welcome everybody to another YouTube
hangout super excited to be here where
we’ve got an important topic to cover
today and I’ve got a new friend and
special guest mr. Phil town with me he
is an investor he is a motivational
speaker
he’s a polo player you’ll see him in his
outfit he is a hedge fund manager he’s
been on MSNBC and CNBC and is a multiple
time New York Times bestselling author
today we’re gonna talk about how to get
funding for your business mr. Phil town
welcome aboard man thanks Evan
glad to be here I’m shamelessly
promoting the rule 1 polo team here
we’re we always need more fans we have
four fans we’re looking for number five
so you know well send me a jersey and
maybe I’ll wear it in a future
livestream we’ll get it going
you got a backward City New Jersey there
we go I love cool well so we’re gonna
have tons of people joining in we’ve
already got hundreds of people joining
online they’re gonna be asking questions
giving some feedback and getting
personal about how to get funded for
their business but before getting into
it I want to get some nuggets from you I
mean you’ve been on them as MSNBC CNBC
all the media outlets you have your own
funds what are some of the key nuggets
you can drop on us
if I’m an entrepreneur looking to get
funding what should I be paying
attention to I think the main thing to
pay attention to is building a really
good business that’s what’s gonna get
you funded and ultimately funding is
going to come in depending on the stage
you’re at based on really a couple of
major things number one most of the
people who are in my shoes are going to
bet the jockey not the horse if you’re
an early stage company but when you get
to be a later stage they’re going to be
betting the horse as well as you so you
kind of got to know what kind of money
you’re going after are you after angel
Capital or you after kind of mezzanine
financing are you already profitable and
really cranking it out there and you
need money to continue that level of
growth those are three really different
questions but ultimately it comes down
to two things number one what is the
intrinsic characteristic you’ve built
into your company that will protect you
from competitors coming in later and in
other words what’s your niche and how do
you
protected and second can you demonstrate
your own personal integrity and talent
in running this business those are
essentially the two things we’re looking
for do we have a management team we can
trust
that’s talented and does the business
plan have a structure to it that
protects it from competition so for you
guys watching live if you have a
question leave it down there on the side
and we will do our best to get to as
many as we can first one coming in is
from cam saying how much money on
average do you need to start a business
so if I’m starting the business how much
how do I figure out how much money I
need so you take how much what do you
think you need and multiply it by a
million or two and you come out with
some kind of a number that’s very large
okay truth truth be down I don’t like to
invest in companies that need a lot of
capital I like to see entrepreneurs who
bootstrap I want to see you know shabby
offices and you know stolen furniture
you know things that fell off the back
of the truck I want to see a group of
people who are just absolutely dedicated
to the development of this idea and I
like to see that for people who are not
that interested in the money so I don’t
think it takes a lot of capital to get
started now the reason you’re going to
need a lot of money as you go is because
you hit it you got the right idea out
there and it starts to explode in some
sort of exponential way and then you’re
going to need capital to really jack it
up and take it out of the market but
hopefully unless you’re doing some kind
of thing where you’re trying to you know
build chips which would be something i
wouldnt be interested in you’re gonna
need very little capital to get started
a proof of concept shouldn’t cost a lot
Varun is writing in to ask about what
are your thoughts on Kickstarter
crowdfunding as a source of an raising
capital for a company yeah oh good just
don’t give away the farm and on that on
that point you know it’s wherever you
can get capital but frankly we focus a
lot on the three f’s
which would be friends family and fools
until until you can get this thing
rolling but the Kickstarter group these
funding sites are a really good third F
right this is piled full of friendly
fools
in the sense that these they’re willing
to take a shot with somebody they don’t
know maybe in a business they don’t
understand and in one sense it’s the
easiest money in the world to raise
because people are not all that
well-informed on the other hand you can
end up with a lot of people in there
that you really don’t want
so I guess my preferred way to go would
be to start to build a business plan and
start looking for angel investors in
your area
I’d much prefer you see with one or two
investors to get started rather than a
big old pile of anonymous people so to
that question around fools so if if I’ve
raised my first round and I’ve got a
bunch of you know friends family you
know random people if I then go to
approach an angel investment boom for my
next round I’m coming to you and saying
Phil I’m looking you know to raise my
next round of capital here how much do
you look at who the other investors are
that you’re now in business with these
fools that have come on board and does
that impact your decision to make
yes investment well I don’t think it’s
going to be at all super impactful
because if the entrepreneur and the plan
of where they’re going are good then
we’re gonna be able to overcome those
kinds of issues but clearly we don’t
want people in there who are crazy
stupid painfully emotional we would like
to have people that are reasonably
intelligent about the investing process
so that they’re not sitting or thinking
that because they put up two thousand
dollars they should own 40% of your
company forever that can be a real
problem but if you if you just got
really friends and family and people who
are congenial fools that are willing to
help you ride up that first level
typically those be long a problem got it
next question coming in what books or
resources can you recommend to learn how
to think like an investor okay the
number one thing you can do to think
like an investor is read every single
letter that Warren Buffett wrote to his
shareholders from 1973 until now it’ll
take you a couple hours there they’re
actually on the website Berkshire
Hathaway and you just click on them and
it is a master’s course in setting up a
business that’s
wonderful and ultimately very salable
buffett is I think the world’s best
investor he owns last checks seventy or
eighty private companies so it would
really I think it’d be the best
education in the world for you guys to
go out and study what did Buffett buy
why does he like these companies what is
it about these companies that makes them
something that he could bring into his
company and own without having being
worried about whether or not it’s gonna
work out right that that’s the key if
you study those letters you’ll be a much
much better entrepreneur it’s one of the
best ways I learned how to do this now I
know you do a lot of financial education
and training you’ve got your rule one
investing you do workshops and seminars
you cover this how to think like an
investor or some of the important parts
yeah we do we we’re all about thinking
like an investor and that we do a
three-day workshop that we’d be happy to
have all of your you know all of your
fans come and do we do it typically in
Atlanta Georgia which is near where we
live and we’ll do it once a month sort
of donating the time for three days you
know we don’t sell anything nothing like
that we just teach and we’re teaching
essentially Warren Buffett’s style
investing strategy which means by the
end of the first day you’ll have learned
what I as a hedge fund manager and what
many of the hedge fund managers are
looking for when it comes time to fund
something that could be pretty valuable
I think to an entrepreneur and down the
road also it’s pretty valuable to
understand the investing process and how
to invest as an entrepreneur because if
you’re going to go out there and do this
you want to make money and when you make
the money you want to start to diversify
that out away from the company as you’re
starting to getting cash flow and start
you know just like Hollywood producers
