Transcription
This is the great Simon Squib debate. My thoughts on Simon Squib.
Firstly, this is his new book and in my opinion, this book sucks. And the advice within it has no substance in the real world of business in my opinion. And in this video, I'm going to be giving my honest review of Simon Scrib's latest book, What's Your Dream? And of course, you can draw your own conclusions.
So, why did I even read the book in the first place? And why am I making this video right now? Well, I had a ding-dong on social media last year with Simon. We spoke back and forth over Instagram DMs, and this was due to his ridiculous views on property investment and how he thinks that property investment is evil and you should only own one house at Mac. Property business is a scam. And if you want to see more on what happened there with property, check the link in the bio where I break down his ridiculous views on property investment and I explain why I think he's woefully wrong.
However, I am not just a property investor. I am a a businessman. I got 60 members of staff. I'm running businesses. And despite my disagreements with Simon on property, I thought maybe I'd learned something about business from reading his book, What's Your Dream? Also, I do quite like Simon's personality and he's got a good energy about him. He's charismatic. So, I really read this with an open mind and I really wanted to like it. I really, really badly did want to like it. But unfortunately, I found myself shouting at the pages from what I was reading. And that's why I thought I'd do this video.
I I hoped to learn a bit about marketing in the book, too, because Simon Scrib is undeniably a great marketer, and he gets millions of views organically on social media, but there was practically nothing really about marketing that was of any value in my opinion.
So, let's start with chapter one. He makes a big thing about how "possessions don't make you happy." He goes on and on about how materialistic things and possessions won't make you happy, which is not wrong, but I personally find it really irritating when rich people live in big houses, drive nice cars, but tell you that it doesn't make them happy. If they're so anti- nice things, then why do they have them? Simon Squib literally made a video saying, "I don't like being rich with sad emotional music over the top of it." What is something I wouldn't believe about you? I don't like being rich. I have made a lot of money and I have more money than I need, but there's some weird game in society where it's still not enough. News flash. If you don't like being rich so much, how's about just give away your money?
Now, some people would say, "But Simon does give away his money." I see him giving it all away on the streets. Firstly, I'm not trying to be a hater or anything here, but I saw an interview of him where he said in total giving away £100,000. That is very, very, very small fry to give away for a multi-millionaire. I mean, I give away more than that just on one project for my charity, Samuel Le Foundation. And also, it's not his money that he's giving away. He gets money from sponsors, gives away money to people in the street, makes the content go viral, and then advertises his sponsors off the back. And to me, there just seems to be something a little disingenuous going on here.
In chapter 2, after he talked about how much he doesn't like money and how materialistic things will never make you happy, he tells a story of how he made £150, right? But but felt so bad about making £150 that he decided to give it away to a random person in the street. Like, what? And that made him feel really good, so he decided to start filming it to inspire people. Now, in my opinion, the reason he films it is because he wants to get views. And why not just be honest and say, "Yeah, I'm doing this for many reasons." No. But he says, "Oh, I don't want money. Oh, no. It's just to make me feel good because I like giving and I just want to help people." In my opinion, a little bit disingenuous.
So, after telling us that money isn't important and being rich is almost bad and possessions will never make you happy. Simon explains the importance of pursuing your dreams and following your passions. And that's all in chapter 2 moving forward. And he uses a example of this following your passion. Don't go after the money. Don't worry about the money. Follow your passion. Follow your dream. And he uses the movie The Pursuit of Happiness as a big example for this. This is his big example. And in the movie, Will Smith, who's playing the character of Chris Gardner, it's true story about a man that was homeless, but Simon talks about how he followed his passion of becoming a stock broker and then he became extremely successful despite all the odds. And Simon says, "It was having a dream that sustained him and helped him."
Here's the ironic part about this story to try and back up his point. Chris Gardner, the guy that Will Smith played, who I've actually met in real life, had the pleasure of meeting him, he didn't want to become a stock market broker because that was his dream. That was his passion. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He saw a rich dude in a red Ferrari and said to the the guy in the Ferrari, "How do you drive a Ferrari? How how are you making so much money?" And when the man told him that he was a stock broker, Chris Gardner decided to learn how to become a stockbroker to do the same. So, his dream wasn't to become a stock broker. His dream was to drive a red Ferrari and make a load of money. Nothing wrong with that. He was following the money. That's a smart thing to do. But the fact that Simon used that as an example to follow your passion and not worry about the money doesn't make any sense. And Simon's a smart guy. So I'm wondering what what's he what's he thinking here?
