My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Richard Moran is a Silicon Valley investment and operations veteran. He is General Partner at Tonic BioVentures, an early-stage life sciences venture firm.STORY: Richard was impressed by the success record of a young man, so much so that he got his company to invest $6 million to build a business. A few months later, the young man misbehaved in front of customers. Richard reprimanded him, but he did the same thing again and had to be fired. Richard’s company lost $6 million.LEARNING: Pay proper attention to the findings of the due diligence. Don’t be distracted by past track records. Be careful of key man risk where the success of your investment is hinged on one person. “Sometimes past performance is not an indicator of future performance in investing.”Richard Moran Guest profileRichard Moran is a Silicon Valley veteran in both investing and operations. He is General Partner at Tonic BioVentures, an early-stage life sciences venture firm. Previously, he was the President of Menlo College. His background includes serving as a Partner at Venrock, CEO at Accretive Solutions, Chairman of Portal Software, and a Managing Partner at Accenture. His track record includes successful exits in software, gaming, food, and life sciences. He is a  best-selling author with ten books to his credit.His latest book is Never Say Whatever to be published by McGraw-Hill. He has a syndicated show, “In the Workplace” on CBS Radio, and is an “Influencer” on LinkedIn where he is a regular contributor but never reads the comments.Worst investment everA young man, who had been very successful, wanted to start a new company and needed $6 million to start it. Richard was blinded by his success story and immediately got his company to invest in him. They gave the young man the $6 million he needed to build this company. The success of that company was all hinged on him because he was its core.A couple of months later, the young man behaved inappropriately at a trade show. The partners went to Richard about what to do. According to Richard, the partners had two options. One was to fire him, in which case, they’d lose $6 million. The second option was to coach him; in this case, he might change or ignore it; if he ignored it, no one would want to be involved in his company.Richard didn’t want to lose the $6 million, but he also didn’t want to keep him on. So he brought him into his office, yelled at him, and warned that he’d fire him if it happened again. The young man did something similar again. So he was fired, and Richard’s company lost $6 million.The sad part is that there were hints of the young man’s bad behavior during due diligence before Richard made the first investment. But he ignored it.Lessons learnedPay proper attention to the findings of the due diligence. Don’t be distracted by past track records.Sometimes past performance is not an indicator of future performance in investing.Whatever you do, know you’ll always get caught.Stay current.Andrew’s takeawaysBe careful of key man risk where the success of your investment is hinged on one person.Remember to talk to people who don’t like that company or have had a bad experience when you do your due diligence.Actionable adviceDon’t go after the shiny objects that everybody wants. When doing your due diligence, it’s not just about the person or the company but also about the market. Find out what’s happening in that category.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsRichard’s goal for the next 12 months is to stay healthy and continue to be an evangelist of common sense in the workplace.Parting words “Common sense in the workplace.”Richard Moran [spp-transcript] Connect with Richard MoranLinkedInTwitterFacebookBlogWebsiteBooksAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Amelia Sordell is a speaker, content creator, and Founder of Klowt, the first-of-its-kind personal brand marketing agency.STORY: Amelia lived all her life seeking external validation, and instead of making her happy, it left her very empty. She eventually decided to invest in herself and now is thriving.LEARNING: Selfishly invest in yourself before everyone. Always ask yourself if what you’re spending time on has any ROI. “You can’t serve people in the way that you’re meant to if you’re not first looking after yourself.”Amelia Sordell Guest profileAmelia Sordell is a speaker, content creator, and Founder of Klowt, the first-of-its-kind personal brand marketing agency.Her desire to oversee her career and live by her own rules led to launching her first business, a clothing brand, at the age of just 21. After the business failed, Amelia’s resilient attitude meant she pivoted her career to become a Tech Headhunter, where she quickly discovered the reach and positive power that an individual personal brand can have on the overall company.It wasn’t long before people outside the organization began to contact Amelia for her help in building their brands online. Now 31, Amelia has built a 6-figure personal branding agency - Klowt with a team of 7 during the middle of a pandemic, all off the back of her own personal brand.With a strong following on LinkedIn and with views of 40 million, Amelia and the agency have worked with Tech Startup Founders to FTSE Leadership teams, such as The National Lottery, on building personal brands that deliver actual results so they can scale their lead pipeline, generate more referrals to position themselves as an authority and