Transcription
I'm in Dubai and today I'm going to be going all over the wealthiest areas in Dubai to find and ask billionaires and the most successful business owners in the entire city how they created their wealth and the blueprints to building multi-million dollar and multi-billion dollar businesses in today's world so with that being said let's get this video on the way.
Excuse me sir is this your Lamborghini?
Yeah and what do you do for living out here in Dubai to be able to afford a Lamborghini?
Money business.
You're in the money business?
Are you in finance?
Yeah we're in finance.
Yeah in finance.
Are you a business owner?
Yeah.
How long have you been an entrepreneur?
Um it's been about 8 years now.
Eight years?
Eight years now.
But what's what's this for?
I go all over the world interviewing the most successful business owners for the younger generation.
Could I get one quick minute with you for the channel real quick?
Yeah for sure.
Is that okay?
Over these 8 years what was the most amount of money that you made in a single year?
Last year we did about $12 million turnover.
$12 million?
Do you come from a lot of money?
No I don't.
I don't I don't come from a lot of money.
We were actually 8 years ago we couldn't pay rent and our rent was $1,300 right and I vote to myself that I'm never coming to that point again.
So you were broke?
I was broke.
I was broke.
We had to sell our wedding jewelry to pay a rent bro it was a hard time it was a very hard time.
So what was that turning point to Financial Freedom?
I think the biggest point was me I never finished school so I was always the black sheep of the family right so I think it was in me like this fire to prove people wrong that without having a degree you can still do a lot of things that you ever wanted and now if you look at a lot of like you know multi-millionaires in the world most of them they never graduated right they just hustled and they made it.
Now as an eight-figure entrepreneur what was the best financial advice that you ever received?
Always have full control over the money.
If you don't have full control over the money you don't have anything.
I know a lot of guys who start a business they have no control over the money and they get screwed up later on by their operators or whatever so always have full control over the money know where it's going know where it's coming from and you're going to be wildly successful at that.
Are you a good salesman?
I'm a great salesman.
Give me a master class on sales right here.
Give me your best sales advice right here to somebody that sucks at sales and business.
Okay so I used to do door-to-door sales right and we used to get rejections all the time so our whole hint was that we have to knock on 100 doors and every rejection we get is a lesson for the yes we're going to have so every time someone says no they're saying no because now you got to learn from that no and see okay where you can get a yes at the next time.
What do it take to get a yes though?
How can somebody get the yes faster?
Are you in Dubai?
Yes.
You're in Dubai?
Awesome.
You like the weather here in Dubai?
I love the weather.
You like the vibe here in Dubai?
I love the.
Would you like to own a property here in Dubai one day?
I think so.
You think so right?
So you get the yes yes yes and if there's a thing you can easy turn that I think so maybe to a yes so you got to ask a lot of questions you got to ask a lot of yes questions not a lot of no questions the more you say yes yes yes there's a high probability at the fourth or fifth time when I do the ask you're going to say yes.
Amateur tell Pros ask exactly.
That's it.
That's it.
That.
So what separates middle class from wealthy people in today's world?
So let me tell you this when we couldn't pay a rent our rent was $1,300 we had no Netflix subscription we had no Spotify we had no subscriptions at all right because we knew that okay money's tight we're starting a business we got to make it somehow we had no subscription what 9 to5 does is they'll get the money they'll buy this they'll buy that they'll get a subscription they'll get cards debt whatever right but my mindset was no okay you know what I have to save save save invest and once we reach a certain threshold then we can get something to reward ourselves up until now bro I have no YouTube premium nothing i' rather sit and watch ads to save money you know that's how you get rich by saving money.
Your last message to somebody trying to become a multi-millionaire in 2025?
Man if you have an idea execute on that idea whatever idea that is no matter what people tell you that's a idea you got to execute on it because here's the thing when you're going to have a business idea and you're going to tell someone about it who has no business concept they will always tell you it's risky this can happen that can happen blah blah blah but when you bring that idea to someone who actually has a business they will tell you bro go for that business start that right now because here's the thing if you're a fit guy you're going to tell people to stay fit right if you're into business you're going to tell everyone to start a business that's what it is like it depends on who you get your advice from not from who's able to give you advice.
You have amazing advice my friend.
Yeah thank you so much for your time and I appreciate you man it means a lot.
What's your name again?
James.
James Roger.
Nice to meet you.
Meet you brother.
You.
So I'm at a valley outside of one of the wealthiest hotels in all of Dubai my guy gets out of the Lamborghini years and he's holding like 2 million dollar worth of durhams on him guys that's like half a million dollars in American cash but I want to put this in perspective because like he said a couple years ago he could barely pay his rent that was $1,000 and now he's making over $10 million a year so it just goes to show what can happen if you sacrifice for a few years and get in the right industry the right money-making vehicle just like him and you yourself can build a multi-million dollar business.
