Podcasts about collated

SITDOWNS BOOK: https://geni.us/SitdownswithGangsters SHOPIFY: Sign up for a £1-per-month trial period at https://www.shopify.co.uk/shaun  SKYLIGHT FRAME get up to £40 off at https://uk.skylightframe.com/SHAUN/   NORD VPN Get 4 months extra on a 2 year plan here: https://nordvpn.com/attwood. It's risk free with Nord's 30 day money-back guarantee!   Shaun Attwood is the man who talks to gangsters, drug lords and mafia bosses. Infamously known for his time as the head of an international ecstasy ring in Arizona, Shaun has since turned to gaining the trust of some of the world's most dangerous people, interviewing and questioning them about their stories. Collated from the many hours of interview material, and containing additional content exclusive to this series, Shaun brings together powerful conversations with the most gruesome and deadly gangsters of recent years. Filled with truthful, brutal, and often redemptive stories, Shaun's interviews feature international smugglers, mafia enforcers and a man who escaped from Thailand's most notorious prison. Sitdowns with Gangsters is an unmissable film that offers a glimpse into the lives and inner workings of some of the world's most fearsome gangsters. Shaun Attwood's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/shaunattwood Sitdowns with Gangsters book: https://geni.us/SitdownswithGangsters Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0pdktx9M6EcOsRg5LdLlXg/join Please subscribe to our FAMILY channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AttwoodFamily Watch our true crime podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT50d_7cJ55ciKoZEY8q_YPt Watch our interview with Robbie Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPDzjMqYi_o&t=5625s Watch our Royal Family videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPT_cCpNMvT7FSrvAJL-44G2_WQTeU5d5  Our donation links:  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shaunattwood PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/SAttwood Shaun's books: https://shaunattwood.com/shaun/books/ #gangster  #podcast #truecrime #prison

Transparency, ethics, and compliance are more than just corporate buzzwords; they're foundational to building trust in today's global organizations. Consequence management systems encompass elements like transparency, robust employee reporting, protective measures for whistleblowers, and effective internal investigations. These are all essential for maintaining organizational justice, trust, and integrity. In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, Michael Volkov underscores the value of collecting and analyzing employee reports, the pivotal role of Chief Compliance Officers, and the integration of compliance compensation with consequence management.You'll hear Michael talk about:Global companies now recognize the significance of robust consequence management systems, which encompass vital processes from internal investigations to disciplinary actions. A pivotal aspect of these systems is transparency, especially when designing and implementing employee reporting.When it comes to effective employee reporting, a system is more than just a hotline; it involves tracking and addressing concerns in real-time. To foster trust, such systems must operate promptly, fairly, and consistently, ensuring that reporters are protected against obstruction and/or retaliation.Key components of an effective reporting system include:Clear internal communication, which ensures employees feel heard.Foundational support, which bolsters efficiency.Collated reports from diverse sources, which offers insights into the company's culture and potential risks.Transparency and consistency, as sporadic disclosure can negatively influence employees' perceptions of a company's intentions.A CCO's commitment is reflected when issues are investigated and addressed swiftly and justly. They play a crucial role in collecting and analyzing employee reporting data, as well as educating senior management and boards on the significance of employee reports.Companies need to establish written protocols for internal investigations to ensure that they are conducted fairly and impartially. These protocols should outline the steps that will be taken during an investigation, as well as the rights of the employees involved. The protection of employees and whistleblowers is paramount.An internal oversight committee should be responsible for overseeing internal investigations. Regular reviews ensure that procedures are followed consistently and that there is a focus on quality. Additionally, all investigations should be properly documented and resolved in order to maintain integrity.Compliance and consequence management systems should work together to meet the expectations of the DOJ, promoting corporate citizenship and financial success. KEY QUOTES“A true employee reporting system includes reports to supervisors, walk-ins to human resources, walk-ins to legal and compliance, and an automated reporting system.” - Michael Volkov“The real question is whether the company backs up its statement through specific actions. This cannot be accomplished through words, but really only through deeds, through actions. All too often, companies get ahead of themselves. They make these broad pronouncements. They sound good, they pat each other on the back, and they don't build the essential foundations and infrastructure needed to establish an effective employee reporting system.” - Michael Volkov“As a basic initial requirement, every company should adopt a written internal investigation protocol that is published internally, promoted internally to demonstrate a commitment to transparency, and those protocols and procedures should be followed to the T.” - Michael VolkovResources:Michael Volkov on LinkedIn | TwitterThe Volkov Law Group

This show contains illicit gifts and inappropriate erections. Collated rubrics. High on string. A small chainsaw. VERY HIGH. spoiled froot. and cut the brakes. I love you. Show tonight should be interesting? tune in.

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For episode 17 of our Lockdown Lowdown series we welcome Saskia Holling to discuss her new book "Girlsville: The Story of The Delmonas & Thee Headcoatees" which is out now on Spinout Publications. Saskia talks about the process of writing the book itself along with the history and legacy of both groups and each of the band members. We also find out more about Saskia, her own music with Sally Skull, Lord Rochester and Big Russ Wilkins & Lightnin' Hollings and her fanzine "Heavy Flow" along with encounters with Kim Fowley and the impact of seeing Poison Ivy of The Cramps. We then discuss the prejudices and barriers faced by women in music and the positive effect of the Riot Grrrl movement. The episode is sound-tracked by Saskia's personal selection of her favourite Delmonas and Headcoatees songs, a pick of her own music and some of her influences and most memorable musical moments. Here's a description of the book from Spinout Publications. "Following the arrival of Post-Punk in the UK, an explosion of musical wonders flourished in the South East of England. Two such wonders, The Delmonas and Thee Headcoatees added to the burgeoning flow of music from the Medway Delta; a current started by The Pop Rivets, The Milkshakes and The Prisoners. Fronted by women from the Medway area and beyond, The Delmonas and Thee Headcoatees are regularly labelled as ‘Billy Childish projects’, yet the women involved added their own stamp to the musical beat. Hear ye for The Queens of The Medway Delta! Here, we find out more about these women – Hilary, Louise, Sarah, Debbie, Kyra and Holly and just how their paths intertwined to create memorable records (without musical industry intervention) and just what has happened to them all since…Collated and related by Saskia Holling, herself a music maker (The Nettelles, Lord Rochester, Sally Skull, Big Russ Wilkins & Lightnin’ Holling) and fanzine writer, who is seeking to help keep women in musical history. Published under the Spinout Publications imprint, with front cover painting by Sarah Crouch (Miss Ludella Black), and packed with photos and contributions from key figures within the Medway Delta, and related, and beyond!" With music from The Delmonas, Thee Headcoatees, Miss Ludella Black, Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, The A-Lines, Ye Nuns, Lord Rochester, Big Russ Wilkins & Lightnin' Holling, The Nettelles, Sally Skull, Babes In Toyland, The Raincoats, The Go-Go's and more. For full tracklisting and links to the featured bands and where you can buy a copy of "Girlsville" please check out Retro Man Blog at the link below: https://retroman65.blogspot.com/2021/05/retrosonic-podcast-with-saskia-holling.html

A Navy SEAL’s simple secrets for success. The titular action of Make Your Bed (2017) is a subtle nod to the author’s key message. Collated from the life lessons he learned during his time as a Navy SEAL, Make Your Bed is an anthology of the simple tips that changed McRaven’s life. The author believes this advice can change your life as well and that’s why he’s documented his experiences for the benefit of anyone who wants to learn, grow, or inspire others. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. DISCLAIMER: This book summary is meant as a preview and not a replacement for the original book. If you like this summary please consider purchasing the original book to get the full experience as the original author intended to. If you are the original author of any book on QuickRead and would like us to remove it, please contact us at hello@quickread.com

Guys, I am warning you: this episode is ROUGH. I lost my podcasting mojo due to an audio mishap with my other show (Savoir Shade), I'm on my third glass of wine, and...yeah. You can see for yourself. This week, I am indulging my sweet tooth and reviewing Love Don't Be Shy by Kilian, discussing the top 10 best-selling Dior perfumes, and going over a list of perfume Black Friday deals.  Mentioned in the Show Love Don't be Shy (by Kilian): https://www.bykilian.com/product/19797/50771/perfume/love-dont-be-shy/the-narcotics#/sku/115031 Women Across the Globe Adore This Iconic Perfume Brand—Here Are the Favorites: https://www.whowhatwear.com/best-dior-perfumes/slide7 Best Black Friday Perfume & Cologne Deals (2020) Collated by Save Bubble (Business Wire): https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201116005370/en/Best-Black-Friday-Perfume-Cologne-Deals-2020-Collated-by-Save-Bubble Black Friday perfume deals: Massive discounts on perfume at Boots and Superdrug: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/black-friday-perfume-boots-superdrug-19313932 Black Friday perfume deals 2020: The best early discounts from Boots, Amazon and more to shop right now: https://www.womanandhome.com/us/beauty/black-friday-perfume-deals-384164/ Contact @pinotandperfume (Instagram) sarahchacon784@gmail.com 

Collated or curated - maybe both - here are this week's tasty morsels In this episode of the Pod Buffet, we bring you episodes 24, 25 and 26, served up as a digest – perfect for that late breakfast or early brunch! (15 min 53 sec listen) (Start playing then use the links below to jump to the bit you want to listen to (or just listen to the whole thing!) [00:39] What Chance? by Karin Elias - The Role of the Police [07:03] Perfect Strangers by Valérie Lucchesi – what a story [10:52] The Creatively Engaging by Bruce Devereux Episodes Monday Wednesday and Friday with a Digest on Saturday Website: https://podbuffet.com/ (https://podbuffet.com) Subscribe: https://pod-buffet.captivate.fm/listen (https://pod-buffet.captivate.fm/listen)

Wanna here some tunes from before the pandemic. Uni got me stressed but I’ve got some bops to keep me right! Collated in January and February released to set the pandemic blues.

Todd Tresidder is the author of seven personal finance books with an eighth coming out shortly. He created a course on strategic wealth planning and is the founder of FinancialMentor.com, a popular personal finance site. He is a self-made millionaire and was financially independent at age 35, which was more than two decades ago. Since then he’s been coaching clients on how to do the same giving him an unusual depth of experience. Todd has maintained his wealth by remaining an active investor and utilizing statistical and mathematical risk-management systems for investing. Through FinancialMentor.com he teaches advanced investing and advanced retirement planning principles. Take the next step beyond conventional financial advice and discover what works, what doesn’t, and why, based on years of proven experience.   “So he had all kinds of great stories about how this company was going to the moon and he didn’t understand the setback but this company was going to fly and I was a stupid kid and I bought it hook line and sinker and I put even more money into it. So I made this stupid mistake of averaging down on a loss you know chasing good money after bad and eventually went to zero, and I lost everything.” Todd Tresidder     Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.       Worst investment ever Graduate joins HP, friend in credit department offers hot stock tip Todd made his first and worst investment when he fresh out of college. Holding a fine résumé for a new graduate, he had been the business manager for campus businesses. It was the mid-1990s and he had read the book In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters. He went straight from college to work for HP, one of the top companies employers at the time, and had a friend in the credit department. One day during a lunch-time chat, his friend told him about a new company they were working with that was buying HP mainframes, and they were listed in the pink sheets on the Nasdaq. Todd’s friend had put his money in the company’s stock after doing financial analysis on the company and all this. ‘Inside scoop’ meant he put in all funds he had saved for his MBA course So Todd felt this was a “cool insider scoop” on this “amazing emerging company”. The company had an algorithm that was dominating how mail was going to be sent. Todd said “it sounds so absurd now, but it sounded cool at the time”. He had been busily saving for tuition fees to study for an MBA after paying his own way through school, and was still trying to pay off his college costs. He was also saving some money but chose instead to stick his savings into the pink sheet stock. Initially, it went up. But he neither knew anything about how new stock issues work or about how this business worked. So he also had no idea that it was standard protocol for new issues to promote them in an over-the-top way to get people excited about the stock, that it was “going to the moon”, in order to create demand. Todd was in early enough to see an initial rise in the stock, and he kept pumping more money into it. The more he had, the more he would invest, thinking this investment was going to pay for his further study. Stock price turned and broker talked him out of selling He then watched his investment fall to zero Then suddenly it turned and started going down. Magically, the stockbroker called Todd (as though he could read Todd’s mind) and “had all kinds of great stories about how this company was going to the moon. And that he didn’t understand this setback, but this company was going to fly and I was a stupid kid”. Todd bought the broker’s story and put more money in. He made “this stupid mistake” of averaging down on a loss, chasing good money after bad and eventually it went to zero, leaving him with nothing of his original investment. That was Todd’s first and worst investment ever. So for his very first investment I lost everything. But it did set him on a course to learn everything about how to stop it happening again.   “It was only in hindsight, as I started to learn (about finance and investing), that I realized the depth and the level of all the different mistakes I was making.” Todd Tresidder     Lessons learned Don’t buy on hot stock tips Don’t risk money you can’t afford to lose Don’t buy a story If you think about it, you are actually buying a business, so if you are going to buy based on any sort of fundamentals, it better be business fundamentals. You must must must have a risk management plan in place This must include an exit strategy Don’t play a game that you don’t fully understand. Todd was in the new-issue market, which is a very specialized game. There are rules by which that game is played by and he admits violating them all “with pure stupidity”, because he did not know the game. Don’t confuse brains with a bull market Which is he says is what many people are doing right now. Don’t ever buy based on news Don’t send good money after bad by averaging down Don’t let a win turn into a loss       Andrew’s takeaways Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by Andrew’s interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Andrew says Todd’s case features Mistake No.2 “Failed to properly assess and manage risk” When we get excited about the returns and the opportunity, we often ignore the risks Part of managing risk it to assess the risk of that particular company but the other part of it is managing all the other risks, and that is about the position, size, how much money you put into it, and things like that. Have some kind of exit strategy for every single investment you have The hardest thing for an analyst and for any investor is the decision of what to do when the stock goes down. When we talk about emotion in investing, the emotion involved when our stock is starting to fail is intense. Nobel Prize research highlights that the pain of loss is two-and-a-half times the excitement you feel when you’re winning. When that emotion is involved, that really is the time to have a risk management system in place. It could be a stop loss, or something else. You must learn the game before you play That’s a critical lesson.   “(Risk management) It’s the first consideration in investing. I always think in terms of what can I lose and only secondarily do I consider what can I win? My focus is entirely on controlling losses.” Todd Tresidder   Actionable advice Focus on risk management, first and foremost. The reason for that is you can make all the other mistakes, but if you have a risk management strategy, you can still win in the long term.   “If you don’t have risk management any one mistake can bury you.” Todd Tresidder     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Todd is finishing off his wealth planning course at FinancialMentor.com and he has one final module to create to complete that project. Then is will be time to build all the sales funnels and all the systems to support the site.   Parting words “It’s really not painful to talk about your losers.” Todd said, no one is born a smart investor. As a matter of fact, we are hardwired in our DNA that opposes what we should be doing as a smart investor. That’s one of the reasons he uses quantitative disciplines to overcome the natural human emotions. Recalling mistakes and how they are made is just part of learning how to invest.       You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Learn with Andrew Valuation Master Class - Take this course to advance your career and become a better investor Connect with Todd Tresidder LinkedIn Twitter Website Full bio Course Books Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned Thomas (Tom) Peters and Robert Waterman (1982) In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies  