accelerate their businesses growth.A strong leader and public speaker, Amelia also often comments on discussions around fairness, equal opportunities and pay, hiring and retaining great talent, the realities of running a startup, and women’s issues online.Worst investment everAs a 13-year-old girl, an incident happened, and Amelia suffered tremendous trauma. As a result, she constantly sought external validation from others, particularly men, in relationships, friendships, and online. Amelia was obsessed with how people perceived her looks to the point of losing a lot of weight and ended up with a bad case of bulimia. Amelia believed that if she could control the external narrative she was telling people, she wouldn’t have to deal with her internal feelings about how she felt herself. She just wanted people to like her.Amelia lived like this through to her 30s, and it affected her actions, behaviors, friendships, relationships, the jobs she took, etc. She finally got to a point where she realized she wasn’t happy. Not in her marriage, her home, her job, everything. She found herself constantly wondering what she was doing with her life.Amelia checked all the things she was spending her time on and realized she didn’t enjoy any of them. She loved her kids and loved spending time with them. But that was about it. There was nothing else in her life that was making her feel happy. She was at a harrowing point in her life. Amelia decided to look inward and invest in herself. She filed for divorce, quit her job, and started a business.Lessons learnedSelfishly invest in yourself before everyone.Always ask yourself if what you’re spending time on has any ROI. ROI doesn’t need to be cash. It could be happiness, fitness, good health, the overall sense of well-being, etc.You can’t serve people how you’re meant to serve them if you’re not first looking after yourself.Andrew’s takeawaysYou have a right and the ability to have everything in this life. But you’ve got to make a choice.Actionable adviceWrite down a list of the things that trigger you to feel unhappy, depressed, or trapped. Underneath that, you write down what makes you feel calm and happy. And then underneath that, write down a routine explicitly built around the things that make you feel good and completely ignore the things that trigger you.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsAmelia’s goal for the next 12 months is, first of all, to be the best mom she can be. The second goal is to grow her business to be known synonymously with personal branding. She wants Klowt to be known as THE (not a) personal branding agency in the world.Parting words “You’re the only person in your life that will be there for you unconditionally. So protect yourself at all costs.”Amelia Sordell [spp-transcript] Connect with Amelia SordelLinkedInTwitterInstagramBlogWebsitePodcastAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Ana Melikian, Ph.D., is an optimist who had to overcome two bouts with cancer to learn that pursuing happiness is a fallacy.STORY: When Ana started her online coach business, she was looking for the quickest way to find clients. This hunger made her fall for two marketing strategies that never worked. The first was a search engine that promised to be better than Google, and the other was publishing a chapter in a book.LEARNING: Marketing does not get you clients; building relationships does. Have both sales and marketing departments. “Marketing will not get you the client. Building relationships will.”Ana Melikian Guest profileAna Melikian, Ph.D., is an optimist who had to overcome two bouts with cancer to learn that pursuing happiness is a fallacy. To choose happiness is a much more powerful strategy to tap into our highest human potential.Either by working with leaders and their teams, or other coaches and consultants, Ana supports her clients to break through their mindset limitations and upgrade their psychological operating systems so that they achieve better results than ever in work and life while enjoying the process.Worst investment everWhen Ana moved to the United States from Portugal, she had to reinvent herself professionally. She decided to be an online coach, so she built a website hoping that people would find it. A salesperson contacted her and told her about this search engine that was going to be the next Google.The salesperson showed Ana these really cool and well-done features on the search engine. They did a demo for Ana and convinced her that if she invested in the search engine, she’d secure a permanent placement on page one of search results. Ana signed up believing she’d get more clients than she could handle. She didn’t get a single client.The same thing happened to Ana again. Someone else contacted her online with an idea to write and publish a book that would position her as an expert and get clients quickly. The company would just interview Ana, put everything together, and then publish a chapter in a book with her photo. Ana thought, okay, why not? So she put more money into it, and they fulfilled their promise and published her in an excellent chapter.But when Ana received the book, she realized that the other people featured were not the kind of people she wanted to be associated with. So the books stayed in a box somewhere in storage in Ana’s house.Lessons learnedMarketing does not get you clients. It’s a way of creating awareness.Focus on building relationships if you want to get clients.You need both marketing and sales departments.Andrew’s takeawaysYou will fail if you think that just doing marketing will bring you clients.The sales process (guiding a customer through the buying process) is different from marketing.Actionable adviceDon’t wait for people to come and work with you. Create opportunities to have conversations and build relationships.Ana’s recommended resourcesThe Mindset Zone Podcast is an excellent way of expanding your possibilities.