Lessons and Learnings

The Early Years

I was eight years old when I realised that my dad was never going to have a new car – and I didn’t understand why he found that acceptable - especially as my mate next door had a dad with a bright shiny new one. And I was fed up with home made clothes and having the mickey taken out of me at school.

A couple of years later it dawned on me that my parents truly believed they had no choice. They accepted “their lot”, made ends meet and made the best of what they had. I realized that I couldn’t accept that things couldn’t be different. However well they meant in advising me what to do, I knew then that to achieve better results in life, I would need to fashion my own approach.

I wanted to have choice, so I figured I had to become rich. At the time, I was at a poor comprehensive which I hated. I was bored. I understood the work and could do it – but I wasn’t being stimulated in the classroom and I was being picked on in the playground. Thank God I never had a knitted swimming costume as some others did – have you seen what happens to them when they’re wet!

I day-dreamed about being a barrister or a chartered accountant, but I wasn’t going to get that in my school and there was no way to afford private education. So I would have to educate myself – through life’s experiences.

I addressed the money thing very quickly. I played truant from school, took on three paper rounds and created a gambling club playing cards. 30 years ago I was earning £50 - £100 a week! That was more than my father earned.

I also learned some basic facts that would see me through life.

• Don’t count your money until it’s in the bank.
• It’s possible to succeed and win – you just have to work out other people’s methods – understand their limitations and weaknesses – and be better than them.

My first big mistake was settling for the only job I thought I could get, because I had zero qualifications – just three O’levels. I became an engineering apprentice. I didn’t have to use my brain and there was no progression. It was a stark lesson. Sacrifice weighs ounces, regret weighs tonnes. I should have studied. I wasted the time I had and I couldn’t go back and do it again.

So, my train of thought was, if I wanted to have a job that I enjoyed, chances were it would pay poorly and always would. So I took the equation and turned it on its head. Rather than look for the poorly paid job I enjoyed – I looked for the jobs that were the best paid or had best paid potential – SALES.

I replied to three sales ads every week and eventually got a job – and my next material lesson: the importance of experience.

With no experience I was terrible at selling. I was ranked 43rd out of a sales force of 43. Not a good position. But as I realized that I couldn’t sell, I also learned that I could work hard – very hard. One is usually at a disadvantage in life, and that rarely changes. So the difference is how you deal with it. So I worked harder, made more calls, worked seven days a week and got in the numbers. Within 12 months I was ranked 2nd.

As writer and minister the Rev Robert Schuller says: “when you achieve a small thing you can see your way through to achieving another”. So I thought, if I can do this for someone else, I can do it for myself. I needed a business idea.

First business

I was dating a girl at this time who loved having a tan and she’d bought herself a £400 sun bed. Very expensive back then. Now I knew nothing about sun tanning and nothing about electricity but I could see that her sun bed was basically a box with light tubes in it. I believed instinctively that I must be able to make it for a lot less. Not only that, but I laid odds that people would love to rent them - instead of buying one outright. I did the maths. The risk versus reward ratio was very good. It would pay back after 14 weeks of rental.

Slight issue, I had no money.

My next lesson. If I waited for more money or more information, I might never do it. So I bought two sunbeds wholesale on a credit card and started renting them out.

I had worked out that margin and volume are two key drivers of profit. So I worked quickly to get some financing and started to make sun beds. Competitors were quick on my heels in an easy entry market – so I focused on something they would need – the tanning tubes. I became the largest UK importer of tanning tubes and had my own factory and two show rooms.

I wasn’t going to stop here. Tanning tubes were good business, but it didn’t look sustainable - so I kept looking for more ideas.

My next lesson came quickly: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Making my First Million

I was approached to get involved in a brand new business – party plan perfume sales. It was a mass market product, a massive industry and I could see the USP. We would create designer type perfumes of the same quality as the key brands - but sell them much more cheaply. I decided to invest some of my tanning business profits.

By the way, this business was in the USA. So here was another lesson. To follow an idea, I had to get off my butt and move countries. Making money is not always convenient. A great tip for anyone!

I became a millionaire in my late twenties. And learned again: As a minority shareholder I didn’t get to make the decisions. I came up with ideas that were successful, but I did not have control. The perfume business came to grief in a law suit against an international luxury company who won.

From millionaire to the wilderness. No business, no income, no credit, no home. I did struggle for a bit deciding what to do next because life looked pretty bleak.

So back I came to England with my tail between my legs. I went to bed with a question every night, hoping for an answer when I woke. And then one morning I had one.

The Entrepreneur

It kept coming back to me, that property had been a very good investment for me during the last few years – inadvertently. When I was in the tanning business the commercial rents eroded profit, so when the perfume business started we bought our own commercial property - and doubled our money. It was an accident, but a good one.

I was frightened because actually didn’t know anything about property and I didn’t know where to start. So I did the obvious – I started. I bought a run-down ex-council house and an old school and did them up, changed the use and sold them. I doubled my money. I carried on to the next projects and people started asking me for tips on how to do it.

It was at this point I saw the void. There was no way for people to learn how to get in to property. If I could do it from scratch, why shouldn’t other people? I knew I could fill this gap by providing education. So I launched Inside Track. We provided intensive two-day seminars that taught would-be property investors all the tools of the trade.

The business went from strength to strength. I often say that you have to be in a business to see the nuggets of gold. As well as how, where and what to buy, I was being asked if I could actually do it for them. So in response to client requests, we launched Instant Access Properties – a one stop shop for clients to buy properties more cheaply off plan, with a view to accumulating wealth for themselves in the long term.

I created over 20 property millionaires, had 17,500 happy clients and sold £2.3bn worth of properties. Not bad for a bloke with three O’levels! My learned lesson here is that the people who will make money from property are those who are in it for the long haul.

Today

During my career I’ve had a lot of successes and retired twice. But like many people who wake up in today’s world you sometimes can’t do things exactly as you planned. Right now we are all experiencing historic geo-political and economic events. I’m out of retirement and I’m working – quite hard actually – but I’ve never been afraid of that. There are several new ideas in the melting pot, some of them very exciting and I can’t wait to be able to put them down on paper and share them with you. Watch this space.