William Manzanares IV was born and raised in the Tacoma area of Washington State and is an active member of the Puyallup Tribe. He is a serial entrepreneur, having owned and operated successful smoke shops, convenience stores, and restaurants since 2005. William is passionate about helping small business owners as well as struggling readers. To that end he has written I Can’t Read: A Guide to Success Through Failure, telling the story about being unable to read as a youth and struggling with dyslexia, William hopes his new book will equip kids to improve their literacy and inspire them to pursue their dreams. He spends much of his time speaking with students about career planning and goal setting.   “I was excited. He offered high returns … and an equity stake in everything in the business. He talked a big game of how he was publicized everywhere and I said … ‘Okay, let’s do this’ … He did say after signing … checks that were written out in the contract, I’ll just pay you big chunk payments. So I got like a $5,000 payment, then a $10,000 payment … that took about six months to get those and then when a final payment bounced and I think he tried to write me another $15,000 check, it just didn’t go through. This was like six or seven months after I gave him the money and I went: ‘Oh, what did I do? (What have I done?)” William Manzanares   Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.     Worst investment ever Meets publisher selling Super Bowl tickets Will met the publisher of a local weekly newspaper who was also the PR representative for his native American tribe in Tacoma because he said he could get all kinds of tickets and Will wanted to take his daughter to see the Seattle Seahawks American football team play in the Super Bowl for the second time in its history. The guy was always around talking about his connections and that he always knew someone who could get show tickets to anything. Will let his guard down. Will invests US$60,000 in regional newspaper The man then started talking to Will about signing up other cities for his newspaper business, that he had just signed up another city and that he needed some investment money to sign up more cities in the Pacific Northwest region. The amount required was US$60,000 so will loaned it to him and got a lawyer to draw up a contract for the deal. Will was excited as the publisher was offering an equity stake in the business, high returns and “he talked a big game of how he was publicized everywhere and I said … ‘Okay, let’s do this’ … He did say after signing … checks that were written out in the contract, I’ll just pay you big chunk payments. So I got like a $5,000 payment, then a $10,000 payment … that took about six months to get those and then when a final payment bounced and I think he tried to write me another $15,000 check, it just didn’t go through. This was like six or seven months after I gave him the money and I went: ‘Oh, what did I do? (What have I done?).” Sees state of the accounts, realizes his money is gone Will called the publisher, inherently wanting to be a nice guy, and the principal made excuses, said he was sick, blamed everyone else but himself, but in the end let polite and persistent Will into the company’s offices to consult and maybe try to save the company. Will then spent half an hour with the bookkeeper (while talking to Andrew he admits he should have done this a long time ago). After he saw the books he realized he was never going to regain his money. The principal owed printers and many other people. He also was the public relations guy for Will’s tribe, so he had been telling people including Will that the tribe owed him a lot of money, and the tribe has a multimillion-dollar casino, so people thought they had the revenue. Thinking ‘success the best revenge’, Will starts his own So will did what some entrepreneurs would do, and instead of getting mad, decided to get even by starting his own online publication called Grit City, after the nickname they have given Tacoma. What he discovered was publications in start-up phase do not make money, so essentially, he was funding this new venture and in so doing, was throwing good money after bad. His CFO also told him later about sunken-cost fallacy. He had already lost so much money with the other weekly paper owner and he was sinking money into the new publication. One day he decided he could not continue, and as a gift, handed the business to his partners, and walked away, another $60,000 out of pocket. While his former partners made the publication work, Will will never make any ROI from any of the decisions he made. One small satisfaction though is that soon after he left Grit City, it was outranking the publication of the con artist he had had dealings with originally.     Lessons learned Do due diligence, look at company’s books and debts If someone offers you an equity stake in a company, look at their debts, look at their books. If they are not willing to show you, then they’re not good partners and they are trying to take something from you. Beware of con men and the “confidence” they show The nature of con artists or confidence men is that they make you believe in the confidence that they have. Don’t look at what someone’s doing for you just because they’re doing it for you. Chances are their “kindness” and “confidence” is part of a mass scheme of deception.     Andrew’s takeaways Six common mistakes Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by Andrew’s interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Will’s case features Mistake No.5 A common mistake is that we give money to people or business start-ups. Then we neglect to ask questions such as: “How is progress?” “What are your revenues this month?” “What are your costs this month?” “Can I see the financial statements?”, Due diligence first is getting access to that but monitoring is about keeping track of exactly what’s going on. For a lot of people that are investing in a private business, the first step must be: Make sure that the company closes its books every month, Make sure the accountants produce a balance sheet and an income statement Even though it’s more time in trouble and hassle, make sure you get those financial statements that will ultimately will be signed by an auditor. Trust can only be built with time There is no short cut to building trust between people. Only time works with building trust. Sometimes we like people when we meet them, and we think we can trust them. So when you come upon someone that gives you confidence and they’re really excited, just remember the first three letters of the confidence – Con! That is what “con man: comes from. Spite is not a good investment strategy     Actionable advice Don’t believe when you go into an investment about the high returns, think about whether or not you can afford to lose the amount of money you are investing?     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Will would like to see people who struggle with reading picking up a copy of his book then after that, picking up more books and learning.   “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life with my reading struggle and one was not admitting it to the public, to anyone for most of my life.” William Manzanares   Parting words It’s okay to take risk. Just make sure you’re not risking everything you have.       You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Learn with Andrew Valuation Master Class - Take this course to advance your career and become a better investor Connect with William Manzanares LinkedIn Twitter Podcast website Facebook YouTube Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned William Manzanares (2019) I Can’t Read: A Guide to Success Through Failure  

Shawn Walchef is a restaurant owner, digital entrepreneur and a proud father. Since 2008, Shawn has owned Cali Comfort BBQ in San Diego County. In order to survive, Shawn knew early on to operate his family restaurant and sports bar like a tech company. Now whether it’s his annual #BETonBBQ “Turf and Surf” tasting event in August or his expanding catering empire in San Diego, Shawn’s many business ventures all incorporate technology, especially the kind you use everyday on your cell phone. That’s how he discovered podcasting. Since Shawn first started a business and BBQ-themed podcast almost three years ago, he’s watched podcasting grow, with many shows popping up that he’s helped inspire. Shawn has played a big part in getting so many fellow BBQ business owners into podcasting. Listen today to his Behind the Smoke: BBQ War Stories podcast where he guides viewers and listeners through the ever-evolving world of digital marketing and this helps his fellow restaurant and business owners adapt and succeed. Shawn will begin releasing weekly audio and video episodes in the fall of his new Digital Hospitality podcast. On the show, he and his guests will get personal and truthful about what it takes to truly thrive in business, sharing advice on social media, blogs, and digital tips and tricks. The show will also explore topics that aren’t usually discussed on a business podcast like health and wellness. To find episodes, educational blogs, and behind the scenes content online at CaliBBQ.Media. “Basically, he wanted me out and he wasn’t going to pay me back. He wasn’t gonna pay me back the money, and he was going to keep the liquor licence. And you know, at that point, I had never been spoken to like that in my life. I had trusted him. My business partner, Corey, my best friend at the time, we had trusted him, we had put all of our hopes and our dreams into this restaurant business. But we did it in a way that we had no control.” Shawn Walchef   Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.     Worst investment ever Grandfather trusts him to run real estate business Shawn never knew his father, but learned a great deal from his medical doctor grandfather, who raised Shawn with of course the help of his grandmother and mother. From a very early age, his he taught Shawn that hard work is good, but that hard work and education would get you ahead in life. Shawn grandfather also sent him to university in Colorado and Alicante in Spain. During his time abroad, his grandfather asked him to return to San Diego as he had been made the trustee for grandpa’s estate as Shawn was the only person he trusted. After his grandpa retired as a medical doctor, he had started investing in real estate. So he needed help with his real estate business so Shawn transferred to the University of San Diego. This allowed him to spend time with his grandfather, to help him write his memoir, and to just be there to learn from him, about his life and business. Attempts to enter law schools fail Shawn thought he was going to be an attorney, so he took the L-sat, studied very hard, and applied to law school. He was rejected by all three of San Diego’s law schools, which hurt a great deal. Then his best friend who was with him in Spain moved to San Diego and Shawn suggested Corey help Shawn manage his grandfather’s real estate, which they did around 2006. Early on invested eatery with liquor license Grandpa had purchased a property in East County, San Diego that had an existing restaurant, which had a liquor license, a type-47 liquor license, which allows you to sell beer, wine, spirits at an existing restaurant space. The license is very valuable in the San Diego market. They thought, if someone wants to open a bar, or restaurant, anywhere, the profit is in the liquor, which was a very attractive proposition for the two budding business partners. They decided to purchase the license for their grandfather. So at the time was valued at US$75,000, but they bought it for $50,000. They also raised another $50,000 so that they get into the restaurant that was being operated by a man named Howard. He had been operating a breakfast restaurant and Shawn and he had become friends. Howard was looking to expand his business so the boys said they would add the liquor license and help by including a dinner service and turn it into a sports bar. Boys take 49% share in restaurant with ‘Howard’ The deal was this: Howard would run the restaurant and he would have majority interest, a 51% ownership stake in the company. Shawn and Corey had 49%. Young and naïve, and not knowing Howard nearly as well as they should, the boys started working, making capital improvements to the business, adding flat screen TVs, adding products so that they could create a dinner menu, and adding staff. Howard goes on rant about spoiled brats and hard work But Howard didn’t like many of their actions, and one day after the boys had been installing some TVs, Howard blasted Shawn in front of customers, staff members and Corey. He accused Shawn of being lazy, being inexperienced and spoiled. He regretted bringing in the liquor license and the partners, said he wasn’t going to pay him back the money invested and that he was at the same time going to keep the liquor license. Shawn had never been spoken to like this and he and Corey had trusted the guy, and had put all their hopes into the restaurant business. But they had done it in a way that they had no control. While they did it with the best of intentions, ultimately they were at the mercy of Howard, who held the majority stake. Shawn turned bad to good, ends up recovery all Even though this was the worst investment in his life, he turned everything, including an abusive voicemail, to his benefit. He kept the voicemail, played it, added it to his iPod and used it as his workout mixtape. For Shawn, it became just motivation. Fortunately, Shawn filed a lawsuit against Howard to recover only the money he and Corey had invested but he was able to recovery everything, including the money and the license. After a year or so, Howard failed in the location and Corey and Shawn took over that location, which then became Cali Comfort Barbeque, which was the start of the businesses they are running now. The voicemail that Howard left became the intro to the first 30 podcasts episodes of Behind the Smoke. Shawn says if you’re going to be in the business, if you’re going to invest in things, you have to understand that there’s the human element, and there’s a human element that you can’t control. All you can do is do your best and you need to put yourself in a position where you can control the narrative. “So my workout mixtape was this man screaming at me telling me that all I’d never worked a day in my life and that I’m worth nothing.” Shawn Walchef   Lessons learned Make sure you get majority control if you really want to run a business If you really want to play a part in a business, and it’s a business or investment you truly are interested in, get executive control. Make sure you and you alone or you and a trusted partner are the running the business. Never put yourself in a position of being without a majority stake and without control. I understand a lot of times, you have to raise capital and do things, so that you could get any business open. When you don’t have control, you don’t have creative flexibility. Adapt to survive, pivot to thrive If you don’t or are unwilling to change (in your business dealings or investments) it will be very difficult to operate any business, especially restaurants or bars. In hospitality, invest in making memorable experiences Restaurants are risky investments but food of course is a necessity. Every village needs the local pub, every village needs the local eatery. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, there’s a place that you love, that your family loves, that when it’s your birthday, your grandmother’s birthday, that’s where she wants to go, you have a special table, somebody makes you feel a way that’s memorable. “If you’re going to invest in a restaurant, invest in the jockey, don’t invest in the horse. The jockey is the person that’s really the visionary behind it, the person that’s going to no matter if they get knocked down 20 times they’re going to get up 25 times.” Good hospitality partners will always ask: “How do I improve this business?” “How do I make this business work?” “How do I shift?” “How do I do something?” “How do I do online delivery now that that’s important?” “How do I keep my staff engaged so that they take care of the village and that people are excited and they want to come back?”     “If you’re going to be in the business, if you’re going to invest in things, you have to understand that there’s the human element, and there’s a human element that you can’t control. All you can do is do your best and you need to put yourself in a position where you can control the narrative.” Shawn Walchef     Andrew’s takeaways Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by Andrew’s interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Andrew says Shawn’s case features most common mistake No.2 “Failed to properly assess and manage risk” When we get excited about the returns and the opportunity, we often ignore the risks. Now Shawn having experienced what is truly at stake understands the risks a lot better now. And Mistake No. 4: Misplaced trust Whenever we go into business, we usually have to do it with other people. We must ideally want to find people that we trust. The most important thing Andrew has learned about trust is there is no shortcut to building it. Ultimately, trust takes time. Remember, it’s actually a bit of a dilemma because looking at a business idea, entrepreneurs want to jump in, and often need to act quickly also, but you can’t act rashly. By the same token you also can’t wait too long. But never forget that ultimately, you’re trusting the people around you to you know, to work with you, to get where you’re going. Great idea to use failure and rejection as motivation Success can be motivating, but being told you can’t do something or you get rejected, it can really put a fire in your soul. If you don’t iterate, you die eventually A good entrepreneur knows that changing, pivoting or iterating must be almost constant in the quest to discover what really works in a business, and most importantly, what works for your customers. If you don’t iterate, you die eventually.   Actionable advice “If it’s an investment that you are personally going to be involved in, from a business standpoint, from an operational standpoint, from a visionary standpoint, make sure that if you care about it, and love it and want it to succeed, that you have the majority, controlling interest and be ready to devote your life to it.”   No. 1 goal for next the 12 months His number one goal is to get his family moved into their new home Next is getting the Digital Hospitality podcast launched on a weekly basis Then he wasn to launch is book in which he’s going to talk about all the secrets, missteps, the Howards, the failures, the lawsuits, the litigation, the funding, all the things he and his business partner had to do to keep their doors open in hopes that some other restaurant owner can read, gain some insight, and hopefully avoid the mistakes that Shawn and Corey made.   Parting words Stay curious and get involved.     You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Shawn Walchef LinkedIn Podcast Twitter – Cali Comfort Twitter – Cali BBQ Instagram – Cali Comfort BBQ Instagram – Cali BBQ Website – Cali Comfort BBQ Website – #BETonBBQ Website – Media Facebook Email Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned Michael Gerber (1988) The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It      