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsAna’s goal for the next 12 months is to create a plan to market and sell the book.Parting words “Be gentle with yourself and keep moving forward.”Ana Melikian [spp-transcript] Connect with Ana MelikianLinkedInFacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeWebsitePodcastAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Justin Cunningham helps thought-leader business owners make simple changes to radically grow profits through standing out, creating transformative content and offers, and optimizing effectiveness.STORY: Justin overworked himself while planning an event in Los Angeles so much that he was out of his depth during the event.LEARNING: Face your fears and show up. Stay true to your passion. Your outcomes do not define you. “Luck is when passion meets opportunity.”Justin Cunningham Guest profileJustin Cunningham helps thought-leader business owners make simple changes to radically grow profits through standing out, creating transformative content and offers, and optimizing effectiveness.Justin is a former international music performer, designer, event producer, and editor of NZ Entrepreneur magazine.His business career as a global sales trainer, accelerated results educator, and the founder of the SHIFT agent movement and the celebrated ‘SHIFT Your results’ system.Justin is best known for his fast results recipes for time-poor businesses and his ability to simplify the complexity of standing out and being rewarded in saturated markets.In short - Justin helps frustrated business rockstars go BIG!Take The ‘Shift Your Results’ - Business Owner Quiz reveals the unconscious ways we are blocking our goals and results and how to overcome that.Worst investment everJustin wanted to go to Los Angeles and create an event called Creative supernova. He intended to support creative entrepreneurs. He was motivated, pumped, and fired up to host the event. Justin had a business partner helping him with the finances, and she also had a lot of relationships in Los Angeles.Promotions for the event started, but nothing was happening. No tickets were being sold at this stage. He’d already spent about $30,000. Justin went to LA, and even though he didn’t have any support structure there, he stayed seven weeks on the ground hustling. He managed to get about 90 people to sign up for the event.Justin’s biggest mistake was doing so much by himself to make the vent happen. He spent so much time hustling and getting it ready. He was also dealing with the grief of losing his dog and stepfather. This left him so burned out that when he went on stage during the event, he was out of his depth despite being a successful sales trainer.Lessons learnedFace your fears and show up.Stay true to your passion.Your outcomes do not define you.Where your attention goes, your energy flows.Andrew’s takeawaysBurnout is real.Don’t try to do too much at once. This could break you.Actionable adviceYou can be afraid or excited about what the future holds. Either way, the future is going to come. So make your choice and go forward because taking action will always get you closer to whatever you want to be. You might not always get what you want. But you may get more than you expected.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsJustin’s goal for the next 12 months is to be consistent and persistent.Parting words “You’ve got one choice; go big.”Justin Cunningham [spp-transcript] Connect with Justin CunninghamLinkedInFacebookWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever PodcastFurther reading mentionedEvan Carmichael (December 2016), Your One Word: The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life That Matter.

BIO: Mohammed Aneez is a multidisciplinary designer and has been Co-founder and Design Director at Emnicent Designs.STORY: Mohammed co-founded a design studio with three friends from college. Even though the company was profitable, the co-founders didn’t have enough entrepreneurial experience to scale the business according to their goals.LEARNING: Focus on good leadership. Learn from other leaders. “Good leadership will build you a profitable company.”Mohammed Aneez Guest profileMohammed Aneez is a multidisciplinary designer and has been Co-founder and Design Director at Emnicent Designs. His expertise lies in product design for enterprise solutions, digital transformation, and usability design for business-to-business (SaaS) products across domains. With cross-domain experience and a veteran of design methodologies, Aneez leads multiple teams in-house and at client locations. He also provides free design consultations for various startups from India.He believes that creativity and entrepreneurship are skills that are innate in every human being and must be embraced. He likes to indulge in design practices that are experimental.Worst investment everAfter college, Mohammed and his three friends started a design studio. The four were good designers, but none had business experience. However, they succeeded in running a profitable company. The