Great interview out here in Dubai.
We got to keep this video rolling and go get this next one.
Come on.
Excuse me sir sir.
Question for you.
How old were you when you became a millionaire?
I'm not a millionaire.
No no.
I own a billion dollar company.
You own a billion dollar company?
Yeah.
What type of business?
A blockchain.
How long have you been a business owner?
17 years now.
I started when I was 16 now I'm 34 so 17 18 years actually.
Yeah and I go all over the world interviewing billionaires and the most successful people.
Could I get one quick minute with you real quick for the channel?
Sure.
How long did it take you to build a billion dollar company?
Started in April of 2021 and in the first 11 months we raised a little more than $100 million and the valuation was 1.5 billion so it took us actually roughly 11 months to be precise to become a billion dollars.
Yeah less than a year?
Yeah less than a year.
That's crazy.
So do you think somebody can get rich quick in today's world?
I think it's very easy if you a focus on being at the right place and the at the right time and with the right place I don't don't only mean location I also mean the industry to choose it so if I were to choose an industry in the 1990s late 1990s I would choose the internet if I were to choose in 2010s I would choose the social media and if you were to ask me which industry would I choose now either I would choose AI or I would choose blockchain or web three.
Did you come from a lot of money?
No I was broke.
So basically you know I came from a very humble family Starbucks coffee at one point in time when I was 18 was luxury for me you know because I was born in Delhi I was luxury so I didn't have any money but I think that's my biggest advantage because when you come from nothing you can only go up you cannot go down the sky is the limited sky is the limit.
I think it's it's actually good to be broke when you're starting up you know because you realize the importance of money even when you make a lot of money you don't spend that much money because you know the importance of money.
What's the lesson about money that Banks don't want people to know?
They want you to invest in fixed deposit but you shouldn't why because that makes Banks more money Banks make money on your money that's how Banks get richer and that's how the rich keep getting richer poor keep getting poorer and that's why I like blockchain and that's how I like crypto because when you invest it's your own money turning into double triple four times and you're multiplying your own money and you know if I'm sending you money today in crypto the transaction cost is about a dollar even if I send you $10 million I spend a dollar if you send $10 million in banking you spend a lot of money.
Yeah you brought up how the rich get richer the poor get poorer how can somebody escape that cycle of poverty?
That's why I'm saying get into web three because web 3 is the way to go if you get into it you're escaping the cycle because that's the only place where poor people are turning into middle class middle class turning into upper middle class upper middle class turning into rich people and getting wealthy and wealthy so this cycle I've seen it in the last seven years I know my friends who were broke until 20 2021 Bull Run they became millionaires 2025 Bull Run they'll become billionaires you know so it's it's and and 2025 is going to be the biggest Bull Run crypto will ever see.
So you like crypto more than real estate?
I love crypto because it's liquid real estate is not liquid if you own a property for say $15 million to find a buyer it'll take you a lot of time if you own $15 million in crypto one minute you have your money out.
That was money right there bro.
That was excellent guys.
That was an incredible interview he built a billion dollar company in 11 months so one of the biggest reasons why he was able to scale so quickly was because he raised over $100 million from investors but I want to go even deeper because the only way he was able to raise that kind of money in that amount of time was how effective and efficient his communication was when reaching out to investors and that reminded me how much of a game changer Grammarly has been for myself and my business and Grammarly isn't just a spelling or grammar tool it's an AI writing partner that works seamlessly with your everyday apps to help you write better and faster for example when I'm reaching out to the biggest companies in the world and the biggest entrepreneurs to do interviews Grammarly helps me craft the most professional and perfect messages to send to these people and help me close these interviews Grammarly is so good because it ensures my tone matches the exact person I'm reaching out to whether I'm trying to be formal or even just building rapport plus it saves me so much time by speeding up my edits and cutting down on rewrites with just a few clicks and the best part all the features I'm talking about are completely free you can sign up and download Grammarly for free using my link grammarly.com hardnox or go down to the link in the description of this video or in the pin comment so if you want to take your communication to the next level whether you're running a business or just starting out Grammarly has you covered but with that being said let's get this next interview.
Excuse me sir sir.
Have you ever been broke before?
Many times.
Yeah.
And what line of business did you end up in?
I'm in uh Tech and VC Venture Capital.
Venture Capital?
Are you a business owner?
I run a bunch of tech companies.
Yeah yeah.
How long have you been an entrepreneur?
17 years.
17 years?
And over these 17 years across all these companies what was the most amount of money you made a single year?
Many many millions of dollars.
Could you give me a rage over 50?
Over 50 bill.
And I go all over the world interviewing the most successful entrepreneurs.
Could I get one quick minute with you for the channel real quick?
Sure.
So who's the richest person that you've ever met?
I've met several billionaires one of them uh lives permanently in Monaco at the Four Seasons Hotel he's from India and he runs a bunch of things in the tech space as well and a bunch of other non-tech related stuff in real estate.
So what have you learned from networking with billionaires?
Don't talk about work.
What do you mean don't talk about work?
You want to talk to billionaires get to know them personally cuz you know why everybody has no idea how to talk to billionaires but at the end of the day they're just people too so make friends be a non-transactional person I want to talk to you I want to get to know you I want to get to know you and I want to understand who you are as a person first then we can be friends then maybe we can do business together that's it start humanizing the relationships first and then once you create a human to human relationship with the wealthiest people they'll take you everywhere people go into conversations with a desire to achieve an outcome and that often gets in the way of you getting to know people but the reality is the best businesses that have ever been built have come out of a conversation that has nothing to do with business it had something to do with hey we have a shared desire of being at this conference or being at this event or being at this party and then now we have a shared common Affinity towards something okay you look like a cool person I'm a cool person I think we align on values let's go and build together what does that mean who cares the worst ideas executed well are going to outperform the best ideas executed poorly do you know the guy that invented the Snuggie do you know what I'm talking about the blanket with the sleeves $100 million in sales it's a blanket with sleeves terrible idea executed well will always Trump a great idea executed p wow full stop.
Were you a good salesman?
It's the best.
No I never started off that way but you have to develop those rhythms.
I'm a computer science grad I've been programming my entire life so my life has actually been behind a computer screen but here's the other really important tip life is too damn short to be shy way too damn short to be shy and so most programmers the Geeks and us they're all people that are traditionally pretty introverted that like to be behind closed doors or behind screens that's not good enough you want to make it and you want to make it big run your mouth.
I love that.
Learn how to run your mouth.
Hey a closed mouth does not get fed.
No it does not.
No it does not.
And and it keeps the air inside you got to open up.
We were just talking as well like even when I come to events like these it's nice to see the content and stuff but at the end of the day what I want to do is what we're doing I want to stand in line and meet people I want to go and grab a table put a bunch of coffees down invite people and let's have a conversation Tony Shay who's like the former CEO of Zappos is like one of like people that I respect the most rest in peace he coined this term collision hours and so he developed container city in in Vegas where you can go in and just meet people and collide with them because that's what he wanted to do and create if we can get enough people with the right mindset to just take a moment to talk to each other over a coffee over a drink over a shared initiative that's where the magic happens that's how creation actually happens by creating these collision hours so create them don't wait for them to happen you got to create these collision hours for yourself.
Now you said you did over 50 million in a year how did you scale from seven to eight figures like a lot of entrepreneurs they got that great idea they start that business they struggle to scale and grow it what took you from making seven to eight figures at your businesses?
You got to build the companies in such a way that they're built for scale this is why we build tech tech has infinite scale when you're building software you don't need to produce a physical good you're producing a digital good selling digital goods is so much easier than selling physical goods it then becomes all about investing in your go to market strategy how do you get the right types of people like you guys how do you get millions of followers on your channel same thing with tech find the product find the solution that you're trying to solve for create your go to market strategy find the people online that are going to want to buy your product and then scale it infinitely because then the world is your entire market.
That's a master class right there.
What is the best sector of tech to get into in today's world?
So you got we were just talking about this so you got to think about the problem that needs to be solved in 5 years from now and invest in it from right now close your eyes imagine the world in the next 5 years what is it going to look like are we going to be having robots walking amongst us is it going to be flying cars is it going to be that the doors are going to talk to you you know in a certain way if that's the world that you imagine in 5 years from now build that technology today that's the way that you're going to be able to scale don't follow trends the trends are already built it's too late for you otherwise you're going to just be a copycat you want to really make a big impact invest in deep tech invest in the stuff that's going to happen in 5 years from now and start building it today.
So what do you think that is like what do you think that sector of tech is going to be?
Yeah so that's going to be everything around the future of AI and automation so think about the world where you're going to start working a lot less because now robots and AI are going to dominate the way that we engage in our day-to-day setting what does that industry look like what is the periphery what does the thing that's going to power the robots how are we going to keep investing in things like more and more optimized batteries how are we going to invest in making sure that the machines are actually producing the results in an accurate format for you how are we going to provide more synthetic data to train the machines on the next evolution of things what does the future of social media look like for people that are producing content using AI avatars and so on and so forth really just imagine the future state there's a great way of thinking about it as well look at all the sci-fi movies what are people have already thought about that you can now start inventing today.
What's the most profitable businesses that you're investing in today's world?
Mortgage Tech.
Mortgage Tech.
I know it sounds boring but boring businesses are really really great businesses to invest in mortgage technology is really at least with what's going on in the economic craziness that's happening in North America right now that's probably our most profitable one right now we've got a couple of investments in the AI space right now that are both going to get acquired and so they were purposely built to be acquired in your iPhone the company that built the Face ID they were specifically built for a purpose of being acquired so we like that type of stuff.
You have amazing advice my friend.
Thank you so much for your time.
You guys we just interviewed a venture capital and a tech mogul out here in Dubai and he just gave you guys a million dollars worth of game in that last interview I can't count the amount of gems he just gave you guys that was a business master class from a VC mogul crazy interview out here in Dubai we got to go get this next one to keep this video rolling.
Come on let's go.
Excuse me sir sir.
Is this your Rolls-Royce?
Sure is.
And what do you do for living out here in Dubai to be able to afford a Rolls-Royce?
I run a blockchain company.
You run a blockchain company?
I sure do.
How long have you been a business owner?
Since I was a kid with this company for 5 years.
Over these 5 years what was the most amount of money you made in this single year?
Last year was 100 million.
You made $100 million last year?
Is that for yourself or the business?
That's for myself plus on top the business made money as well.
Are you serious?
I'm serious.
I go all over the world interviewing the most successful business owners.
Could I get one quick minute with you for the channel real quick?
You're most as well.
What is your net worth?
Maybe 300 million.
$300 million?
Yeah that's incredible.
As somebody who's worth a couple hundred million dollars what is the best financial advice that you ever received?
Look first you have to make it you you go all in on your idea because you don't have money but when you have money you have to be diversified that's very important to be balanced you cannot be too aggressive on one thing but when you're making it your first 100 million just go for it you have to be crazy insane never giving up if they all leave my office if everyone wants to leave I go there and work overnight right you just don't give up you just keep going going going even if you don't have the money fake it till you make it keep going you cannot give up when you go broke the first time I went broke I also worked in tech I didn't give up I learned a lot from it I was like part of the.com bubble in year 200000 it was tough right we lost everything we had a lot of great ideas but then I thought I have all the knowledge I know how Google works I know how Google ranks and I built Pok news.com which was the number one site in the world for poker so you just do stuff that you learn from so if you lose money on certain things you don't give up you take the knowledge that you got from that experience and you go and create other stuff so money will always come to you if you have what it takes right.
What's the best investment somebody can make in 2025?
The best investment is just buy Solana.
What?
Solana blockchain.
Why?
Because it's the fastest it's cheapest transactions most scalable and the best team.
What about Bitcoin?
Bitcoin's the god of blockchain right it's so it's it's different it's where you put most of your money in and then you you put some in the other ones you cannot compare it Bitcoin is not working and doing transactions it's not having validators like Solana Solana doesn't take we don't need miners it's all already in a different level you're talking about a different level of blockchain 2.0 3.
How many billionaires have you met?
I've met a lot of billionaires I don't count but there's a lot in Dubai there's a lot and I've met a lot I've met a lot in America a a lot of interesting people.
Where are you from?
I grew up in Australia but I was born in Lithuania.
So what's the greatest lesson you've learned about entrepreneurship?
You cannot be complacent and you have to keep developing and you have to get the best people to work with you Henry Ford said only with a team you can make it so you need a good team together with you one person is nothing it's not about me having a lot of shareholders happy shareholders having a great team tech team that's how we become successful people will take you places that money can't exactly it's all about people it's all about talent and if you can get them and to work with you and build a bigger thing that's success.
Did you have wealthy parents?
I had no wealthy parents I was born in a Soviet Union you know we we lost everything we had to come come up from zero.
So you went from zero to 300 M?
I went from zero to 300 M.
Yeah that's incredible.
This is a lot of people's dream car a lot of people want to own a Rolls-Royce someday.
You give them one last message about about business life money that's not taught?
Trust yourself just go for it yourself do things you love and then if it becomes a business you're going to be very happy and key is to invest invest invest don't save but invest invest in your in yourself in your health in your head and in the businesses you can invest in a stock market in a blockchain in a crypto just invest all your life and you're going to have the most interesting successful life ever whatever you're doing and not everybody has to be a businessman you can be a great investor whatever you you can't afford to and you're going to be have the most interesting life successful life and there's going to be so much money to be made to enjoy it.
You guys this video was insane to make Dubai is crazy but I need you to like and subscribe for amazing content we've got coming every single week because I'm going all over the world to get the secrets from the most successful people in the world to building wealth and building the million-dollar business of your dreams all you got to do is subscribe and if you're not a member yet of my private community you can join today for free for 7 days all you have to do is go down to the link in the description of this video to join the community the school of mentors and I'll see you on the inside watch your life change when you hop on your first call with a billionaire or a multi multi multi-millionaire and be able to ask them a question about your career your life or your business this type of stuff is not offered anywhere else so I can't wait to see you on the inside of the community and with that being said I'll see you in the next video.