Mario Nawfal is the founder of the Athena Group of Companies, a conglomerate that operates in more than 40 countries. He started in 2012 with $300 in the bank selling blenders door to door and built that into a business (Froothie) that generated $10m in its second year. Next he built global brand status with Optimum Appliances, a brand he created from scratch. Next he established a range of brands in niches such as personal mobility, fitness, and e-cigarettes. In 2016, he started GoGlobal, an incubator that helps businesses scale their product or ecommerce operations to more than 30 countries rapidly and efficiently. In 2017, he established International Blockchain Consulting (IBC), a network of experts in more than 40 countries that rose in less than a year to become an established industry authority in the rapidly growing blockchain and crypto space. After the success of IBC, Mario launched IBI Ventures (a venture capital fund), IBA (blockchain accounting), and IGC (cannabis and hemp business consulting). In 2019, he launched a new company, Zense, to provide entrepreneurs with insight on how to launch a successful business with a limited budget. Currently, he has created the 7Figure Launchpad, the world’s first and only full-access business program.   “That’s when I realized that the person I had trusted to build my business and I was actually in discussion with to become the CEO, because I didn’t want to get too involved in my VC (venture capital) had just walked away and taken clients with him.” Mario Nawfal     Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.       Worst investment ever After e-commerce success, Mario looks at blockchain Back in 2017, Mario’s main enterprise was Froothie, an e-commerce business and an area in which he had expertise. But he was very interested in blockchain technology after looking at it for a while. He had free time, was travelling around Europe and started learning about the industry, mainly by reading to learn as much as he could and building contacts, calling people. With an assistant scheduling calls from morning until night, that’s what he would do day in, day out. One of the people he talked to was a Mr. “M”, with whom Mario started working, and who along with another gentleman, helped him start IBC. Mario knew how to start, build and scale businesses, but had no knowledge about blockchain, was not a developer nor could he write code, so he needed some experts around him. IBC starts well and grows to seven figures in six months While his businesses were doing OK, Froothie took a hit with a legal challenge over a supplier mishap. IBC was his next venture but he had to be careful as he couldn’t put in a lot of money. So he had brought on people working to build the business. It started out well and the experts he had brought on built the company as Mario was learning and pivoting when pebbles started to hit and testing different tactics to ensure they worked. He started doubling down and all this worked well to that point that IBC had scaled to seven figures in less than six months. So everything was going well, but he had forgotten to attend one of his main weaknesses - due diligence. Mario trusted people too easily. ‘Trusted’ colleague earmarked to be CEO ‘disappears’ Everything was going well, the company was going well, the company was scaling despite a few issues over delivery that he had to get involved in, but at the end of 2018, suddenly M. vanished. Initially, he was in hospital for a week and Mario was very worried, and sent messages to him and got everyone to send him wishes for a speedy recovery, and then he just disappeared and Mario had no idea what was happening. Then a payment in large six figures bounced from IBC’s biggest client, and they were unresponsive also. Even though some alarm bells were ringing in the back of his mind, he felt there was no way anything was wrong. Betrayal sinks in But then when M completely disappeared, the facts of the betrayal started to sink in. Mario even sent him forgiving messages: “Don’t worry about what you did. I don’t know what you did. I’ll forgive you, it doesn’t matter man. You know, everyone makes mistakes, chasing money. It’s a game,” but the messages on WhatsApp were being read but ignored. The biggest client was still not responding and other clients M was close to were also concerned. M had been screwing Mario and IBC for a lot longer than they had initially thought. M had also bad-mouthed Mario to everyone he spoke to, including clients, team members and other partners. So that’s when he realized that the person he had trusted to build his business and was in discussion to appoint him CEO had just walked away and taken many clients with him. Hits keep on coming as industry also collapses But the story became even darker. He turned to his team to start taking drastic measures to rebuild after this loss. So they had to cut the company down rapidly. The industry was also going through a rough period and collapsed in the same month. Other businesses laid off more than 90% of their teams, and Mario and his team were ready for that. But they were not ready for a scam that went deeper. While rebuilding, staff discover second ‘snake’ So there they were: seven figures in the red because payments were all meant to come in as one payment, key team members had disappeared, and they didn’t know how much damage was caused. So they started rebuilding. He got his team going again, riling them up, making inquiries as to who they could trust before they started calling customers again. One of his team, a confidante in the process who had been there since the beginning, and who was responsible for scheduling calls to key clients (“Bob”), had been very supportive. He would say: “We’ll do this Mario, forget about the pain you’ve gone through. Forget about M. He’s a snake. Now we’re family. We’re close to each other.” Mario recalled the day he started saying those things. “I’ll be there for you until we get through this. We’ll do it together.” And then Mario started filming himself and started blogging as a response to the scam that was by this time about two months or three months old. ‘Nice guy’ was stealing data with GoPro video The same day Bob was saying nice things, Mario found out that Bob was still funneling data out of the company to M, and that M and Bob had been childhood friends. They were unable to steal in a normal way, because there Mario had put protections in place such as screen recorders and users couldn’t take screenshots nor could they export data via a drive because the company would know. So Bob was wearing a GoPro and working and filming as he was working, and as IBC were about to close clients, none of them were closing and it had been a huge mystery. All the clients that they knew IBC had spoken to and were about to close, Bob was just talking to them and funneling them to the M’s other company. While Mario and his team were trying to recover, they were actually losing more clients. So Mario sacked Bob even as more stories emerged about how deep the damage had been and how many had been misled. Head tumor discovered as legal battle continues In the same month, Mario was diagnosed with tumor, while non-cancerous and not serious, it was in head initially he thought he would need immediate surgery because of associated bleeding. His other company meanwhile was dealing with a legal crisis in which one of the suppliers had breached their agreement due to patent concerns and that was pretty serious also. It was a very tough period but Mario managed to bounce back. IBC is now stronger than ever but it took a very stoic mindset to get through it all. Once the last rotten apple in the company had been removed, and all leaks were patched, IBC started to make money again.     Some lessons The people you hire will make or break you Thorough due diligence must also be applied to hiring people, because hiring is the heart of any business, where an investment bank or a restaurant that needs waiters or chefs. The more due diligence you do, the more likely that luck won’t play a big role because you’ve done the work to make sure you have the right people to build your business. All investors ask about your team They look at the team more than the idea over every time, so again, due diligence in hiring is crucially important.     Andrew’s takeaways When it rains it pours As Mario had so many struggles going at the same time, with one team members’ betrayal and another’s, fighting a lawsuit, and serious health issues, one thing Andrew likes to highlight is that most young people going into the business of being an entrepreneur do not realize that having a business is your complete life. Having a serious physical issue on top of that can throw all plans out the window. So to be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to have endurance and the energy to relentlessly pursue your goals. This is critical especially when unpredictable things happen. “When it rains, it pours and you’ve got to push through it.” Trust can only be built with time There is no way to accelerate the trust between two people except through time. Six common mistakes Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by Andrew’s interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Andrew identified mistakes No.2 and No.4 No. 2 Failed to properly assess and manage risk Ultimately, it was the risk that affected Mario’s business, not the success. The story of the return actually sounded very good. No. 4 Misplaced trust Mario is not the only one struggling with this. When an investor or a business person is in a situation where they really need a person, and they go ahead and work with them, the trust part is the most difficult.   Actionable advice Keep in mind when there is a lot of money at stake, when you get to that level, if you’re an investor, or you’ve got successful companies, be very careful about the people that are making the decisions with that money, because their incentives may not be aligned with yours. Greed is very powerful and people will come up with stories to justify doing the wrong thing when it comes to money – Greed is a very strong bias.     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Mario wants to find people to run his various companies, “but the right people”. Mario’s response to this story is not to retreat and be a hermit, and do everything himself because to avoid being scammed again because such things will often happen anyway. They are part of business. Instead, he wants to look logically and find partners through doing proper due diligence and continue to build companies. Right now his focus is on IBC, which is helping businesses to raise capital.     Parting words “Anyone listening to this, you will lose. The way you respond to that loss will determine what happens next.”   You can also check out Andrew’s books   How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market   My Worst Investment Ever   9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them   Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with Mario Nawfal LinkedIn Website (Athena) Website (Personal) Instagram Medium YouTube Email Connect with Andrew Stotz Astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Lex Sokolin iLex Sokolin is a futurist and an entrepreneur focused on the next generation of financial services. He is the global fintech co-head at ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. Lex focuses on emerging digital assets, public and private enterprise blockchain solutions, and decentralized autonomous organizations. Previously, Lex was the global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research (acquired by AllianceBernstein), an equity research firm serving institutional investors, where he covered artificial intelligence, blockchain, neobanks, digital lenders, roboadvisors, payments, insurtech, and mixed reality. Before Autonomous, Lex was COO at AdvisorEngine, a digital wealth management technology platform, and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that partnered with financial advisors. Prior to NestEgg, Lex held roles in investment management and banking at Barclays, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank. Lex is a contributor of thought leadership to The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Reuters, American Banker, ThinkAdvisor, and InvestmentNews, among others. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences such as Money2020, LendIt, Schwab Impact, In|Vest, T3 Enterprise Edition, and Consensus. He earned a JD/MBA from Columbia University and a BA in economics and law from Amherst College.   “The good news is that I didn’t have any money, or whatever money I did have I put into some discounted Lehman stock thinking these guys knew what they’re talking about. And if there’s so much confidence, and they have such fancy suits, and they get paid so much, this thing’s got to … go up. And of course ... it didn’t go up, not at all, not in any way whatsoever, it just went down.” Lex Sokolin, on his time at Lehman Brothers in 2007     Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.     Worst investment ever Fresh graduate joins Lehman Brothers analyst program The year was 2006. Lex had just graduated from his undergraduate degree in economics. It was still cool to work in finance. He joined the Lehman Brothers’ analyst program alongside 40-50 people when the brand was very strong. His intake were young kids out of school, and associates. They were starting at the investment management division. One of the orientation activities was a stock-picking contest in which new staff had three months to generate the highest returns in a no-risk setting. Wins stock-picking contest just as big banks start to fail He won, which did amazing and damaging things for his ego. He was on top of the world as he had bested Stanford and Harvard people, and was on the road to success. It was now 2007. Bear Stearns appeared to be failing and collapsed shortly afterward. Rumors were circulating that the big banks had a lot of bad debt on their balance sheets and that they couldn’t meet their obligations. A liquidity crisis was looming and Lehman was in the crosshairs. Staff 401K packages are matched in Lehman stock At the time, Lex was in this investment management business and the Lehman price was around US$120 per share. Then it started to fall. It halved its value to 60. Then it plunged to 20 and Lex remembers that day. There was a strong corporate culture at Lehman Brothers. The corporate color was green so people would say everybody leaves green because everyone’s on the same team. So managing directors got paid in Lehman stock as a percentage of their accomplishments. Analysts such as Lex were matched in their 401K plans in stock. If you saved $10,000 you would get $10,000 in Lehman stock and nothing else. Also, staff could buy more stock at a 20% discount. Gordon-Gekko type invokes team spirit, tells staff to invest in Lehman stock So Lehman stock was $20, and it had been falling for months. Lex watched as the New York branch manager, an 80s throwback with Gordon Gekko suspenders and haircut, was saying that the stock price was ridiculous and that it had never been so cheap, so he was directing staff to buy more Lehman stock. Mr. Greed is Good was among people managing $80 billion in that business and another $200 billion in an adjacent business. Lex was 22 so seeing such experienced people made him think it was a good idea. The good news was that he didn’t have much money, because the stock never recovered and due to politics and personal animosity, and the devious dealings of Goldman Sachs, the whole company was the only one not saved by the bailout or takeover deals. Lehmans went to zero. Lehmans alone was left out in the cold Merrill Lynch also collapsed, but it was taken over by the Bank of America. So it didn’t go to zero. Bear Stearns had collapsed earlier but it was bought by JP Morgan. Lehman was the example for the whole world of learning how to be punished, and seeing the destruction of wrong balance sheet construction. Lehman was not a worse business than Merrill, it was a better business than Merrill, and it was not a worse business than Bear Stearns. What however happened was that when it was time to talk about a bailout, all the people in the room, from the treasury secretary to all the other banks, every single person had been a Goldman Sachs (GS) employee. 401K matching also went to zero also So Lex’s retirement package also matched Lehman’s and went to zero. So as a young analyst who was really good at virtual stock games none of the outcome was part of his decision process and was not something he knew. So understanding that this was not an exception, that the world is defined by these edge cases, that the whole thing is just these edge cases, was an extremely valuable takeaway. While he lost everything he had at the time, in the long horizon, “things turned out quite all right”.   “I was a super interesting moment, I am so incredibly grateful for having that early in my career, you know, two years into my career, because I saw everything from the behavioural biases that people have about the places where they work, the problems of over indexing and to one particular security, and then more than anything, you know, like idiosyncratic risk that you really can’t predict.” Lex Sokolin     Some lessons Overconcentration in any position exposes you to great idiosyncratic risk This is the kind of risk that you cannot create a model for, nor can you have any good sense for it, because it is unknowable. Diversification in portfolio construction is the answer Build a portfolio without overexposing yourself to any particular holding – diversify. If you’re doing a barbell strategy, make sure the other side of the barbell is really conservative, so if you one of your positions fails, it doesn’t harm your portfolio in a big way. People are not reliable sources of information Most of the time the information you’re receiving from other people is based on emotion. They might dress it up in technical language, but it’s not useful information. It’s just how they feel.   “So understanding that this (Lehman’s collapse) was not an exception, that the world is defined by these edge cases, that the whole thing is just these edge cases … was a majorly valuable takeaway.” Lex Sokolin     Andrew’s takeaways Benefits of diversification Risk disappears or reduces very quickly, in the beginning as you start to blend stocks together. “Diversification is the seat belt and blending in some sort of other instruments, such as bonds for example, is the airbag.” Common mistakes Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Misplaced trust Particularly for young people, you see senior financial experts managing billions of dollars, and you think: “This guy’s got to know.” Andrew always says, everyone’s ultimately making it up, this man or that woman just has a lot more experience making it up than others, and maybe has some great experience in risk management or another area. It’s hard to rely on humans to give you great information It’s also hard to rely on machines, or charts or data, to give you correct information     Actionable advice Figure out what know that you know and what you know that you don’t know Everything flows from that: the selection of your investment philosophy, the selection of your risk tolerance and your ability to put money to work. Figure out your goals for the financial planning you’re doing. Ask yourself the following: Why are you investing? What are you trying to get out of it? How are you going to behave when different scenarios play out in your investment’s performance? What kind of investor are you? Do you need help? Do you want to delegate that to somebody who will make you feel more secure and give you a smarter overlay? Or do you want to do it yourself?     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Lex at ConsenSys, one of the largest blockchain technology companies in the world, is focused on the tokenization of securities and the “connective tissue” between the traditional financial world and the world of digital assets, crypto assets, and how the two connect through platforms and software. So he’s trying to build some cool tools for people to get access to financial instruments that historically they either didn’t have enough money to do or was just too difficult to get involved with. It’s a very interesting opportunity because there has been a lot of pushback recently against cryptocurrencies at every level.     Parting words If listeners would like to keep up with some fintech news and developments, Lex invites you to check out his Twitter or follow him on LinkedIn for his newsletter.     You can also check out Andrew’s books   How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market   My Worst Investment Ever   9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them   Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with Lex Sokolin LinkedIn Twitter Website Email Connect with Andrew Stotz Astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned Harry Markowitz (1971) Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments   s a futurist and an entrepreneur focused on the next generation of financial services. He is the global fintech co-head at ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. Lex focuses on emerging digital assets, public and private enterprise blockchain solutions, and decentralized autonomous organizations. Previously, Lex was the global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research (acquired by AllianceBernstein), an equity research firm serving institutional investors, where he covered artificial intelligence, blockchain, neobanks, digital lenders, roboadvisors, payments, insurtech, and mixed reality. Before Autonomous, Lex was COO at AdvisorEngine, a digital wealth management technology platform, and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that partnered with financial advisors. Prior to NestEgg, Lex held roles in investment management and banking at Barclays, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank. Lex is a contributor of thought leadership to The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Reuters, American Banker, ThinkAdvisor, and InvestmentNews, among others. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences such as Money2020, LendIt, Schwab Impact, In|Vest, T3 Enterprise Edition, and Consensus. He earned a JD/MBA from Columbia University and a BA in economics and law from Amherst College.   “The good news is that I didn’t have any money, or whatever money I did have I put into some discounted Lehman stock thinking these guys knew what they’re talking about. And if there’s so much confidence, and they have such fancy suits, and they get paid so much, this thing’s got to … go up. And of course ... it didn’t go up, not at all, not in any way whatsoever, it just went down.” Lex Sokolin, on his time at Lehman Brothers in 2007     Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.     Worst investment ever Fresh graduate joins Lehman Brothers analyst program The year was 2006. Lex had just graduated from his undergraduate degree in economics. It was still cool to work in finance. He joined the Lehman Brothers’ analyst program alongside 40-50 people when the brand was very strong. His intake were young kids out of school, and associates. They were starting at the investment management division. One of the orientation activities was a stock-picking contest in which new staff had three months to generate the highest returns in a no-risk setting. Wins stock-picking contest just as big banks start to fail He won, which did amazing and damaging things for his ego. He was on top of the world as he had bested Stanford and Harvard people, and was on the road to success. It was now 2007. Bear Stearns appeared to be failing and collapsed shortly afterward. Rumors were circulating that the big banks had a lot of bad debt on their balance sheets and that they couldn’t meet their obligations. A liquidity crisis was looming and Lehman was in the crosshairs. Staff 401K packages are matched in Lehman stock At the time, Lex was in this investment management business and the Lehman price was around US$120 per share. Then it started to fall. It halved its value to 60. Then it plunged to 20 and Lex remembers that day. There was a strong corporate culture at Lehman Brothers. The corporate color was green so people would say everybody leaves green because everyone’s on the same team. So managing directors got paid in Lehman stock as a percentage of their accomplishments. Analysts such as Lex were matched in their 401K plans in stock. If you saved $10,000 you would get $10,000 in Lehman stock and nothing else. Also, staff could buy more stock at a 20% discount. Gordon-Gekko type invokes team spirit, tells staff to invest in Lehman stock So Lehman stock was $20, and it had been falling for months. Lex watched as the New York branch manager, an 80s throwback with Gordon Gekko suspenders and haircut, was saying that the stock price was ridiculous and that it had never been so cheap, so he was directing staff to buy more Lehman stock. Mr. Greed is Good was among people managing $80 billion in that business and another $200 billion in an adjacent business. Lex was 22 so seeing such experienced people made him think it was a good idea. The good news was that he didn’t have much money, because the stock never recovered and due to politics and personal animosity, and the devious dealings of Goldman Sachs, the whole company was the only one not saved by the bailout or takeover deals. Lehmans went to zero. Lehmans alone was left out in the cold Merrill Lynch also collapsed, but it was taken over by the Bank of America. So it didn’t go to zero. Bear Stearns had collapsed earlier but it was bought by JP Morgan. Lehman was the example for the whole world of learning how to be punished, and seeing the destruction of wrong balance sheet construction. Lehman was not a worse business than Merrill, it was a better business than Merrill, and it was not a worse business than Bear Stearns. What however happened was that when it was time to talk about a bailout, all the people in the room, from the treasury secretary to all the other banks, every single person had been a Goldman Sachs (GS) employee. 401K matching also went to zero also So Lex’s retirement package also matched Lehman’s and went to zero. So as a young analyst who was really good at virtual stock games none of the outcome was part of his decision process and was not something he knew. So understanding that this was not an exception, that the world is defined by these edge cases, that the whole thing is just these edge cases, was an extremely valuable takeaway. While he lost everything he had at the time, in the long horizon, “things turned out quite all right”.   “I was a super interesting moment, I am so incredibly grateful for having that early in my career, you know, two years into my career, because I saw everything from the behavioural biases that people have about the places where they work, the problems of over indexing and to one particular security, and then more than anything, you know, like idiosyncratic risk that you really can’t predict.” Lex Sokolin     Some lessons Overconcentration in any position exposes you to great idiosyncratic risk This is the kind of risk that you cannot create a model for, nor can you have any good sense for it, because it is unknowable. Diversification in portfolio construction is the answer Build a portfolio without overexposing yourself to any particular holding – diversify. If you’re doing a barbell strategy, make sure the other side of the barbell is really conservative, so if you one of your positions fails, it doesn’t harm your portfolio in a big way. People are not reliable sources of information Most of the time the information you’re receiving from other people is based on emotion. They might dress it up in technical language, but it’s not useful information. It’s just how they feel.   “So understanding that this (Lehman’s collapse) was not an exception, that the world is defined by these edge cases, that the whole thing is just these edge cases … was a majorly valuable takeaway.” Lex Sokolin     Andrew’s takeaways Benefits of diversification Risk disappears or reduces very quickly, in the beginning as you start to blend stocks together. “Diversification is the seat belt and blending in some sort of other instruments, such as bonds for example, is the airbag.” Common mistakes Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Misplaced trust Particularly for young people, you see senior financial experts managing billions of dollars, and you think: “This guy’s got to know.” Andrew always says, everyone’s ultimately making it up, this man or that woman just has a lot more experience making it up than others, and maybe has some great experience in risk management or another area. It’s hard to rely on humans to give you great information It’s also hard to rely on machines, or charts or data, to give you correct information     Actionable advice Figure out what know that you know and what you know that you don’t know Everything flows from that: the selection of your investment philosophy, the selection of your risk tolerance and your ability to put money to work. Figure out your goals for the financial planning you’re doing. Ask yourself the following: Why are you investing? What are you trying to get out of it? How are you going to behave when different scenarios play out in your investment’s performance? What kind of investor are you? Do you need help? Do you want to delegate that to somebody who will make you feel more secure and give you a smarter overlay? Or do you want to do it yourself?     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Lex at ConsenSys, one of the largest blockchain technology companies in the world, is focused on the tokenization of securities and the “connective tissue” between the traditional financial world and the world of digital assets, crypto assets, and how the two connect through platforms and software. So he’s trying to build some cool tools for people to get access to financial instruments that historically they either didn’t have enough money to do or was just too difficult to get involved with. It’s a very interesting opportunity because there has been a lot of pushback recently against cryptocurrencies at every level.     Parting words If listeners would like to keep up with some fintech news and developments, Lex invites you to check out his Twitter or follow him on LinkedIn for his newsletter.     You can also check out Andrew’s books   How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market   My Worst Investment Ever   9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them   Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with Lex Sokolin LinkedIn Twitter Website Email Connect with Andrew Stotz Astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned Harry Markowitz (1971) Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments    