company was cash-flow positive in under a year and had many projects coming in. Their problem was high demand and low supply at the end of the first year. They didn’t have sufficient designers for the demand.Due to a lack of entrepreneurial experience, the four were just going by the gist of it. They had zero structure for handling sales, marketing, finance, hiring, etc.By the end of the first year, one of Mohammed’s co-founders had a family emergency, and he felt getting a job would be better. He was not into the entrepreneurial spirit, so he left the company. At the end of the second year, another co-founder left because he felt the company was more focused on making profits than the initial goal. When the co-founders came together, their goal was to do much more research and drive the design community forward. Now the company was just a design studio that provided services to different companies.After the second guy left, Mohammed started to think about why he had launched the business. He realized that his lack of leadership skills had made the co-founders and the business generally stray from its initial goal.Lessons learnedLearn leadership qualities and how to ensure that it’s imbibed in the company culture.Learn from other leaders. Get to know how they keep the ball rolling and become great.Focus on building the right team.Andrew’s takeawaysScaling is very crucial for a company to continue running.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsMohammed’s goal for the next 12 months is to learn to be a better leader.Parting words “You don’t need a lot of people to trust and be around you. Just find that one person who is ready to listen and talk.”Mohammed Aneez [spp-transcript] Connect with Mohammed AneezLinkedInWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Tech founder, LinkedIn influencer, Metaverse architect, community builder, advisor and consultant to web3 and blockchain projects, philanthropist, and lover of dogs - it’s LinkedIn’s (beloved) “Crytpo Guy” Cory Warfield!STORY: Cory spent so much time and emotions trying to raise capital for his company instead of focusing on generating revenue from a product that was already selling.LEARNING: Focus on producing revenue, and investors will come knocking. “If you ask for money, you get advice. But if you ask for advice, you get money.”Cory Warfield Guest profileTech founder, LinkedIn influencer, Metaverse architect, community builder, advisor and consultant to web3 and blockchain projects, philanthropist, and lover of dogs - it’s LinkedIn’s (beloved) “Crytpo Guy” Cory Warfield!Worst investment everCory’s made his worst investment ever as a first-time founder trying to raise capital. Raising about $800,000 for his company caused the demise of the company. Cory spent so much time and emotion creating pitch decks trying to raise money.After he raised the capital, the funders came in and hired all sorts of unnecessary staff. They also scrapped Cory’s MVP, which was earning revenue, and instead spent a lot of money launching an inferior product.Cory believes that had he instead spent that time trying to find ways to increase revenue, the company could have raised that $800,000 quicker. The company would have had enough capital to scale the way he had wanted it to. Now Cory bootstraps every venture he’s part of.Lessons learnedThe best investment that an early-stage company can get is revenue. When you have customers putting their money into your product, you’ll have enough validation, and investors will throw money at you.In addition to revenue, building a community is even more important. And if you offer value to that community, you can monetize it.Andrew’s takeawaysFocus on sales and generating profit so that you can bootstrap your start-up instead of just raising capital to run it.Actionable adviceIf you are pursuing investment capital, don’t appease or kiss investors’ butts. Just act like they’re no big deal. Psychologically, it makes them start to bid on you in their own mind. It makes them want that deal.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsCory’s goal for the next 12 months is to help as many people as possible get into the metaverse. He wants to help them create their own meta worlds, communities, and other metaverses and environments. He wants to see more people embrace this new world happening in real-time.Parting words “If you’re wondering whether or not you should go for it. I think the answer is always very simple: go for it.”Cory Warfield [spp-transcript] Connect with Cory WarfieldLinkedInAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: William Green is the author of “Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life.” The book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews that he’s conducted with many legendary investors over the past quarter of a century.STORY: We look at some of the many lessons William learned from spending hundreds of hours interviewing some of our greatest investors.LEARNING: Be aware of your flaws and frailties. Avoid standard stupidities. Be authentic and true to who you are. “I’m very vulnerable to my flaws and frailties. I think it’s a valuable thing to be aware of your particular flavor of stupidity.”William Green Guest profileWilliam Green is the author of a book titled “Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life.” The book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews that he’s conducted with many legendary investors over the last quarter of a