The Tycoon Playbook

Career Freedom: Around the World in 80 Trades

Career Freedom: Around the World in 80 Trades

Although this blog maybe about learning the strategies and tactics of self-made billionaires on the surface, at rock bottom it's about freedom. With that in mind, I'd like to share with you a great tale of a man who found freedom for a year.

Suppose for a moment that time travel was possible and you found yourself 1000 years back in time somewhere along the old Silk Road with a limited grubstake of money. Could you survive by trading?

The series, Around the World in 80 Trades, is about a man who places himself in such a predicament in order to test his mettle. Conor Woodman quits his job in "The City" (i.e, London's Wall Street) and decides to trade his way around the world using a limited amount of personal capital. When I say "trade" picture it the way it was done for thousands of years by traders and nomads traveling along the Silk Road. Conor trades in anything that he thinks can provide a positive ROI: camels, horses, wine, coffee beans, jade stones, surfboards, etc. Since its his own money, every trade counts. He travels across Africa, Asia, South America, and Mexico.

Each of the four episodes is approximately 50 minutes long. Watch Conor get off to a bad start when he's shut out of a camel trading trading market by the locals. This is great stuff if you're into adventure travel and commerce.

I include this series here for another important reason. Most of the billionaires we study in the Billionaire Strategies Course are or were superb traders. It's a key business skill to cultivate.

Episode 1 Part 1 of 5

Episode 1 Part 2 of 5

Episode 1 Part 3 of 5

Episode 1 Part 4 of 5

Episode 1 Part 5 of 5

You can catch the other three episodes of Around the World in 80 Trades at Youtube.

Billionaire Richard Branson's Toughest Business Lessons

Excerpt from the Richard Branson biography.

Richard Branson shares his hardest lessons in the revised edition of Tom Bower's biography Branson.

Conjuring a fortune from thin air has been Richard Branson's genius since the early 1970s. By chasing fashion and juggling options, Britain's most popular businessman has turned investments in music, airlines, radio and now mobile telephones into mega-million-pound windfalls to be neatly deposited in his family's tax-free offshore trusts.

His latest coup, transforming Virgin Mobile from a mere idea in 1999 to a company valued at over £800m, is certainly remarkable. Incredibly, Virgin Mobile owns nothing more than a sales force and a customer base, allegedly, of 4 million subscribers. The telephone network and the company's headquarters are rented. The ace is the Virgin brand name and Branson himself, posing as the People's Capitalist.

In common with everything connected to Branson, the headline announcement last week that NTL, a cable company, wants to buy Virgin Mobile triggered much babble but little illumination. After rejecting an opening bid, Branson, with his customary cool, is waiting for the inevitable new offer and a top price.

NTL is not paying with cash but with NTL shares, and the hype of combining NTL, Telewest and Virgin into a seamless company to rival Sky exemplifies Branson's permanent lust to play in the big league. Challenging Rupert Murdoch has become a virility symbol for British tycoons irritated by their pygmy status on the world stage. Jargon about "quadruple play", meaning one server providing telephones, internet and TV, sounds good until you examine the parentage. NTL is criticised as unreliable, while Branson is the master of hype, often followed by failure.

Since he started Student magazine in 1967, Branson's searing ambition and personality has lured friends, entrepreneurs and established corporations to believe they can always earn fortunes by their attachment to him. Fuelled by the self-made tycoon's incessant self-glorification and ferocious publicity campaigns, the headline successes over the years have sustained the myth of invincibility.

Virgin Music - started amid a sophisticated purchase-tax fraud that Branson admitted in 1971 - was sold in 1992 for a record £560m. That money sustained Virgin Atlantic, the airline started in 1984 with a single, old Boeing 747. In 1999, when Branson sold a 49% stake of the airline to Singapore Airlines to relieve a financial squeeze, he valued the business at £1.2bn.

But beyond those two outstanding successes is a history of failed enterprises, which might have cautioned NTL. Virgin Cola, hailed by Branson in 1994 as the inevitable successor to Coca-Cola, has practically disappeared. Virgin Clothes, launched on the stock exchange in 1996, folded with losses to shareholders. Virgin Money was launched with a glitzy advertisement of Branson emerging naked from the sea, but did not deliver the expected big financial rewards. Then came Virgin Vie, Virgin Vision, Virgin Vodka, Virgin Wine, Virgin Jeans, Virgin Brides, Virgin Cosmetics and Virgin Cars - none fulfilling their creator's inflated dreams.