Suresh Mahadevan is the CFO of SureCash, a fintech firm in Bangladesh. Prior to that he was group CFO at Digiasia, an Indonesian fintech firm after spending close to 12 years with UBS bank in leadership positions in Hong Kong, India and Singapore, working in the Asian equities business. Suresh has been an angel investor for the past four years, participating in more than 20 investments. He also advises several start-ups on strategy, culture building and fund raising. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School, a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering.   “We have tried raising a lot of money … the company’s out of cash and I have no other option but to close the company.” Email to Suresh Mahadevan from solo founder     Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.     Worst investment ever Suresh ventured into angel investing around four years ago, driven in part because his employer UBS, a large investment bank dominant in Asia, decided to ban staff from investing in listed stocks anywhere in the world, at any time. So what could he invest in? UBS said he could invest in ETFs and private companies. So that interested him and he started researching them. Angel investing target tries to harness India’s other religion – cricket This worst investment ever story centers around his third bid at angel investing, which featured his other passion (more or less India’s No.1 passion), the game of cricket. So the company he was looking at was a would-be unicorn market entrant - a fantasy sports betting app. The way it planned to make money was to let people to pick up their own teams with a mix of players from any teams. Then people could put money behind their teams. Depending on the performance of the individuals, you could get a big win if you picked all the right players. So the model was simple. The company collected all the prize money and distributed 80% of it. Fantasy cricket app was to be first of its kind In India, cricket is like a religion and Suresh had followed it closely for at least 40 years, so he was very attracted to the idea. The company was a software operation that built an app to allow subscribers to bet money on the people they picked, and they would strongly advertise this as a game of skill, not a game of chance. If a person has followed cricket or baseball for years, then they know who to pick based on the prevailing conditions. So having been an ardent fan of cricket, this was a big factor in why Suresh got excited about the company. Invests US$100K as noted cricket personality is solo founder What also excited him was 11 or 12 years ago, there had been established an Indian Premier League, professional Twenty20 cricket contest called IPL, and it was a big success. On top of that, the solo founder was highly qualified; he had been to all the right schools, the best engineering school, the best management school, and was a prominent cricket celebrity with millions of followers. Suresh consulted friends in the sports content business, who said Suresh was onto a great idea and also wanted to invest. Suresh felt he was looking at a once in a lifetime opportunity so he put US$100,000 into it, without sufficient due diligence. It was also early days for his angel investing career. He believed that such an astute and market-making play on cricket popularity in India couldn’t lose. ‘I forgot to tell you, he’s bad with numbers’, the first of many red flags Suresh signed up and introduced many friends to the idea, and they also invested. But the first warning signal sounds was when the very friend who had introduced Suresh to the founder said: “Hey, by the way, I forgot to tell you, this guy’s not great with numbers … he’s such a great guy. But his number sense is a little wanting.” Suresh said: “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Another thing Suresh noticed was that the founder used to visit Singapore regularly from India and he was always smoking and drinking. Suresh gently asked him about his health, as he was thinking this could be a matter of serious “key-man risk”. With so much riding on one man, there was danger he could become seriously ill or die on the job. Another red flag was the founder’s lavish lifestyle: he liked to ski, always stayed at expensive hotels, and would pay $15 for a gourmet coffee when a $5 Starbucks would have sufficed. Suresh started wondering if he was funding this guy’s luxurious tastes. Excessive personal and business spending ‘didn’t matter’ to founder Suresh eventually called him on his spending, but the guy fobbed him off, saying these things didn’t matter. Another strange thing was the founder wanted more introductions and he was constantly fundraising. Another problem with the business was that it was very seasonal, of course, being focused on cricket. So a lot of people were invested in this company, introduced by Suresh, which in the end was a source of embarrassment. Things went on like this for a couple of years. Then it dawned on Suresh that the company was failing to make substantial progress. He adds that the problem with start-ups is that when things are going wrong, the founders don’t communicate much and this guy wasn’t talking about problems, but was just asking for more introductions (and more money). Realizes that business is not on solid ground Finally, Suresh realized the business was quite troubled. This awakening came after another red flag that was very worrying. Whenever he asked the founder about the whole business plan, the founder would dodge the question. Suresh had also been meeting companies that were interested in buying the company outright. The founder refused, saying his venture was a unicorn that was going all the way to the top. Suresh said he has come across this many times: The Founder’s Ego! So after three years or so, Suresh received a nice email saying: “Hey, we have tried raising a lot of money. The company’s out of cash, and I have no other option, but to close down the company.” There was a well-funded competitor, which was now the real “unicorn” in the market, constantly advertising on television and was now very famous. So the newcomer became the winner who took it all and they took everything. The founder had run out of cash and ended up winding up the company.   “What had happened was clearly there was a very well-funded competitor, which was now the real unicorn, which was constantly advertising on television (a company called Dream 11) and was now very famous. So they became … like a winner who takes all and they took everything, because they were well funded and could do the customer acquisition.” Suresh Mahadevan   Some lessons Opportunity cost Be wary of investing with founders for whom the opportunity cost is high. Some founders think everything can be solved with money. Competition is always here or will always emerge The founder of this enterprise failed to put much thought into competition, at all. Do your due diligence on everyone involved This is especially true when your target company has a solo founder. This founder and his employees were taking regular salaries at high rates, and were not acting like careful people involved in a start-up. Be especially wary of lone founders They tend to become delusional. In Suresh’s portfolio of companies, the few that have not gone to zero but are not doing well are run by solo founders. Part of their delusion is that they externalize failure and fail to look inward. But, after these experiences, he has totally refined his investing process. One method he uses is that if he likes a founder, he gets a lot of other people to look at them and their business, for objectivity. Never dismiss red flags In Suresh’s story, the founder was not taking care of his health and this was an obvious red flag. Another was the lone wolf staying at fancy places the luxury of which was unnecessary and unwise.     Andrew’s takeaways Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Investing in start-ups (N0.6) is a very high-risk venture When you invest in a start-up, it is such a high-risk activity that Andrew usually recommends against it. Doing business with or investing in friends’ enterprises doesn’t always work, but it can work. It doesn’t always work with family, but it can work. Some people can truly earn our trust through good performance over a long period. Handy model to assess start-ups TIEM: Trust - Idea - Execution - Money Anytime Andrew looks at investing in a start-up situation, he applies this formula. Trust: The first question he asks is: Do I trust this person? Trust is only built over time, it’s very hard to walk into a new situation and say “I trust this person” If there’s no trust from the start … STOP. Idea: Is it a good idea? If it is not … STOP. Execution: Can this person or team execute on this idea? There’s a huge difference between the type of person who can come up with an idea and the type of person who can execute on it.  Part of Jen’s story was that her team started missing deadlines. They lacked the ability to execute the plan. Money: If you don’t have money, you’re not going to get there. So you’ve got to have the runway that money provides. In Suresh’s case “I think this one (company) really kind of broke down at the point of execution.” Andrew Stotz Financial professionals can be overconfident about own investments When talking to clients and advising clients, usually professionals put in a lot of care into the research done into the suitability of a particular investment on behalf of their client. But sometimes they throw that out the window when they’re looking at their own ventures. Things can get overlooked.     Actionable advice Search carefully into the character of founders or entrepreneurs Nowadays, Suresh spends a lot of time and effort in getting background and character checks done on founders, through multiple references. This includes going to consumers of their past products or services. The character of the founder is key in terms of his opportunity cost, even behavior such as reputation for doing the right thing. Be even more wary of sole founders Suresh is even more cautious when he is looking to invest in a business with a sole founder. Of the 24 angel investments he has participated in, three have not done well; one has gone to zero, two will probably go to zero in the next few quarters; all of that trio are sole-founder-led businesses. Suresh has found the common theme is that they tend to completely blame everything else except themselves.     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Suresh recently joined Bangladesh fintech company SureCash, and it’s purpose is very involving for him because it’s built on financial inclusion, as it is helping the government distribute money to mothers of primary school children. Over the next 12 months, he really wants to build a great business that helps improve the lives of people and creates value for the venture’s shareholders.     Parting words Angel investing is great because it helps companies and ideas to launch, but one thing Suresh wants listeners to remember is that is it the most illiquid investment you can ever make.   “If you have college fees to pay for … (or you are) sending them to expensive private schools, don’t put that money in angel investing.” Suresh Mahadevan       You can also check out Andrew’s books   How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market   My Worst Investment Ever   9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them   Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with Suresh Mahadevan LinkedIn Twitter Connect with Andrew Stotz Astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Jen Greyson is one of the top eight women in crypto and is a genius at failure. She’s currently running co.co, a start-up that’s the Airbnb of office space, speaks internationally on topics ranging from AI to being a female tech founder and knows the struggle of being a working parent through the longest summer.   “I should have left sooner, I would have still prospered like I did had I left when I knew I should leave. I stayed because of my investment, because of my sunk costs. I stayed longer than I should have. If I would have trusted myself when I knew I needed to go it would have been much more beneficial.” Jen Greyson   Support our sponsor   Today’s episode is sponsored by the Women Building Wealth membership group, the complete proven step-by-step course to guide women from novice to competent investor. To learn more, visit: WomenBuildingWealth.net.     Worst investment ever Chance meeting with computer engineer on an AI quest About four years ago, Jen had built the perfect life for herself. She was a new single mom, was ghostwriting for an amazing client that she had had for a few years and worked one day a week. She would go hiking with her dog and had a great home on a lake. Then she met a captivating computer engineer who was into AI. Over long lunches she would hear from him about virtual reality, AI and other things she thought only existed in science fiction. His goal was to build artificial intelligence “for good”, to create a level playing field so that some young person in Switzerland who wants to use AI to complete a college exam has the same chance as a CEO working for a Fortune 100 company that can afford to pay a huge AWS bill. Drunk on idea’s Kool Aid The more she started looking into the idea, the more she liked it. She offered to help with his writing really wanted to be a part of the process because it was world-changing. She was also newly divorced, had a lot of freedom and was financially doing well. So she dug into his business plan and her business brain kicked in. She had run some big businesses but had left corporate America never wanting to return. He suggested one afternoon: “You should come run my company for me.” And at this point, she was fully wrapped up in the idea, “had drunk the Kool Aid” and was really excited about it. Writer becomes investor and CEO to re-invent corporate world While not wanting to get back into her pantsuit, the idea of reinventing the way corporate structures worked appealed greatly. So even though she would be running this company, it was a start-up and they would be doing it on the global stage using crypto. That community was very welcoming and she saw the potential of the project and the potential to have an impact on small businesses, through neigborhood stores to college kids, and other players who really needed AI could have it. She had some money saved and the engineer didn’t but she decided to back the idea because she believed in it. They had a good plan in place, as with every start-up in the beginning. And the thinking, as with all new businesses is, in 90 days they would be rolling in money. Jen agreed to bridge the company us for 90 days and took out some loans. Costs sink in as deadlines pass and pass After the 90 days, they had some momentum so Jen decided to bridge the company for another 90, and another 90, and another 90, and we ended up raising some money from some other people. But, it started to go badly. Targets were not getting met, things were not getting done, sections of the project were not getting coded. It was her first experience with software development and she was really having to rely on his expertise. But she was also relying on her own expertise in running the business. She knew very well about deadlines and managing people and projects and making sure that what they promised, gets delivered. Major complications hit They started having many major complications and Jen as CEO held the fiduciary responsibility. She started feeling uneasy about what their investors were getting out of the deal and that her partner was wanting to start raising more money. She also felt bad about the risk she was taking because the SEC was really starting to look at crypto projects but the regulations were opaque, which meant risk. She was having conversations with lawyers around the world and in-house to navigate the regulation landscape. And Jen was personally committed to the tune of US$150,000, which made decisions difficult to make as a CEO without thinking about the money she was risking or that she had committed. Mentor asks hard ‘zero-based thinking’ question She was making decisions that might have been different if her money was not at stake. She met a mentor and, while she didn’t want to give up on the project, needed clarity. She had invested in it, believed in it, and truly wanted to have an impact on all those lives. The mentor asked her: “What would you say to a CEO in your position if you were coming on today as an advisor?” She was rocked, but it allowed her to look at the loss as a sunk cost and that that money was truly gone, never to be returned, and to ask herself what decisions she needed to make today? Jen left with ‘unattached’ view and resigns She left that meeting able to separate herself from the disappointment, the hurt, the anger at herself and to unemotionally, unattached, look at the situation clearly. It then made the next decision easy. She handed in her resignation and that was the end of it, except that she learned a lot of amazing things, and now considers it her “most brilliant failure” for sure.   “What would you say to a CEO in your position if you were coming on today as an advisor?” Jen Greyson’s mentor     Some lessons Live a life with no regrets Look at every situation as a learning opportunity Always get everything in writing Always assume a start-up is going to go bad Always have an exit strategy You must have a plan for when the start-up goes really bad. Be close with the others in a start-up Have a relationship with the people you’re going into business with or only work with people who know how to communicate and with whom there is mutual respect.     “Anytime you start a business with someone, it’s all unicorn farts and rainbows … Everything is glitter and beautiful and wonderful. And then, like any relationship, it gets hard and the honeymoon ends.” Jen Greyson   Andrew’s takeaways Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Investing in start-ups (N0.6) is a very high-risk venture When you invest in a start-up, it is such a high-risk activity that Andrew usually recommends against it. Doing business with or investing in friends’ enterprises doesn’t always work, but it can work. It doesn’t always work with family, but it can work. Some people can truly earn our trust through good performance over a long period. Handy model to assess start-ups TIEM: Trust - Idea - Execution - Money Anytime Andrew looks at investing in a start-up situation, he applies this formula. Trust: The first question he asks is: Do I trust this person? Trust is only built over time, it’s very hard to walk into a new situation and say “I trust this person” If there’s no trust from the start … STOP. Idea: Is it a good idea? If it is not … STOP. Execution: Can this person or team execute on this idea? There’s a huge difference between the type of person who can come up with an idea and the type of person who can execute on it.  Part of Jen’s story was that her team started missing deadlines. They lacked the ability to execute the plan. Money: If you don’t have money, you’re not going to get there. So you’ve got to have the runway that money provides. CEOs may be risking everything Normally what people say is: “I want the CEO to have skin in the game. I want the CEO to be aligned with the other shareholders and the other investors.” But the reality is that for CEOs, sometimes it’s all of their capital. Meanwhile others are investing perhaps just 1% or 5% of their total capital so the way they think is very different. I never thought about that. Zero-based thinking is a valuable mental tool It can be applied to any part of life, even apply to relationships. Knowing what you know now (about this enterprise or relationship or job) would you still get involved with it if you just encountered it now?   “If the answer is yes, awesome, keep building it. If the answer is no, that’s very valuable information.” Andrew Stotz     Actionable advice Trust your gut Jen says she should have left sooner and stayed longer than she should have. Set deadlines and set solid repercussions for when they are not met   No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Jen is 100% thrilled about her current start-up, mostly because he has some great partners. She’s excited to see that starting to change lives and is committed to creating spaces where people can work. “Each of us can start changing the world.” As a mother of two boys, she always I always want amazing things to happen for them. And so I'm excited to see what they get to accomplish in the next year.   Parting words Every failure has a lesson, and learn it the first time, or the lessons will get bigger, harder and bloodier.     You can also check out Andrew’s books   How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market   My Worst Investment Ever   9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them   Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with Jen Greyson LinkedIn Twitter Website Amazon Medium Facebook Connect with Andrew Stotz Astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