century. Published in 2021, the book is being translated into about 22 languages.William is also the host of the “Richer, Wiser, Happier” podcast, in which he interviews famous investors like Howard Marks, Joel Greenblatt, and Ray Dalio.William has written for many leading publications, including The New Yorker, Time, Fortune, Forbes, Barron’s, and The Economist. He also edited Time magazine’s European, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian editions.Having interviewed extraordinary people like Jack Bogle, who founded Vanguard, Peter Lynch, the legendary investor of fidelity, and Sir John Templeton, who was probably the greatest international investor of the 20th century, among others, William Green has learned many lessons about investing and life in general.Today, we go straight to some of the profound lessons he’s learned.Lessons learnedSelf-awareness is critical in investing successfullyOne of William’s most essential lessons from spending hundreds of hours interviewing great investors is that he’s not one of them. He doesn’t have the temperament that they have or the intellectual firepower that most of them have. He’s not as calm, patient, or rational as they are or has an obsessive fascination with sitting around analyzing business models and looking at financial statements. However, this realization is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s incredibly liberating. William realized that once he was self-aware, he could stop playing against people better equipped to win than he was.Charlie Munger taught him it’s best to play games that you can winThis incredible revelation came particularly from Charlie Munger, Buffett’s polymath genius partner at Berkshire Hathaway. Munger taught William that it’s best to play games that you can win. Now William is aware of his strengths and thus takes on opportunities in life that harness those strengths. When it comes to investing, the lesson here is that people should avoid buying individual stocks if they don’t know how to value a business and, therefore, are not equipped to understand the individual stocks that are winners.Arnold Van Den Berg taught him the value of controlling your inner landscapeAnother lesson William took away from his interviews came from Arnold Van Den Berg. He was born just before World War II, and during the Holocaust, he went into hiding as a Jew. Van Den Berg was a guy who was least likely to succeed. He barely made it through high school and had internalized the idea that he was stupid and brain-damaged. Yet, he had this incredibly successful investment career that he built by turning around his life and controlling his inner self. Whenever William is anxious, sad, self-loathing, or feeling like his life is going in the wrong direction, he thinks of Van Den Berg’s journey. If Van Den Berg could turn his life around, he could also achieve what he wanted if William just took control of his inner landscape.Money is important to reduce everyday stressBy interviewing the greats, William learned that people want to be heard and understood. They will tell you what you want to know if you’re captivated, empathetic, honest, and authentic with them.William advises people to take their money and financial security seriously. This is because it’s really stressful not to know if you can pay your bills and take care of your family. Don’t let anyone convince you that money is not important. It is.Avoid what Charlie Munger calls standard stupiditiesLuck may have played a big part in the success of great investors, but a lot depended on tilting the odds in their favor. One of the things that the most successful investors like Charlie Munger do is try to avoid what he calls “standard stupidities.” When you behave stupidly in the short run, you can get away with it. But if you do that consistently or regularly over 10 to 20 years, your luck runs out at some point. Thus, the advice from Munger is to avoid things with a catastrophic downside and limited upside to increase your likelihood of staying in the game.William says one form of standard stupidity is to bet too aggressively on speculative stuff you don’t understand. He advises never investing money you can’t afford to lose.The Bond King says to ensure that your mistakes are not fatalJeffrey Gundlach, who’s often called the King of Bonds, advised William always to ensure that his mistakes are non-fatal. To always ask himself if he’s wrong about a particular investment, what will be the consequence?William now knows that a reasonable investor diversifies his portfolio. The average investor should probably own five to ten funds to be reasonably diversified.Predicting the future is a fool’s gameOne thing that’s clear to William is that analysts or people who pretend to predict the future are fooling themselves. So be tremendously skeptical when dealing with them.Another piece of wisdom William picked from Joe Greenblatt, Howard Marks, Buffett, and Munger: always value businesses, buy them for less than their net worth, and then wait.Templeton taught William to never blindly trust one person, even if that person is your friend or brilliant and honorable. According to Templeton, even when you find someone you admire, hedge against the fact that they can be wrong.Finally, William says that investing is not simple, and even when you learn a crucial lesson, it may not apply next time. That’s just life, and it’s not simple.Andrew’s takeawaysThe more you’re true to who you are, the better your life will be.Revenue is proof of concept, and profit is proof of competence. But the most important thing to an investor is growing that profit.Buy good companies at low prices relative to their value, but don’t forget that stocks follow earnings. You may buy a cheap company, but your investment won’t be that profitable if it doesn’t grow its profit.Even when you’re inclined to follow someone because you like what they said or admire them, remember that you still have to keep doing your research and re-evaluate your decision constantly.Take control of your inner landscape because, ultimately, only you can shape that.