he’s a Canadian businessman investor
entrepreneur journalist and television
personality he’s the co-founder and
chairman of O’Leary funds and the
co-founder of soft key his estimated net
worth is four hundred million dollars
he’s kevin O’Leary and here his top ten
rules for success I tried working for
somebody when it’s very young and they
fired me and I scream right and it was a
very very profoundly affected me
profoundly and I just said I’m never
working for anybody again it doesn’t
mean your life is easier in fact you
give up you have to have a lot of
sacrifices in on the road to success and
a lot of failures along the way I just
find it a more interesting way to spend
your time and I really believe in this
concept of money buys freedom and so you
know I think it’s a very noble pursuit
for some percentage of the people out
there but not for everybody because you
have to sacrifice a lot for the period
that you’re working on your business and
not everybody wants to do that and I
think you find that in your own you
start down that path and if it’s too
much of a sacrifice you revert back to
being an employee which it’s very noble
to do that too but it’s not the same
thing it takes a long time to set
yourself free working for somebody else
I was with a bunch of other investors
who I respect and they brought me a deal
and I wanted to be part of it but it
didn’t feel right
and I wrote millions of dollars on that
one
and it just didn’t feel right and I lost
it all within two years
so should investors trust our gut dinner
absolutely and trust you but what about
you said earlier don’t be emotional and
sometimes the gut know this this is a
barometer of risk it’s something an
internalized for an investor that says I
don’t feel comfortable it’s not about
emotions just don’t write that check
that was recently the first time I
didn’t listen to that and I lost
everything so now my radar is up I
listen to my gut it’s not an emotion
it’s an index of risk and you get it as
you age you become a better investor
every year if only I could live to 200
I’d be really good diversification what
I’ve learned that works if you’re an
investor
no matter how much money you’ve got
whether it’s $5,000 or 500 million
diversification is what saves you from
disaster having investments in a wide
range of businesses and sectors there’s
always something working when something
else isn’t so today I can go to bed
tonight knowing that I have one
objective I want to go to bed richer
than I woke up and the only way that’s
going to happen to me is to be invested
in a lot of different things because
every day one thing works well three
others don’t but sometimes that’s why
you get richer so how does that play out
for the average working woman like
myself does it start with doing an
investor profile questionnaire and
starting to invest a little bit of your
money in a diversified portfolio yes
that what I find people do is they fall
in love with one idea or one stock or
one investment or their sister comes in
and says I want to open a restaurant yes
you should never do that what you should
say is whatever money I’ve got I’ll
never put more than five percent into
one idea I’ll never let myself get
caught up in an idea that ends up being
so big to me that if it fails I get
wiped out this is the key to success no
more than five percent of any one idea
and no more than 20% in any one sector
for example if you love energy stocks
only 20% max if you love gold only 20%
max you have to have diversification
this is the one thing that will save
your hiney you should make the
assumption when you make an investment
there’s some probability you’ll lose it
it’ll go to zero and that’s why you need
to have you know a reserve like a
back-up plan some cash set aside that if
everything blows up you’re okay I find
it extraordinary when people make their
first you know liquidity event and they
have some capital that they blow it all
again that is the biggest mistake you’ve
got to take a nut even if it stays in
cash or it’s a very very liquid safe
security to say that I don’t touch it
goes back to what my mother taught me
spend the interest never the principal I
mean look you know I make a lot of crazy
investments I don’t touch the principal
communication skills it turns out our
power
the ability to actually articulate what
your idea is in a very short period of
time is number one number two and this
is far in some ways more complicated to
explain it just because you have a good
idea doesn’t make you mean you’re going
to make money there’s a difference
between a good idea and someone who can
execute the business plan so you spend
the next five minutes for presentation
explaining why you’re the right person
to actually execute the plan and this is
far more complicated because you get
peppered with a whole series of
questions in any presentation that
you’re trying to raise money for whether
it’s on dragons and shark tank or out
somewhere else how much of your own
money have you put into this business I
put fifty thousand dollars of my own
money and I’ve been taking a salary out
of the company in a year and a half cry
me a river you have to go through that
gauntlet to prove that you’re the right
person or your team are the right people
and if those two things come together
then the magic starts that’s when a team
or person starts to sizzle like an
isotope because clearly they become a
leader it’s clear that they’re different
than everybody else not only can they
articulate their idea they can actually
convince you that can execute it
recently failing business is they make
the assumption that whatever and they’re
equal just the Maineiacs and even when
it starts to fail because of their own
inadequacies