let other people take more of the risks
down the road as it really starts to
grow that’s where you bring in an
additional capital and you at that point
won’t be required to have everything you
own in the world in this company like
you are when you start up and you can
start to diversify across into other
companies but you’re gonna have to have
an education and know what to look for
so the two things I think work kind of
well together
got it and if you guys watching you can
find that course at this real one
investing com off your main site right
rule 1 investing calm just go there and
there’s a lot of information of
about how to invest in the things we
look for as an investor in a good
company essentially what we’re looking
for is a wonderful business that’s what
we want to buy we want to buy businesses
that are awesome that we don’t have to
struggle to keep alive right and those
are exactly the kind of businesses we
want to build we want to build
businesses that are wonderful so when
you come you’ll learn what wonderful
looks like to the best investors in the
world okay cool I love it keep the
questions coming guys next up jennifer
is asking about how do you evaluate a
company how you figure out what a
company is worth all right really good
we go through two or three different
ways of evaluating a company and of
course the hardest one is the way
venture capital does it which is to make
an educated guess about where this
company’s going to be in five years when
it doesn’t already have profits it
doesn’t already have cash flow that’s
really difficult to do and that’s why in
our industry and we say we’re betting
the Jockey not the horse because many of
the top companies we fund end up not
being the product that we thought they
were going to be there ended up
something else but it’s just that we’ve
got such a good people running the
business we we can find a way to be
successful those are really difficult to
figure out but just to give you a metric
to work with estimate where you’re gonna
be in about five years to 10 years and
figure that the entrepreneurs are they
of the capitalists that are putting the
money in are gonna want roughly to
double their money every two years over
that period of time so if you say all
right I need a million dollars let’s
let’s say $100,000 I need a hundred
grand and the the angel capital is going
to come out in five years they’re gonna
need to double roughly three times over
that five year period so they put in a
hundred they need 200 400 800 hundred n
800 out if it goes ten years one point
six three point two you see what I’m
where I’m going it gets exponentially
grows so yeah I know it’s kind of a
shock and a little bit rude about how
big those numbers get but we invest in a
lot of things that don’t happen and
don’t don’t grow and a lot of that
capital goes away so the ones that when
know you’ve got to know you’re gonna get
a good return on those companies in
order to make up for the ones that lose
okay so that’s venture capital now if
you’re a later stage much much different
the way this can be viewed at a later
stage where you’re really making profits
you’ve got the company rolling and now
you want to sell it to somebody you can
sell it to a public company typically as
a private company you’re going to be
valued at about one half of the same
company as a public company so if
there’s somebody out there that looks
like you let’s say you’re a restaurant
chain look out there and find out what
you know Cheesecake Factory is selling
for cut it in half based on your
earnings and you’ll be in the ballpark
another way to look at that is depending
on how fast you’re growing you’re gonna
sell it for something around seven to
nine times earnings would be in the
ballpark of a good sale that would be a
good one so my brother for example sold
his company a few years ago for nine
point one times earnings and he was
making ten million bucks a year so that
would give you a sense of the range from
startup out to really you know late
stage company got it getting a bunch of
questions about schooling people want to
know do investors look for degrees how
important the school play a part when
investors so how much do you look at
where somebody went to school oh not not
much frankly okay that’s so far down
them down the list of things we think
about really I guess the only time that
your schooling is gonna be valuable
probably is if you went to a very
prestigious you know university that was
really hard to get into it would be an
indication that you’re probably really
smart or you have really rich parents
okay one or the other and and so we like
we like it if it comes out that you’re
really smart but we’re probably not
talking to you unless we thought you
were really smart anyway all right so
degrees man more and more we’re aware
that some of the best entrepreneurs in
the world have been people who quit
college like Steve Jobs and you know
famously Bill Gates right doesn’t mean
everybody should go quit college but it
means that often your capital isn’t
looking for your
what they’re looking for is what do you
what do you know how to do what are your
thinking about where are you gonna go
with this and again how dedicated are
you to succeeding I mean we really want
somebody that’s gonna live or die by
this company who’s not gonna this is
kind of rough but who’s not necessarily
gonna put their family first who’s not
gonna put their kids first who’s not
going to put anything first except this
company those are the people that tend
to make it through this gauntlet of
entrepreneurship where ultimately you
end up with everything you own and
everything you can borrow in this
company trying to make it successful and
we want somebody that’s gonna go to war
to make that happen or we don’t want to
put our money in there you know I know
that’s not balanced I know it’s not
maybe even fair but it can sure make up
for a college degree that level of focus
right so I used to be in the venture
capital industry and the principles that
the company I was that if they saw that
the CEO or the founder had a PhD they
actually counted as a strike against
that person because they thought they
were two books trying smart and not
enough street-smart do you have the same
criteria but not necessarily that that
forward on it but but it it is always a
worry when we get somebody that’s a
little too academic right there the the
ivory tower world is so different than
the real world of you know blood and
bruises of entrepreneurship where you’re
really in the street so having street
experience is huge in fact I talked to a
guy once that went through Harvard
Business School and then went into the
training programs at places like pea you
know
Procter gamble and so on his opinion and
is this guy turned venture capitalist
his opinion was you know five years down
the road real real real world experience
has taken over for for all the business
school training you could get in the
world so they just discounted you got
four or five years of experience in the
real world you’re good to go
got it getting a ton of questions around
business planes so people want to know
how effective is a plan how long should
it be what’s the most important thing
that investors look at in a plane what
are your thoughts my thoughts are plans
are really
[Laughter]
honestly you know everybody can have a
plan and your plan is really good right
up at the time you get our money and
then your plan sucks immediately it
starts going entirely different
directions I think you should be able to
sketch out what you’re intending to do
in about 30 seconds okay you should be
able to stick it on a napkin if you
can’t explain what you’re trying to
accomplish in my terms
extremely quickly I’m probably not going
to be that interested in what you’re
doing because I’m figuring out you
probably don’t know what you’re doing
right so I like to see you know the
movie version of business plan so the
famous M TV back in the day was let’s
see what Gunsmoke meets no it wasn’t it
was Gunsmoke meets MTV and that was
coming out with Miami Vice so it’s like
if you can describe it in terms that we
can understand you’re way ahead of some
elaborate business plan that ultimately
depends on some completely pulled out of
the air numbers that you put out there
and by the way most of the people that
you’re ultimately going to get funded by
will know your business better than you
do
they’re not gonna need to see a business
plan elaborate 36-page thing they might
