of advice had been the most valuable for him, he answered: “Believe in your dreams.”
Cho Tak Wong, founder of the world’s largest auto glass manufacturer, Fuyao Glass, and the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2009, bases his success on belief: “Believe in yourself, believe in your vision, believe you can get the resources to make it happen and then give it a try.” But it’s not blind belief. “If you want to do a project, you have to do a feasibility study and use all related materials.” Then you build your belief on the results of the study. For him, the way to success consists of three steps: belief, vision, and execution. Base your goals on what you believe and go for it.
Confidence is needed for business success. It means also believing in your skills.
Peter Hargreaves believed in his business skills more than in those of his employer. That’s how he went into business. “I think I probably had enough of working for other people who were good people trying to do their best, but I could see that I could do it better.” One day he went to the office of his boss and said: “Bill, you’re a great salesman, and you’re a great ideas man, but you’re not a great businessman. You run the sales and let me run the business, and we’ll be very successful.” But Bill wouldn’t believe that. And so Peter thought, “Well, I’ll do it on my own.” He left together with his colleague Stephen Lansdown to found their own company, Hargreaves Lansdown.
Result: They are both billionaires and the only people in the world who created an FTSE 100 company without borrowing or acquisitions. At the time of writing, Hargreaves Lansdown has around $120 billion under management.
You need to believe you are good at what you do. Peter, like many billionaires, isn’t modest about his business skills: “I have to be honest. I didn’t think there were very many good businessmen about. I actually didn’t think there was much competition. And that was the joy of being in business. But whenever things didn’t go too well, I used to look at other businesses and think, ‘Well, we’re better than all those businesses. We have nothing to worry about.’”
You should definitely believe in your choices and fight for them. Tim Draper, the legendary Silicon Valley venture capital investor, learned it the hard way:
I brought Google into the partnership and my partners said, “We have all of these other competitors that we’ve invested in; why do we need another search engine?” I said, “But it’s a good group of people and all that.” They said, “Yeah, but we have a competitor that has better technology, so why would we do this?” That was a big mistake that I let them talk me out of that one.
I should have pushed super hard and I should have said “we need this one too.”
As we all know, Google won that race, bringing gigantic profits to early investors, and all Google competitors lost.
Because of their positive mindset, billionaires have a “can-do attitude,” billionaires believe they can do it. Tony Tan Caktiong, the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2004, told me that a lot of times people would keep on saying, “Oh, it cannot be done, it cannot be done,” but he being a positive person, never entertained such thoughts.
Billionaires have boundless trust in themselves. If they find something they like, they believe they are the best man for the given task. It doesn’t mean billionaires are objectively best in everything. There are always people better in some aspects. Don’t diminish yourself. You can still believe from the bottom of your heart you are the right person, the most suitable person for the given challenge. Hüsnü Özyegin told me: “There were always guys in my classes who were smarter than I was. Even now I never think of myself as the smartest guy in the room.… I try to instill in the students confidence and courage. I tell them that if they believe and they work hard—I worked very hard—they can be successful like me. I also tell them you have to have it in the bottom of your heart.”
This attitude allowed him to run for the office of student body president in an American university of 14,000 students, although he was a foreign student, and not a really good one. Of course, he succeeded.
You will be stunned by what 24-year-old Petter Stordalen experienced at the time he went to the Norwegian School of Marketing in Oslo:
In Kapital, a Norwegian equivalent of Forbes, he finds an ad for a job. A head-hunting company is looking for a CEO for a soon to-be-built shopping center in Trondheim. It will be the largest and most up-to-date shopping center in Norway. They are looking for a seasoned 40- to 45-year-old manager with at least 20 years of experience, and asking for a vita, references, and diplomas. It is quite a challenge for a student with no managerial experience whatsoever, who hasn’t even finished his schooling yet. He receives discouragement from his fellow students: “You think you can have that job? Can’t you read? 40 to 45! You are 24, Petter.” His answer is, “I can do it, and this job is actually a perfect fit for me.” His sense of pride is challenged; his ambitions awaken. After all, it is the hottest job offered in Norway, the dream job of every business school student.
So I did send an application, but I only had one thing: a paper from my father saying, “Petter’s a good boy. He’s a good worker.” I didn’t even have papers from the school. And of course, what happened? Nothing. I didn’t hear anything.
Petter doesn’t give up on his ambition. He comes day after day to the address he has sent the application to until he sees a light glowing on the fourth floor. He rings the bell and they let him in. “Hello, I am Petter Stordalen.” He explains he hasn’t been invited for an interview and wants to know what has happened. “But you are totally out of the question!”
“Me? I’m perfect for the job.” Petter sits there for 90 minutes, as long as it is necessary. And although the head hunter has two candidates matching the criteria, which Petter doesn’t fulfill, he gives in and agrees that Petter go to Trondheim to appear before the board as the third candidate.