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsWilliam’s goal for the next 12 months is to go on an eight-day meditation retreat with a great Tibetan Buddhist meditation teacher. He also wants to take more control of his inner landscape.Parting words “When you do something that’s incredibly stupid, look at it and say; not going there again.”William Green [spp-transcript] Connect with William GreenLinkedInTwitterPodcastWebsiteBookAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: AJ Aluthwala is a specialist in discovering, planning, and executing customized online marketing strategies for businesses to attract massive amounts of online traffic and convert that traffic into sales.STORY: AJ and his business partner agreed to get into an unprofitable business only to help a friend. They lost a ton of money, and the friendship failed too.LEARNING: Don’t partner with anybody, especially friends, based on emotion. Always know your numbers. Review your financial statements monthly. “Always know your numbers.”AJ Aluthwala Guest profileAJ Aluthwala is a specialist in discovering, planning, and executing customized online marketing strategies for businesses to attract massive amounts of online traffic and convert that traffic into sales.He also helps companies develop their own proprietary apps to help them improve customer experience and increase the value of their business.He has worked with over 200 companies around the US and worldwide.AJ has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America and has visited over 15 countries worldwide. AJ and his family moved to sunny Florida in 2014.He is offering listeners a free white paper on “5 Things to Look for When Selecting a Mobile App Developer’ which you can download at ElleApps.Worst investment everIn 2013, AJ and a partner were running a wholesale business. They did not want to get into the retail side at all because they knew it was cutthroat. However, they had a friend who begged to get involved in their business. His idea was to take the wholesale business to retailers for better profit and more significant margins.To help out this friend, the two partners accepted his idea and got into the retail side. They acquired property, vehicles, and other things to run the business. However, the company was losing around $5,000 a month, which was excruciatingly painful. AJ had to borrow $10,000 from his wife to keep the business afloat.Eventually, they had to close everything up in a few months. The partners didn’t part ways on good terms, and the friendships fell apart. So AJ not only lost money in this investment but a friend too.Lessons learnedDon’t partner with anybody based on emotion.Before starting a business, do your research and look at numbers; if numbers make sense, you can start the business.Be careful when getting into business with friends.Andrew’s takeawaysStay open to new ideas, but don’t get distracted from your vision.Create, or hire someone to draw financial statements and then review them monthly.Actionable adviceMake sure you run the numbers, then make decisions based on the numbers, not on emotions.AJ’s recommended resourcesThe 5 Things to Look for When Selecting a Mobile App Developer whitepaper.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsAJ’s goal for the next 12 months is to expand and build an A-grade team to handle a couple of new projects starting up. [spp-transcript] Connect with AJ AluthwalaLinkedInFacebookInstagramYouTubeWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: David Aaker, sometimes called the Father of Modern Branding, is the author of 18 books on branding and related topics. He is the vice-chair of Prophet, a global branding, growth, and transformation consultancy.STORY: David was an advisor to a software company acquired by Microsoft in the 80s. He had stock in the company but decided to sell it to save on taxes. The stock would now be worth millions of dollars.LEARNING: Don’t let saving taxes drive your investment decisions. Keep your money in the market for as long as possible. “Don’t sell your stocks to save on taxes.”David Aaker Guest profileDavid Aaker, sometimes called the Father of Modern Branding, is the author of 18 books on branding and related topics. The last three are Aaker on Branding, Creating Signature Stories, and Owning Game-Changing Subcategories. He is the vice-chair of Prophet, a global branding, growth, and transformation consultancy.Worst investment everDavid was an advisor to a software company that was a competitor to Windows in the 80s. The company was better than Windows but couldn’t get any of the big computer companies to adopt it. And so they sold to Microsoft. David had stock in this company that he wanted to keep for his daughters. He later decided to sell his stocks to avoid income tax. Had David kept the stocks, his daughter would have millions of dollars today.Lessons learnedDon’t let saving taxes drive your investment decisions.Andrew’s takeawaysThe real long game in building a portfolio is letting time work its magic. So keep your money in the market for as long as possible.