My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

Avelo Roy is a serial tech entrepreneur, investor, and TV host, who started his first startup at the age of 19 around his patent-pending technology while still studying as a computer engineer at Illinois Institute of Technology. He built that company up to a multi-million dollar valuation by the age of 22. Over the years, he has built eight businesses in the US and India with millions of dollars’ worth of products and services ranging from consumer electronics, artificial intelligence systems, healthcare process automation, food science, wireless communications, wearable technology, and graphical password applications. As the great-great-grandson of the first female governor of India, a Gandhi-protégé (Sarojini Naidu), Avelo continues the legacy forward by tirelessly serving the Indian youth through entrepreneurship education using lean startup methodology and principles of Bhagavad Gita. His efforts through Kolkata Ventures in the past three years have resulted in 400+ revenue-generating startups responsible for around 4,500 new jobs created in 10 states of East India.   “Your investors should not have the right to tell you what to do, but they can advise.” Avelo Roy   Worst investment ever Avelo came across this fantastic well-respected venture capitalist who kept asking him to join a company that he wanted to buy from the current co-founders. The venture capitalist nagged Avelo for six months, but he kept saying no to his request. At the time, Avelo was running his business in Kolkata while the venture capitalist was in Delhi. The venture capitalist was so interested in hiring Avelo that he flew down to Kolkata. He told Avelo in two hours, everything that he was doing wrong with Kolkata Ventures. The guy knew what he was talking about. Getting a local mentor Avelo grew quite interested in the venture capitalist, especially because he needed a mentor in India. At the end of their discussion, Avelo decided to take up his offer. So he flew down to Delhi. He looked at the team and the business to see what was possible. The warning he should have heed The founder of the company told Avelo not to take the deal. He said to him that he’d been unable to run the company. The venture capitalist told Avelo to ignore the founder. The reason why they were getting rid of him was that he was very arrogant. He convinced Avelo to come on board and buy the founder out together. It took six months to get the papers in order and finally get access to the product. Working with the best The product the founder had built was the best in its category in the UK. But then the investors purposely let the founder “die”; they stopped investing. People came in with money and saw his arrogance, and would back off. When Avelo got the product, it was just buggy, irrelevant, and had many problems. The biggest hurdle, though, was that the payment gateway was not working. There was no way for customers to pay for the product. Trying to get things back on track Once Avelo had the team ready, he proposed to rebuild the product to the investors. They refused and said that the product was known for its intelligence built with so many data sets, and had hundreds of thousands of users. He couldn’t get rid of it, create something in six months, and expect it to work. They insisted that Avelo work with the product as it was and make it work. Avelo was getting quite frustrated with this decision. Having built eight businesses, gone through a product development life cycle over and over again, he knew that when you deal with somebody else’s code, it takes a long time to learn it. It is far easier and smarter to rebuild from scratch than take somebody else’s mess and try to make sense of it. But the investors disagreed with Avelo on that. All gateways shut The product was not making money as the payment gateway was still not working. To make matters worse, when the Cambridge Analytical scandal happened, Facebook shut the doors on small players. More than half of the product’s business was happening through its Facebook API, which got shut. Now he had a product that hardly worked. There was a lot of money going in, but no results were coming out. Things just keep getting bad As if all that was not enough, the venture capital firm that was supposed to put in the money ran out of funds, and they didn’t tell Avelo that. Now the whole project was on his shoulders, and for almost a year, Avelo had to fund it partially, putting in far more than he had wanted to do. His ego just wouldn’t let him allow the business to fail, but things kept getting more challenging as he still could not change the product. But he kept pushing it. A ray of hope, perhaps? After a while, Avelo managed to get back up to 100,000 users. They had gone down from 300,000 users to zero. From there, they went up to 100,000 users and kept going, but no transactions were happening. Money wasn’t going to come in without a working payment gateway. Something interesting then happened. Out of the blue, two US magazines, Cosmopolitan, the number one magazine for women, and Seventeen, a top magazine for teenagers, ranked Avelo’s product as a top product for dating, something the company had never considered. Hitting a wall yet again After the review from the two magazines, Avelo realized that people were chatting with each other and finding friends through the product. He suggested to the investors to consider going in that direction. Again, the investors refused to listen to his suggestion claiming that they were conservative, tax-paying citizens, and such a product was unacceptable in India. Counting his losses and letting go A year into it and burning money every month, Avelo decided to add this investment to his list of bad investments, called it quits, packed his bags, and went back to Kolkata. Avelo’s worst regret was not filing any paperwork for shareholding although they had agreed on shares and so he had no shares in the business. Avelo left with nothing even though he had invested his money into the business. His worst investment ever, though, was looking at this venture capitalist as a mentor. Lessons learned Don’t let your investors force you into business decisions Don’t let your investors corner you into making business decisions that you disagree with, especially if you’re an expert. Don’t let them twist your arm. Be strong, explain to them that you know what you’re doing, and