So with all his juvenile naivete he goes to Trondheim full of faith in his abilities. Surprisingly, he convinces the board he is the right man for the job. They like this cheeky youngster. They are fascinated by his passion, his courage and grit. and they think they can better influence an inexperienced greenhorn than a sly old dog. He gets hired as the youngest shopping center manager ever and is responsible for the biggest retail project in Norway. It’s called City Syd, the first huge suburban mall in Norway.
This was how Petter started his shopping center career. Later, he made his first million from a bonus he got in a project whose doability nobody but he believed in. It was a development project, and they said, “It’s not possible to get those three shopping centers together and put a roof over it.” But he did it. You make the most money on projects others consider impossible and thus don’t do it.
Reading this story, you will understand why Mohed Altrad says you should have a mindset of “I can do whatever I want,” but you also should be able to translate it into reality.
Learn to Deal with Skeptics
Only if you believe in your ideas, your convictions, can you get anything done and not get bogged down by skeptics. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you are dreaming is not possible. Don’t let them steal your dreams. Don’t listen to the countless naysayers and grouches trying to keep you from taking bold steps. Don’t let people discourage you.
Lirio Parisotto was dreaming of becoming a doctor. In Brazil, a competitive exam is needed to be admitted to medical school.
Sometimes you have 50 openings but you have 5,000 people applying for this. It’s highly competitive.
Lirio’s
boss, whose son studied there, didn’t have the best opinion of him and wanted to talk him out of this idea. “You are crazy! My son studies a lot, it’s difficult! It’s impossible for you.”
Lirio spent one year preparing for the exam.
I studied in the morning, in the afternoon, in the nights. Because in the priest seminary, we didn’t have mathematics, physics, chemistry … so I needed to improve on these special skills.
I took second place among all the contestants. When I saw my name in the newspaper that published the results, I put it under my arm and went to the director. “Read my name here. I am going to be a doctor.” And then it’s the same thing.… He was like, “It’s impossible. You will never manage.”
But Lirio managed. Several years later he successfully graduated from the university as doctor of medicine.
So go for the things you believe in. This is how several years later, Lirio got involved in the best opportunity of his career:
In 1986, I was invited by Sony to an annual meeting in Tokyo. I was at that time the best retailer for Sony tapes and equipment in my region. And in Japan, I discovered they had a laboratory where they recorded videocassettes.
I noticed they didn’t have finished videocassettes. They had big rolls of magnetic tape and cassettes without video. When they received an order, they reloaded just the time they needed for the recording. You record 70 minutes, they load 71, one minute for the margin. So, they didn’t lose tape.
Easy, but no one did that in Brazil at that time. Of course, the video business had just started. I realized that the most expensive part of the videocassette was the magnetic tape. In Brazil, at that time, you had just three lengths of tapes, T-60, T-120, and T-160. If you had a 10-minute documentary, you would need to use the 60-minute tape. There was a lot of waste.
And also, in Sony they produce the complete thing. They do all the service. They do the recording, subtitles, they reload the cassettes, and also they put the box and the label. They do the packaging and the distribution. They do everything. Vertical integration, if you will.
This was the best idea to make money in this business. Because in Brazil we had six factories for videotapes. You had many companies who did the recording. Many companies did the subtitles. One produced boxes, the other produced labels, so no one had an integrated operation. And when the laboratory did the recordings, they sent it back to the studios. They had the copyright to put in the boxes, put the labels, and also do the invoicing and the distribution.
I realized maybe it’s time to change my business, because in retail, you have strong competition. It’s difficult to make good money because you don’t have your own product. You just resell the products which the other stores also carry.
I decided to sell the retail business and invest in buying professional machines for all the operations.
Lirio wanted to sell the business to Lojas Arno, his biggest competitor.
The first time I told him the idea, he didn’t believe. “No, you want to leave this business? No. What are you going to do?” “I want to record videotapes.” “Record tapes? I record tapes at home.” he told me. You see something on TV or camera you record it. “No, it’s a professional system.…”
He didn’t realize how important this kind of business was. But I did. I had the Video Club and the Rental Video. I knew the market grew very fast. A lot of people were interested in this. They didn’t need to go to the movies. They could watch movies at home.
At first he didn’t believe I wanted to sell. After that he realized maybe it’s important because this is the most aggressive competitor leaving the market. So it was very easy to sell.
I received $2 million for this sale. And then I had some money from the profits during this time. This was the money I invested to start in another industry and become a manufacturer.
Videolar became very profitable because I offered this full-service package.
In the end, I had all six major companies like Sony Pictures, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Universal, and Disney. All the six companies were manufacturing inside of our factory for the Brazilian market. This is the only place in the world where this happened. Usually they don’t want this. But I was very competitive, big capacity. And it became possible basically due to service and quality.