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsDavid’s goal for the next 12 months is to help people understand how to build brand assets and emphasize structures and financials in their strategic thinking.Parting words “People should manage their charitable giving portfolio as they do their stock portfolio.”David Aaker [spp-transcript] Connect with David AakerLinkedInFacebookTwitterWebsiteBooksAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Mahesh Murthy has helped launch Amazon, over 60 startups, a few hundred brands, and a few satellites. He’s a marketer, entrepreneur, and investor.STORY: Mahesh invested close to $400,000 into a startup only to discover that one of the founders was siphoning money via his sister and mother.LEARNING: Verify startup founders before investing in them. Hire someone to monitor your investments if you cannot do it yourself. Invest in a minimum of 10 startups instead of just one. “Never give your entire investment to one person.”Mahesh Murthy Guest profileMahesh Murthy has helped launch Amazon, over 60 startups, a few hundred brands, and a few satellites. He’s a marketer, entrepreneur, and investor.As a marketer he:Worked on Amazon, Pepsi, and NikeHelped launch MTV and its rival Channel V.Founded ad firm Pinstorm.Wrote ads, including ‘Asia’s best ad of the decade.”As an entrepreneur he:Failed in his first three ventures.Is taking a company public soonHas taken another into space: Asia’s first private firm to launch satellitesAs an investor he:Has run three venture fundsWas voted India’s “Best VC of the Year.” Twice.Worst investment everMahesh was lucky to be in the US at the start of the Dotcom revolution working at one of the early digital advertising firms in Silicon Valley. He read about a small startup in Seattle that wanted to sell stuff online.Mahesh went to his boss and told him about the startup, but he dismissed him. But he prevailed, and finally, the boss allowed him to meet the startup’s founders. The startup was Amazon. Mahesh started working with Amazon, and in the process, he learned a lot from Jeff Bezos.After a few years, Mahesh decided to return to India and take his e-commerce knowledge there. He also started doing a lot of angel investing. Through this, he met two founders who wanted to teach students outside India online.Mahesh was very excited about the idea and was ready to invest. The two founders hired teachers, and the teaching started. Mahesh was pretty much hands-off and would write a check every three months. The founders would update him on the progress and insist they had everything under control.Soon, Mahesh noticed the company was spending so much money renting computers and an office space bigger than necessary. He kept asking why the founders were doing this instead of buying the computers and renting a smaller space. The founders insisted that they just wanted to be flexible and not invest in assets they knew nothing about. Mahesh just bought into all this.Finally, after about two years of pumping so much money into the company without much progress, Mahesh decided to look deeper into how things were running. He went to the office, and while looking at the financial books, he noticed that the people renting out the computers and the space were related. He dug a little deeper, did a few Google searches, then figured out that the computers belonged to one of the founder’s sisters and the space belonged to his mother. This partner was taking a chunk of money from the company and putting it into his own pocket through his mother and sister. Mahesh was incensed. When he asked the founder about it, he exited the company. When the second founder heard about it, he also left the company.Now Mahesh had very little money left, a company with no leadership, about 25 staff, and no customers. He and his partner jumped in and did what they could to find some customers, paid the teachers full pay, and slowly let them off.About two years later, they sold the company to another company building an education giant and got some shares in it. Up to that point, Mahesh had invested close to $400,000, and he only managed to get about $40,000 back when the new owners took the company public.Lessons learnedNobody’s a good judge of character, so don’t trust people blindly.Being hands-off may be easy and fantastic, but it won’t help your investments.Ensure all the paperwork is correct and your tax is done correctly.Hire somebody who will track and monitor your investments if you cannot be hands-on.Andrew’s takeawaysIf you’re going to invest in startups, invest in 10 startups, not just one.Monitor your investment regularly.Get your complete financial statements, balance sheet, and income statement monthly and hold a monthly meeting to review them.Actionable adviceIf you’re investing in a startup, hire a chartered accountant who will look deep into the books on your behalf. Additionally, put the systems in place to monitor your investments so you don’t get scammed.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsMahesh Murthy’s goal for the next 12 months is to launch more satellites and segments.Parting words “Trust but verify.”Mahesh Murthy [spp-transcript] Connect with Mahesh MurthyLinkedInFacebookTwitterInstagramWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast