On top of that, in winter, I bicycle; in summer, I rollerblade, I paddle and kayak, because I’m living close to the sea. I ski, downhill, cross-country, I go skiing on asphalt with the skis on wheels. And of course, when you’re over 50, you have to do some weights as well, because you lose muscles from your late twenties.
We train every day. Regardless of weather, wherever we are. If we have a flight at 6 a.m., we get up at 3 a.m. Compromises are not for Gunhild and I. We like being active in general.
Even older billionaires over 65 or even 80 run or go to the gym daily or at least two to three times a week.
The consistency of your regimen is important.
Lirio Parisotto does the treadmill. “My average is 1,000 calories, three times a week. It’s one and a half hour. I do it whenever possible. Sometimes, if I travel then it’s difficult. So I pay the bill when I come back. Then I do it every day.”
From Sportsmen to Billionaires
A noticeably high percentage of billionaires I interviewed were high performers in sport in their youth and some still are.
Chip Wilson’s life was all about sports from childhood on, when he started off as a competitive swimmer. “It was seven or eight practices a week and a swim meet every weekend. At the age of 10 I had a Canadian record, and then by the age of 12 I was one of the best in the world at swimming for my age. So swimming dominated my life.” In grade 12 he started playing football. At the university came wrestling.
Then I made up my mind I was going to do the Iron Man, which was at the time the craziest thing in the world anyone could think of. I was always thinking what was more powerful, my mind or my body. I was always trying to see how far I could take my body with my mind.
After triathlons, I started running 10Ks, and I ran my back into the ground. Then I started playing squash, because I could move laterally, so I became a C Level squash player.
And then I got muscular dystrophy in my body. I’ve had to revolve my life around that. So I started doing yoga, and I did it very consistently. But then I think my mind started moving more to mindfulness, and then climbing mountains started to become very interesting to me.
Frank Hasenfratz was a competitive rower from the age of 16 to 21. If not for the fact that he had to flee Hungary after the uprising that he participated in, he probably would have represented Hungary in the Olympic Games.
Manny Stul loved sports. He loved winning and competing. I asked him which was his favorite sport in his youth.
Anything that I was good at. Sports that I liked were eye-hand coordination. Table tennis, tennis, soccer, badminton, cricket. I was very good at chess. My father taught me. I ended up playing in competitions and representing the school. When I was older, squash became popular. I won a lot of trophies for squash on a state level.
Jack Cowin was selected at high school to the All-Ontario team in American football. At the university he was one of the best players and was the number three draft from all Canadian universities. He went to play professional football for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which he gave up as soon as he realized he wanted to go into business. He also was a strong wrestler with hopes for the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out for him.
Michał Sołowow is still active in car rallies. It has been his passion for the last 10-plus years, and he became the European WRC vice-champion twice.
Peter Hargreaves was quite competitive in trail running.
Advantages of Sports for Business
Involvement in sports helps you on numerous levels in your business success. The most obvious one is it keeps you in shape, thus giving you vital energy needed in every activity, also in business. But it’s more than that.
It helps you think clearly because it freshes up your head, and then you look at things from a different perspective. Peter Hargreaves praises the advantages of running: “I find if you’ve got lots and lots of things going on in your mind, lots of problems to solve, don’t allow them to fester there. Instead go running. I would have huge problems in my mind. I’d go a five- or six-mile run, and when I came back, they’d all be sorted out. I have this theory that during the day, you tax your brain and it puts your body out of balance. You’ve taxed your brain but not your body. By taxing your body, by actually doing some exercise, you put the two in balance. And you feel more awake and better than you would if you hadn’t done it.”
Sport teaches you to win and to lose, skills that you need for success both in life and in business. Frank Stronach reminded me, “In sports, you learn sports character and you learn to compete. And you should also learn fair play.”
In sports, you learn sports character and you learn to compete.
— Frank Stronach #BillionDollarGoldNuggets
All sports make you disciplined and persistent, help you develop not only physical but also mental strength, and team sports teach you teamwork. The Singaporean billionaire Ron Sim is a marathon runner and a triathlete. He is a strong supporter of sports in education.
Education without sports means nothing, because you basically create the competitive spirit, you create the teamwork, you create the discipline, you create the strength, the endurance, and you learn how to win—and you also learn how to lose.
I think these are the fundamentals of life. Because these are the things that you’re going to go through in life. The theoretical classes are not going to teach you much of that. They give you the knowledge that you want in a formal, methodological, and applicable way, that’s all. They don’t provide you with the intangible substance to run your life.
Sports is probably the only way to understand that you are going to get down with your hands to work, that you need to go through all these elements of life before you are really tested. So I always say the degree is just a license to practice.
