- The billionaire said to me,
"Dan, if your goal is to make a billion dollars,
"chances are you'll never make a billion dollars."
Now for those in the know,
in Vancouver we have, two private clubs.
One is called Terminal City Club,
and one is called The Vancouver Club.
Now there's a saying in Vancouver, it goes like this,
people at Terminal City Club, they run Vancouver.
It means we're talking about the Presidents,
the Vice Presidents of Vancouver, of big corporations.
And the people at Vancouver Club, they own Vancouver.
They're the shareholders,
they are the family generational wealth.
So as a member of The Vancouver Club,
that is probably one of the youngest members that they have,
it is a fascinating place to meet a lot of powerful,
and influential leaders.
I've met real estate developers, powerful politicians,
tycoons, tech entrepreneurs.
I've met so many interesting people from the club.
And one time, I've had the opportunity to sit down with
a local Vancouver billionaire.
He is in the real estate business,
also is in the financing business.
So, when I sat down with him, I say young guy,
I ask him the question,
"You know, how does one become a billionaire like you?,
"What advice would you have for a young man who is like me,
"that I'm building my companies,
"and if you were to do it all over again
what would you do it differently?"
And I always remember he said to me,
"You know what Dan, at first, that's not my goal,
"I never set out to be a billionaire
"and put that on my goal list or anything like that.
"Now when I was young, because I had a family,
"I got my wife, I've got a few kids,
"all I wanted to do was to provide
"a nice environment for them.
"I wanted to be able to provide
"a good education for my kids.
"And I wanted to be able to have a nice environment
"for them to grow up in.
"That was it.
"So it's just like when I was your age,
"my focus was to become rich, to be a millionaire."
And he said to me, "That when Daniel,
"when I hit a million dollars,
"when I become a millionaire."
"I realized nothing changes that much,
"it's kind of the same, I still go to work,
"I eat the same breakfast, and I've got now the nice house,
"a couple cars and life is good.
"But I realized that doesn't fulfill me,
"that doesn't fill me up it doesn't get me excited anymore.
"And I realized that is not the end goal.
"So at the time I also had a good employee
"that is under my leadership that's working for my company.
"I treat them like family members,
"I get to know their spouse, I get to know their kids,
"and what happens is, before you know it,
"now we are a pretty big company.
"We have 100 employees, and I thought you know what,
"to expand the business I need to acquire another company.
"So before you know it, instead of one company,
"then I have two companies."
So then I was asking him,
"So how do you manage, and all these different companies?
"You got like so many different companies,
"and you acquire different companies.
"How do you do that?"
And he said, "Well just like having a baby,
"it's just one at a time."
He said, "One at a time, you acquire a company,
"and then you let it grow, you help,
"you nurture it, you grow it.
"And then you have another company,
"and you nurture it, and you grow it."
And he said, "After then decades of doing that,
"now I end up with tens of thousands of employees,
"and this group of company."
So, then I ask him the question,
"So, what advice would you have for me?"
And he said, "Well, if your goal
"is to make a million dollars,
"chances are you'll never make a million dollars.
"Because, that's what is not what is gonna get you
"to a million dollars, is just by focusing on the money.
"However, if you love what you do,
"and you love your customers,
"you love your people, love your team,
"and you are willing to make a difference,
"and you are willing to establish a reputation,
"a reputation of being fair in business dealing right,
"of being able to work with people,
"and people wanting to come back to you
"and do business with you."
He also said that, "When you try to build your business,
"when you chase other people,
"when you want to do business with them,
"when you want to close the deal.
"It's much easier when they come to you
"versus you go to them.
"And the reason they will come to you,
"is because you have a good reputation."
If you want to listen to some of these interviews,
I am launching a new podcast, called The DanLok Show.
Where every single week I'm going to interview,
tap into my network, interview some of these
successful entrepreneurs, heavy hitters, millionaires.
In some cases billionaires.
And bring you their wisdoms and their insights.
So make sure that you subscribe
to my new podcast, The DanLok Show.
You can click the link somewhere on on this page,
and subscribe to it.
It's absolutely free, you can subscribe to it.
Every single day, I'll upload a new episode,
and every single week I will upload an interview.
So now you have no excuse, not only do you watch my videos,
but now you can take what I do,
and sometimes I'll take the youtube videos,
and also convert that into the podcast.
Into a short five, 10 minute lessons,
so you can now have Dan on the go.
So go ahead and click the link,
and when you have downloaded the episode,
and when you have subscribed.
Make sure, don't forget to leave me a positive review.