This podcast was recorded on 25 April 2019, and is dedicated to the birthday of Andrew’s mother, Kathryn Stotz, 81, who was born on that day in 1938. Mrs. Stotz is alive and well and a daily listener of her son’s podcast Scott Carson (aka “The Note Guy”) has been an active real estate investor since 2002, solely focused on the distressed mortgage and note industry since 2008, in which he buys and sells non-performing mortgages directly from banks and hedge funds on properties across the United States. Scott is the CEO of WeCloseNotes.com, an Austin, Texas-based real estate firm. He has purchased more than half a billion dollars in distressed debt for his own portfolio and purchases assets in more than 30 states across the US, while also helping thousands of real estate investors make money along the way. He is a highly sought after speaker on distressed debt, marketing and raising private capital. He has also been featured in Investor’s Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal and Inc.com. Scott is also the host of the popular podcast, The Note Closers Show and provides regular content across his YouTube, Facebook, and other social media channels. An avid sports fan and reader, he spends his free time attending sporting events, concerts, and traveling to new places.   “I felt depressed, I was sick. I even kind of burrowed myself in … when I should have probably reached out for help a little bit sooner from some outside sources. I think we all kind of get our heads down, and don’t let anybody know about the deal. But then I said: ‘I’ve got to take responsibility, I got to step up’.” Scott Carson, on how he felt about losing US$250,000 in a property deal   Worst investment ever Scott invested in distressed home loans in Chicago with a group of investors. The deal went south, legal proceedings took much longer than he expected, especially for out-of-state buyers of the distressed debt. Eventually, he bought out his investors and worked to close the deal, but in the end he lost about US$250,000.   Some lessons Always double-check legal proceedings Scott talked with his attorney often, but never asked the attorney realistically what the worst case scenario would be. Plan for the worst-case scenario Reach out for help sooner Take it easy Often escalating a situation is not the best way out.   Andrew’s takeaways It’s so important to reach out for help when times are tough ‘Stress is a killer’ I removed stress from my life when I stopped saying the word “stress”. You don’t need to draw a confrontation, stay calm Separate research on return from research on risk Collated from Andrew’s My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are:    Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company If you can separate the work that you’re doing on the return (which is very exciting) – what you’re going to make from it – from the work you do on the risks involved with an investment, then you have segregated that work and then you can look clearly on all the things that could go wrong, and potentially prevent them.   Actionable advice If it’s too good to be true it probably is Seek counsel rather than seeking advice Listen carefully when that counsel is delivered.   #1 goal for next 12 months Remove stress from work life   Parting words Take action!       You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Scott Carson Podcast Note Buying Blueprint Course LinkedIn Twitter Website Instagram Facebook Pinterest YouTube Blog Connect with Andrew Stotz Astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned    Scott Carson (1999) How to Buy Real Estate at 40% Off or More   