they don’t stop themselves and they’ve
gone that’s a typical situation so you
have to look yourself in the mirror this
is hard to do sometimes and say what am
I really good at and what do I suck it
because you don’t want to spend any of
your time doing things you’re no good
I’ll give you an example
I hate logistics and operations you’re
going to software company have to make
10 million discs a month you don’t like
that you better find a guy
do that and you better making your
partner very early on the process and I
mean part I mean you give him something
to give equity up to fulfill the
weaknesses in your own portfolio that is
the key success I have never made any
money doing all myself ever so many
businesses started many failed at many
the only ones I really made money on the
arches where I found people that were
good at things that I was good at I
don’t need in toys I need giving them
exit of the business so that they have
the same risks and desires that I have
there’s only two things in business that
matter
one is owning it and the other is being
an employee guess which one you want to
be and I remembered a story and it
really affected me years ago my mother
was born in Montreal worked at a company
called kiddies togs and she’s to come
home and tell my brother and I because
they pay them every week on Thursday
morning she’d always invest a third of
her paycheck into bail bonds with
coupons she’d always say to me boys
never spend the principle just the
interest and never ever ever ever buy a
security that doesn’t pay a dividend and
you know back in those days
stocks paid higher dividends than the
bonds so example you know Bell Canada
had a 6% yield on its five-year paper
and bonds the stock yield at 7 to entice
people to take the risk to own an equity
and we got lost somewhere between the
50s and the 60s and 70s and we actually
thought that it was a good investment to
buy a stock that didn’t pay a dividend
which to me is insane so anyways I I
wanted to found a firm on that my
mother’s basic concept because you know
she died a few years ago and I was
executive for her state and I looked at
the portfolio which she never shared
with anybody but 40 years compounded
dividends and bonds you know 73% of the
markets returns of the last 40 years
came from dividends not capital
appreciation and she knew that
intuitively so that’s how we built the
foundation of O’Leary funds we listened
to mom we don’t own a single security
that doesn’t pay a dividend I will never
buy a stock in my life that doesn’t pay
a dividend it’s not
turning cash to me it’s a speculation
and if a manager can’t send me cash I’m
not interested
often your family will come to you your
cousin your uncle your sister saying
please invest in my business
you’ve got to differentiate between
family friends and money you’ve got to
be careful that you don’t get yourself
in a situation where you lose your money
because you got emotionally involved
that’s a very big piece of advice
because I’ve done it the wrong I put
every buddies make mistakes as investor
that’s one of the ones I made the early
times I never make again but I tell
every Canadian entrepreneur I talk to
and business leader and owner of
business any business try and get over
the next five years 30% of your sales
outside of North America and Canada is
unique we actually have within the
government a port system you can call
the consulate in any country you want to
do business in they’ll return your call
they’ll set up meetings for you I did
this two decades ago and I wanted to
move the states I called the Canadian
Consulate in Boston you can do that now
in Brazil India China Asia Cambodia
Thailand and there’s somebody they’ll
say I care about that Canadian company
I’m going to make calls for them you
still got to do the work but the whole
idea is to diversify your sales risk you
diversify your portfolio if you’re just
selling in the u.s. you’re going to be
selling to a economy that’s growing at
sub 3% for the rest of your life so
Oprah as a hairdresser interesting guy
he’s uh his hobby was tea this tea new
drink and he became what’s called a nose
he had a certain skill to be able to
smell salon teez blend them one day he
gives couple years ago a cup of tea to
oprah well he’s doing her hair and she
sips it and says his best tea I’ve ever
had she goes on the show half an hour
later and says this tea called Talbott
teas
is the best tea I’ve ever had he gets
orders the next day for five hundred
thousand dollars you know the Oprah
effect you’ve heard of it right
he can’t finance that so he comes on
Shark Tank and he’s looking for $250,000
and I agreed to buy 35% of the company
for that I love tea it’s so simple gets
on Oprah five hundred thousand orders
and even
Marcus all kinds of individuals ordering
on the internet simple tea orders cash
flow right while we’re in the middle of
doing the deal the show airs and Gemma
juice a public company says we want to
be in the tea business we love this
story we love the brand I want to buy
the company I haven’t even written a
check yet and bang the deals done Wow
yes Wow that’s the kind of deal I like
because it was simple it’s not a
complicated text story it’s tea tea with
a brand now you go into a Jamba Juice
anywhere North America that’s my Talbott
teas that’s right
isn’t that wonderful is wonderful that’s
why you are well that’s why I am is but
you know I look at it this way the
simple deals are the ones you make money
on so I take that cash back Irie deploy
it so I like simple stories with revenue
attached to them you know the high-tech
stuff I came out of that market it’s so
complicated so much can go wrong so I
just love deals where they see an easy
path to revenue thank you so much for
watching I made this video because a
