I've kept what happened
on my many adventures to China a secret.
Sure, I've talked about how I established connections
with factory owners, created my own products,
and built million dollar businesses.
However, that's just scratching the surface.
The truth is, there were seven people in China
that completely changed
how I approached making money forever.
The first was a guy called Edward
whose crucial mistake taught me more about money
than a semester in business school.
I met Edward at the Shanghai Toy Fair
on my first trip to China.
I was way out of my depth.
I had no friends, was unable to speak the language,
and frankly shocked how different the culture was to my own.
I was full of ambition and ideas,
and I had one main objective
to find a winning product to bring back
and sell to the Western market.
I spent all day looking around at the different stands,
but nothing really got me excited.
However, I needed to find something,
so I finally settled on a product
that was just about up to standard.
I was just leaving the show,
trying hard to hide my disappointment,
when I noticed a stand that was awkwardly placed
just around the corner out of view from everyone.
I approached this stand as something had caught my eye.
It was the most perfect model airplane.
Long story short, I managed to import the model plane
and make a lot of money.
However, the lesson I learned
from that encounter was even more valuable.
You see, up until this point,
I thought that if you had an amazing product,
then you will make lots of money.
However, I nearly walked out of that building
completely missing the best product
and instead reluctantly nearly signing a deal
with the best option that I could find at the time.
They won't teach you this in school,
as nowadays they reward anything and everything.
However, the market doesn't care
about you and your feelings.
The harsh truth is, you can be the best
in the world at something, but if nobody knows about you,
then you are going to lose.
The second fella was called Peter
whose passion led me to make a millions of dollars
in a way I never expected.
I met him at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany.
I had one of the best stands
and was showing off my product lines
to break into the European market.
He also had a stand, and me being me,
I went over and had a chat,
and we got on like a house on fire,
and he became a very close friend of mine.
One evening we were relaxing in a bar and he said,
"Mark, I have a dream to send my daughter
to the top private school in the UK.
However, there's a big problem."
I was intrigued, so I asked him to elaborate.
He went on to say, "In order for her to attend,
I have to nominate a guardian in the UK
that can be responsible for her welfare.
Would you be able to help me?"
Of course I agreed.
I visibly saw him let out a huge sigh of relief.
It was clear that this was very important to him,
so I asked him, why was he so passionate
about sending his daughter to the UK?
He revealed that although he wanted more children legally
due to the one-child policy, he couldn't,
or he'd face serious consequences from the government.
He said that family is above everything,
and if he couldn't have any more kids,
then he wanted to give his daughter everything he could
to make sure she had the best shot at success.
In the USA and UK,
we are taught that everyone should be out for themselves,
and that's extremely different from Chinese culture
of building your family's legacy and honoring your elders.
I really admire this.
As a family that sticks together,
will always be more successful.
Peter taught me that investments aren't just about stocks,
shares, and business.
It's also about your family.
That's why I made sure
to pass on my knowledge to my only son, Curtis,
and now we're even business partners.
The third person was Don, whose distrust for the system
forced me to make bold money moves.
Now, Don was an extremely successful businessman,
valued at around $50,000,000.
One evening, we were laughing and chatting about good times
and then suddenly the mood entirely shifted.
He said quietly, "Mark, can I tell you something
I've never told anyone before?"
The look of worry on his face troubled me,
as Don was a friend I really looked up to.
His business was huge.
He had supercars and his life looked amazing.
But it was clear not everything
was as perfect as it appeared.
I said to share whatever was on his mind.
He then came back at me with seven words
that have made me think
about my money more than anything else.
"I don't feel like I own anything."
The Communist Party in China is all seeing and all knowing.
If you say anything that slightly offends the party,
then they can make you disappear without a trace.
"This makes me feel like I'm not even successful.
I'm merely renting all these things
until the party decides to take them away from me
if I get too powerful."
I initially thought he just watched
too many conspiracy theories, but the more I dug into it,
the more I saw his point of view.
I mean, at least half a dozen billionaires
in the past few years have disappeared for periods
after reported run-ins with the Communist Party.
The most notable being Jack Ma, the owner of Alibaba,
who went missing for three solid months.
There was even lots of evidence pointing
to the Communist Party trapping successful entrepreneurs
in corrupt investigations.
The biggest money secret
that I took away from this encounter, and you should too,
is to never be at the mercy of one government or one system.
This has caused me to spend a tremendous amount of time
diversifying my money in assets all over the world.
I never want anyone to know exactly what I own
and where it's all located.
I don't even know exactly how much I'm worth
because I have so much spread around in different places.
The fourth guy came across was Andy
whose privilege revealed the reality of money.
