Asking 70 Year Old Billionaires If They Have Any Regrets

Money and Regrets

“When the money hits the table, that’s when you find a real character of people. Do you regret selling it? You have to get done. I was in there for the money. Business people, they say they love their business. What was the exit? Was it worth it? All the work and the worrying. Almost a 120 billion dollar company, okay, but it’s not a trillion yet. Have you ever wondered whether all the hard work and sacrifice to build a billion-dollar business is even worth it?”

Becoming a Billionaire

“Well, in this video, I’m going to talk to the founders of Kinko’s, Uggs boots, and Qualcomm to ask them how they built their billion-dollar empires and whether or not they have any regrets. How is it to become a billionaire? I feel great. Tell you a funny story of my wife over here bought an ex-wife about a TV cabinet for 35,000, and it always picked me off that camera was so goddamn expensive. I was very upset with the cabinet. Sold the business, I’m happy with the cabinet.”

Business Ideas and Kinkos

“How do you use curiosity to come up with business ideas, and how did that help you come up with Kinkos? Well, I was at SC, and they were in line at SC making Xerox copies, and I figured why I want the same people be in line in Santa Barbara, Barbara. I didn’t have to take a lot of LSD and ruminate over the damn idea.”

Being Best Known

“What are you best known for? I think I’m best known for being the founder of ARG. I was surfing up at Malibu one day, and it was, you know, October, November, the water was getting really cold, and I was pulling on my sheepskin boots after surfing, and I just got goosebumps on it. I’m like, ‘God, there’s no Ugg boots in America,’ and I was with my buddy, and I said to him, ‘Hey man, we’ve got to go into business. We’re going to be instant millionaires.’ We had no idea that it would take 20 years.”

The Day of the Deal

“How did you feel the day it closed? The day the deal closed, it was great. Really interesting day because, you know, when the money…”

Money and Character

“Day because you know when the money hits the table, that’s when you find out real character of people, and a lot of greed came in the first couple of days leading up to that. Everyone’s, you know, best friends until the money hits the table, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, oh, it’s all me.’ Really interesting.”

Inventing and Qualcomm

“What did you invent as a part of, oh, what I’m known for is the Viterbi algorithm. It is the basis for 5G technology for cell phones. Now, it was a basis for 2G and 3G. It also had some impact on 4G. How did you come up with that idea for Qualcomm? Well, our first company came out of our University Research. When we started Qualcomm because we had limited capital, we went after government contracts.”

Size and Valuation of Qualcomm

“How many people work at Qualcomm? I think at peak 30 or 40,000, and then the valuation I just looked up, almost 120 billion dollar company. Okay, but it’s not a trillion yet.”

Receiving Money and Relief

“How is it when you received the money that day? Like, what happens? Oh, it’s just euphoric. Like, so you actually felt relief? Yeah, yes. Oh, you don’t understand the luxury of waking up every morning and not worrying and thinking about what you want to think about. I like that part the best.”

Celebrating Success

“How did you celebrate? Probably had a few cocktails, maybe smoked a joint or two. I just remember always being stressed out, and there’s a lot more to worry about than your business. I was ready for it to be sold a lot long prior tonight when I sold it.”

Living Life in Decades

“If you had to describe how people should live their lives in decades, how would you think about that? My mother said, ‘Honey, in your 20s, try everything. In your 30s, figure out what you do best, and in your 40s, make money from what you do best and try not to do too much. In your 50s, in your 20s, you really do care about what people think about you. You get to be 40; you don’t really care what people think about you. Then you get to be 60; you realize no one thought of you in the first place.'”

Enjoying the Money

“So when you received the money from Uggs, like how did you enjoy the money? My wife and I had been just eking it out for 20 years. Yes, the first few were really, really tough, and then suddenly we got millions in the bank, but our lifestyle did not change. Did we didn’t go to more expensive restaurants? We didn’t do a big vacation. We just carried on with life.”

Business and Objectives

“What was your expert? I was in there for the money, and it was always for sale. Just I sold it in 1997. But every day that business was out there was for sale. Business people, they say they love their business. You can enjoy your business once you love it, you’re losing your objectivity, and you can’t let that business own you; you own it.”

Spending Money

“What are some of the silly ways you’ve spent your money? Frivolous things I bought, yeah, or on the other side, I bought this goddamn airplane to be a big shot. No, that cost me a lot of money. How much was the payment? You bought 22 million dollars.”