ask you for it just to see if you know
how to create one and can actually build
an Excel spreadsheet and actually run
the numbers but they’re gonna know the
business already or they’re probably not
gonna put money in it so if I’m coming
to meet you I’m looking for an angel
investment I’m hoping Phil’s gonna say
yes we’re sitting down for coffee what
am i bringing in my a my a my not even
opening up the laptop not even open up a
folder which is chatting or what do you
want to see we’re totally just chatting
we didn’t we do this on MSNBC all the
time on on this little show your
business that American Express has been
funding for eight years now or something
where we have somebody come in and just
do an elevator pitch the famous you’ve
got from here until I get off to tell me
what you’re up to and if you can’t do it
in that amount of time I’m probably not
gonna be interested so you’re not gonna
obviously get it all out there in 60
seconds Shark Tank is another good
example of having to nail the basics
about your business at a very very short
period of time er I’m just not going to
be interested so yeah you don’t need to
bring a bunch of elaborate stuff and a
bunch of charts and graphs you need to
come in and tell me the basics of the
business how
are you going to protect this business
against competition what do you have
that nobody else has right so you know
obviously one example is I’m coming in
with a patent but that’s not the best
example I mean the best example is
something like Chipotle Mexican Grill
coming in and saying you know Steve ELLs
saying look what I’m doing is I’m making
a burrito better than anybody and I’m
using fresh ingredients I’m using
classic cooking methods and I can crank
this out faster than McDonald’s can do a
burger by three times and just that’s it
I mean as soon as he does that then the
question is do I like your burrito right
you know I like you that’s your idea can
you make a good burrito because
ultimately that’s where we’re going
right so it should be dead simple if you
want to attract angel Capital got it so
you mention Shark Tank people asking
questions to they’re wondering is it
helpful for entrepreneurs to watch Shark
Tank from an education perspective not
just entertain oh my god yes that is
just like Nirvana for entrepreneurs I
love that I watch it all the time learn
something every day watch that one and
watch the profit and watch a great show
underrated underrated fantastic show if
you want to be looking through the eyes
of a guy like me Marcus lemonis is that
guy on spades right he is phenomenal and
you can see what he’s looking at and
he’s got a heart of gold anyway and so
yeah those two shows are fantastic I’ll
tell you the stuff that’s going on as as
reality TV shows for business you know
the Undercover Boss is really good to
see what you might be missing in your
business when you’re thinking about how
to build it out did you forget to
actually pay attention to the business a
lot of these guys have you know so
they’re there’s so many good shows but
those – Shark Tank and profit are my
favorite are you gonna go in Undercover
Boss Phil no we want to see that episode
so you’re talking about angel investing
and that kind of elevator pitch
30-second pitch people are asking so
what’s the smartest way to grab the
attention of angel investors in that in
that 30 second pitch really simple you
need an introduction through somebody
else that I trust so
got a network into it right and we’re
all connected with six degrees of
separation so there’s always a way to
find somebody who knows somebody who can
tell you to meet somebody
so to get an introduction don’t try too
cold you’re cold call your way in – it’s
not gonna happen don’t bother to send
business plan it’s not gonna happen
they’re gonna get 86th so what do you
want to do is just find a way to get to
talk to somebody that knows something
and they have entrepreneur conferences
they got you know they’ve got angel
conferences you can get names the main
thing is to just get an introduction and
then the second thing is you know you
you want to be sure that you’re coming
in with questions to ask about the the
planning process that you’re going
through for your company you don’t have
to ask me for money I’m smart enough to
figure out that you’re looking for money
all right so you don’t bother asking for
it what you bother doing is ask
intelligent questions ask me to critique
something about the company if you’re
coming to me it’s probably because I’ve
already built a company in this space
right so when you go onto Shark Tank
those guys have all built companies in
your space already the best thing you
could do if you were to sit down with
one of them is to sit down and ask an
intelligent question about your business
to improve your planning and then you
sort of hook us in we like getting
hooked in like that we’re we’re not in
it for the money per se we’re in it to
enjoy the experience of building
something the growth of an entrepreneur
helping people get better and it starts
with you the entrepreneur being open to
that not coming to tell me you know
everything and be an arrogant dickhead
just be open and come in with with
questions on your idea and I’ll tell you
it’ll improve your business plan and
your business planning process and
here’s the thing it will result in me
asking you are you interested in capital
because I might be interested in doing
something with you beats the heck out of
beating the doors down for money doesn’t
it got it yeah yeah somebody’s ready in
the say and when you mentioned Phil had
multiple New York Times bestselling
books what are they and what is film
most proud of from his books okay
well the two the two books both hit
number one on the New York Times which
blew my mind what of them is called rule
number one which is an investment Bible
that says the number
rule of investing is to not lose money
and the number two rule of investing is
to not forget the number one rule of
investing and that comes directly from
that’s directly from Warren Buffett and
the second book is called payback time
which is an analysis of basically
investing through successive rounds as
you’re coming into the investment making
multiple investments we call it stock
piling in and I’ll tell you what I’m
most proud of these books is that they
continue to be to be read they continue
to be sold there one of the strongest
backless books that Random House has
which means they’re they’re out there
being bought all the time after 11 years
so it’s it’s managed to stay current and
I really like that about what what made
you want to do this I mean you had your
successful career your hedge fund
manager lots of you know financial
success building your companies and now
it’s giving back it’s creating courses
writing books like what made the drive
to educate come out of you well I think
that it’s it’s a it’s part of who I am I
mean basically it goes all the way back
up I’ve always wanted to kind of help
people get free I’ve been very fortunate
in my life that I’ve managed to have a
lot of freedom and what I want to do
throughout my life and I didn’t come
from a lot of money I just sort of
insisted on on doing what I wanted to do
right so I started off as a river guide
for ten years in the Grand Canyon I mean
I relate to people who were working
blue-collar jobs are trying to figure
out their way out of that thing and and
so that’s always been something I’ve
been interested in and a friend of mine
said man you ought to write a book about
this experience you’ve had of becoming
successful and I did and people wanted
to hear more about it so I started
speaking about it and I got addicted to
it Evan it’s like I love the teaching
process as long as I don’t do it too
much right I mean one three-day period a
month is just about right and and then I
get to get up on stage and elaborate
about what I’ve learned in 30 years of
doing this it’s a lot of fun I mean
people who come to these stuff they’ll
know in the first hour that they’re not
looking listen to somebody who’s trying
to grind their way through it I’m up
there having a blast and watching the
lights go on it’s just the best thing in
the world for me I love it well you’re
getting a ton of love in the con
when we first started people are saying
who is this guy and now we’re getting a
lot of filled towns the real deal and
people want to learn more so so it’s
great and in you know already like 20
minutes you’ve already impacted a lot of
people more questions are just piling in
we have more questions in time for but