if they want to make money, you need to do what you know best. Get your paperwork done Don’t get into any deal without the proper documents. Make sure that you have contracts and agreements in place before you commit to anything. Don’t treat your employees like family Employees need to be treated as employees to be effective work relationships and establish boundaries. Andrew’s takeaways Be adaptable If you want to do business outside of your home country, you’ve got to be able to break your frame of reference and be adaptable to different cultures and customs. Do your due diligence first, not after It’s important to remember that due diligence is done before you act. Some people either never do due diligence, or they do it after. You have to dig in because when you go into a small business or a startup, you’re talking about investing the next one to five years of your life, and you are going to be completely focused on that. So you’ve got to try to uncover anything before you get into it. It is lonely at the top It is very lonely at the top because you can’t talk about the pains and struggles that you’re personally going through with your team. It’s just not appropriate. You can’t talk about the financial or business challenges that you’re facing. You have to keep a brave face. Businesses fail It is normal for businesses to fail, so don’t be afraid to walk away. The reality is, the seeds of that pain and suffering are the ultimate seeds of your future success. Actionable advice Be as diligent as you can be with the people you work with. Cover everything that could go wrong. Make sure that your investors don’t have the right to tell you what to do, but they can advise. Ensure that you have that level of autonomy as an entrepreneur before you get into a startup. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Avelo’s number one goal for the next 12 months is just to survive 2020 and write. He is also looking at investing in a few startups that might be dealing with tomorrow’s technology. Parting words   “Think big, start small, grow slowly, then grow fast.” Avelo Roy   [spp-transcript]   Connect with Avelo Roy LinkedIn Facebook Instagram YouTube Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Dr. Todd Dewett is a best-selling leadership author, educator, and professional speaker. After beginning his career with Andersen Consulting and Ernst & Young, he completed his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at Texas A&M University and enjoyed a career as an award-winning professor. Today he speaks, writes, coaches, and has created an educational library of courses at LinkedIn Learning that is enjoyed by millions of professionals in nearly every country in the world. Visit him online at www.drdewett.com.   “Hard work always pays, but it’s not always in money. Sometimes it’s in growth and learning, and sometimes that ends up making you more money in the long term.” Todd Dewett   Worst investment ever The successful young professor Todd was a young professor teaching classes and writing papers. His little fledging side career of speaking at conferences started to grow. Todd was getting more and more calls to speak at conferences. He was now feeling happy, grateful, and entirely too full of himself. Jumping on a trend Todd was doing an ancient podcast back then when no one was doing them when he noticed an obvious trend or what he thought was an obvious trend. He noticed that that microlearning,  shorter focused videos from YouTube were becoming popular. Todd kept getting feedback from students and people in the community and businesses about his talks. And so he figured well if he’s that good, then people would pay for his advice. Investing his inheritance Todd’s mother, unfortunately, passed and left him a small amount of money. He decided to do something he’d been thinking about for several years at that point, which was launching a business to monetize the advice he loved to give. And so he jumped onto the micro-video trend. Todd hired a video director who came with a lighting person and a hair and makeup person. Todd wrote scripts for over 100 initial mini-courses, three to five-minute advice oriented bits that he was going to do. Then he scouted the city where he lived, got 10 different locations, and started shooting the videos. Lights, cameras Todd was having a blast creating this database. He also hired a firm to build a subscription-based website in readiness for all the people he knew who would love his videos and pay top dollar, no doubt. And so he took over $100,000 and created all of this content over many hours, working alone to write and working with his team to shoot videos, have them edited, and loaded onto the website. Action The day to launch the videos finally came. Todd hit up his list and told them the videos were live. He went onto social media and made a huge announcement. Then he waited for the money to start rolling in. Crickets chirped. On the first day, only two people signed up. Then one person the next day. That’s almost all he ever got. Todd called his clients, and they said they were not sure the videos were what they needed. He heard many other statements about why the videos weren’t the right thing for so and so. Admitting he had failed Todd had this beautiful product. He had told so many people about it publicly through every microphone he could get his hands on, but no one cared. Six or seven months into this, Todd made a public announcement that this thing he was so proud of working very hard on and that had cost him more than any single investment he’d ever made in his entire life, was an absolute failure. He admitted that it was indeed his worst investment ever. It didn’t come close to breakeven; frankly, it just failed. Lessons learned To become an expert, you must learn Don’t be blinded by what you know, and thus less capable of seeing what you should learn. At the very least, build a team to help you understand what you don’t know. To become an expert, talk to smart people who know what you don’t and build a team that knows things you don’t. Andrew’s takeaways It’s not only about the content Success in business is not only about your content. It is also about how good you are and, most importantly, how good your relationships are. Hard work pays Hard work pays eventually. It may be one year or six years or even 10 years later, but hard work pays. Turn your losses into your winners In every loss