Enjoyment and Satisfaction

“How did you enjoy your money? I had a Ferrari for a while because my kids talked me into it, but I didn’t like it. It was the Modena 360, I think. I got rid of it after 10 years. Had the best Mercedes that I could find at the time. It’s CLS 550, was just like a look like a dart, you know, it’s such a beautiful car. I’ve been through that, done that. I don’t need that for my ego anymore. You know, as long as the rent, I know, I’ve got no problems with the rent being paid for a year or two. That’s really all the money you need. The trick is to be happy when you do that sort of stuff, you know because I know a lot of millionaires are the most miserable people I know. They’re taking a step back for someone.”

Becoming a Millionaire

“How do you think someone today can become a millionaire? Use your eyes and your intuition, but unfortunately, we’re too damn rational a lot of times. It’s intuitive, and we don’t trust our instinct. Why does a customer want to buy something? They see all these big shots; they think that they built the business. Their customers built.”

Business Ideas in Today’s Economy

“What are you observing in terms of business ideas in today’s economy? Oh, there’s so many kids are too high for loot, and they want to do all the de-siphon and things. It’s just down and dirty stuff like every time you park your car, why is it somebody washing it for you? Why don’t you go to the place and say, ‘I’ll put a…”

Business Ideas and Trends.co

“Car wash for you, charge for forty dollars, you’re going to lunch two hours later, you get a car wash. I mean, why? What’s happening? What’s happening? All that little hustle. What’s interesting about the stories in this video is that no matter how big the business becomes, it’s always about starting right now and having a promising business idea.”

Sponsorship and Regrets

“But what if you want to start a business, and you don’t got a great idea? We are working with trends.co, who y’all love so much last time. They have come back to hook us up with the sponsorship. Now, they have a whole team of analysts who are constantly nerding out researching the most profitable industries and business opportunities and send those to your inbox every single week.”

Sponsorship Offer

“On top of that, they also bring on successful CEOs and entrepreneurs for live business trainings and Q and A’s to teach you skills to build a company. Trends hooked us up with a special offer you all went crazy for last time; they’re doing it again. Trends.co/NoahK. You can try out their community and get access to their business ideas for seven days for one buck. That is trends.co/NoahK to start your seven-day trial for one dollar. Enjoy.”

Regrets and Work

“Do you have regrets of like that you work too much? It is a song. I don’t regret anything. It sounds like Frank Sinatra, ‘I did it my way,’ and I have no regrets. What regrets do you have from that time? Well, I was under so much pressure financially; I didn’t say enough thank-yous.”

Pressure and Gratitude

“I worked with really wonderful people, and I didn’t say thank you enough to them. But you’re in the middle of it all; it’s just hard to be grateful; you’re just so under so much pressure. I was just internally focused on paying my bills and all that, and I was jovial and very convivial to the managers, the executives; they could feel my fury a little bit.”

Worth of the Work and Worrying

“Was it worth it, all the work and the worrying? Now in my 40s, I didn’t sleep right; my neck always hurt, and I had bad gas. Now I don’t have any gas; I sleep like a baby, and my neck doesn’t hurt. Do you regret selling it or how do you feel about it? No, um, it was growing so fast; I just didn’t have the knowledge of finance to be able to forecast the production requirements.”

Letting Go

“When it got to about 15 million, I just thought, you know, I got to find somebody who can really take this and run with it because if I had tried to hold on to it, you know, I would have failed miserably that year because of my success. Do you wish you would have, like, worked less or done anything different with the experience?”

Enjoying Running the Business

“I couldn’t have worked less because it had to get done. I wouldn’t say I overworked, but I was always busy; my mind never switched off from oh, overall, it was really enjoyable, you know, running my own business and having really good staff and everyone; it was like a team of people on this really cool project.”

Being Remembered

“How would you like to be remembered? As I had an interesting wife, and I want to be remembered for being the head of my family and having a warm family. How would you like to be remembered? The most common compliment I get is the highest company that I get when I come off stage is people just go, ‘Oh my God, you’re so real,’ you know, and that I think is how I want to be remembered. I think I’m doing a good job.”

Success and Family

“What makes a great life? You know what success is? Success is when your children want to be with you when they’re adults. How many people could have all that, and the kids don’t come home for the holidays? Come on, I’ve been called ‘adoption’ my whole life. Most cool thing I’ve ever been called in my entire life. Dad. If you like this video, you are going to love this video right up here where I knock on Millionaire’s doors and ask them how to get rich.”

Conclusion

“Make sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. Uncle Noah loves you, and I’ll see you out there.”