Natali Morris is a former network news anchor turned personal finance educator and motivator. Her specialties include personal finance, business, and technology. She is currently a contributor to CNBC and MSNBC where she was previously an anchor, a role she also filled prior to that at CBS Interactive. Her experience includes being a contributor to CBS News and the TODAY show, along with CNN, ABC News, G4TV (a former US digital cable and satellite TV channel), BBC, The CW, Fox News, Fox Business News, and Univision (Spanish-language reporting). She has written for Consumer Reports, WIRED, Variety magazine, MarketWatch, TechCrunch, The San Francisco Examiner, PC Magazine, ELLEgirl (now defunct), the Oakland Tribune (now the East Bay Times), and more. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University East Bay, and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Southern California. Prior to 2010, you may have seen her work under her maiden name, Natali Del Conte. Natali is from the San Francisco Bay Area. She lives and works with her husband Clayton and their three small children. Her sole focus is to not screw them up.   “I don’t want focus all the time on shrinking my life, because that’s what I’m worth, I want us, all of us to expand our lives.” Natali Morris   Andrew’s question about learning finance “When you first looked at the idea of learning finance, or learning investing for yourself … how did you feel about what you were faced with?” Natali’s response “If you look at your finances, how to get them in order and how to then save and invest, as a whole, it’s too much … I started reading these books about how many fees are in your funds, and your IRA and your 401k, and I got myself all worked up and pissed off. And then I was like, well, where do I put them? … So … that wasn’t getting me anywhere until I decided: ‘Okay, take one thing, learn that one thing and that teaches you the language of finance to go to the next’.”   Andrew’s points on learning Learn one book or take one step at a time Someone once asked Andrew: “How many books have you read?” The answer was: “Thousands!” The query continued: “How did you read so many books? Andrew answered: “I read them one at a time.” In reference to Natali’s “learn one thing at a time” strategy, Andrew agrees, saying: “Take one small step at a time.” Mother set example for family financial planning Andrew’s mother was very much involved in his household’s financial decisions and money management. His mother and father worked together for years to build financial security, so that they lived a period of 20 years retirement without financial trouble. When Andrew’s father passed away, his mother moved to Thailand with him and she is still financially independent. Cutting costs has a limit, growing wealth has few You can never get to true success in business, investing or in building wealth by cutting costs. There is a limit to cutting costs, so the other part has to answer the question: “How do we grow?”   Worst investment ever FBI probe of investment dare not speak its name Natali had some trouble choosing her worst, as she’s had so many challenges. One story she can’t really talk about because it is the subject of an active FBI investigation into some funds that were in her IRA. This investment was particularly heartbreaking because she had her children’s investments tied up in that situation, as well hers and her husband’s. Another situation also involved trust Natali and her husband Clayton (a previous guest on this podcast) got into business with someone during the past five years. They were helping other people invest in off-market properties. Their partner was a fiduciary (a fiduciary relationship is formed between two parties who trust each other. In real estate, a fiduciary relationship is created between a real estate agent, known as the fiduciary, and a buyer or a seller, known as the principal) who was selling all the houses and Natali and Clayton we were getting referrals on any investors that went through him. Towards the end of their relationship, they realized that a lot of the rehabs he had said he had carried out, had not been done or were incomplete. And so that really ended up exposing them to a lot more liability than they had planned for.   General lessons It’s very hard to save your way to wealth In fact, Natali says it’s almost impossible. She found that a very difficult change in her thinking. But change she did, and now she tells her clients and students that if she could achieve that shift, then other people can do it too.   Andrew’s takeaways Collated from this My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, from the most common, are:    Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Mistake No. 4 is Misplaced Trust Andrew goes on to ask Natali about the signs so that listeners are not sucked into a similar difficult situation. Natali’s lessons on trust delve into the spiritual Natali and Clayton explored why this had happened, looked back through their communications, and how they formed the relationship and they found it very hard to pin down how they could have known, so Natali calls this more of a “soul challenge” than a practical challenge, because she and her husband were unable to determine how they could have averted the results of this fiduciary partner’s misrepresentation. Need for healing other than legal, practical redress Natali and her husband actually teach people to take charge, run their numbers, research risks, understand who they are dealing with and do their due diligence. They had done all that. So after a few occasions of misplaced trust, she started to seek healing. The lessons she learned came from a spiritual perspective, and that somehow, they had been led toward all of the steps that she needed to protect herself before this happened. Higher power hints to put protections in place She had been working closely with state lawyers to make sure they had a domestic asset protection trust, and another instrument close to an offshore trust that is available under US law. She had educated herself and established those trusts before she and Clayton had had any problems. She had educated herself on different insurance plans and decided to open a captive insurance plan, a kind of advanced investor tool. She was prepared and she realized that a lot of times when a “big soul challenge” is coming, you have been prepared in ways by which you were not fully aware. Then when it hits, you realize why you needed to be so prepared. She says, some kind of spiritual guidance or guardian angel or higher power is putting in front of you the people you’re going to need, the books, the podcasts, and the information to guide you along your path. If you pick them up, you will be more prepared for the soul challenge when it comes. What if she hadn't been so ready? Natali often wonders what would have happened if she had failed to pick up the tools she had found before her? If she had just stepped over them before the soul challenge arrived, she would be injured much worse. She would have been saying: “I could have read that book. I should have called that person, I could have hired that estate lawyer.” Natali Morris   Andrew on spiritual preparation Right path is usually not so hard Some people say that they’re searching for God’s will on a matter. Others could say: “It’s just the right path for me to travel in life.” Andrew argues that the right path is usually not too difficult. If you find yourself getting in too much difficulty, it is probably a good idea to step back. When you think about spiritual preparation, look for a path. It’s not necessarily the easiest path, but it makes sense, and it feels right. Listen to your intuition When something feels wrong, pay attention, bring it up and put it right on your desk in front of you.   “You get into this scary time … you’re in … the belly of the whale … and you’re like, ‘how did I get here?’, I don’t know what the journey is and you have help along the way and somehow you come out of it a different person, and it shows you what you’re made of and what you’re supposed to learn from it.” Natali Morris   Actionable advice Look for the next book Natali recommends letting the next book or message fall in front of you and then read it, follow the intuitions or “wisps” or whatever is trying to guide. “Every moment gives you an opportunity to see and ask ‘Is this preparing me for something that I need to know?’ Let me give it some real thought.” Read A Hero with 1,000 Faces and you will realize all mythology has a story to teach us about how we are being prepared for our own hero’s journey. Natali is still involved in many painful situations, but she may not come out of them a hero, but that doesn’t mean she will quit. She’s learned a lot about herself, especially during 2018, when she had her husband went through difficult times. But now, she is stronger, not afraid of money, not afraid of investments, and willing to take on a seller finance deal and talk to a lender. A lot stronger than the “little housewife” she was trying to avoid being. Andrew’s value-added comment You’re stronger than you think. When you face difficult challenges out there, the reality is that you can make it through.   No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Natali wants to find a way to put the benefits of her and her husband’s Financial Freedom Academy in the hands of the people that need it the most, so that whatever soul challenges that have to do with money in their lives, they are not afraid. To listeners: Anyone who is facing the results of their worst investment, “this is just their opportunity to slay the dragons”.   Parting words “I appreciate you being empathetic and letting me talk.”     You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with Natali Morris LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Personal website Business website Blog Email Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned Natali and Clayton Morris (2018) How To Pay Off Your Mortgage In Five Years: Slash your mortgage with a proven system the banks don’t want you to know about Joseph Campbell (1949) The Hero With a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)  

Venkatesh is an author, speaker, investor and entrepreneur. He has spent 22 years in the Asian markets in senior roles across listed equities (with JP Morgan and Credit Suisse), private equity (with Macquarie and AMP) and corporate strategy (with Masan Group). He is the co-founder of strategy consulting firm Dhyana Partners, and has served as a director on the boards of several companies. He is also the author of suspense thriller, KaalKoot: The Lost Himalayan Secret, which has been a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon. In the listed equities space, Venkatesh has held several pan-Asia roles, including as head of India equity research at JP Morgan, and sector head for the Asian metals team at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. He led the Credit Suisse Asian metals team to No. 1 position in the Institutional Investor survey in 2002. At Macquarie, he was a senior member of the team investing and managing US$1.2 billion funds in the Indian infrastructure sector, and was a director on the board and an investment committee member for the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund. He led investments in Indian infrastructure assets at AMP Capital, and headed group strategy at Masan, one of Vietnam’s top-three largest private sector companies by market capitalization.   “Within a year both revenues and margins were under severe pressure and there was a fall in earnings. Eventually the stock halved so I lost 50% before I finally sold out last year. (This means) I held it for two years and lost 50%.” - S.Venkatesh   Worst investment ever Sudden changes turned tables for ‘perfect’ investment In 2016, Venkatesh acquired what he thought would be a good long-term investment – and the company’s profile showed it had good potential based on its statistics and then-current standing. It was a large, generic-pharmaceutical manufacturer, one of the top three in India and 20th in the world. With sales of more $1.5 billion, market cap running into billions of dollars, good return on capital, great management, and an excellent track record, one could easily ask: “What could go wrong?”   “I felt that the company had things going for it: new product launches, and so on … so I dismissed the market concerns.” - S.Venkatesh   Despite the company’s overall performance in its niche, its fundamentals and sentiment toward it slid unfavorably. Venkatesh said, at that time, the US market was experiencing “huge pricing pressure”: a severe decline in prices and an increase in customer consolidation. In the same year, the US government also implemented stricter rules over imported goods and drug pricing. This led to “stricter inspections and adverse alerts”, which in turn equate to higher import costs, with the product demand remaining constant, if not gradually decreasing due to increased local and/or foreign supply. Disregarding the red flags, Venkatesh held onto the investment, thinking that the market would eventually make a comeback, that the pricing pressure would stabilize and then return to its historical trend, and that new product launches would aid this recovery. He also thought the regulatory environment was a sentiment issue. This worked for the first few months. However, after a year, the effect of the changes in the US market was drastically felt in revenues, margins, and earnings, and after one more year, the stock’s value was halved.   “Rather than holding it all the way down, it’s better to cut losses and get out of a position that has gone wrong. But by the time I finally did that … I was already down 50%.” - S.Venkatesh   Some lessons Investing is a lot of hard work Stay on top of your stocks’ fundamentals all the time. Even with the apparently safest company in the world, conditions can change very fast. Pay attention to margin of safety in valuations Sometimes at the top of a bull market, investors can feel that if the stock is good, they can pay more for it, which might work for some time. But with expectations so high, a small reporting change can mean that the stock corrects quite rapidly. A stock can still look as good or inexpensive as it has in its history, but if the company’s earnings halve, it can suddenly look very expensive. Be ready to correct course Keep a close eye on market concerns, and be ready to adjust your weight in a stock and cut your losses, especially if something is fundamentally changing. If Venkatesh had done that, he would have cut his losses earlier instead of holding on to it as it fell all the way down. About changes: get past denial, accept and act Accept when the fundamentals change, and avoid anchoring yourself to your old investment road map. Venkatesh realized that the time between his denial and acceptance took too long. When the expected stock rebound did not happen, he should have accepted the change and acted by taking money out of it and reallocating it into something with better long-term prospects.   “If something changes, and your thesis itself is compromised, you need to exit that.” - S.Venkatesh   Andrew’s takeaways Collated from Andrew’s My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are:    Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company Venkatesh took the route of trusting that his investment would grow on its own, and that the market itself would eventually rise up despite the stricter rules implemented on the pharmaceutical niche. That is not to say that he was careless, though. This leads us to Andrew’s second takeaway. Being experienced does not mean you are perfect Venkatesh has been in the business for quite a long time. From the many years he’s worked with various clients and stocks, he can be branded as someone who knows the market very well. Despite this, he is still human, and therefore is not immune to making mistakes. Trend reversions do not always happen It is a marvellous event for majority of the investors out there, that somehow, the market would revert back to what it once was some years ago. Change is constant, however, and rarely does this event ever occur. Investing is hard The investing journey has so many routes and detours that one small decision or event can quickly change your investment’s course. Not only that, but there are also unpredictable external factors that may affect the way the market will move. Thus, you need to always be alert and aware, and stay on top of your game. Investing is similar to but not same as gambling People enter the investing business because they want to grow their wealth – a lot like gambling, if you think about it. In the same way, you need to set up your own strategy to be able to play. Moreover, experience is needed for you to know how the other players manage their game. The difference, however, is that in investing, you will experience an even greater loss if you’re not careful.   Actionable advice Be flexible about changing your investing road map and work really hard to monitor your investments.   No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Venkatesh is hoping to build the business at Dhyana Partners, to work with more clients and help with their businesses, their growth or with their restructuring. His focus will be very much on the customer and delivering results for the, He is also working on his second book, to improve his skills as a writer and express his gratitude to readers of his first release.   Parting words “It’s fine to make mistakes, but it’s more important to realize when you made a mistake, and to course-correct.” Regardless of how experienced we are, there will always be times when we will poorly judge situations, or we let our emotions get the better of us. Thus, this leads to us making the wrong decisions, which is actually quite normal. During these times, the best – and probably only – thing you can do is to learn from those mistakes and ensure that you won’t make the same errors again through acquired experience and growth.     You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points  Connect with S. Venkatesh LinkedIn Twitter Goodreads Facebook Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  Further reading mentioned S. Venkatesh (2018) KaalKoot: The Lost Himalayan Secret  

