What does it take then to be a good business person, businessman, woman or an entrepreneur? What do you think are kind of the key assets now because the world is changing very quickly?
Number one, you have to, have to, have to get used to rejection because when you get famous or when you get big and you start earning a lot of money and you start doing things that are important people, around you start feeling less significant. And what’ll happen is they’ll start to pull you down. I call these red lighters. People who are red lighters are people that stop you from doing things and we want to stay, not stay away from red lighters, but just be cautious of who we’re hanging around.
One joke I have is if you list down all the people that you hang around and you put red, green, red, green, red, green. Well, who’s a red lighter? Who’s a green lighter? And all the green lighters, meet with those more often than you do with the red lighters. Number one, and that will give you the confidence because you and I know that as entrepreneurs, and you and I are both entrepreneurs, we will ask people about their opinions on say, property or real estate or stocks or self-development or online businesses, or whatever it is. And depending on what that type of person is, they’ll influence your thoughts. The first thing is, you’ve got to be able to take rejection. That’s the first thing.
Second, is you have to hang around the right people and here’s what happens. Most people, they’re hanging around with people who give them unsolicited advice. I remember one of the first houses I bought was a cracking deal, it’s worth 155,000, I was going to buy it for 124,000. It’s 25,000 pound discount, and for me, that deal at that time was one of the best deals I’ve ever come across. And I went to my friend, I told him about it and my friend said, “Well, there must be something wrong with the house.” Or, “It sounds too good to be true.” And as I thought about it, I didn’t end up taking that deal. And when I thought about it, when I rewinded back, I saw someone buy the house, sell it in the market for 185. I lost out big time there. And one thing I learned was this, that getting advice from people who know nothing about what you want to do is crucial. That is the biggest lesson I learned. Number two, is you got to hang around the right people you’re going to be around.
Number three, you got to get a mentor. And I know you work with some really, really big clients and they’ll say the same thing. You got to get mentors to help you avoid those mistakes because I kind of draw this graph. Most people think success is from here and they got all the way up. And they think it’s a straight line. But what happens is you kind of go and you go like this and then you get that success. Trying to avoid that stuff of going around in circles and taking the long shortcut, as I say, that’s why mentor is there. Is to make sure they don’t lose money in what they’re going to do. Is to make sure that they take the right path and to accelerate it. It’s taken me years to get to where I’ve got to now. If I had someone at the time and I know I had a mentor, but I wish I would’ve got more mentors to teach me different aspects and areas of my life. You definitely, definitely to get mentors. You asked me the top three. Those are the top three.