Therefore, the the entire concept of the book is flawed. The big example isn't an example. It's actually an example of how to follow the money. And if you speak with the richest people in the world, yeah, they have what? Oil companies, construction firms, property investment businesses. They may happen to love what they do, but generally speaking, they don't love the industry and follow their passion. They follow the money. They they don't get home and tell their spouses all about how much they love watching the cement being mixed. The foundation piling taking place. They just know that it's good business and it makes money, hence they get very good at it.
And telling people to monetize their hobbies and make a business out of their passions. I mean, it might be really popular advice because it's what people want to hear, but it's often going to lead to less money than they could probably make in a job. I know loads of people that have got passions. They've tried to monetize it and then they've come to me and said, "Actually, can you just teach them property?" For example, I'm not saying just property, but no matter no matter how much you love dog walking, it's extremely unlikely you'll ever be able to make a successful business off the back of dog walking. and he'll say, "Oh, do dog walking and and and video it and get sponsors. Come on." It's basically selling people dreams.
I mean, I am passionate about training people, right? I love training people. I set up a company called Training Kings, which was a passion project and it was a network of Christian business people and the idea was to inspire and help Christian business people that felt misunderstood that were entrepreneurs in the church. I was passionate about it and I had 14 branches across the UK, multiple members of staff and despite my deep passion and my great business acumen, guess what? It lost money year after year after year because it wasn't a good business model to make money. Now, as it happened, it didn't matter because I was good at making money from my property investments which subsidized that business. But if it wasn't for my property business, imagine if I'd quit my job. If Simon had stopped me in the street and gone, follow your passion and given me £50 to quit my job. Follow your dream, I'd have been bankrupt.
Excuse me. Do you have a dream? Why do you do this job? It's, in my opinion, it's so much better to find out what works, follow the money, become successful, and then you can do your dreams and passions afterwards. Money makes things happen. This is the bottom line. Might not be popular, might not agree with me, but this is the reality. And without money, your dream is probably never going to happen. So trying to monetize your dog walking dream into a business is potentially a bit of a fairy tale. And it is that. It's just a dream.
Chapter four was interesting. I got to chapter four and it was called seven steps. And I thought finally we're going to learn the steps actually how to run a business successfully. Maybe I'll learn some nuggets here in the seven steps. Even just one of the steps. Yeah, I like steps and I was thinking maybe there'll be a marketing nugget. There was something. But these were the seven steps. I don't have the time. Step one. Okay. I'm trapped. I don't need it. I don't know what to do. I don't know how. I'm worried what they'll think. And I've tried before. If you're in a really boring job and you've got a great business idea to start and and using a little push to mow that you to get rid of the excuses of why you should quit and why you should start, maybe Simon could help you. But if you're wanting to actually learn practical business steps around sales, marketing, what to do, how to make deals, business planning, how to understand a profit and loss statement, I I I don't think this book will help you at all.
In in fact, even if you're in a boring job and you want to little bit of motivation to push you to start your business, I still wouldn't recommend reading this book. I think it could be quite dangerous. And here's why. Cuz my advice to Simon's advice is so contrary. You tell me what you agree with. Okay. My advice would always be to start your business part-time alongside your job. And once you've got a few customers and you've proven that the concept works, a little bit of money coming in from your business, then maybe quit your job. To me, that's common sense. Simon disagrees. I mean, in many cases, if you've got a family to support and expensive bills to pay, I I tell people to earn part-time in their business at least what they can make full-time in their job. If you can make part-time in your business what you're making full-time, then yeah, quit.
Jim Ran, who was a mentor to me, passed away now, he says this. Jim Ran says, "Work full-time on your job and then part-time on your fortune. And when your part-time overtakes the job, then you can work full-time on your fortune. And that's what gets you rich." In my opinion, that is just solid, helpful advice. I've trained that to thousands of people. It works. Start the business on the side, grow it up, and and if it doesn't work, try again. At least you've got a little bit of job security to pay the bills.
Simon Squib in this book tells you, he literally says, "Do not have a business plan. Quit your job and make money from following your dream. Page 148. He says, "Here is one thing I am absolutely certain about. You cannot build a company part-time." This just isn't true. Loads of entrepreneurs start part-time. If you can't start part-time, what what you going to do? Quit your job to start. and their moms if it doesn't work or I I've personally helped thousands of people become successful property investors and entrepreneurs and over 90% of them start part-time and then quit their job once they've seen the results at this page 151 just the next page he says this this is really shocking now he says don't write a business plan don't spend time on it don't convince yourself that it's important or necessary don't have a business plan. This is not taken out of context. This is what he advises people. Launch the business in your head but not on paper. I mean, listen, great minds can disagree, but telling you not to have a business plan of any sort, just follow your passion, sounds to me like a recipe for disaster. And I'd love to see how many people that he's paid in the streets to just quit their job on the spot. I'd love to see how many of them have actually gone on to be successful. I imagine a very small percentage. I mean, ultimately the proof of the pudding's in the eating. I've trained and mentored thousands of people and I can prove that what I teach works. I I I don't know if he can.