In this episode Natalie shares insight and a channelled message from Spirit on TRANSFORMATION. We are going through a time of transformation right now and it can feel overwhelming as we leave behind the old and step into the new. This message will help guide you and give you confidence during this time. Podcast Music: “Follow You” by Daniel Gong (Dansonn) Resources mentioned Donate to Emergency Medical Aid for Sudan https://ca.gofundme.com/emergency-medical-aid-for-sudan Collated education resource on what is happening in Sudan via Nidal @ https://www.instagram.com/niidal/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OdpG2HJyTNuY4-5Zn1jsYFK3hBBOxpvwUHZD-N7HCCs/edit Donate Wellness Support to the people of Sudan experiencing second hand trauma. Curated by Seher.  Instagram- IG @ https://www.instagram.com/seher/ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6A9tQNn4DVeUSWTm3TjKKR6OhMSWbw-l6UQGp2EjbyR0KhQ/viewform Sign up to tonight’s online circle- Solstice Reactivation & Celebration Online Circle. Join to celebrate this special time of year and connect to the vortex energy that will be flooding the globe. Replay available if you can’t join live. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/solstice-reactivation-online-circle-tickets-62880420029 Guided Meditation Access to reclaim your power and cut the chords from past relationships - https://nataliemiles.podia.com/ Listen to the June 2019 Upgrade message- “Create the Space”- https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ep-40-monthly-upgrade-message-june-2019-create-the-space/id1439836108?i=1000440037155 Sign up to AIRR to share your podcast highlights with friends ly/airr-intuitive Ways to connect with Natalie Visit - www.natalie-miles.com for all her offerings and services Purchase the Meet Your Spirit Guide online workshop -https://nataliemiles.podia.com/meet-your-spirit-guide-workshop Instagram- Follow Natalie - https://www.instagram.com/iamnataliemiles/ Sign up to the newsletter to receive the Weekly Message from Spirit https://thepsychicupgrade.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=28bb40726986eb60943bdb89b&id=bda96b2403 Send Natalie a Spiritual/Intuitive Question as a voice memo to be answered on the podcast podcast@natalie-miles.com (no personal questions will be answered) Take the Free How Do You Receive Your Intuitive Guidance Quiz at https://natalie-miles.com/get-guided-quiz/  All content and written show notes - Copyright Natalie Miles 2019

Reed Goossens moved to the United States in 2012 to pursue a career in structural engineering, however he then discovered a passion for real-estate investing. With limited funds and no credit, Reed went from purchasing a small duplex to growing his own real estate investing firm, RSN Property Group. Reed now syndicates large multimillion-dollar deals across the US and certainly lives up to the “never-say-die” Aussie attitude when it comes to being a successful entrepreneur. Reed is also the host of the up-and-coming podcast, Investing in the US: An Aussie’s Guide to US Real Estate (and has recently published a book of the same title), wherein he invites other distinguished real estate investors and entrepreneurs to speak with him about their success and help guide other international investors who want to successfully invest in the US.   “The ARV (After Repair Value) was not large enough to justify how much money we ended up spending to add this third story.”   Reed Goossens    Worst investment ever ‘Networking on steroids’ typifies Aussie engineer’s view of first real estate event in US Reed moved the United States in early 2012 and was without a job, so he took the brave move of walking the streets of New York City to visit every engineering firm he could find, with his portfolio in hand and saying, “Hey, give me a job!” He quotes Tony Robbins, who says: “One ‘yes’ will change your life”. And it did. He looked at medium-sized firms, and admiring his spirit, one actually did employ him. Within two weeks of moving to the US, he was at his first real estate networking event, and he realized the Americans were on a different level than he was coming from Australia. He called the US experience “networking on steroids”. Learning about US property Realizing he had much to learn in his new home country, he spent the next six months doing just that. He realized quickly however how low the barriers to entry to the property market are in the US compared to those in in Australia, in that he could go out and buy a property for US$38,000. He was amazed, stating that you could never buy in Australia for under around $250,000-$300,000. He visited upstate New York and bought a number of properties but quickly ran out of his own money and banks were shy about lending to this new arrival. So he found a partner, and with him, started looking at properties in Philadelphia, as he wanted to try his hand at flipping houses. He was confident he could do so as a chartered structural engineer who had worked on many ground-up developments, including the London 2012 Olympic Games site. Reed finds a partner and they buy a row house in Philadelphia to flip So, he and his business partner bought an early 1900s two-story row house in Philadelphia for $110,000. Their goal was to add a story to match adjacent houses and make this row house similar to others in the city and those in New York, and thereby add value to the property. Reed did all the structural engineering drawings and they hired a general contractor (GC). Contractor’s thievery and other horrors make for a lengthy and costly project And here Reed explains the two main problems with the investment. The story he said is a very good lesson in After Repair Value (ARV) and underestimating the cost of carrying out the renovations. In the end, the ARV was not large enough to justify the amount of funds they ended up spending to add the third story. Combine that with shoddy GC work – the general contractor stole materials from them and Reed had to take over the GC work himself and handle all the subcontractors. There were other problems on the mechanical, planning and electrical sides, as the original GC had cut corners and sealed walls before the city had inspected plumbing and electrical wiring. They even found some of their stolen materials at project site a few streets from the house, as they had been networking and were invited onto another developer’s project site. Extra pressure hovers nearby as investor’s father is also involved The situation was also riding on some emotional issues. Reed’s father was also invested in their project and it was Reed’s first foray into syndication. They all thought the build was only going to take around six or seven months, but it ended up taking about a year. And they were holding it the more spending was happening on the debt, the soft costs, and just really having to try to get it out of a hole. One of the subcontractors also ended up being jailed over a bar fight. So, suffice to say, a lot went wrong. At the same time, Reed was trying to move to Los Angeles to be with his girlfriend, who was from there, and his business partner stayed to finish the job. Heart of the loss was how much the home would be worth after repairs The summary though was this and Reed points out the heart of the problem was in the ARV. They bought the house for $110,000, spent about $220,000 or $230,000 on it and sold it for only $375,000. Reed did take care of his father, and kept the promiser of a 15% gain on his investment. Personally, Reed took a loss of about $40,000, or he calls it a $40,000 lesson. He opines that if the ARV was going to be worth $500,000, they would have been very happy. Quick sale but investor takes $40k hit In the end, the house sold within 30 days, which showed there were no issues with what they produced but it just took six months too long. From the time they started looking at the property to the time that they exited and got paid, it was a full 18 months. Some lessons Never overestimate your After Repair Value. On paper everything can look great, but excessive time taken in undertaking renovations can eat into the ARV. Do a lot of research on all possible hidden costs. These can take the form of regulatory issues, materials, builder errors, and contractor overruns. Ensure you work with the right people. Obviously, try not to work with thieves, but build a great team around you, a team you can trust. Never underestimate the value of time and timing the market.   Andrew’s takeaways Opportunity cost can have a massive impact. Reed was drawn into a project that became much deeper and expensive in time than he had expected. He could have been working on another deal or bringing in revenue from some other sources. It’s very hard to estimate what can go wrong. But that is part of risk management. And then Andrew discusses My Worst Investment Ever’s six common mistakes, particularly in reference to No. 2, failed to properly assess and manage risk. But also Andrew argued that sometimes we can do all we can and things can still go wrong. Collated from Andrew’s My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are:    Failed to do their own research   Failed to properly assess and manage risk   Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking   Misplaced trust   Failed to monitor their investment   Invested in a start-up company  Anomalies can scare us. They can also be misleading and some people get scared out of investing completely. But don’t build your career and investments around these anomalies. These will often happen and there’s not much we can plan to avoid them.   Actionable advice Partner with the right people. Your team is everything. Making sure you have the right team around you, who have done it before, can go a long way toward avoiding such risks.   No. 1 goal for next the 12 months In terms of investing, Reed would like to close on another 1,000 units in the United States. On the personal side, he would like to travel more and spend a lot more time on business development, podcasting, book launches, which is the type of activities he is growing to love.   Parting words “A fool and their money are easily parted. So don’t be that fool.” What that really means to Reed is he recommends getting out there be educated, learn from other people’s mistakes, but at some point in your life, you’re going to have to take action. Invest in yourself first and foremost, and get yourself knowledgeable about whatever investment strategy you’re going into, whether it be stocks, bonds, mutual funds, investments, real estate investments, and be knowledgeable before you pull that trigger.   You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points    Connect with Reed Goossens LinkedIn Website (business) Website (personal) Blog Twitter Facebook Pinterest YouTube Email Phone: +13235191111 Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  Further reading mentioned Reed Goossens (2018) Investing in the US: The Ultimate Guide to US Real Estate