He loved the idea of owning his own factory
and manufacturing products.
So his dad gave him about a million dollars to start one.
One day he came to me and said,
"Mark, I'm not making any money, but I'm doing so much work.
I don't understand where I'm going wrong."
So I did some digging into his numbers
and found out they had been making
the biggest mistake possible in the manufacturing world.
I set a meeting with him and told him straight,
"You're selling your products
for less than it cost to make them."
To which he said,
"We try to break even on the main products,
and make all our profits on the spare parts."
So I abruptly said,
"You're not selling any spare parts, Andy,
because it's cheaper to buy another item."
I can't say that I'm surprised
his business didn't last the test of time.
However, before that point,
I'd always been jealous of people
that were given a large amount of money
to start their businesses.
Coming from absolutely nothing,
I saw it as such an advantage
to be handed cash on a silver platter.
However, looking back, I'm so glad I wasn't given anything.
The secret you should take away from this
is it doesn't matter how much money you're given,
if you also don't have the correct skills to match it.
The fifth person was Eroun whose tactical use of money
made me second guess my decisions.
I needed someone to produce my charges
for my electronic product, so I visited Eroun's factory.
The first time I visited,
his employees would make everything by hand.
It was an extremely slow and laborious process.
The second time I went, he'd upgraded the factory
by adding a conveyor belt
that transported all the different parts
of the products around the factory
and automated little tasks,
like making sure everything was soldered together.
The third time I was gobsmacked.
He actually had robots assembling
more than 50% of the products he produced.
And now it's completely automated
and like nothing I've ever seen.
Due to the sheer amount of investment in machinery
and automation over the years,
the products that used to take him a month to produce
now only take him four days.
This may be second guess my decision
to buy a jet ski in the early days
when my business started making a nice bit of money.
It was such an unnecessary purchase,
and before I handed over the money,
I thought to myself, "What would Eroun do?"
The answer was, of course,
he'd reinvest it back into his business.
So I ended up doing the same,
and just use my mate's jet ski until I got sick of it.
If it makes it easier,
then try and follow the 50-30-20 rule.
This is when you spend 50% of your income on needs,
essential living expenses,
such as rent, mortgage, bills, food, and transport to work,
30% on investments, this could be paying down your debt,
investing in your business, or even in stocks and shares
and alternative asset classes, and 20% on wants,
such as eating out, shopping, trips, and subscriptions.
The secret is don't take money
from something that's doing well and waste it.
Constantly reinvest.
This could be in yourself, a side hustle, or a business.
The sixth person you need to hear about is James
whose morals and loyalty showed me
that there is so much more to make in money
than meets the eye.
I had an amazing idea
for a new product I wanted to bring to market,
but it was extremely complicated
and I knew that it would require a certain set of skills
that only a few people possess.
I befriended a guy called James
who assured me that he could do it.
I put my trust in him to deliver.
However, after 12 months and a lot of investment,
we hit brick wall.
I was ready to take the loss
and not deal with him ever again.
However, without me having to ask,
he refunded all of my research
and development money and took full responsibility
because he had assured me he could do it.
Ultimately, this led me to doing a lot more business
with him in the future as I knew that James would always put
my best interest first.
The big money lesson here is that reputation is everything,
and a good one can make you very wealthy.
It takes years to build,
but just a couple of seconds to lose.
People talk. Make sure they speak well about you.
The seventh person I encountered was David
whose plan taught me
that making money isn't all about strategy.
Let me tell you this.
One of the hardest things to do in China is to socialize.
Not many people understand Western jokes,
but he loved everything European.
One night we ended up in an Irish bar
eating Chinese fast food and laugh in a way.
Fast forward a few years, and he decided
to start his own construction material supply business.
His strategy was bulletproof.
He was aiming to specialize in materials for hotels.
As many hotel rooms are identical,
this means he could supply lots of the same product in bulk.
He also offered to give me 20% of the company
in exchange for my experience
and connections within the UK market.
He had the right attitude, strategy,
and knowledge behind him,
so you might think that everything went smoothly
and now he's a multimillionaire.
However, unfortunately this isn't a fairy tale,
this is real life.
Just as his building company got started,
COVID killed his exports to Europe
and the hotel market in general.
His company was dead before it even got started.
You can often have a great idea and execution,
however, people might not be ready for it
or an event outside of your control could shake things up.
The biggest money secret I took away from this failure
was that if you want to be rich,
then you have to get your timing right.
If you wanna get rich,
then you really shouldn't start a business.
I explain why in this video, but don't click on it just yet.
Remember to subscribe if you wanna grow your wealth.
Okay? I'll see you over there.