people are asking here’s Richards
question wants to know your thoughts
about business incubators and
accelerators worth it not worth it what
do you think yeah I think it’s a really
good idea it’s gotten to be kind of a
way to get into an environment where
there’s a lot of people like you my
daughter Danielle is an attorney out of
Boulder Colorado where they have a
couple of major incubators and they’re
phenomenal you get a chance to leverage
on some very good venture capital people
and angel investors who are usually
connected with the incubators so Capital
is their number one number two which is
maybe even more important is you’ve got
an environment where you’ve got other
like-minded people and you get a
community some of the hardest things
about being an entrepreneur is to think
you’re the only one out there who’s
scared to death and running out of money
you get to find out that hey everybody’s
sitting around me is scared to death of
running out of money and so you end up
with a community that can really help
each other and third because that
community is usually a lot of really you
know hardworking driven smart people
there’s a lot of overlap in in these
companies and you might be able to
leverage on somebody else’s idea so
there’s a there’s a lot of reasons to
really like what’s going on I think it’s
a terrific trend and it should continue
for sure so if you can get in one I
would say that’s great
no no downside got it are you giving a
lot more love great job Phil Phil is
really a remarkable human being so there
you go making some we’re getting a
couple investing questions so kind of
the flip side we can talk about how to
raise money but now how to invest first
one is while investing what are some of
the important things to look for in an
annual report okay well there’s just a
few numbers that really matter okay so
an annual report the number one thing
we’re looking for as an investor is cash
flow and amazingly it’s not in the
annual report you have to you have to do
the math so for me I go directly to and
we’re talking about the numbers here I
go directly to the cash flow page
there’s a bold line called operating
cash flow I look at that number
then I look right below at about three
lines down there’s one that says
purchase of property and equipment which
is your capital expenditures subtract
that from your operating cash flow and
you’ve got free cash I want to see that
free cash number is what I’m looking for
an investment so that’s the first thing
second thing as soon as I see there’s a
there’s free cash coming through this
company
the next thing I’m looking for is what’s
the moat I want to see that in the 10k
typically in the competition section
that says you know here’s how we’re
competing against other companies and
there should be a statement in there
from the CEO that says we have a an
advantage in this industry because we do
ABC so if you’re looking at Apple
Computer it’s going to say our our
expertise and what gives us an advantage
in this industry is that we build an
ecosystem that’s comprised of software
hardware network and so on and they’re
basically saying this is how we protect
ourselves from people coming in and
taking away our business and why because
of that you can estimate what the future
looks like
because if you can’t do that who knows
what this thing is worth right so if you
want to invest in companies you want to
invest in companies that have a lot of
cash flow and that you can look at have
a big moat so that you can project
they’ll be worth more in ten years than
they are today those are the two things
we’re digging for right off the bat not
it here’s here’s the question feel it
officially came in I’m an entrepreneur
should I go to college what do you think
Phil I’m an entrepreneur should I go to
college I don’t think that that is a is
a binary decision I think you just got
to decide what am I trying to do and
what can I learn when I go to college so
I’ll tell you what what I did I went
back to college after I was about 23 or
24 years old and I studied philosophy
and that was one of the best things I
ever did and it was completely useless
in terms of you know being an
entrepreneur or being an investor I had
to go learn all that stuff later or at
the same time actually and you know it
just depends on what you’re gonna study
and what you want to do with college you
know I I can’t give you that answer is
it necessary no it’s not necessary
got it the next one is an investing
question but can relate to
entrepreneurship too how do I cope after
making a wrong investment which can also
be an entrepreneurship you have a
failure so how’d it can people cope with
making those mistakes okay so the first
thing is to just recognize the mistake
as quickly as possible and rectify it
what we do when we invest in a company
as we look at us we create what’s called
a story and if that story changes then
like for example we think the story
basically is this is gonna great company
and we’re buying it a really great price
great ok then the story changes and it’s
clearly not what we thought it was we’re
gonna exit that investment without
looking backwards
we’re just gonna say we’re out of here
so the first thing you got to understand
about making a mistake is we all make
them it’s sort of inevitable you’re
gonna have them what you want to do is
you don’t want to compound that mistake
with false hope and just continue to
invest or continue to work on building
something that isn’t gonna work out you
want to make the exit so getting out
that’s one of the first things you want
to do second thing is to get to get this
mistake in the context you know we’ve
all made them I’ve had 20 million dollar
mistakes that have happened and so I
mean Steve Jobs built next computer it
was a mistake but in I don’t think
there’s a single instance where that
mistake didn’t turn out to be valuable
to me down the road that I got all of
that value and then some out of it so
for example Steve made a mistake
building the next computer you could say
or it was just the necessary evolution
for the operating system that now is the
Macintosh operating system so in one
sense we don’t want to make mistakes we
want to get out of them as quickly as
possible in another sense there’s almost
no mistakes there’s always something to
be learned that’s valuable for you down
the road the key thing is be rational
about it be crystal clear get out of the
emotions quit feeling the fear and just
move forward as quickly as you can away
from it I love it well it’s crazy how
quickly half an hour flies by we’re all
on oh we got it
we’ve got we’ve got tons of questions
coming in but let’s get it’s a good
final one Phil if you could do it all
over again what would you have done
differently man I’ll tell you
that my career has been a kind of
amazing amazing thing and I’m in a
constant state of gratitude about it so
I can’t say that where I’m at I would
have done anything differently to get
here there’s a couple of mistakes I
would like to not make but I know
because I made them I became better and
I wouldn’t have if I didn’t make them so
back to the previous question and I’ll
tell you what I would recommend that you
think about in terms of your own work in
your own career came to me from wha-hey
Takeda when I visited him over in Japan
he’s the Warren Buffett of Japan a multi
billionaire and I asked him what is the
single thing that he did that made him
the most money what was it about his
investing strategy and he said I have
been grateful 1,000 times a day every
single day for 60 years and I said okay
man I got it I’m gonna go be grateful so
that’s I would recommend that I would
say don’t don’t look back to say okay
what am I gonna change what was the
thing look back with gratefulness on
every single thing you’ve had it going
on
and use that as a technique or a mantra
or a meditation for the future be
grateful and you will have amazing
success I love that that’s a great
that’s a great point that end on I
appreciate that Phil for people who want
to find you obviously you’ve got real
one invest we’ve link that up below are
you on social are you taking questions
how do how can people reach you yeah we
got a blog going we do a podcast it’s
theirs just go to the website you’ll see
all the different avenues who can get at
each other perfect thank you guys for
watching Phil thank you so much for
spending your time I am grateful for
that I am grateful as well namaste man I
love it continue to believe guys and
we’ll see you soon