If you still have doubts, then remember this. This is about quitting your job immediately and just starting your business full-time with a passion, with no business plan, of course. Remember this. You got one job and you can get another one. If for some reason the dream goes sour or you decide that working for yourself isn't for you, then you can always go back into the employment market. Let me say this again just to be clear. If you ever need a job in the future, you will get it. Now, I mean, listen, there's some truth in this and and I understand his point, but quitting your job before you have a business plan or a proven concept or any money for your new business generally would be a very bad idea.
Simon stops people in the street and tells people this all the time. And as I said, he'll pay them, here's 100 quid, quit your job on the spot. Get them to call their employer and quit their job. Could I pay you $10,000 to quit your job? Would you quit your job? For what? How many of them would then regret that because they don't have any follow-up support from Simon. They don't have any business plan. They're told not to have a business plan. I mean, Simon's not stupid. I think he knows what he's doing. And I think personally he knows what he's doing is probably wrong. I think he's doing it for views. But then he talks about how much he wants to help people. I just want to help people really, but telling them not to have a PL. To me, it doesn't stack up. And it seems unbelievably naive and just plain bad and dangerous advice.
And this is crazy because I am known for taking risks, but they have to be educated risks. I'm of the opinion you should only take advice from somebody that you want to be like. You want to emulate what they've done. In other words, if you want to learn to play the piano, I'll learn from someone who can play the piano. All right? If I want to be in good shape physically, I'll have to choose a personal trainer who's in good shape. If I want to learn about business, I need to know the businessman I'm learning from. I need to know that's successful.
Another problem I have from Simon Squib is that his success is completely undocumented. There's literally zero evidence of success besides his own testament. He says he was homeless, now he's rich, but doesn't like being rich, but will teach you how to be rich. I'm personally unsure about whether he was even homeless because in an old interview he talked about what happened and he says that he had an argument with his mom and he left their house their large detached house by the way where he grew up in Cambridge and he left out of choice and he went and lived in his friend's garage. "I left home and I moved into a garage." Now, this is not the actual garage, just so you know. The actual garage is now a hotel, so I can't This is actually a half a million pound Knightsbridge garage, and it looks very similar to the one that I moved into. "15 years old. I um I I was sitting there thinking, I've got to prove my mother wrong. She kicked me out and said I'd be coming running back to her and I was proving her wrong that I wouldn't. And uh so I I just sat there thinking, what am I going to do? And then I remember looking out the window on this crappy room I'd rented in his crappy house and seeing across the road a really nice house with a really messy garden. And I thought to myself simply, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but maybe that guy across the road there, he would like his garden taken care of. And then when I got home with all these orders, I suddenly thought to myself, crap, I don't have any equipment. How am I going to do all those gardens?"
In my opinion, leaving your parents' house because you had an argument with your mom on choice when she even says to you, "You'll be back. No, I won't." Okay, that happens. And then living in your friend's garage, that's not being homeless. It's almost a mockery to the people that are actually homeless. And the interesting thing is in every interview he does, each time he gets a little bit more homeless in the story. So, to be honest, I'm really not sure what to believe because his his stories don't quite add up to me personally. "When I was 15, I lived in a box. I lived in the street. And today, I live in this."
He says he made money from building and selling businesses. And the most lucrative sale he ever made was his marketing company, Fluid, which he sold to PWC. Fine. However, he's never revealed how much money he actually sold it for because he says it's confidential information, which to I mean to be fair, that's fair enough, right? He hasn't got any obligation to provide any receipts uh certainly not to me or anybody to reveal his wealth. He hasn't got to do that. He just talk. But if he's what he was saying was good stuff, I just think fine. But when it's not good stuff, then I'm like, where's he coming from? I'm always careful about listening to somebody spouting what seems to be bad business advice, especially when I I I can't see any evidence of any success besides their story, which seems kind of sketchy at best. In my opinion, I don't know how much money he made from selling. It doesn't stack up. He says he can't say how much money from selling his company, but he says he sold lots of companies. So, can you not give a ballpark figure of how much? I I don't know. In my opinion, and time will tell. Okay, time will tell. I think he's probably a bit more money hungry than he lets on.
He says, "Oh, I'm not worried about money." I think he's trying to get actually properly rich through his company, Help Bank, which is a social media platform, which he compares to LinkedIn. And he bashes LinkedIn and says, "Help Bank's the one." And Help Bank, how it works, is a free social media platform and encourages people to ask questions about business and others to contribute, give answers. It's free. And I went on it actually my brief experience of of trying to use the app. And I mean, I didn't find it great. I asked a couple questions, very little interaction. Uh, but you know, fair to the guy, not going to hate on the guy, fair play to the guy. And I've no doubt, you know, that he'll grow Help Bank and it'll be really successful. And then, you know what he'll probably do is he'll probably sell it for a whole bunch of money cuz he's seen that the real money, the people that are really rich are the people that own social media platforms, which is why he's trying to do that. But I wish he'd be honest and just say, "Yeah, man. I'm going to grow this and I'm my plan is to sell it, make a load of money," rather than, "I'm just doing it for free to try and help people. I just want to help people. I don't even like money. I don't even want to be rich. I hate being rich. Actually, give it away then. What you to me is a little bit disingenuous.
I mean, and the only reason I'm doing this video is it was actually Simon initially that challenged me to come on his show and debate with him about property ownership. I was like, "Yeah, let's do it." I mean, he thinks it's unethical to own more than one house. He thought it was unethical when he made 150 quid and gave it away. Like, what? And I agreed to go on a show and then he canceled at the last minute. and I spent hours preparing for the debate. So, it kind of pissed me off a little bit. So, I decided to just run the debate anyway without Simon here. And I've shared his views. I've explained why I think that he's wrong on just almost about everything that he talks about. However, I'd be very happy to be proven wrong and have my mind changed. Simon, if you want to come on the show, man, you want to come and debate with me? I I I will happily be corrected. Maybe I'm wrong.
Generally speaking, I tend to reserve judgment about a person until I've met them. So maybe he's coming from a great place. I really don't know because I've never met the guy. But when he refused to debate me um and then blocked me on all social media accounts, I thought it was a little bit strange. That's why I'm doing this video. And he certainly does have some traits that I admire and respect. Okay. I like his go-get approach to life. I like the fact that he's an advocate for entrepreneurs in Britain. Love that. I'm I'm the exact same. Love that. I just wish that he'd accept that he likes making money. He likes being wealthy and his plan is to make a lot more money. I respect that more. Not simply saying, "I'm just trying to help people out the goodness of my heart." I find that a little bit cringe.
He talks about, you know, give without take. Never give and take. Business is built on give and take. Fair exchange. That's how business is built. He's talking complete nonsense. And ironically, when he gives money to people on the street, it isn't give without take. It's in exchange for millions of views which he then monetizes on and makes money from. He literally says in the book he says "I will never charge for help, advice or promotions." Yet literally he says that in a book which he charges for doesn't make sense. I know it's a small amount of money but still he said in a recent interview that he makes most of his money from promotions. And this isn't the but I'll never charge to for people to promote themselves. What? It makes no sense. And he offers free courses, but then when you try and register for the course, there's a pay wall because you don't pay him. You have to pay his sponsors. So technically, he's not charging you for the little course. His sponsors are charging you. Oh, you have to pay £100 to be sign up for my sponsor to have their app and then you can see my course. So he's not charging. Simon, it's okay to charge people. It's calm. It's okay to make money.
However, to be honest, even if Simon's book was completely free and even if his little courses that we he does were completely free, personally, I wouldn't waste my time because in my opinion, his advice is useless. And I'm proud to say that I charge for mentoring. And that's why I respond to people on my DMs. I don't have people sending me begging letters. It's simple. If you want to be mentored by me, you can. Anybody can. But to make it good, to make sure it's sustainable, you have to pay. It's fair mutual exchange because it's solid good advice and you're learning from myself and my team who've demonstrated that we make millions of pounds ourselves in the subject that we're teaching. And by the way, this video is unsponsored cuz I don't need to get paid extra for extra views and get paid for sponsorships from all these different companies. I only get paid when my students do well. That's why I'm incentivized for them to win. So, if you want to come and discover how we could potentially work together, if you want to learn from me, come join me at Property Investors Crash Course.
If you want to follow your dream and see if you can monetize it, then go and check out Simon Scrib's book. Maybe he's right. Maybe I'm just completely blinkered. I don't know. What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Make sure it's respectful and it's fair and it's balanced. I think I've been about as balanced as I can be, even though I completely disagree with the guy. And Simon, if you are watching, come on, brother. Let's do this debate. Let's make it happen. I know you're watching. Thanks, folks.