and mistake is the seed of your next stage of growth. Actionable advice To become an expert in what you do, find someone who has traveled the road you want to travel, and ask them what they learned so that you can learn from all of their mistakes and successes. Please share some of that wisdom. Don’t assume you understand what’s about to happen; just find someone who’s done it before. They will save you a ton of heartache and money. Parting words   “Listen to this podcast and take it personally. When you fail, learn something, then go share it with somebody.” Todd Dewett   [spp-transcript]   Connect with Todd Dewett LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Nathanial Bibby ranks number one in the Asia Pacific region on the Social Media Marketing Institute’s top LinkedIn marketers list, and he won Best Use of LinkedIn at the Social Media Marketing Awards 2019. He is a two-time finalist for the 2020 Social Media Marketing Awards for his campaigns “Monday Night Live” and “LinkedIn vs. Instagram.” Bibby Consulting Group has generated over $400 million in sales through LinkedIn lead generation.   “If you’re basing what you do in life on other people’s opinions of you, you will never be fulfilled.” Nathanial Bibby   Worst investment ever Ever since Nathanial started going to school, everything he did was geared towards seeking his family’s attention, especially his father. A lot of what he did at university and early on in his career was geared towards other people’s opinions. He always thought it was his responsibility to solve all of his father’s problems. It came as no surprise that after completing university, Nathanial went to work with his father in Phuket doing property development. A father-son duo Nathanial and his father were very successful in terms of sales, and the business was booming. Soon enough, his dad bought more land and developments that only caused trouble in their business. Spreading his wings Nathanial left Phuket and moved to Hong Kong, where he worked a job that he hated but kept doing it because his family thought it was the right job for him. Nathaniel tried several other things that he thought would please his family. It took him about six or seven years to do something that he wanted to do. Standing on his own Nathanial finally dared to do what he truly wanted. He quit his job and started a company, to the dismay of his family and friends. They all thought that he was insane and did not talk to him for six months. But, this was the most fulfilling decision Nathanial has ever made. Lessons learned Start listening to yourself If you’re basing what you do in life on other people’s opinions of you, you will never be fulfilled. Ignore the views of others, and listen to yourself. Start doing what you are most passionate about. Follow your passions It might be hard to say no to people and go out on your own. People will judge you and resist you changing altogether. But, when you succeed, they will respect you. Andrew’s takeaways Be more of you Often, the challenge is not to be like someone else; the challenge is to be more of you. Ultimately, you are unique, you are the only one, and you are your uniqueness. So be more of you. You can make it through the bad times Things don’t bring happiness. What brings joy is peace with yourself and having good people around you. With these two things, you can make it through anything. You can make it through losing everything, losing all the money that you have, if you have yourself, and good people around you. Actionable advice Find what you’re passionate about because if you’re a business owner, you’re going to run into some big challenges. If you’re not passionate about your business, you’ll probably give up, and the passionate people will outwork you. Secondly, start adding value without expectation, and all the things you need will get taken care of. The world will find a way to meet your human needs, whether it be your financial needs and your business, or relationships or what have you. All you need to do is get out of your head and focus on giving and helping other people. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Nathanial’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to simply turn 36 years old. Parting words   “Andrew, keep doing what you’re doing. I love seeing people adding value. It’s fantastic.” Nathanial Bibby   [spp-transcript]   Connect with Nathanial Bibby LinkedIn Twitter YouTube Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Greg Au-Yeung has held senior executive positions at various global banks in China, including Saxo, UBS, ANZ, Morgan Stanley, and State Street Bank. He has a solid track record pioneering, building, and managing technology centers in China that deliver innovative solutions and support digital transformation programs for incumbent banks and FinTech. Greg is currently Senior Advisor for Shanghai Fudan University, specializing in FinTech, and the Co-founder of the Financial Technology Talent Standardization Committee. He was also the China columnist for Shanghai Daily, ComputerWorld, and various newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and China. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Westminster (UK), completed the Executive MBA program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and certified from MIT (Artificial Intelligence), Harvard University (FinTech), and Copenhagen Business School (Digital Transformation-Financial Services). He is also a Chartered Information Technology Professional, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Computer Society, a member of the British Computer Society, the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce (Shanghai), and the American Chamber of Commerce (Shanghai).   “I do speculate sometimes, but only when I can afford it.” Greg Au-Yeung   Worst investment ever Around 1995, Greg’s parents decided to invest in additional property when prices were on a record high. Because they could not raise funding, they had to remortgage their current properties and borrow money from the bank. Due to the high property prices, the interest on the bank loan was high too. Here comes the Asian financial crisis For one year, everything was good, and the investments were making good returns. Then boom! The bubble burst and the property market crashed. In just two years, property prices went down by 50% and continued to go down for almost eight years. The banks still wanted their money Greg’s parents still owed money to the bank. The bank came knocking on their door, wanting to get paid. So they had to start selling the properties at much lower prices than before, including some of the properties they held before just to pay off the debt. They experienced a substantial loss in the family’s assets. Lessons learned Always know what you can afford Make sure that you always understand what you can and cannot afford. Before you leverage or borrow money, know that you have to pay it back and with interest. You cannot live on credit Don’t hide under the comfort of a paycheck and think that you can live on credit; you can’t. The world is not the same anymore. That comfort can be taken away from you anytime. Make debt management a priority To make debt management possible, always live within your means because you don’t know what will happen next year. Your job could be lost tomorrow. The economy could go down the drain tomorrow; just see what COVID-19 has done. Andrew’s takeaways Expect economic crashes Crashes in the economy happen. They can be massive and can take years for them to recover. Almost every economic crisis is a property market crisis An economic crisis starts with the property. Part of the reason is that property is the ultimate collateral that backs the loans. Debt is the number one risk in business and life Debt can take you down just when you don’t expect it. There are other risks, such as foreign exchange, but ultimately, the number one risk is debt. To manage your debt, do not get overextended. If you’re going to borrow money for yourself or business, borrow a small amount. You may have slower growth, but you will protect your wealth over the long term. The free market should set interest rates The free market should set interest rates because interest is the price of risk. And when you distort the price of risk, you cause tremendous distortions in your country’s economy and the global economy. Actionable advice Afford what you can invest; it is as simple as that. Do your calculations and know what risk appetite you have, and what you can afford to lose. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Greg will be doing something different soon and so his number one goal for the next 12 months is to get ready and prepared for his next adventure. Parting words   “People deserve to understand what the real world is like, what’s better than to share a real story of a bad investment so you can help people to make the right choice going forward. I’m super glad to be here.” Greg Au-Yeung   [spp-transcript]   Connect with Greg Au-Yeung LinkedIn 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Tony Fish thrives in complex, ground-breaking, and uncertain environments, bringing proven judgment and decision-making skills with cross-sectorial experience. He has a track record of sense-making and foresight, with enthusiasm and drive that is contagious. Tony is a maverick and (un)intentional rule breaker. His focus is on how the future of corporate governance, decision making, and judgment will be affected by complex data at the corporate board level. This focus leads him to speak about what board meetings will look like in 2025, and the implications and unintended consequences. Tony has founded, co-founded, sold, and listed many businesses and remains deeply passionate about new ways of creating value, inspiring, and supporting the next generation of thinkers and doers.   “You learn the most from the worst and the toughest times. There is no doubt that you go into your worst investment to learn more.” Tony Fish   Worst investment ever Tony made his worst investment ever as a board chairman. His company had a simple idea to deliver a product to three million captive customers in the UK market. Those customers had already fairly much adopted the product, but they were particularly sensitive to price. For this reason, all of the existing players, because of their large infrastructures, could not offer the price that would see the customers carry on being incredibly loyal. Getting it right from the start With this advantage, Tony’s company started from scratch with a different philosophy and different economics and got price efficiency from day one. The company wanted to create something which was highly efficient, effective, and built from the ground up. They identified a power player, which was a company that had access to their market and utter control over the digital channels to this market. They did a cross-shareholding with this supplier to get a deal, which gave them access to that market in terms they could not get in any other way. The supplier offered a superior product with a subscription model, which they could now offer to this captive audience. Capturing the customer The company raised Series A, which was just short of 10 million pounds in about four months. So basically, they were swapping existing customers from one platform to another platform with a much better cost advantage. In less than six months, they had a significant customer base, and each subscriber was paying about 20 pounds per month. After just less than six months, they were making five million pounds a month in income. Scaling the business The company needed to raise more capital for cash flow, and before they could do it, they had to go back to the supplier and get better terms because the terms they had would not go to a large scale. At the point, they had committed about 20 million pounds in debt and equity. Tony believed that the supplier would buy the business themselves because the company had built a substantial new customer base. With the supplier’s new platform, they would be able to offer something they hadn’t done before. So it was a pretty obvious strategic exit. Tony set up a meeting with them. He went as chair of the board and took one of the other major shareholders and the CEO. They went into the meeting with high expectations of getting a better deal or, better still, opening up the conversation of the supplier, becoming either a strategic funder or taking the business out when it passes a specific number. Here comes the shocker So after the pleasantries and Tony presenting their proposal, the supplier asked them how many verified customers they had. Tony was feeling quite proud of the company’s success, given the high numbers that the CEO had been giving the board. So he goes through the numbers, ready to