deal albert asked me to so if there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you want me to
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know which of Kevin
O’Leary’s top 10 rules had the biggest
impact on you leave it in the comments
and I’ll join in the discussion thank
you so much for watching
continue to believe and I’ll see you
soon
you know they’re probably in there 50 60
70 s and even older their number one
mandate to their own investment strategy
is preservation of wealth secondly it’s
income and lastly on the hit parade is
capital appreciation the only way we get
capital appreciation is we find
companies that are growing free cash
flow I don’t believe in earnings
that’s mumbo jumbo to me I believe in
free cash after capex you tell me how
much free cash flow you’re making every
quarter it’s the only thing I care about
I don’t want to hear anything else
because if you’re not you can’t lie
about cash that’s what I love about cash
there’s no vision there’s no story
there’s just cash and that’s what I
trust and that’s what I understand so I
find companies they’re growing cash I
buy their debt they’re perhaps their
converts their common shares because
they pay a dividend and I wait in the
weeds I get paid every single quarter
anything it doesn’t pay me cash not
interested when it comes to winning in
business I like to be very competitive I
like to pour boiling oil over my
competitors and think every day how can
I kill because that is the war of
business ultimately I want my
shareholders to make more money than my
competitors and that’s very healthy so I
think the DNA of a business has to be
how do you make money how do you spend
your time making money for your
shareholders and your nobody is an
entrepreneur until you make money for
somebody else you know I’d like to be
remembered for sticking with one ideal
supporting capitalism believing in it
and fighting for it my whole life I mean
I I really really really believe that
the only value in a society is that of
an entrepreneur creating a company
creating jobs creating wealth and
sustaining our standard of living
government gets us nothing there is no
value created there you pay for it from
the private sector and it provides a
service as far as I’m concerned every
government employee works for me and
that we should ask from them the same
metrics you put on ourselves if you
don’t perform you should be fired we do
that in the private sector we should do
it in the public sector as well I
respect them as leaders but I also
understand I pay for all of their costs
so what I want and what I want to be
remembered for is to my dying day
I want to cut government by 1/3 I
believe that every dollar they spend is
33% wasted and there are 33% too big in
this country we need less government we
need more private sector that’s how we
become rich and win
entrepreneur journalist and television
personality he’s the co-founder and
chairman of O’Leary funds and the
co-founder of soft key his estimated net
worth is four hundred million dollars
he’s kevin O’Leary and here his top ten
rules for success I tried working for
somebody when it’s very young and they
fired me and I scream right and it was a
very very profoundly affected me
profoundly and I just said I’m never
working for anybody again it doesn’t
mean your life is easier in fact you
give up you have to have a lot of
sacrifices in on the road to success and
a lot of failures along the way I just
find it a more interesting way to spend
your time and I really believe in this
concept of money buys freedom and so you
know I think it’s a very noble pursuit
for some percentage of the people out
there but not for everybody because you
have to sacrifice a lot for the period
that you’re working on your business and
not everybody wants to do that and I
think you find that in your own you
start down that path and if it’s too
much of a sacrifice you revert back to
being an employee which it’s very noble
to do that too but it’s not the same
thing it takes a long time to set
yourself free working for somebody else
I was with a bunch of other investors
who I respect and they brought me a deal
and I wanted to be part of it but it
didn’t feel right
and I wrote millions of dollars on that
one
and it just didn’t feel right and I lost
it all within two years
so should investors trust our gut dinner
absolutely and trust you but what about
you said earlier don’t be emotional and
sometimes the gut know this this is a
barometer of risk it’s something an
internalized for an investor that says I
don’t feel comfortable it’s not about
emotions just don’t write that check
that was recently the first time I
didn’t listen to that and I lost
everything so now my radar is up I
listen to my gut it’s not an emotion
it’s an index of risk and you get it as
you age you become a better investor
every year if only I could live to 200
I’d be really good diversification what
I’ve learned that works if you’re an
investor
no matter how much money you’ve got
whether it’s $5,000 or 500 million
diversification is what saves you from
disaster having investments in a wide
range of businesses and sectors there’s
always something working when something
else isn’t so today I can go to bed
tonight knowing that I have one
objective I want to go to bed richer
than I woke up and the only way that’s
going to happen to me is to be invested
in a lot of different things because
every day one thing works well three
others don’t but sometimes that’s why
you get richer so how does that play out
for the average working woman like
myself does it start with doing an
investor profile questionnaire and
starting to invest a little bit of your
money in a diversified portfolio yes
that what I find people do is they fall
