In this 12-minute video, “School of Hard Knocks” interviewed wealthy holiday shoppers in Houston, Texas. The questions include the most amount of money they have made in a year, what are their career/life advice, and more. The entrepreneurs being interviewed span a variety of industries:
- The 64-year-old Wealth Management Guy
- The 27-Year-Old Cyber Security Guy
- The 65-Year-Old Oil & Gas Guy
- The 34-Year-Old Solar Guy
- The 54-Year-Old Lumber Guy
1. The 64-year-old Wealth Management Guy (1:18)
What’s been the best financial advice that you’ve ever received that you would pass on to the younger generation?
- Most people will sacrifice what they want most for what they want now.
- ‘Now’ is the most expensive word in the English language.
- You got to be able to hang into things for the long haul.
You work in finance, but are you a business owner?
- Yes. I have my own wealth management firm that I started 13 years ago. It’s about seven times the size of my brokerage practice when I left the brokerage industry 13-14 years ago.
What has been the most amount of money that you’ve ever made in a single year?
- $6 million.
Have you ever been broke before?
- I spent the first half of my life broke, and that’s where I learned a lot of really good lessons about what not to do.
- My parents were divorced. I came from nothing. My mom’s car got repossessed. I had a tough upbringing.
What was that turning point like for you?
- I would say go to church, pray, learn, be curious, figure out how things work, and learn how to articulate that to other people.
- People will seek you out if you’re knowledgeable and trustworthy.
How old are you now? How old were you when you became a millionaire?
- 64. 36.
For young 20-year-old kids, how can they become millionaires in 2024? (2:38)
- Scalability: Think about businesses that generate recurring revenue that is non-transactional.
- Example: In commercial real estate, you can make a lot of money, but you got to go out and find the next deal.
- Finding deals is what makes it tough.
- I played the long game: My clients hire me on retainer, and they pay me every year.
- Scalability is a really important part of business: thinking about how to mass produce one little thing that you can deliver to lots of people in a non-transactional method.
- It is a really good way to make a lot of money.
- This is NOT taught in school.
2. The 27-Year-Old Cyber Security Guy (3:58)
What do you do for a living? How are you able to afford a G-Wagon out in Houston, Texas? (4:11)
- I started a cybersecurity company.
How much money is that business going to generate you this year?
- 7 figures a month.
How old are you now? How old were you when you became a millionaire?
- 27. 27.
What keeps people broken in today’s world? (4:31)
- Ignorance. But ignorance is not a demon.
- The way that you can collapse time is knowledge. So, everywhere you feel like there’s darkness, search for all of the knowledge that is allocated to getting you the results that you seek, and you should be fine.
Going into 2024, what is the best industry that people should be looking to get into right now?
- I’m biased. I would say cybersecurity.
- It’s costing my country like 10% of its GDP, like hundreds of billions of dollars.
- So, if you can be the kind of person that goes into an organization and helps protect the organization, that’s pretty much inevitable. You’ll get the money you’re looking for.”
Have you ever been broke before?
- A couple of years ago, like probably like 72 months ago.
When you were there, what was the turning point like when you’re like, ‘I need to change?’ (5:07)
- To be honest, I think the best decision that I ever made was I stopped making decisions.
- Everywhere that I wanted to go, someone had already gone, and so I just needed to find people who had already gotten there.
- Getting around the right person, getting around the right knowledge.
3. The 65-Year-Old Oil & Gas Guy (5:48)
How long have you been in the business (energy, oil, and gas) for?
- 35 years.
Over these 35 years, what has been the most amount of money that you’ve ever made in a single year?
- $8 million.
What happened that year that you were able to make $8 million?
- Sold our company for $740+ million.
How old are you now? How old were you when you became a millionaire?
- 65. 60.
If you were to go back in time and have a conversation with yourself, what would you do differently? (6:17)
- I’d start in banking.
- What I did was I started in technical geophysics and geology, which is great, but you’re only going to be working for somebody if you do that.
- But if you understand where the money’s coming from or who’s got the money and how that all works, then you can do a lot more things.
You ultimately exited a company for nine figures. What took you from eight to nine figures? What’s the secret to that?
- Be super aggressive, took a lot of risk, worked our asses off, and got in at the right time.
- In the early stages, when Mexico opened up, and we were there, and we took that risk and drilled that first well, and it came in. It was a big one.
Last words of advice to someone trying to become a millionaire going into 2024? (7:00)
- Work your ass off.
- Study.
- Talk to people.
- It’s all about people and work with good people.
- It has the ripple effects.
4. The 34-Year-Old Solar Guy (7:45)
What do you do for a living? How are you able to afford a Lamborghini out in Houston, Texas?
- I own a solar company.
What’s the most amount of money that you’ve ever made in a single year?
- $2.3 million.
How did you scale from six to seven figures? (8:05)
- Have the right people.
- Somebody once told me: If you want to go fast, go by yourself, but if you want to go farther, go with people together.
- In my company, I have the right people do their jobs: VP, marketing, sales, etc.
- You really need to know how to put those people together and take care of your people.
- If you take care of your people, they will take care of your business.
- Somebody once told me: If you want to go fast, go by yourself, but if you want to go farther, go with people together.
Have you ever been broke before? (8:36)
- Oh yeah!
- I come from Honduras; went to school with shoes; came to US when I was 14; didn’t speak the language.
- I went into sales.
- I think sales really made the big difference in my life where it put me into a situation. → taught him how to sell.
- Met so many great people.
- You just got to go to commission sales.
- You can be selling solar as well as many other products.
How old are you now? How old were you when you became a millionaire?
- 34. 27.
Any last words of advice to the younger generation aspiring to own a Lamborghini one day? (9:23)
- Do not let social media fool you.
- Do not get caught up on the online gurus, who want to teach you how to make money.
- If you want to learn something, you can find it online pretty much free.
- Youtube.
- Google.
- ChatGPT.
- You don’t need a guru, but you need a mentor.
- Be genuine with yourself, work your butt off, and just keep going.
5. The 54-Year-Old Lumber Guy (10:33)
Are you a business owner (in the lumber industry)?
- Yes.
What has been the most amount of money that you’ve ever made in a single year?
- $194 million in 2022.
What’s the number one thing that took you from 8 to 9 figures? (10:46)
- Identifying people.
- I’m not in the lumber business. I’m in the people business.
- When you start getting at a certain level, you do have to start considering letting go of certain things.
How old are you now? How old were you when you became a millionaire?
- 54. 35.
Advice for a 20-year-old to become a nine-figure entrepreneur? (11:14)
- Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything.
- Everybody has great ideas. But there’s people that execute things well.
- It’s not just taking action. It’s how you execute. It’s the follow-through. It’s the precision. It’s the focus.