hangout super excited to be here where
we’ve got an important topic to cover
today and I’ve got a new friend and
special guest mr. Phil town with me he
is an investor he is a motivational
speaker
he’s a polo player you’ll see him in his
outfit he is a hedge fund manager he’s
been on MSNBC and CNBC and is a multiple
time New York Times bestselling author
today we’re gonna talk about how to get
funding for your business mr. Phil town
welcome aboard man thanks Evan
glad to be here I’m shamelessly
promoting the rule 1 polo team here
we’re we always need more fans we have
four fans we’re looking for number five
so you know well send me a jersey and
maybe I’ll wear it in a future
livestream we’ll get it going
you got a backward City New Jersey there
we go I love cool well so we’re gonna
have tons of people joining in we’ve
already got hundreds of people joining
online they’re gonna be asking questions
giving some feedback and getting
personal about how to get funded for
their business but before getting into
it I want to get some nuggets from you I
mean you’ve been on them as MSNBC CNBC
all the media outlets you have your own
funds what are some of the key nuggets
you can drop on us
if I’m an entrepreneur looking to get
funding what should I be paying
attention to I think the main thing to
pay attention to is building a really
good business that’s what’s gonna get
you funded and ultimately funding is
going to come in depending on the stage
you’re at based on really a couple of
major things number one most of the
people who are in my shoes are going to
bet the jockey not the horse if you’re
an early stage company but when you get
to be a later stage they’re going to be
betting the horse as well as you so you
kind of got to know what kind of money
you’re going after are you after angel
Capital or you after kind of mezzanine
financing are you already profitable and
really cranking it out there and you
need money to continue that level of
growth those are three really different
questions but ultimately it comes down
to two things number one what is the
intrinsic characteristic you’ve built
into your company that will protect you
from competitors coming in later and in
other words what’s your niche and how do
you
protected and second can you demonstrate
your own personal integrity and talent
in running this business those are
essentially the two things we’re looking
for do we have a management team we can
trust
that’s talented and does the business
plan have a structure to it that
protects it from competition so for you
guys watching live if you have a
question leave it down there on the side
and we will do our best to get to as
many as we can first one coming in is
from cam saying how much money on
average do you need to start a business
so if I’m starting the business how much
how do I figure out how much money I
need so you take how much what do you
think you need and multiply it by a
million or two and you come out with
some kind of a number that’s very large
okay truth truth be down I don’t like to
invest in companies that need a lot of
capital I like to see entrepreneurs who
bootstrap I want to see you know shabby
offices and you know stolen furniture
you know things that fell off the back
of the truck I want to see a group of
people who are just absolutely dedicated
to the development of this idea and I
like to see that for people who are not
that interested in the money so I don’t
think it takes a lot of capital to get
started now the reason you’re going to
need a lot of money as you go is because
you hit it you got the right idea out
there and it starts to explode in some
sort of exponential way and then you’re
going to need capital to really jack it
up and take it out of the market but
hopefully unless you’re doing some kind
of thing where you’re trying to you know
build chips which would be something i
wouldnt be interested in you’re gonna
need very little capital to get started
a proof of concept shouldn’t cost a lot
Varun is writing in to ask about what
are your thoughts on Kickstarter
crowdfunding as a source of an raising
capital for a company yeah oh good just
don’t give away the farm and on that on
that point you know it’s wherever you
can get capital but frankly we focus a
lot on the three f’s
which would be friends family and fools
until until you can get this thing
rolling but the Kickstarter group these
funding sites are a really good third F
right this is piled full of friendly
fools
in the sense that these they’re willing
to take a shot with somebody they don’t
know maybe in a business they don’t
understand and in one sense it’s the
easiest money in the world to raise
because people are not all that
well-informed on the other hand you can
end up with a lot of people in there
that you really don’t want
so I guess my preferred way to go would
be to start to build a business plan and
start looking for angel investors in
your area
I’d much prefer you see with one or two
investors to get started rather than a
big old pile of anonymous people so to
that question around fools so if if I’ve
raised my first round and I’ve got a
bunch of you know friends family you
know random people if I then go to
approach an angel investment boom for my
next round I’m coming to you and saying
Phil I’m looking you know to raise my
next round of capital here how much do
you look at who the other investors are
that you’re now in business with these
fools that have come on board and does
that impact your decision to make
yes investment well I don’t think it’s
going to be at all super impactful
because if the entrepreneur and the plan
of where they’re going are good then
we’re gonna be able to overcome those
kinds of issues but clearly we don’t
want people in there who are crazy
stupid painfully emotional we would like
to have people that are reasonably
intelligent about the investing process
so that they’re not sitting or thinking
that because they put up two thousand
dollars they should own 40% of your
company forever that can be a real
problem but if you if you just got
really friends and family and people who
are congenial fools that are willing to
help you ride up that first level
typically those be long a problem got it
next question coming in what books or
resources can you recommend to learn how
to think like an investor okay the
number one thing you can do to think
like an investor is read every single
letter that Warren Buffett wrote to his
shareholders from 1973 until now it’ll
take you a couple hours there they’re
actually on the website Berkshire
Hathaway and you just click on them and
it is a master’s course in setting up a
business that’s
wonderful and ultimately very salable
buffett is I think the world’s best
investor he owns last checks seventy or
eighty private companies so it would
really I think it’d be the best
education in the world for you guys to
go out and study what did Buffett buy
why does he like these companies what is
it about these companies that makes them
something that he could bring into his
company and own without having being
worried about whether or not it’s gonna
work out right that that’s the key if
you study those letters you’ll be a much
much better entrepreneur it’s one of the
best ways I learned how to do this now I
know you do a lot of financial education
and training you’ve got your rule one
investing you do workshops and seminars
you cover this how to think like an
investor or some of the important parts
yeah we do we we’re all about thinking
like an investor and that we do a
three-day workshop that we’d be happy to
have all of your you know all of your
fans come and do we do it typically in
Atlanta Georgia which is near where we
live and we’ll do it once a month sort
of donating the time for three days you
know we don’t sell anything nothing like
that we just teach and we’re teaching
essentially Warren Buffett’s style
investing strategy which means by the
end of the first day you’ll have learned
what I as a hedge fund manager and what
many of the hedge fund managers are
looking for when it comes time to fund
something that could be pretty valuable
I think to an entrepreneur and down the
road also it’s pretty valuable to
understand the investing process and how
to invest as an entrepreneur because if
you’re going to go out there and do this
you want to make money and when you make
the money you want to start to diversify
that out away from the company as you’re
starting to getting cash flow and start
you know just like Hollywood producers
let other people take more of the risks