in love with one idea or one stock or
one investment or their sister comes in
and says I want to open a restaurant yes
you should never do that what you should
say is whatever money I’ve got I’ll
never put more than five percent into
one idea I’ll never let myself get
caught up in an idea that ends up being
so big to me that if it fails I get
wiped out this is the key to success no
more than five percent of any one idea
and no more than 20% in any one sector
for example if you love energy stocks
only 20% max if you love gold only 20%
max you have to have diversification
this is the one thing that will save
your hiney you should make the
assumption when you make an investment
there’s some probability you’ll lose it
it’ll go to zero and that’s why you need
to have you know a reserve like a
back-up plan some cash set aside that if
everything blows up you’re okay I find
it extraordinary when people make their
first you know liquidity event and they
have some capital that they blow it all
again that is the biggest mistake you’ve
got to take a nut even if it stays in
cash or it’s a very very liquid safe
security to say that I don’t touch it
goes back to what my mother taught me
spend the interest never the principal I
mean look you know I make a lot of crazy
investments I don’t touch the principal
communication skills it turns out our
power
the ability to actually articulate what
your idea is in a very short period of
time is number one number two and this
is far in some ways more complicated to
explain it just because you have a good
idea doesn’t make you mean you’re going
to make money there’s a difference
between a good idea and someone who can
execute the business plan so you spend
the next five minutes for presentation
explaining why you’re the right person
to actually execute the plan and this is
far more complicated because you get
peppered with a whole series of
questions in any presentation that
you’re trying to raise money for whether
it’s on dragons and shark tank or out
somewhere else how much of your own
money have you put into this business I
put fifty thousand dollars of my own
money and I’ve been taking a salary out
of the company in a year and a half cry
me a river you have to go through that
gauntlet to prove that you’re the right
person or your team are the right people
and if those two things come together
then the magic starts that’s when a team
or person starts to sizzle like an
isotope because clearly they become a
leader it’s clear that they’re different
than everybody else not only can they
articulate their idea they can actually
convince you that can execute it
recently failing business is they make
the assumption that whatever and they’re
equal just the Maineiacs and even when
it starts to fail because of their own
inadequacies
they don’t stop themselves and they’ve
gone that’s a typical situation so you
have to look yourself in the mirror this
is hard to do sometimes and say what am
I really good at and what do I suck it
because you don’t want to spend any of
your time doing things you’re no good
I’ll give you an example
I hate logistics and operations you’re
going to software company have to make
10 million discs a month you don’t like
that you better find a guy
do that and you better making your
partner very early on the process and I
mean part I mean you give him something
to give equity up to fulfill the
weaknesses in your own portfolio that is
the key success I have never made any
money doing all myself ever so many
businesses started many failed at many
the only ones I really made money on the
arches where I found people that were
good at things that I was good at I
don’t need in toys I need giving them
exit of the business so that they have
the same risks and desires that I have
there’s only two things in business that
matter
one is owning it and the other is being
an employee guess which one you want to
be and I remembered a story and it
really affected me years ago my mother
was born in Montreal worked at a company
called kiddies togs and she’s to come
home and tell my brother and I because
they pay them every week on Thursday
morning she’d always invest a third of
her paycheck into bail bonds with
coupons she’d always say to me boys
never spend the principle just the
interest and never ever ever ever buy a
security that doesn’t pay a dividend and
you know back in those days
stocks paid higher dividends than the
bonds so example you know Bell Canada
had a 6% yield on its five-year paper
and bonds the stock yield at 7 to entice
people to take the risk to own an equity
and we got lost somewhere between the
50s and the 60s and 70s and we actually
thought that it was a good investment to
buy a stock that didn’t pay a dividend
which to me is insane so anyways I I
wanted to found a firm on that my
mother’s basic concept because you know
she died a few years ago and I was
executive for her state and I looked at
the portfolio which she never shared
with anybody but 40 years compounded
dividends and bonds you know 73% of the
markets returns of the last 40 years
came from dividends not capital
appreciation and she knew that
intuitively so that’s how we built the
foundation of O’Leary funds we listened
to mom we don’t own a single security
that doesn’t pay a dividend I will never
buy a stock in my life that doesn’t pay
a dividend it’s not
turning cash to me it’s a speculation
and if a manager can’t send me cash I’m
not interested
often your family will come to you your
cousin your uncle your sister saying
please invest in my business
you’ve got to differentiate between
family friends and money you’ve got to
be careful that you don’t get yourself
in a situation where you lose your money
because you got emotionally involved
that’s a very big piece of advice
because I’ve done it the wrong I put
every buddies make mistakes as investor
that’s one of the ones I made the early
times I never make again but I tell
every Canadian entrepreneur I talk to
and business leader and owner of
business any business try and get over
the next five years 30% of your sales
outside of North America and Canada is
unique we actually have within the
government a port system you can call
the consulate in any country you want to
do business in they’ll return your call
they’ll set up meetings for you I did
this two decades ago and I wanted to
move the states I called the Canadian
Consulate in Boston you can do that now
in Brazil India China Asia Cambodia
Thailand and there’s somebody they’ll
say I care about that Canadian company
I’m going to make calls for them you
still got to do the work but the whole
idea is to diversify your sales risk you
diversify your portfolio if you’re just
selling in the u.s. you’re going to be
selling to a economy that’s growing at
sub 3% for the rest of your life so
Oprah as a hairdresser interesting guy
he’s uh his hobby was tea this tea new
drink and he became what’s called a nose
he had a certain skill to be able to
smell salon teez blend them one day he
gives couple years ago a cup of tea to
oprah well he’s doing her hair and she
sips it and says his best tea I’ve ever
had she goes on the show half an hour
later and says this tea called Talbott
teas
is the best tea I’ve ever had he gets
orders the next day for five hundred
thousand dollars you know the Oprah
effect you’ve heard of it right
he can’t finance that so he comes on
Shark Tank and he’s looking for $250,000
and I agreed to buy 35% of the company
for that I love tea it’s so simple gets
on Oprah five hundred thousand orders
and even
Marcus all kinds of individuals ordering
on the internet simple tea orders cash
flow right while we’re in the middle of
doing the deal the show airs and Gemma
juice a public company says we want to
be in the tea business we love this
story we love the brand I want to buy
the company I haven’t even written a
check yet and bang the deals done Wow
yes Wow that’s the kind of deal I like
because it was simple it’s not a
complicated text story it’s tea tea with
a brand now you go into a Jamba Juice
anywhere North America that’s my Talbott
teas that’s right
isn’t that wonderful is wonderful that’s
why you are well that’s why I am is but
you know I look at it this way the
simple deals are the ones you make money
on so I take that cash back Irie deploy
it so I like simple stories with revenue
attached to them you know the high-tech
stuff I came out of that market it’s so
complicated so much can go wrong so I
just love deals where they see an easy
path to revenue thank you so much for
watching I made this video because a
deal albert asked me to so if there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you want me to
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know which of Kevin
O’Leary’s top 10 rules had the biggest
impact on you leave it in the comments
and I’ll join in the discussion thank
you so much for watching
continue to believe and I’ll see you
soon
you know they’re probably in there 50 60
70 s and even older their number one
mandate to their own investment strategy
is preservation of wealth secondly it’s
income and lastly on the hit parade is
capital appreciation the only way we get
capital appreciation is we find
companies that are growing free cash
flow I don’t believe in earnings
that’s mumbo jumbo to me I believe in
free cash after capex you tell me how
much free cash flow you’re making every
quarter it’s the only thing I care about
I don’t want to hear anything else
because if you’re not you can’t lie
about cash that’s what I love about cash
there’s no vision there’s no story
there’s just cash and that’s what I
trust and that’s what I understand so I
find companies they’re growing cash I
buy their debt they’re perhaps their
converts their common shares because
they pay a dividend and I wait in the
weeds I get paid every single quarter
anything it doesn’t pay me cash not
interested when it comes to winning in
business I like to be very competitive I
like to pour boiling oil over my
competitors and think every day how can
I kill because that is the war of
business ultimately I want my
shareholders to make more money than my
competitors and that’s very healthy so I
think the DNA of a business has to be
how do you make money how do you spend
your time making money for your
shareholders and your nobody is an
entrepreneur until you make money for
somebody else you know I’d like to be
remembered for sticking with one ideal
supporting capitalism believing in it
and fighting for it my whole life I mean
I I really really really believe that
the only value in a society is that of
an entrepreneur creating a company
creating jobs creating wealth and
sustaining our standard of living
government gets us nothing there is no
value created there you pay for it from
the private sector and it provides a
service as far as I’m concerned every
government employee works for me and
that we should ask from them the same
metrics you put on ourselves if you
don’t perform you should be fired we do
that in the private sector we should do
it in the public sector as well I
respect them as leaders but I also
understand I pay for all of their costs
so what I want and what I want to be
remembered for is to my dying day
I want to cut government by 1/3 I
believe that every dollar they spend is
33% wasted and there are 33% too big in
this country we need less government we
need more private sector that’s how we
become rich and win
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