Disruptors Alfie Best: Interview With £350m Business & Property Empire Owner [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors]
Welcome back to another episode of The Disruptive Entrepreneur podcast with your host Rob Moore. In this latest episode, Rob interviews Chairman of Wyldecrest Parks, business magnate, investor and philanthropist, Alfie Best. Their conversation goes from Alfie’s humble routes knocking on doors, to being a multi-millionaire owner of the biggest mobile home country business in the world.
Are entrepreneurs born or made? and what’s the difference between being a boss and a leader, find out more by listening to this fascinating interview.
Key Takeaways
Do You Think Being Born On The Side of The Road Has Shaped The Way You Do Business? No, the place where you are born is not important, it’s the journey that is important. I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur I see myself as an artist, and I’m painting a picture of my life with the business.
Are Entrepreneurs born or made? The word entrepreneur is banded around way too much, and we use the word but we don’t have an understanding of what it means. Are they people who can operate across different sectors and fields? Entrepreneurs are successful in not just one field but in different fields. If you’re successful at one thing you’re a businessman and if you are successful across different fields, you an entrepreneur. For all the success you have, it’s only temporary and it can change in the future. We can all teach yourself to become more, but entrepreneurs are natural risk takers, calculated risk takers. In some people that is sparks and in other it might bonfires, but everyone has something.
Can That Be A Curse That You Never Quite Make It? I live in fear. I’m always worried about tomorrow. In the next 18 months, I will take Wylecrest to the market, and I believe that we are groundbreaking in a series of areas. We are the ones setting the bar. That’s the difference between a hobby and a business, business is going to make you money not cost you money.
Why Do You Fear Tomorrow? I live in the real world where changes can happen without any warning. I’ve been scarred by the 1990 recession which hit the business hard.
How Do You Let The Fear Drive You Or Cripple You? My fears push me because it drives me to get up early in the morning and enjoy my work. Life doesn’t mould you, life cuts pieces out of you. Are you going to end up masterpiece or misshapen person? It’s the fear of failure and fear of going bust which drives me going forward?
How Did You Develop That Mindset? I try to simplify things. There are winners and losers and both are successful. One is just more successful than the other. To win you have to unravel the puzzle of how that other boxer, a player person plays.
What’s The Difference Between A Boss and A Leader? A leader fights with you rather than telling you what to do. I guess the journey is moving from a boss to a leader. Often in interviews, people will say that the team is the most important thing. All of your team should know what your goals are for the business. We start with a yes, for every resident, the residents might not like how we get to the yes but we will explain the process.
What Was Your Journey Into Business? Financially we were not rich but as a child, we did have a rich childhood. I went to school periodically through this period and went through some difficult times selling door to door. In this period I realised how important it is to know your market. That recession scars still lives with me today. I looked for businesses that had queues which were Phone shops and Takeaways so I set up my own phone shop which ended up getting sold to Vodaphone. I still own those shops that Vodaphone use today.
Traditional education vs teaching yourself? Education gives you the guiding rails. If you think of education as trains the best is the fast train on the tracks whereas the slower trains are being self-taught. I was self-taught. Self-education made me hustler street trader, it added to my education. You have to have both.
What is your outlook on Business? Business is the soul of any country, if you want your skin to blossom you have to eat the right food, we need to nurture business more. We need to stop promising what we are going to and teach what we are going to do.
Smart Work or Hard Work? Always work smartly but work hard at it. Money makes you happy because it buys you freedom.
What Does Disruptive Mean To You? To me is ruffling the feathers of the norm, which I see as a good thing.
Best Moments
‘If you’re successful at one thing you're a businessman and if you are successful across different fields you an entrepreneur.’
‘Taking the knocks and treating them rather than a downside it’s an education’
‘I’m not in the business of commercial hobbies.’
‘A problem is only a problem if you don’t find a solution.’
‘Keeping things simple, makes everything simple.’
‘All entrepreneurs are calculated gamblers.’
‘Everybody has a success gene.’
‘Entrepreneurs make terrible managers, and managers make terrible entrepreneurs.’
‘All your team should know your goals for the business.’
‘Have to’, is a great master.’
‘There are so many opportunities in the UK from foreign investment.’
‘Easiest thing to get rid of is money, the easiest thing is to gain money.’
[Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors]
VALUABLE RESOURCES
ABOUT THE HOST
Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors”
“If you don't risk anything, you risk everything”
CONTACT METHOD
Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979
About The Guest
Alfie Best a highly motivated business magnate, investor, speaker and philanthropist who serves as the chairman of Wyldecrest Parks.
To achieve success is not easy and to maintain that success is even harder but Alfie Best has shown how it can be done, even when you have not been born with the proverbial silver spoon in the mouth.
Born of humble origins and raised in a Romany Gypsy family, this self-made man studied at “University of Life” and started his professional success story totally from scratch. However, coming from a struggling background and a minority group only gave him even more desire to succeed. As a gypsy, he had to face many obstacles and prejudices but he has never allowed those to ruin his dreams and ambitions or to disrupt his investments into the businesses he operates. Instead, he has taken those negative prejudices and turned them into positives by surrounding himself with a diverse and multicultural team. Alfie Best manages his businesses as a real leader, knows his employees by name and likes to meet all residents of his mobile home parks.
Contact Method
Website - http://alfiebest.co/story/
Twitter - @alfiebest33
Email - ea@wyldecrestparks.com