down the road as it really starts to
grow that’s where you bring in an
additional capital and you at that point
won’t be required to have everything you
own in the world in this company like
you are when you start up and you can
start to diversify across into other
companies but you’re gonna have to have
an education and know what to look for
so the two things I think work kind of
well together
got it and if you guys watching you can
find that course at this real one
investing com off your main site right
rule 1 investing calm just go there and
there’s a lot of information of
about how to invest in the things we
look for as an investor in a good
company essentially what we’re looking
for is a wonderful business that’s what
we want to buy we want to buy businesses
that are awesome that we don’t have to
struggle to keep alive right and those
are exactly the kind of businesses we
want to build we want to build
businesses that are wonderful so when
you come you’ll learn what wonderful
looks like to the best investors in the
world okay cool I love it keep the
questions coming guys next up jennifer
is asking about how do you evaluate a
company how you figure out what a
company is worth all right really good
we go through two or three different
ways of evaluating a company and of
course the hardest one is the way
venture capital does it which is to make
an educated guess about where this
company’s going to be in five years when
it doesn’t already have profits it
doesn’t already have cash flow that’s
really difficult to do and that’s why in
our industry and we say we’re betting
the Jockey not the horse because many of
the top companies we fund end up not
being the product that we thought they
were going to be there ended up
something else but it’s just that we’ve
got such a good people running the
business we we can find a way to be
successful those are really difficult to
figure out but just to give you a metric
to work with estimate where you’re gonna
be in about five years to 10 years and
figure that the entrepreneurs are they
of the capitalists that are putting the
money in are gonna want roughly to
double their money every two years over
that period of time so if you say all
right I need a million dollars let’s
let’s say $100,000 I need a hundred
grand and the the angel capital is going
to come out in five years they’re gonna
need to double roughly three times over
that five year period so they put in a
hundred they need 200 400 800 hundred n
800 out if it goes ten years one point
six three point two you see what I’m
where I’m going it gets exponentially
grows so yeah I know it’s kind of a
shock and a little bit rude about how
big those numbers get but we invest in a
lot of things that don’t happen and
don’t don’t grow and a lot of that
capital goes away so the ones that when
know you’ve got to know you’re gonna get
a good return on those companies in
order to make up for the ones that lose
okay so that’s venture capital now if
you’re a later stage much much different
the way this can be viewed at a later
stage where you’re really making profits
you’ve got the company rolling and now
you want to sell it to somebody you can
sell it to a public company typically as
a private company you’re going to be
valued at about one half of the same
company as a public company so if
there’s somebody out there that looks
like you let’s say you’re a restaurant
chain look out there and find out what
you know Cheesecake Factory is selling
for cut it in half based on your
earnings and you’ll be in the ballpark
another way to look at that is depending
on how fast you’re growing you’re gonna
sell it for something around seven to
nine times earnings would be in the
ballpark of a good sale that would be a
good one so my brother for example sold
his company a few years ago for nine
point one times earnings and he was
making ten million bucks a year so that
would give you a sense of the range from
startup out to really you know late
stage company got it getting a bunch of
questions about schooling people want to
know do investors look for degrees how
important the school play a part when
investors so how much do you look at
where somebody went to school oh not not
much frankly okay that’s so far down
them down the list of things we think
about really I guess the only time that
your schooling is gonna be valuable
probably is if you went to a very
prestigious you know university that was
really hard to get into it would be an
indication that you’re probably really
smart or you have really rich parents
okay one or the other and and so we like
we like it if it comes out that you’re
really smart but we’re probably not
talking to you unless we thought you
were really smart anyway all right so
degrees man more and more we’re aware
that some of the best entrepreneurs in
the world have been people who quit
college like Steve Jobs and you know
famously Bill Gates right doesn’t mean
everybody should go quit college but it
means that often your capital isn’t
looking for your
what they’re looking for is what do you
what do you know how to do what are your
thinking about where are you gonna go
with this and again how dedicated are
you to succeeding I mean we really want
somebody that’s gonna live or die by
this company who’s not gonna this is
kind of rough but who’s not necessarily
gonna put their family first who’s not
gonna put their kids first who’s not
going to put anything first except this
company those are the people that tend
to make it through this gauntlet of
entrepreneurship where ultimately you
end up with everything you own and
everything you can borrow in this
company trying to make it successful and
we want somebody that’s gonna go to war
to make that happen or we don’t want to
put our money in there you know I know
that’s not balanced I know it’s not
maybe even fair but it can sure make up
for a college degree that level of focus
right so I used to be in the venture
capital industry and the principles that
the company I was that if they saw that
the CEO or the founder had a PhD they
actually counted as a strike against
that person because they thought they
were two books trying smart and not
enough street-smart do you have the same
criteria but not necessarily that that
forward on it but but it it is always a
worry when we get somebody that’s a
little too academic right there the the
ivory tower world is so different than
the real world of you know blood and
bruises of entrepreneurship where you’re
really in the street so having street
experience is huge in fact I talked to a
guy once that went through Harvard
Business School and then went into the
training programs at places like pea you
know
Procter gamble and so on his opinion and
is this guy turned venture capitalist
his opinion was you know five years down
the road real real real world experience
has taken over for for all the business
school training you could get in the
world so they just discounted you got
four or five years of experience in the
real world you’re good to go
got it getting a ton of questions around
business planes so people want to know
how effective is a plan how long should
it be what’s the most important thing
that investors look at in a plane what
are your thoughts my thoughts are plans
are really
[Laughter]
honestly you know everybody can have a
plan and your plan is really good right
up at the time you get our money and
then your plan sucks immediately it
starts going entirely different
directions I think you should be able to
sketch out what you’re intending to do
in about 30 seconds okay you should be
able to stick it on a napkin if you
can’t explain what you’re trying to
accomplish in my terms
extremely quickly I’m probably not going
to be that interested in what you’re
doing because I’m figuring out you
probably don’t know what you’re doing
right so I like to see you know the
movie version of business plan so the
famous M TV back in the day was let’s
see what Gunsmoke meets no it wasn’t it
was Gunsmoke meets MTV and that was
coming out with Miami Vice so it’s like
if you can describe it in terms that we
can understand you’re way ahead of some
elaborate business plan that ultimately
depends on some completely pulled out of
the air numbers that you put out there
and by the way most of the people that
you’re ultimately going to get funded by
will know your business better than you
do
they’re not gonna need to see a business
plan elaborate 36-page thing they might
ask you for it just to see if you know
how to create one and can actually build