You basically create the competitive spirit, you create the teamwork, you create the discipline, you create the strength, the endurance, and you learn how to win—and you also learn how to lose.
— Ron Sim #BillionDollarGoldNuggets
Sports give you confidence and tenacity that are essential in business. It was Jack Cowin’s takeaway from his American football career.
I think one of the things that sports give you is confidence. Not physically. You’re not going to beat somebody up, but I think you develop a rapport with people. Because it’s tough.
You never give up. If you’re my opponent, can I wear you down? There’s an amazing amount of analogies between sports and business. What would make a successful athlete would make a successful entrepreneur. It’s training. Putting yourself through the paces of training to be able to perform.
One of the things that sports give you is confidence. You never give up.
— Jack Cowin #BillionDollarGoldNuggets
Sports teach you to give everything. Chip Wilson’s father taught him to give 100% in swimming.
There’s no point in doing anything in life unless it’s 100%. You might as well just go do something else. That was one thing I learned in sports for life.
Sport instills in you the will to succeed, despite defeats and setbacks. It shows you that you can improve and get better.
I asked Manny Stul what he learned in sports for business or life.
Just the drive to succeed, to keep improving and keep going. In sport sometimes you have injuries, but you’ve got to play through them. Of course, you have setbacks also in business, but you just need to maintain a positive attitude, always, to overcome them and keep moving forward.
You’ve got to have the drive within you if you want to be an entrepreneur, if you want to succeed.
There’s no point in doing anything in life unless it’s 100%. You might as well just go do something else.
— Chip Wilson #BillionDollarGoldNuggets
Let’s not forget about other canonical virtues of sport. It teaches you humility and being sincere to yourself. You can’t lie to yourself in sports. Your skills are the consequence of your preparation, and your res
ults show you exactly where you are, especially if you compete against others.
Team sports teach to you to assess people and to lead a team.
Healthy Life
Sports isn’t the only element of a healthy life. Other elements that billionaires name frequently are meditation, not smoking, and healthy eating habits.
Out of all the 21 billionaires I interviewed for this book, only one was a smoker. All the rest either have never smoked in their lives or gave up smoking long ago.
Habit 3: Read
Books are the treasure chest of the world’s knowledge.
When I asked Cho Tak Wong about one message he would like to give to the world audience, his answer was: “I’d ask the young people to read books, read a lot of those about how to do things right, how to be a good person.”
Keep in mind, Cho Tak Wong was expelled from elementary school and was illiterate at the age of 14. He never graduated from any school and learned to read and write all by himself. He is a self-taught person who gained all his knowledge from the books he read and the experiences he made. This was what allowed him to become the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2009, the best entrepreneur in the world, so to say.
Reading is, together with exercise, the activity that billionaires spend time on regularly. Almost all my interviewees named reading as one of the habits they follow daily. They usually read in the morning before they go to the office. Some read also before they go to sleep.
You really can’t read too much. Manny Stul, the World Entrepreneur of the Year 2016, was a prolific reader in his childhood. He picked it up from his father.
I read about five books a week up to the age of 12. When I was interested, I read a lot. I’d wait for my parents to turn off the lights, and then I’d read under the blankets with a torch [flashlight] till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.
Chip Wilson started reading books at the age of 18, but like everything he does, he did it giving 100%. “I was in Alaska on the oil pipeline, and I had a job which was just monitoring this one device. It’s very boring, so I read a novel a day for almost a year and a half. So by the age of 19, I’d read probably the 200 top novels of the world, which I think very few people have done.”
He instilled the love for books in his wife and his children. “We go to bed early and read. We read. Everyone reads at night.”
What Do Billionaires Read?
You may have in your mind the stereotype of a successful businessman reading the economy pages of the daily newspapers or magazines at the breakfast. And you aren’t far from the truth. Many billionaires do exactly that.
Some read their national dailies; others read the likes of The Economist, Financial Review, Fortune, The Times, or Newsweek.
But billionaire reading habits are usually more sophisticated than that. Many billionaires indulge in biographies of the top performers in and outside of business. Sometimes these are books about the greatest leaders in history.
This type of book was decisive in Lirio Parisotto’s career.
When I started in business, I read a lot of books. I read all the autobiographies of businessmen which came into my hands.
I’m a self-made man because I read a lot. I haven’t graduated in administration or law or something related or electronic engineering.
I was interested in all the times, how they had made the first million. Imagine somebody who has nothing, doesn’t have family support, doesn’t have wealthy friends, who has nothing but his ideas, and starts to do something and makes a million dollars cash. Of course, at that time it was much more. [chuckles] Maybe it’s $10 million today.