Lirio managed to hold 90% of the entire market in his hand. Videolar made him a billionaire.
Many times, people will underestimate you. Don’t let it discourage you.
Frank Stronach remembers the time when he became a major supplier for General Motors.
I had 100 factories already. I was giving a lecture at General Motors, and there were their key managers there. One of the key managers said mockingly, “Look, if you grow that fast, you’re going to be larger than General Motors.” “Yeah,” I said, “it’s just a question of time before I take over General Motors.”
They were laughing, and clapping. The idea seemed ridiculous to them.
But then, several years later, Frank actually had the opportunity and ability to really take a big chunk of General Motors.
We were bidding for Adam Opel AG, so to speak the European part of the corporation, and if politics didn’t get into play, we would have taken it over.
Today, Frank is called the Magna man. He built one of the largest auto parts manufacturers in the world with close to $40 billion in sales and over 160,000 employees. Frank is one of the most powerful people in the industry.
So never get discouraged if people are trying to belittle you.
Don’t let ridicule put you down. Tim Draper offers the right perspective on it:
If you’re trying to do something extraordinary, you will be ridiculed.
Take Elon Musk. He was saying we’re going to Mars. I’m sure he would get ridiculed by people who’d say, “You’re never going to get to Mars. Are you crazy?” But there would be a few people, maybe 5%, who’d say, “Hey, how would we get to Mars?”
He has to put up with that ridicule for a long time, but each day he goes back and life still goes on. It doesn’t affect his life. He still has a place to sleep and something to eat, and everything’s fine.
If you’re trying to do something extraordinary, you will be ridiculed.
— Tim Draper #BillionDollarGoldNuggets
Don’t Get Overconfident
But there is also a flip side of your B.O.A.T. It’s called overconfidence. In Germany, we say, “Arrogance comes before you fall.” Overconfidence can slow you down or even destroy you. It is a dangerous pitfall especially if you have been successful in the past. If you get overconfident or too optimistic, your B.O.A.T. may flip over and you may drown. Don’t let it happen!
Don’t think you are invincible. Graveyards are full of invincible people. Don’t let your success get in your way. Hüsnü Özyegin told me: “I think one of the most difficult things in life is for success not to lead to overconfidence. That’s when you start to make mistakes. You maybe ask less questions, don’t assess risks as diligently as you would, and begin to think you are invincible.”
When I asked Petter Stordalen what had been the most dangerous idea he had had in his life, he surprised me with his answer: “The idea that I have succeeded. That I am immortal. That I am invulnerable. The next thing you know you are fired. It happened to me in Steen & Strøm. I thought they thought that I was irreplaceable. That was a part of my downfall.”
Let me tell you the story of Cai Dongqing and his first ventures to illustrate to you what I mean by not letting your confidence become overconfidence.
Cai Dongqing wanted to start a business when he was 15. His father didn’t believe in him and wanted him to find a job and work for others. However, it didn’t lower Cai’s desire to go on his own. This desire was supported by his mother, who borrowed RMB800 (around $100) for him to start up a business. He and his two brothers set up a workshop. His first product was a little plastic trumpet. They didn’t have electricity at that time. They used diesel as the power to drive and heat. When manu
facturing the trumpet, they needed to manually handle the machine to press the plastic into the form. This project was a success, and it encouraged Cai to do a bigger thing.
Because we did well in the first project, one of my relatives wanted to cooperate with me to do a bigger business. Our product was some fobs, small decorations of the key rings which had a plastic plate with a popular star’s photo in it. Led by him, we began to expand and focus on sales volume.
However, they got overconfident and expanded too aggressively, buying too much equipment. It ended up a failure. Cai Dongqing not only lost all the earnings from his first project, he also ran into debt.
It’s time to float your B.O.A.T., my dear reader! Do you believe in yourself and are optimistic about what you can achieve? Do you get discouraged by the naysayers, or are you assertive with them? Do you trust in your skills enough to make it big in business?
- Drifters don’t believe in themselves and get easily discouraged by skeptics.
- Millionaires have limiting beliefs and thus pursue small dreams.
- Billionaires believe anything is possible and that they can achieve it.
For more stories on this topic, go to:
http://TheBillionDollarSecret.com/resources
CHAPTER 5
The Gold Digger’s Trap
I was worth over a million dollars when I was 23,
and over 10 million dollars when I was 24,
and over 100 million dollars when I was 25.
And it wasn’t that important,
because I never did it for the money.
—Steve Jobs
Money plays an important role in business. But it is a fallacy to think business is about money. Money is just the universal benchmark that you can use to measure performance in business. If you compare business to sports, money plays the role of the score. Better scores mean better performance and help you play the game at higher and higher levels, compete with better and better players.
The Billion Dollar Secret Page 7