an Excel spreadsheet and actually run
the numbers but they’re gonna know the
business already or they’re probably not
gonna put money in it so if I’m coming
to meet you I’m looking for an angel
investment I’m hoping Phil’s gonna say
yes we’re sitting down for coffee what
am i bringing in my a my a my not even
opening up the laptop not even open up a
folder which is chatting or what do you
want to see we’re totally just chatting
we didn’t we do this on MSNBC all the
time on on this little show your
business that American Express has been
funding for eight years now or something
where we have somebody come in and just
do an elevator pitch the famous you’ve
got from here until I get off to tell me
what you’re up to and if you can’t do it
in that amount of time I’m probably not
gonna be interested so you’re not gonna
obviously get it all out there in 60
seconds Shark Tank is another good
example of having to nail the basics
about your business at a very very short
period of time er I’m just not going to
be interested so yeah you don’t need to
bring a bunch of elaborate stuff and a
bunch of charts and graphs you need to
come in and tell me the basics of the
business how
are you going to protect this business
against competition what do you have
that nobody else has right so you know
obviously one example is I’m coming in
with a patent but that’s not the best
example I mean the best example is
something like Chipotle Mexican Grill
coming in and saying you know Steve ELLs
saying look what I’m doing is I’m making
a burrito better than anybody and I’m
using fresh ingredients I’m using
classic cooking methods and I can crank
this out faster than McDonald’s can do a
burger by three times and just that’s it
I mean as soon as he does that then the
question is do I like your burrito right
you know I like you that’s your idea can
you make a good burrito because
ultimately that’s where we’re going
right so it should be dead simple if you
want to attract angel Capital got it so
you mention Shark Tank people asking
questions to they’re wondering is it
helpful for entrepreneurs to watch Shark
Tank from an education perspective not
just entertain oh my god yes that is
just like Nirvana for entrepreneurs I
love that I watch it all the time learn
something every day watch that one and
watch the profit and watch a great show
underrated underrated fantastic show if
you want to be looking through the eyes
of a guy like me Marcus lemonis is that
guy on spades right he is phenomenal and
you can see what he’s looking at and
he’s got a heart of gold anyway and so
yeah those two shows are fantastic I’ll
tell you the stuff that’s going on as as
reality TV shows for business you know
the Undercover Boss is really good to
see what you might be missing in your
business when you’re thinking about how
to build it out did you forget to
actually pay attention to the business a
lot of these guys have you know so
they’re there’s so many good shows but
those – Shark Tank and profit are my
favorite are you gonna go in Undercover
Boss Phil no we want to see that episode
so you’re talking about angel investing
and that kind of elevator pitch
30-second pitch people are asking so
what’s the smartest way to grab the
attention of angel investors in that in
that 30 second pitch really simple you
need an introduction through somebody
else that I trust so
got a network into it right and we’re
all connected with six degrees of
separation so there’s always a way to
find somebody who knows somebody who can
tell you to meet somebody
so to get an introduction don’t try too
cold you’re cold call your way in – it’s
not gonna happen don’t bother to send
business plan it’s not gonna happen
they’re gonna get 86th so what do you
want to do is just find a way to get to
talk to somebody that knows something
and they have entrepreneur conferences
they got you know they’ve got angel
conferences you can get names the main
thing is to just get an introduction and
then the second thing is you know you
you want to be sure that you’re coming
in with questions to ask about the the
planning process that you’re going
through for your company you don’t have
to ask me for money I’m smart enough to
figure out that you’re looking for money
all right so you don’t bother asking for
it what you bother doing is ask
intelligent questions ask me to critique
something about the company if you’re
coming to me it’s probably because I’ve
already built a company in this space
right so when you go onto Shark Tank
those guys have all built companies in
your space already the best thing you
could do if you were to sit down with
one of them is to sit down and ask an
intelligent question about your business
to improve your planning and then you
sort of hook us in we like getting
hooked in like that we’re we’re not in
it for the money per se we’re in it to
enjoy the experience of building
something the growth of an entrepreneur
helping people get better and it starts
with you the entrepreneur being open to
that not coming to tell me you know
everything and be an arrogant dickhead
just be open and come in with with
questions on your idea and I’ll tell you
it’ll improve your business plan and
your business planning process and
here’s the thing it will result in me
asking you are you interested in capital
because I might be interested in doing
something with you beats the heck out of
beating the doors down for money doesn’t
it got it yeah yeah somebody’s ready in
the say and when you mentioned Phil had
multiple New York Times bestselling
books what are they and what is film
most proud of from his books okay
well the two the two books both hit
number one on the New York Times which
blew my mind what of them is called rule
number one which is an investment Bible
that says the number
rule of investing is to not lose money
and the number two rule of investing is
to not forget the number one rule of
investing and that comes directly from
that’s directly from Warren Buffett and
the second book is called payback time
which is an analysis of basically
investing through successive rounds as
you’re coming into the investment making
multiple investments we call it stock
piling in and I’ll tell you what I’m
most proud of these books is that they
continue to be to be read they continue
to be sold there one of the strongest
backless books that Random House has
which means they’re they’re out there
being bought all the time after 11 years
so it’s it’s managed to stay current and
I really like that about what what made
you want to do this I mean you had your
successful career your hedge fund
manager lots of you know financial
success building your companies and now
it’s giving back it’s creating courses
writing books like what made the drive
to educate come out of you well I think
that it’s it’s a it’s part of who I am I
mean basically it goes all the way back
up I’ve always wanted to kind of help
people get free I’ve been very fortunate
in my life that I’ve managed to have a
lot of freedom and what I want to do
throughout my life and I didn’t come
from a lot of money I just sort of
insisted on on doing what I wanted to do
right so I started off as a river guide
for ten years in the Grand Canyon I mean
I relate to people who were working
blue-collar jobs are trying to figure
out their way out of that thing and and
so that’s always been something I’ve
been interested in and a friend of mine
said man you ought to write a book about
this experience you’ve had of becoming
successful and I did and people wanted
to hear more about it so I started
speaking about it and I got addicted to
it Evan it’s like I love the teaching
process as long as I don’t do it too
much right I mean one three-day period a
month is just about right and and then I
get to get up on stage and elaborate
about what I’ve learned in 30 years of
doing this it’s a lot of fun I mean
people who come to these stuff they’ll
know in the first hour that they’re not
looking listen to somebody who’s trying
to grind their way through it I’m up
there having a blast and watching the
lights go on it’s just the best thing in
the world for me I love it well you’re
getting a ton of love in the con
when we first started people are saying
who is this guy and now we’re getting a
lot of filled towns the real deal and
people want to learn more so so it’s
great and in you know already like 20
minutes you’ve already impacted a lot of
people more questions are just piling in
we have more questions in time for but
people are asking here’s Richards
question wants to know your thoughts
about business incubators and
accelerators worth it not worth it what
do you think yeah I think it’s a really
good idea it’s gotten to be kind of a
way to get into an environment where
there’s a lot of people like you my
daughter Danielle is an attorney out of
Boulder Colorado where they have a
couple of major incubators and they’re
phenomenal you get a chance to leverage
on some very good venture capital people
and angel investors who are usually
connected with the incubators so Capital
is their number one number two which is
maybe even more important is you’ve got
an environment where you’ve got other
like-minded people and you get a
community some of the hardest things
about being an entrepreneur is to think
you’re the only one out there who’s
scared to death and running out of money
you get to find out that hey everybody’s
sitting around me is scared to death of
running out of money and so you end up
with a community that can really help
each other and third because that
community is usually a lot of really you
know hardworking driven smart people
there’s a lot of overlap in in these
companies and you might be able to
leverage on somebody else’s idea so
there’s a there’s a lot of reasons to
really like what’s going on I think it’s
a terrific trend and it should continue
for sure so if you can get in one I
would say that’s great
no no downside got it are you giving a
lot more love great job Phil Phil is
really a remarkable human being so there
you go making some we’re getting a
couple investing questions so kind of
the flip side we can talk about how to
raise money but now how to invest first
one is while investing what are some of
the important things to look for in an
annual report okay well there’s just a
few numbers that really matter okay so
an annual report the number one thing
we’re looking for as an investor is cash
flow and amazingly it’s not in the
annual report you have to you have to do
the math so for me I go directly to and
we’re talking about the numbers here I
go directly to the cash flow page
there’s a bold line called operating
cash flow I look at that number
then I look right below at about three
lines down there’s one that says
purchase of property and equipment which
is your capital expenditures subtract
that from your operating cash flow and
you’ve got free cash I want to see that
free cash number is what I’m looking for
an investment so that’s the first thing
second thing as soon as I see there’s a
there’s free cash coming through this
company
the next thing I’m looking for is what’s
the moat I want to see that in the 10k
typically in the competition section
that says you know here’s how we’re
competing against other companies and
there should be a statement in there
from the CEO that says we have a an
advantage in this industry because we do
ABC so if you’re looking at Apple
Computer it’s going to say our our
expertise and what gives us an advantage
in this industry is that we build an
ecosystem that’s comprised of software
hardware network and so on and they’re
basically saying this is how we protect
ourselves from people coming in and
taking away our business and why because
of that you can estimate what the future
looks like
because if you can’t do that who knows
what this thing is worth right so if you
want to invest in companies you want to
invest in companies that have a lot of
cash flow and that you can look at have
a big moat so that you can project
they’ll be worth more in ten years than
they are today those are the two things
we’re digging for right off the bat not
it here’s here’s the question feel it
officially came in I’m an entrepreneur
should I go to college what do you think
Phil I’m an entrepreneur should I go to
college I don’t think that that is a is
a binary decision I think you just got
to decide what am I trying to do and
what can I learn when I go to college so
I’ll tell you what what I did I went
back to college after I was about 23 or
24 years old and I studied philosophy
and that was one of the best things I
ever did and it was completely useless
in terms of you know being an
entrepreneur or being an investor I had
to go learn all that stuff later or at
the same time actually and you know it
just depends on what you’re gonna study
and what you want to do with college you
know I I can’t give you that answer is
it necessary no it’s not necessary
got it the next one is an investing
question but can relate to
entrepreneurship too how do I cope after
making a wrong investment which can also
be an entrepreneurship you have a
failure so how’d it can people cope with
making those mistakes okay so the first
thing is to just recognize the mistake
as quickly as possible and rectify it
what we do when we invest in a company
as we look at us we create what’s called
a story and if that story changes then
like for example we think the story
basically is this is gonna great company
and we’re buying it a really great price
great ok then the story changes and it’s
clearly not what we thought it was we’re
gonna exit that investment without
looking backwards
we’re just gonna say we’re out of here
so the first thing you got to understand
about making a mistake is we all make
them it’s sort of inevitable you’re
gonna have them what you want to do is
you don’t want to compound that mistake
with false hope and just continue to
invest or continue to work on building
something that isn’t gonna work out you
want to make the exit so getting out
that’s one of the first things you want
to do second thing is to get to get this
mistake in the context you know we’ve
all made them I’ve had 20 million dollar
mistakes that have happened and so I
mean Steve Jobs built next computer it
was a mistake but in I don’t think
there’s a single instance where that
mistake didn’t turn out to be valuable
to me down the road that I got all of
that value and then some out of it so
for example Steve made a mistake
building the next computer you could say
or it was just the necessary evolution
for the operating system that now is the
Macintosh operating system so in one
sense we don’t want to make mistakes we
want to get out of them as quickly as
possible in another sense there’s almost
no mistakes there’s always something to
be learned that’s valuable for you down
the road the key thing is be rational
about it be crystal clear get out of the
emotions quit feeling the fear and just
move forward as quickly as you can away
from it I love it well it’s crazy how
quickly half an hour flies by we’re all
on oh we got it
we’ve got we’ve got tons of questions
coming in but let’s get it’s a good
final one Phil if you could do it all
over again what would you have done
differently man I’ll tell you
that my career has been a kind of
amazing amazing thing and I’m in a
constant state of gratitude about it so
I can’t say that where I’m at I would
have done anything differently to get
here there’s a couple of mistakes I
would like to not make but I know
because I made them I became better and
I wouldn’t have if I didn’t make them so
back to the previous question and I’ll
tell you what I would recommend that you
think about in terms of your own work in
your own career came to me from wha-hey
Takeda when I visited him over in Japan
he’s the Warren Buffett of Japan a multi
billionaire and I asked him what is the
single thing that he did that made him
the most money what was it about his
investing strategy and he said I have
been grateful 1,000 times a day every
single day for 60 years and I said okay
man I got it I’m gonna go be grateful so
that’s I would recommend that I would
say don’t don’t look back to say okay
what am I gonna change what was the
thing look back with gratefulness on
every single thing you’ve had it going
on
and use that as a technique or a mantra
or a meditation for the future be
grateful and you will have amazing
success I love that that’s a great
that’s a great point that end on I
appreciate that Phil for people who want
to find you obviously you’ve got real
one invest we’ve link that up below are
you on social are you taking questions
how do how can people reach you yeah we
got a blog going we do a podcast it’s
theirs just go to the website you’ll see
all the different avenues who can get at
each other perfect thank you guys for
watching Phil thank you so much for
spending your time I am grateful for
that I am grateful as well namaste man I
love it continue to believe guys and
we’ll see you soon
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