provide them with an impressive figure. But shock on him, there was an enormous gap between the data the board had and the data the supplier had. Tony and the shareholders could not believe it. Over the next three days, the board found out that the CEO had been lying to them. Not only had he been lying but had been utterly fabricating the numbers. On top of that, there was a massive fraud issue, and all of it was hidden. The systems that the board believed were in place and working turned out to be a user interface that was completely fabricated. The friend turned foe The CEO was Tony’s mate, and they had worked together before on other projects. Tony came to find out that his mate had a hidden past and was not even qualified for a CEO’s role. He had been stealing from the company all along and misleading the board. The CEO was also about to jump ship and had found another job. Tony had made the worst investment ever when he hired the CEO. Needless to say, there was no deal made with the supplier. The board also was liable for all the mess that the CEO created. Lessons learned Directors carry all the liability The company and its shareholders have limited liability. Directors, however, are 100% liable. There’s no escaping. Be aware that sitting on the board of a company is not a nice little end of life career; it’s a serious role with profound implications. Being a board of directors requires emotional maturity To be a successful board of directors, you have to have emotional maturity with the highest emotional sense. Don’t be judgmental or controlling, but seek diversity, especially of reporting. Andrew’s takeaways Being an advisor is the better option If you want to be involved in a company, be an advisor, not a board member. Because as a board member, you are liable for any fraud going inside the company, and you can’t prove that you made an effort to try to detect it. There is a lot more risk for a board member than an advisor. Actionable advice Find additional ways to know if what you’re being told is true. Yes, this is tremendously difficult because we’re now remote, but it’s a field day for liars and manipulators, so you’ve got to be extra careful. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Tony’s number one goal is to finish on a piece he’s working on to do board meetings in 2025. Parting words   “Just keep listening to the rest of the podcast backlog episodes—just genius. I love them. Thank you, Andrew.” Tony Fish   [spp-transcript]   Connect with Tony Fish LinkedIn Twitter Website Blog 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Graduating from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied law, finance, and technology, Edmund Lowell is a serial entrepreneur living in Asia since 2011, innovating at the crossroads of finance, technology, and legal fields. Edmund has built several Fintech and RegTech products during this time, including FlagTheory.com, KYC-Chain.com, and SelfKey.org. The SelfKey Foundation raised US$21 million, selling out in just 11 minutes for the crypto utility token, called KEY, now listed on Binance.   “Focus on the most important things that have the biggest impact.” Edmund Lowell   Worst investment ever Edmund got his first job as a real estate agent selling property in the United States. Though this was a job that he loved, his timing was just wrong. In 2008, the global financial markets had a massive crisis led by the US housing market. The crisis rendered Edmund jobless. Finding something more marketable to do Edmund took a look at his skill set as a college-trained individual and realized that he didn’t have much to offer the real job world yet. But, he knew how to file paperwork. And so he started setting up LLCs and corporations in the United States. His first start in business What started as a means to stay afloat amid a crisis went on to become a successful business. After graduating from undergrad, he deferred going to law school and moved to Thailand full time and continued running this business. Becoming an angel investor After a few years, as most entrepreneurs do, Edmund had a little extra capital and was interested in making some angel investments. At the time, he had a good friend who was starting up a business, and he made an angel investment into his company. Giving more than money The business was not doing so well, but Edmund believed that he could make a difference as an investor. At first, he gave money to the company and, after a while, started spending a significant amount of time working on it. Eight months later, the business had not picked up, and the opportunity costs of going into it were weighing on Edmund. So he decided to stop working for this angel investment and move on to new businesses and cut his losses. Lessons learned Don’t do it unless your heart is in it If there’s going to be a business you’re working on seven days a week, it’s got to be something that you enjoy. If it’s a business that you care deeply about, on an intrinsic level, it’s going to be easier to stay motivated through the ups and the downs. You learn so much more from the failures It’s just unbelievable the number of insights that you get from failure as compared to success. Most times, success only feeds your ego, and you think that you’re impervious, making you more likely to make a bigger mistake in the future. So it’s crucial to study where things went wrong, where others went wrong, as opposed to glorifying your successes. Andrew’s takeaways Don’t be afraid to get out of a falling market It is harder to succeed in a market that is falling or has slow growth. Top angel investors know that it’s not worth making it hard on themselves. So when it makes sense to get out of an industry that will be a grind for a long time to come, they are not afraid to do it. The zero-based thinking concept Zero-based thinking involves asking yourself if an opportunity came along, would you take it up right away. If the answer is yes, then double down. But if the answer is no, walk away. Learn to walk away If you want to get success and happiness, you’ve got to walk away from things you know aren’t working. There’s no guarantee that you’re going to end up at something better or something amazing, but you at least know that you’re getting away from what’s not working. Actionable advice If you make an angel investment in a business and it’s going to be your business, then your heart has to be in it. You have to be willing to run that business for a long time. Connect with Edmund Lowell LinkedIn Twitter YouTube Website Blog 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Gillian Perkins is the founder of Startup Society and the host of the Earn More, Work Less podcast. She also hosts a popular entrepreneurship-focused YouTube channel that has received over 20 million views to date. Gillian teaches people how to start and build profitable online businesses that allow them to earn passive income and live a flexible lifestyle. She runs her company with a primarily remote team, enabling her to travel the world with her family and homeschool her four young children.   “Focus on the most important things that have the biggest impact.” Gillian Perkins   Worst investment ever Gillian’s worst investment happened a few years back when she started an online business. At the time, she was running a local business and wanted more flexibility and freedom. So she thought an online business was the way to go. She started tinkering around, created a website for her business, and got heavy into that online marketing world. Getting help from the gurus In a bid to grow her online business, Gillian watched a webinar about growing an email list. The coach promised that by growing an email list, one would have a machine that can produce cash at any point in time. You can just tell your email list about whatever you’re selling, and they will buy it with no questions asked. Gillian thought that this sounded pretty good and precisely because she already knew that she wanted to sell online courses. Gillian is a teacher at heart. So she felt this was a good fit for her and was pretty much sold on that idea. The course cost $2,000, and at the time, Gillian was living paycheck to paycheck. But, she spent $2,000 that she didn’t have because this sounded like a good and helpful thing to have in her business. Getting ahead of herself Now the course wasn’t bad at all. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, it was a good course. The problem was simple; Gillian didn’t understand what she was buying. She did not know anything about building an online following or marketing her business, two things that were paramount for the course to work. The course was mainly about optimizing her email list, yet she didn’t have an email list to begin with. She had bought a tool for her tool belt when she didn’t know how to build things yet. Needless to say, Gillian didn’t get much of a return on investment, and her $2,000 went down the drain. Lessons learned Don’t commit too fast Try to fully understand what you are getting yourself into before you sign up or commit to anything. Don’t let the scarcity mindset make you think that you must have it right now. There is going to be another opportunity so take your time to think things through. So be patient, take it slow, take it easy, and keep doing some research. Growing your business require you to take action Moving forward and taking action is a crucial part of growing your business. You don’t have to have all your ducks in a row; just move forward. Andrew’s takeaways Listen with care Be careful when listening to people’s advice. Before you act, step back, and don’t let your emotions go out of control. Evaluate everything before you allow people to influence your decision. Look at the big picture Any business is a series of processes, from marketing to sales to operations to finance. Sometimes we get excited about one part of that process and neglect the rest. When you decide to start an online business or any other business, you have to realize that you have to do all of those parts. It can’t just be one part of it. Actionable advice Be patient and do your research. Always know that there’s going to be another opportunity out there. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Gillian’s number one goal is to grow her membership program, Startup Society, that teaches people how to start online businesses, to 1,000 members. She’s passionate about sharing this opportunity with as many people as possible. Parting words   “Be patient; there’s going to be another opportunity.” Gillian Perkins   Connect with Gillian Perkins LinkedIn Facebook Instagram YouTube Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Charoenjit Chantarasiri has been an investment consultant at Kasikorn Securities in Thailand for the past 10 years. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in finance from Thammasat Business School. As an investment consultant, Charoenjit advises retail investors in various equities, fixed-income, derivatives, and mutual funds products. He also runs Charoenjit’s Podcast, which he started in 2019 to help retail investors in Thailand. He podcasts in Thai and covers everything there is to know about Thai listed companies. His podcast is climbing the charts because of the value he adds.   “Be a confident investor. Don’t let today’s price scare you from buying an asset.” Charoenjit Chantarasiri   Worst investment ever Charoenjit started his career as an investment consultant in 2010, two years after the global financial crisis. He would advise his clients to forget about equity and try to make the most profit. The gold trend At that time, gold was one of the assets whose price was on an uptrend. Many of Charoenjit’s clients were interested in investing in gold, and so he had to monitor the gold market as well. Failing to take his advice Charoenjit saved his money in a savings account and equity. He watched as the gold price continued to go up as his clients kept investing in it. Charoenjit remained hesitant to invest in gold. In no time, the price of gold was at a record high of 26,000 baht from 17,000 baht. For a short period, the price went down to 23,000 baht. Charoenjit still didn’t bulge. Jumping onto the bandwagon, albeit too late When the price of gold moved up to 25,000 baht, Charoenjit now felt afraid of missing the train and decided to buy it at nearly the peak price. Soon after he purchased gold, the price ran a little bit more to around 26,000 baht. But after a while, the price dropped sharply. The price remained between 18,000 baht and 22,000 baht for about four years. Throwing in the towel In early 2018 Charoenjit decided to sell his gold and look for another investment choice. He sold it for only 19,000 baht. In 2019, just a year later, gold prices went back to an upward trend rocketing to a record high of 30,000 baht