Other disappointments were truly painful. Virgin Express, an airline based in Brussels, was intended to rival easyJet, but the original investors on the stock market lost money. Similarly, the McCarthy brothers, who invested over £30m in V2, Branson's second music company, lost all their money and, unable even to pay the milkman, faced personal bankruptcy. Australians who invested in the 2003 flotation of Virgin Blue, an audacious, no-frills airline, rewarded Branson with over £200m for a stake of his original investment. Initially the airline was successful, but soon after Branson pocketed the money, shareholders watched the share price fall.

His ventures have also included two catastrophes. Virgin Rail was Branson's big dream. For years he had campaigned in Westminster about the advantages of privatising the rail network. Branson posed as the socially acceptable capitalist, able to offer cheap, modern and reliable rail travel without government subsidies. His promises were not fulfilled. Virgin Rail remains dependent on state money, aggressively protects its monopoly, and is subject to innumerable passenger complaints. The company's history damaged the Virgin brand and Branson's reputation as a reliable entrepreneur, the capitalist with a social conscience.

By 2000, Branson believed that the catalogue of disappointments was behind him. In a millennium lecture in Oxford, he confessed that winning the national lottery licence remained his major, lifetime's ambition. His reason was simple. That year, all his businesses other than the state-protected monopolies in airlines and rail, were losing money. His assiduous promotion of a People's Lottery and his overt support for Tony Blair, Branson believed, could secure his dream on his second attempt. His ambitions are not solely altruistic.

Possessing the lottery licence would bequeath a vast cash flow in management fees and endless free publicity to Virgin by association while Branson anointed the lottery's millionaires. By controlling the lottery, Branson would never again need to bother with dicey enterprises like cola, clothes, cosmetics or even mobile phones. Most important, he would reverse the crushing humiliation he suffered by two rejections.

Convinced by his own genius, Branson had been shattered in 1994 to be told that his bid for the lottery was not only unsuccessful but rated poorly compared with his competitors. He was infuriated by the regulator's decision.

Two years later he launched a libel writ against Guy Snowden, the American mastermind of Camelot, the winner. Snowden was accused by Branson of offering him a bribe. When Snowden denied this, Branson successfully sued for defamation. Regardless of the merits, Branson's pursuit of Snowden, long after Camelot's success was established, suggested to his critics a nastier side of the tycoon's character. Snowden was classed among those who had initially been attracted to sup with the legendary businessman, only to find himself to be his victim.

That view about Branson influenced the strange events following the original award of the lottery licence in 2000 to Branson. Challenged by Camelot in court for her conduct in selecting Branson, the lottery regulator was forced to resign and the competition was re-opened. Eventually, the same lottery commissioners decided to reverse their decision and re-award the licence to Camelot. In the aftermath, Branson pledged never again to bid for the lottery, but recently he has embarked on preliminary discussions with the regulator to consider launching a third pitch. His addiction to winning the Big One reflects his insecurity.

While in recent years he has confounded his critics and rescued himself, thanks to Australian investors in Virgin Blue, he lacks a secure foundation to sustain his fortune from market fluctuations. The profits from airlines and mobile telephones are vulnerable to events. The lottery is guaranteed cash.

If he can profitably exit from telephones just as the business is getting difficult, that would be convenient. Some of the profits could be used for his lottery bid. Branson's hurdle will be silencing the whispers of the wounded, urging his failure. 

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The above excerpt is from the Tom Bowers book Branson.

If you are a serious student of business, check out the free mini-course on how billionaires become billionaires.

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 1/6

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 1/6 

Today, more and more millionaires are truly self-made and most of them are people just like us. They started off in similar jobs to us, attended similar schools and had similar opportunities. But unlike us they've made a million. By getting up-close and personal with twelve inspiring self-made millionaires, a team of psychological profilers will examine the character behind success, and discover what we can learn from them.

Okay, here's the 1st of 6 parts.

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 2/6

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 3/6

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 3/6 

Here's the 3rd part.

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 4/6

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 4/6

Here is the the 4th part of the program.

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 5/6

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 5/6

Here is the the 5th part of the program.

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 6/6

Do You Have a Millionaire Mind? Part 6/6

Here the the 6th and final part of the program.