I’m a self-made man because I read a lot.
— Lirio Parisotto #BillionDollarGoldNuggets
Industry magazines and domain-specific books are the next most popular reading category among billionaires.
Finally, we come to business books.
For many billionaires, business books were the only guide in their entrepreneurial try-and-fail game. This is how Mohed Altrad learned to do business: “By trying and doing. And very quickly I started reading business books. Whatever aspect, be it sales or anything, I would buy a book and read it and learn.”
But you would be surprised to discover that not all billionaires read them. Petter Stordalen has read only one business book in his career. He prefers to read detective novels, and a few other billionaires also enjoy reading belletristic.
A Reading System
It’s important to develop a systematic approach to your reading. Don’t read random books; read books that give you value. Ideally, keep a priority list of titles to read based on your interests and recommendations of your mentors. Use this list flexibly, and choose the books to read based on the challenges you face at the moment.
Then develop a habit to read at a given time of the day; for example, in the morning, at the lunch break, or before going to bed. Ideally, set off time for reading every day.
The third element is a system to process the reading: marking interesting passages, keeping notes, thoughts, ideas, or maybe even to-dos based on the material you’ve read.
Go to my website to get the list of books recommended by billionaires:
http://TheBillionDollarSecret.com/resources
Habit 4: Contemplate
Billionaires take time during the day to spend it alone to think. Some contemplate by meditating; some do it during other activities like sports.
We will look at this closer with the examples in the next habit.
Habit 5: Routines and Rituals
Routines and rituals are sets of habits that, when employed consistently, will in the long term inevitably produce profound results. Ritualized habits are easier to keep and thus more sustainable. Long-term application brings about a compound effect.
Unfortunately, bad rituals like a cigarette break also will produce profound results but on the negative side. That’s why it’s essential to set up and follow routines and rituals that support your objectives.
A Morning Routine
A morning routine is the single most important routine for long-term success in business. Almost all the billionaires I interviewed have a morning routine that they follow religiously.
A good example is Kim Beom-Su, who uses his mornings to think deeply and to read.
I usually wake up between 5 and 6 in the morning and go to sleep around 11:30 p.m. I sleep around six hours.
Basically … like in golf, there is a routine where you go through certain motions in setting up, like a checklist, without exerting too much energy. And because reading books is part of this routine, I am able to read a lot. And because taking a shower is part of this routine, I am able to think a lot during that time.
After waking up in the morning, I put on my cap and grab my earphones and go for a walk. When I come back from my walk, I take a shower. I walk for around 30, 40 minutes and again take a shower for 30, 40 minutes, thinking about many things. After that I come out to the living room where there are a lot of books and choose one that catches my eye and read that for 30, 40 minutes. The rest of the time I listen to some music in the music room for 30, 40 minutes before having breakfast with my family and going to work.
My first most important habit is the habit of thinking deeply. While taking a shower or taking a walk, I take time to contemplate about things, and this is the most important habit for me because I’ve organized many thoughts, things have become clearer, and new ideas have developed during those times.
Chip Wilson’s morning routine is about sports and information.
I almost always get up at 5:30 in the morning, and I’m old school, so I go get the newspapers, and I read from 5:45 to 6:30. And then I either go to run stairs, or I’ll go over to the three mountains in Vancouver and I’ll do one hike straight up one of the mountains, or I’ll go to a personal trainer. And I usually get home around 8:30, to walk my kids to school and eat something. And I always end up with two cappuccinos in the morning, which sends me off till lunchtime.
“Starting the Business Day” Routine
Billionaires have their usual way to start their day in the office. It’s a routine that they follow automatically the minute they enter their office.
What you do first depends very much on the type of business you are involved in and of course the scale of your business. Frank Stronach explains it using manufacturing as an example:
When you are small, you go in the factory. When you are larger, you start with your secretary: “What’s new? Anything urgent?” Then you might meet an executive committee or whatever. So it depends on what stage. I went through all these stages.
Some billionaires first want to get on top of the events and see if there is anything that needs their immediate attention. Others are people focused. They first go around the office and talk to key people. Some billionaires check the numbers first.
Chip Wilson approaches every day in a systematic way. Asked what is the first thing he does in the office, he says:
I sit down and I think about what my number one priority of the day is. What is my goal to get done for that day? And I look at my calendar and go, “Okay, is my calendar right?” Actually, do that the night before, so I rearrange things. Then I go, “Has anything changed between last night and this morning, and what do I need to do?” I need to actually insert it into my calendar to give me time to do it.
Habit 6: Discipline
The billionaires I interviewed are the most disciplined people I have ever met. They put a high standard on themselves and on the people around them.
The Billion Dollar Secret Page 11