Paulo Lydijusse Caputo is pursuing an MBA at McGill University (Canada) with a concentration in global leadership and strategy. After graduating with a bachelor of economics from Faculdades de Campinas in Brazil, Paulo worked for five years at Cyrela Brazil Realty, the largest real estate company in South America, acting as a regional controller in his last role. Paulo then spent a summer launching Uber’s operations in Belo Horizonte (sixth largest city in Brazil) before co-founding Baanko, a social enterprise with the objective of supporting and scaling social-impact businesses in Brazil. At Baanko, Paulo developed an in-house business methodology framed around and aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Paulo is interested in pursuing careers in scalable technologies and impactful industries, with particular focus on AI and entertainment. His personal interests include tennis, outdoor activities, coffee-brewing methods and barbecuing. He is the executive president of McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management  One World One Culture Club and was recently awarded with the Mandri-Muggenburg Family MBA Leadership Award.    “I really believe in giving back and this is something that I learned since the beginning of my career. For me, this is part of it so call on me for whatever you need and whenever you need it.” Paulo Caputo   Worst investment ever Property insider buys discounted home from his employer real estate firm Around seven years ago Paulo experienced what he called a “real fail”, meaning in terms of investing, it was not a case in which he could find a way through to recover or minimize his losses. This one was “critical”. While he was working for Cyrela, the largest real estate operator in South America offered staff the opportunity to invest in one of its apartments, under apparently favorable conditions. Cyrela offered to waive all commercial, marketing and transactional fees, which meant a discount on the apartment’s face value of around 17-20% off the face value of each apartment. In Brazil, to buy a residential property, during the construction period, you only need to pay 30% of the price, then you hand over the remaining 70% after the vendor hands over the key. So lenders give you credit and you pay off the mortgage to them. His focus on all the shiny parts of the deal blinded him to the bigger picture Paulo liked the idea because he felt he was an industry insider who knew exactly what to do. Also, the apartment was conveniently located, so he felt confident about finding potential buyers. His idea was to sell the unit during its construction period, thereby being both an early investor and an early seller. He also felt confident he was investing in something that was valuable at the time and that it would generate a great return. Somewhat focusing on all the good points and so touched by a fair measure confirmation bias, he was expecting to easily find someone to buy , that he would know exactly the right time to exit the unit, and that he would the right price he wanted for it. But things did not pan out that way. Adding to his early excitement was that he was investing in a product that was part of his life, because he was working for the company that was building and selling it. He admitted that social validation was also component of the decision. He really believed in an operation that he was working for and that nothing could go wrong. Reality bites as government crisis darkens market But the political economy of South America, particularly Brazil’s, is always a roller coaster of volatility and Paulo got hit in one of its swings downward, the first episode of declining fortune for the previous government. He explained that investments in real estate involve a very high-end product. So it is high on the chain of products people can buy in their lives. A home is not something you buy every day and it is an item highly vulnerable to outside events, political, economic, and social. Apartments are the last thing Brazilians want to buy at this time So, Paulo tried to sell his apartment several times, involving the entire Cyrela sales force, all of whom he knew and were friends with. But, liquidity in the housing market was frozen. It was not a problem of the product or a problem of the price. It was just that people were averse to taking on a new home. He said when there is such a blip in the political and economic cycle, most people are not going to take on such risk. So buyers wait for the recovery, and in real estate, at least in Brazil, property is a product that is first to be hit, and the last one to recover. So before any buyers are ready again, everything needs to be back on track before you can start to resell apartments or other high-end products. So either you are ready to be comfortable for the long period that you are exposed or you have to cash out completely. Investor forced to sell property back to his employer at a loss Paulo eventually sold the apartment back to Cyrela at a big loss because he was unable to find another buyer. So of the saving he was offered at the beginning, he paid around twice or triple that amount when he exited the investment.   Some lessons Operating a business and investing in a business are completely different. Paolo really thought that because he was inside a real estate company, had worked in many areas of it, and that he really knew the business, that he would be investor in that business. The signals the market sends are vastly dissimilar from the signs you can read from the inside of a business structure. As a buyer, one can only see a narrow part of the entire picture. Dig deeper if your bias and marketing departments are telling something is good. Investors can really be influenced by explicit and implicit influences. They are always being hit with different messages sent by the market of the people promoting an investment. In Paulo’s case, Cyrela invested a lot in promotions to employees, emphasizing how the discount would make buying one of their apartments a good investment, as were his peers and bosses, who were always sending positive signs that fueled his own confirmation bias – what he was expecting to hear. It is very difficult at such times to see any red flags about possible negative impacts. Talk with people who do not stand to benefit from your potential loss. Talk to people outside the deal, who never bought an apartment, never heard about a stock that you are you trying to buy or sell, and try to explain the business to them. Their probably very good questions will make you think more deeply about what you’re getting involved in. “I’m not saying don’t invest, but just saying try a different path.”   Paulo Caputo    Be aware and look for details about potential harmful impacts or events. Paulo never considered that the economic or political context would be so tough on the investment he was making. Not only that, he neither entered his mind nor his decision-making process. Sometimes such impacts can be related to the federal government, sometimes even local government, can have enormous impact on the performance of any impact.   “I think more and more that failure is a part of any success … now I can see from a completely different spectrum.” Paulo Caputo   Andrew’s takeaways Make sure you understand the characteristics of the sector that you’re investing in. Something very important to remember is whether the sector you’re investing in is a consumer staple or a consumer discretionary item, in terms of sector classification. The whole point of the discretionary sector is that it comprises products that are not used or needed every day, and therefore consumers can delay buying them. These are items such as a car, a house, a condo, even a TV. The difference between discretionary and staple items, such as coffee, or food, is that the latter are those that people keep buying even when there is a recession, although they may go down a bit. But when the economy has a hard time, it is discretionary items that really get hurt. Always be aware of external factors. Investors often forget about external factors. Everything was right about Paulo’s investment. He was working for the company, he had good information, it was a good product, he believed in it, other people around him were making money on it. If things didn’t go sour in the economy or the political situation, Paulo would probably have made a good return. But when external factors hit, they can have a massive impact on your investment and can even wipe you out, especially because they are so often events that you cannot possibly predict will happen. Collated from Andrew’s My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are: Failed to do their own research Failed to properly assess and manage risk Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking Misplaced trust Failed to monitor their investment Invested in a start-up company So how do you deal with external factors? Manage your risk and diversify. Andrew suggests to Paulo that the common mistake he was talking about was No. 2: Failed to properly assess and manage risk. Paulo probably assessed the risk quite well but as far as managing the risk, that is a different activity. Paulo may have liked this particular investment, but the problem that most people have is that they put a lot of their money into a particular investment. So, they’re not managing the risk of their overall portfolio. If this was 5% or 10% of the money that Paulo were investing, then he probably could have found a way to work around it and stay with it for a longer time, or he could have just cut his losses without much damage. But particularly when we’re young, it’s hard to diversify, because we don’t have the capital to do that. Don’t be driven by emotion or flawed thinking. Paulo was surrounded by people that were confirming his investment. Being surrounded however is a little different to common confirmation bias, which is that people go out looking around the internet or around brokers or other people to try to find people who agree with their idea. But here Paulo was surrounded by people who agreed, and some of them had made money over the years doing this type of thing. So it was not a case perhaps of them being misleading, there was just no one talking about how it could all go wrong.   Actionable advice Surround yourself with people that can challenge your thoughts and your assumptions, and you can learn from them every time. Talk with people that you trust and that can provide you with good feedback about your reasoning and can challenge your assumptions.   No. 1 goal for next the 12 months After his first MBA year at McGill, Paulo wants to do an exchange stint in China. McGill has many partnerships with universities in China and he is fascinated by Asia. His main focus is to keep striving for better understanding of AI to be well positioned for the future.   Parting words Despite any failure, don’t stop, be resilient, know what you want and strive for it. “There is no path with only success and winning …(Losing) is part of the game. So play the game, bring your ‘A game’… and in the end,you’re going to win.”    You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points    Connect with Paulo Caputo LinkedIn Instagram Email  Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast 

Ramesh Raghavan is currently the vice chairman of Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia (bansea), one of the leading and oldest organizations of its kind in Asia, as well as an early-stage venture investor and advisor in several start-ups. He is an advisor on risk management in traditional public market investments and alternative investments to family offices and emerging hedge funds. Ramesh previously held global leadership roles in derivatives, capital markets, and sales and trading with Morgan Stanley and the Royal Bank of Scotland and has worked in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Prior to his career in investment banking, he had a fast-moving consumer goods and commodity trading career with multinational corporations. Ramesh holds an MBA from the London Business School, a Masters in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and a Mechanical Engineering degree from India’s oldest technical institution, the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, India.     Worst investment ever  Investor takes first flight as an angel   Ramesh’s first taste of angel investing happened about 12 years ago when a former college friend approached him to invest in an “execution-type business” that seemed interesting even though it was not a fundamentally new idea. Ramesh listened because the guy had been the smartest person in the room at university and had a good work history with large multinational companies. So Ramesh decided to invest his own funds and gather an investing syndicate together because he believed in the person more than the actual idea.   ‘Too many generals and not enough soldiers’ raises first red flag  After a few months, red flags began to appear. Ramesh couldn’t see any traction. Communications were worse than the usual poor information flow from start-ups. He couldn’t get clear answers when he wanted to know what was happening with the business, and something he has learned with angel investing since is that people tend to take the money for their business and disappear, only reporting good news and failing to provide updates on the bad. Being responsible to his investor syndicate, Ramesh urged his friend to tell him what was happening and if there were any problems. Finally, he then insisted to see the business plan in which he noticed there were eight co-founders, when three or maybe four should be the maximum. That said, he stressed that there should be one “chief”. He also noticed that all these co-founders had significant multinational experience but that nobody was doing the job. Everyone wanted to get paid but nobody wanted to actually do anything. They lacked the inability to actually get down, roll up their sleeves and actually do stuff.   Time to trim inactive ‘leaders’  Ramesh’s first advice was to fire the loafers and change the whole business model. As the company was not making money, the significant salaries had to be cut to zero. If nobody liked it, Ramesh told his friend they should leave. His friend was unhappy, but after months of pushing, the friend managed to get rid of two co-founders. But issues remained. The company’s leaders still had no key action areas for which each person was responsible. So Ramesh worked with him, nearly four or five hours a session, over about six weeks to figure out how to help him create a viable potential business plan that including setting out key responsibilities for each of the co-founders, who were visibly unhappy at the prospect of doing some actual work.   Remaining team fails to listen to chief advisor   After a lot of prodding and mental anguish, Ramesh’s friend introduced him to the remaining co-founders and they found someone able to be best pitch person from the team to raise more capital, which, after a few months, they were fortunate enough to do. This gave them some breathing room. A lot of the time though, Ramesh began to realize that the team would say yes, but they would never take his advice. So the traction was very poor and he learned that it didn’t matter what he said, the red flags were clear. Ramesh also advised his friend that if the current business was not working (which it wasn’t) in the current state of the market, they should pivot the business. The friend was so stuck on his idea that he thought pivoting meant accepting failure, despite Ramesh telling him that every start-up pivots every other day. Great idea do not just take people to success in a straight line.   Investor becomes CEO and tells everyone to adapt or die  It was at this point, Ramesh took over as CEO. He had to put his foot down with the board and the team and say if they were not on board with pivoting, they should leave. After that, two other co-founders did just that which left the company with a team of the ideal size, three or four co-founders. Salaries were slashed and Ramesh had to point out that “entrepreneurship is not a salary-collection business model”. Ramesh said that despite being friends he had to be frank ab out how they should go forward giving life to the business, because he had a responsibility to the investors he had brought into the deal.   Boss tells team weekly to focus on getting customers – still no progress  As another year past, Ramesh noticed that traction was still lacking, and his friend was losing hope. He found that he was not just playing CEO but also playing therapist to his friend while taking a very hands-on approach trying to motivate the people to keep the business alive. Still without processes to manage employees, Ramesh told them to forget everything else and just focus on finding customers to pay for the business, and that all other activities were irrelevant in the scheme of things. Despite getting another investor to help out, he tried to look for progress every week, and every week, there was no progress and hundreds of excuses.   Team continues to do ‘busy work’ without achieving much  So the team was still acting like bureaucrats or employees, just sending out emails to each other. They were too used to working for large organizations, which for most of the time can run on their own. But this was a start-up, running with zero revenue, zero brand value, and zero everything. There were still too many chiefs, and their ability to manage the soldiers was very poor.   Investors call a halt after money runs dry and team effects no real progress  A few more months went by, and the team came back to the investors asking for more money. Ramesh told them there was no more money out there and that they should put in their own funds. They refused. The discussions went on but it all became too much for Ramesh and they pulled the plug. He told the team that, yes, they had tried to do something, it didn’t work out, but stressed that he was more disappointed that they had failed for the wrong reasons. If it didn’t work out for business reasons, that would have been alright. However, the fact that they could not manage the people side of the business, had a top-heavy business model for a start-up – in which the soldiers were not paid and the generals were skimming salaries at the top – was a very bad precedent, so bad that it was very unlikely they could do anything more with the company.     Some lessons  Be clear about the reason for investing in a start-up. Be clear whether you are investing in a business for the sake of friendship or for the sake of business. Be clear whether you expect a return from the investment or not. Once that is clear and you expect a return from the investment then do all the due diligence before getting involved. It can longer, but never invest just on the basis that someone is a good friend, a smart guy, or their successful corporate background, because the start-up life is a different kind of animal altogether.   Don’t invest in a business with too many co-founders. Too many chiefs are waste of time.   Investment must go to build the business. It must not go to supply the founders’ huge salaries before there are revenues and profitability. Look carefully at the business plan and determine whether the “leaders” are eating up the investment in salaries.   In a start-up, people must have a sense of urgency. Every day you have to do something that adds value and adds something positive to the basic objective of driving the business forward: Find customers, lower costs, build a network, raise revenues, or whatever it is, every day.   Don’t cling too tightly to your business idea. A least 90% of businesses start up with an idea does not work, so they have to pivot and figure out a better model for it to work.   It’s very important to take care of your soldiers in the business. They are crucial for the success of your business. First pay the soldiers and then pay yourself. Don’t pay yourself first and leave the soldiers in the air.   Vitally important is the ability to listen to and execute advice. If you execute it and it doesn’t work out for valid business reasons, people understand. But you should not give reasons that are flimsy. Don’t put your excuses on lack of capital or feedback from investors.   In a start-up, you have to be “a hungry dog”. You can’t wait to be fed, you have to hunt down the necessary capital to feed your company. You have to go after people because people don’t come after you. When you work for a large multinational, people come to you. When you are a start-up, you go to the people.   Have a good mix of talent in your team, with defined roles. Such people should be experts in their domain with specific responsibilities, not just people dressed up as co-founders who are doing nothing. Makes sure you can identify the roles, identify the action plan stemming from each role, identify outcomes, and then actually execute your business. Then you will have a much better chance of doing something much more credible.   “When you’re getting into a start-up … leave the baggage of what you did before (at the door) and be open to new ideas. Roll up your sleeves and do what needs to be done to get the business off the ground, because nobody is coming here to help you. You have to go to the people to help yourself.” Ramesh Raghavan   Andrew’s takeaways  Collated from the My Worst Investment Ever series, the six main categories of mistakes made by interviewees, starting from the most common, are:   Failed to do their own research   Failed to properly assess and manage risk   Were driven by emotion or flawed thinking   Misplaced trust   Failed to monitor their investment   Invested in a start-up company  Be wary of putting trust in someone who doesn’t fully deserve it. The fourth category of the most common investment mistakes gathered through Andrew’s My Worst Investment Ever series is Misplaced Trust. Ramesh put trust in somebody who was perhaps undeserving on the basis of what Ramesh needed him for; in this case executing a successful start-up.   Investing in start-ups (number six) is an extremely high-risk venture. When you invest in a start-up, it is such a high-risk activity, that Andrew usually recommends against it. Doing business with or investing in friends’ enterprises doesn’t always work, but it can work. It doesn’t always work with family, but it can work. Some people can truly earn our trust through good performance over a long period.   When doing small business, you must do everything. If you’re thinking about going in and doing business, and you think it will give you more time, think again. You’re going to be overwhelmed and you’re going to have to do many things you never dreamed you would have to be doing.    Actionable advice   Never have a business with more than three co-founders, and each must have specific, clear, identifiable responsibilities for what they will bring to the table.   The equity should be split based on what the investors or co-founders bring to the table, rather than the pure capital that they put in.     No. 1 goal for next the 12 months   To figure out exits for some of the investments Ramesh has made so that he can convert that locked-up capital to liquid capital for better uses in the future.    Parting words   Be bold and remember that the first step in making money is actually to lose some money. So don’t worry about losing money, as long as you win more than you lose.    You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points    Connect with Ramesh Raghavan Email Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  Further reading mentioned Gary Sutton (2001) The Six-Month Fix: Adventures in Rescuing Failing Companies 1st Edition 

This season finale shares 5 key principles distilled from conversations with all my guests on the series: Fused-glass artist Jo Downs Artpreneur Jason Borbet aka 'Borbay' Gallery owner Mike Goldmark of Goldmark Art Art consultant and gallerist Alix Sloan Business coach to artists Catherine Orer Best selling author Jeff Goins Author and coach for introverts and other quiet people Pete Mosley

Collated by Rich Chilver and Bethany Sharp A verbatim comment on Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town.