in 2020. If only Charoenjit had been patient and confident in his decision to invest in gold, he would not have missed the opportunity to make huge returns. Lessons learned Use the asset allocation concept When getting into an investment, look at it as a part of your portfolio and not as a separate entity. Don’t invest in something just for the sake of it or just because it is the new trend. Ask yourself if the new investment will improve or ruin your portfolio. Consider investing in gold Consider having a small portion of gold in your portfolio. This could be between 5% to 30%. Holding gold could help your portfolio be well-diversified and protect its value. Be a confident investor If you are a confident investor, you are more likely not to miss out on good investment opportunities. Andrew’s takeaways There are no rules in finance There are no laws or rules in finance, so you can never be sure. Today, you may confidently say gold is not a good long term investment. But then tomorrow things change. The truth is that it is tough for all of us to detect when that change is happening. Unrealized losses are real A lot of times, we say that unrealized losses are not real. But the fact is that the best way to look at a portfolio is to use zero-based thinking that lets you ask the question, “If I didn’t own anything, what would I allocate to this today?” It’s a tool that will help you let go of the past. Don’t let emotions get in the way It’s easy for us to get emotionally attached to an investment. Always try to let go of the feelings you have about your winners and losers. Actionable advice Diversify your portfolio using the asset allocation concept. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Charoenjit’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to create more quality content through his podcast and hopefully have over 10,000 followers from every channel. He wants to be more beneficial to investment companies. Parting words   “Be confident.” Charoenjit Chantarasiri   Connect with Charoenjit Chantarasiri LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast  

Justin Christianson is a self-proclaimed number junky and a digital marketing veteran. Father, husband, and #1 Bestselling author of Conversion Fanatic: How to double your customers, sales, and profits with A/B testing. He is also the co-founder and President of Conversion Fanatics, a full-service conversion rate optimization company, helping companies like Burt’s Bees, Dr. Axe, and many others improve their results.   “When it comes to conversion optimization funnels, start small. Test the biggest leverage points, and don’t overcomplicate it.” Justin Christianson   Worst investment ever Helping a client out At the end of last year, Justin got a call from an e-commerce business owner who was freaking out because his business was falling apart. Justin and his partner had a meeting with him, and they soon realized that they could help him out. I want a piece of the pie The business was something that Justin could relate to, and so he got quite excited about it. He wanted a piece of it, and he proposed to the owner to help him grow his business, and in return, Justin would buy a 30% stake in the company. They shook on it. Justin and his partner invested a bit of money into this business. What mess did I get myself into? As Justin was doing a background check on the company, he found out that the books were a mess and even had receivable loans. Though this was a red flag, he dismissed it. He figured his accountant would sort it out. What attracted Justin to this partnership was the fact that there was a huge fanbase, and he knew the business had the potential to make huge profits. It’s a deal The trio signed the deal, created a new LLC, and pulled over the assets making the partnership official. They set up new bank accounts and tried to do everything the right way. Justin went all in and started humming along and focused on sales. He spent a bunch of money on advertising and dialing things in. He increased the average order value by about 40% in a short amount of time. Deal goes sour After some time, the partner went back to his old ways and started spending company money on personal stuff. At first, $2,000 went missing from the business account, then $2,500, and then $4,000. To make matters worse, all of a sudden, two more receivables loans popped up. So now the company was triple-dipping before they even got to make any profits. Every sale they made had to be channeled to repay the loans. Soon enough, Justin realized that this partnership would not be beneficial to him. His partner’s spending and the loans would cripple the business. Justin tried to have a conversation with him about his spending, but he just scoffed at him. Calling it quits One day while at his son’s football game, Justin got a notification on his phone that he had a change in his access to the bank account. He tried logging in but had no access to anything, the bank account, the PayPal account, the website, nothing. He has been locked out of everything. Justin sent a group text to the business partner, and he made up some big story about how he didn’t want to burden him with his debt, and because he started the company, he wanted to take care of it alone. Justin decided not to fight him or even take him to court as it would not be worth it, and he might just end up losing more money than he had already invested. He decided to write the investment off as a bad debt. Lessons learned Do not get emotions involved when entering a partnership When you see something exciting that you can relate to, and you want in, be careful not to let your feelings guide your decisions. Do your due diligence Do your due diligence before entering into a partnership, look out for red flags such as commingling of funds, lack of books, lack of true expenses, and P&L balance sheet. Do not rush Do not be in a rush to enter into a business partnership. The timing will come when the right time comes. Andrew’s takeaways Think the red flags through When you see a red flag, stop and step back. Think things through and see how to deal with the red flags first. Also, you do not have to stop the deal, but you must slow down your emotions. Understand the difference between emotion and intuition Intuition is an instantaneous feeling that will go away quickly, and then your emotions and your mind will override it. In many cases, it will be the right thing. Make sure you’re open and aware to the intuition message that is coming to you, and so you can receive it. Know who can bind your company to any agreement Before buying into a company or getting into a partnership, know who has the power to sign the checks and the power to bind the company. Understand how far that power goes before you commit to any agreement. Avoid confrontations You do not have to have a confrontation over everything that happens in life. Sometimes avoiding confrontations is the best way to deal with conflicts. Actionable advice Just be patient. Take it all in and trust your intuition. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Justin’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to double his current business. Parting words   “Just go out there and try to be a little bit better than you were yesterday and learn from your mistakes.” Justin Christianson   Connect with Justin Christianson LinkedIn Facebook Twitter YouTube Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Further reading mentioned Justin Christianson (2015), Conversion Fanatic: How to double your customers, sales, and profits with A/B testing Daniel Kahneman (2013), Thinking, Fast and Slow  

Andrew Pierce is an independent asset protection consultant and the creator of WyomingLLCAttorney.com. He helps business owners from nearly every industry and with almost any size company to effectively protect their assets through forming LLCs.   “The best neighbors are the ones with good boundaries, where you delineate the responsibilities and the rights from the beginning.” Andrew Pierce   Worst investment ever Andrew had an equipment leasing company in South Florida. He would lease out tractors and trailers to moving and storage companies; he started the company in college to make some extra money. The business, interestingly, turned out pretty well. Getting sucked in by overconfidence Seeing that his first business had gone so well, Andrew felt that he was now an astute businessman. He sold the business and moved to the Caribbean, at a large undeveloped Bay in St. Maarten on the Dutch side–it was about 150 acres. Falling in love and business Andrew loved the island and had a good time there. He reasoned that the island would be a great place to do business. He considered starting a jet ski and water sports rental company. He had a good friend who grew up on the island, and they decided to get into a partnership. The friend would secure the contracts and local licensing because he understood the island. Andrew would provide the capital. So, Andrew bought a few jet skis, but it turns out they couldn’t get the permit to run the jet skis because it’s an unprotected Bay. Trying his luck at something else Andrew didn’t lose hope. He came up with another business idea; landscaping. There were 160 acres at the island that needed to be landscaped. He sold the jet skis for liquidation value and added in more money to ship a bunch of plants. The business failed before it started. He tried to salvage the situation by putting up a community center, park, and restaurant on an oceanfront piece of land his friend had. Death of friend and partnership Andrew’s friend passed away unexpectedly. The business couldn’t take off because Andrew and his friend’s dad couldn’t come to a fair agreement on ownership. Andrew and his friend had never signed a single agreement throughout their partnership. They would shake on it. This made it difficult for Andrew to prove how much he had invested in the restaurant business. After three years of unsuccessfully trying to get a business take off in the Caribbean, Andrew was left with over $100,000 in credit card debt. Lessons learned Stay within your circle of competence If you’re doing moving and storage, don’t try to go start doing plastics, manufacturing, or something different. Stay inside your circle of competence. Perform your due diligence Do your due diligence before you commit to starting a business, especially if it is in a field or a location that you are not familiar with. Have contracts with people Whether it’s your best friend or someone you don’t know, the best neighbors are the ones with good boundaries, where you delineate the responsibilities and the rights from the beginning. So do your due diligence and have contracts with your business partners. This reduces the chances of having misunderstandings. Have exit points If you’re are going into a capital intensive industry, look at the liquidation values of the assets. Play out those worst-case scenarios, so you know where your exit point is. If you are already in business or trading in the markets, remember the reason you got into an investment, then list the reasons that make you’ll get out. That way, when you hit those reasons, you will know it is time to wrap it up. Andrew’s takeaways Don’t be fooled by overconfidence bias Many times when people are in business, and they are doing well in that particular area, they start to think that that could carry over into another space and expect the same success. So instead of getting yourself into a new area, double down on your current business, figure it out, improve it, make it better, and grow it. Have an agreement in place The best time to sign an agreement is before you start your business. But, if you didn’t get one back then, you can get it done today even if you’re one year, five years, or 10 years into it. There is nothing wrong with going back and trying to get it in writing. So if you’ve put it off, try to make it happen immediately. Actionable advice Make sure that if you have partners, you have agreements in place. It saves everybody from a heartache. No. 1 goal for the next 12 months Andrew’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to continue focusing on his company. Andrew and his wife will soon be parents, so he wants to keep his head down and continue working hard. Parting words   “Go listen to more episodes of these podcasts and try to avoid making bad investments. But don’t let fear keep you from trying to make some investments. Always keep trying.” Andrew Pierce   Connect with Andrew Pierce LinkedIn Website 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 Andrew’s online programs Valuation Master Class How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Finance Made Ridiculously Simple Become a Great Presenter and Increase Your Influence Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast