Transcription
There are currently 2,640 billionaires in the world that we know of. On this phone are 94 of them. I have 94 billionaires in my contacts. Some of them are friends, a lot of them are clients. And I bring this up because, in some way, shape, or form, they're all my mentors.
And I've learned a lot from working with these people, or ways that they interact with people, ways that they communicate, ways they think about life, business, even working out. And because I've done real estate deals with many of these billionaires, I've learned certain habits and mindsets that they have that allow them to operate on a completely different level. For most people, here are the six things that I learned from working with 94 different billionaires.
First, they text more than they call. Billionaires know the value of a dollar, and they know the value of their time more than anyone I've ever worked with. And you might be thinking, "What? That's weird. Texting? Don't they have calls and lawyers and there's that whole teams?" I mean, yes, they have all of that. But when I'm interacting with them directly, billionaires don't have time for phone calls. Jeff Bezos, who's not in my phone, he makes $2,500 a second. A phone call that takes away time from billionaires making money is not a good use of their time. But they can fire off a text or a voice note that deletes very, very, very quickly. Oftentimes, they use the app Signal so that you're not screenshotting or, you know, saving messages, and things can disappear really quickly, especially when we're doing real estate transactions together. A lot of it is very, very sensitive information. But I've negotiated $100 million deals over iMessage. And yet, the person I work with who's trying to buy a home for a million dollars calls me 62 times, times has to meet with me and his family, brings in bankers, brings in an attorneys, brings in everyone. Less wealthy people have an idea of what it means to be wealthy. We're actual wealthy people understand that being wealthy is just about their greatest asset, which is time. I'm in the middle of two negotiations right now with two of these billionaires, completely overtaxed. I'd much rather meet in person, they've got great offices, or talk on the phone, or get a meal with them so I can learn. But nope, it's all over text message, literally saying, "Hey, do you want to offer 60 or 61 million?" They just aren't the 60. I guess that's an offer because I'm gonna go with the 60 because it's been hearted. The big takeaway, if you are trying to find billionaires to work with, try texting them because they do not waste time, not even yours, and they're on their phones more than most people.
Takeaway number two, they are experts at not wasting time. I went to dinner with my first billionaire client years and years and years ago. He ordered the minute the waiter came over to bring us water. There was no sitting there and reviewing the menu, there was no asking for the specials, none of that. "Here's the water. Okay, I'm gonna have this and this. And what do you want?" And if you don't tell me what you want right now, I'm going to order for you. We're gonna enjoy the dinner, we're gonna talk. We are on a time schedule. And it didn't feel stressful at all. Honestly, it felt relaxing, like we weren't wasting any time. I did dinner with another billionaire, and when the waiter came over, right at the beginning, he just held up the menu like this, didn't even look, and said, "Surprise us." Because when you go to a nice restaurant, you know the food's gonna be good. Billionaires act differently, and it's not rude. If anything, it's super, super nice because they understand the value of the waiter's time. Making a decision about dinner is a small decision. But what I've learned is that billionaires make big decisions quickly because that's their job.
Number three, billionaires are always on guard of being taken advantage of. This is also why it's hard to get in touch with billionaires. It's hard to have them as clients. They really trust no one because they've been taken advantage of. They've learned from that mistake. And new people entering into their sphere of influence, into their circle of trust, puts them on guard because any new person that is coming into a billionaire's life typically has a reason for being there. One of my tricks in working with billionaire clients early on in my career was working for free. I offered up commissions. And obviously, the billionaire can afford it, but it was the gesture. I'm not going to treat you differently from anybody else. What else can I do? The other thing that I did to make sure that the billionaires knew that I wasn't taking advantage of them ever was to get in with their outer circle of trust, whether it's the landscaper, the gardener, the nanny, or the private banker or the attorney. As quickly as that trust can be understood, it can be destroyed.
Billionaires also have no issue in moving on from relationships that don't serve them in like a millisecond. You have a 10-year working relationship with someone who's incredibly successful and wealthy. You lie to them once, make one little mistake, you don't show up on time once, you lead them down the wrong path once. That's it. They now lose all confidence and trust in you. And there are other people who do what you do. They have loyalty when the relationship works on both sides. If it doesn't, they move on.
Another thing I've learned from billionaires is that they understand the difference between possessions and growth, and they're not afraid to spend. Now, that might sound obvious to you, but it's interesting to watch someone who has a net worth of over one billion dollars be incredibly cheap over here and then overspend over here. They might kill a deal over five dollars over here because they understand that this is not going to do a whole lot for their success, for their long-term growth. But they'll overspend over here by millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars because it's an investment in greater growth. Now, a lot of billionaires have very cool material goods, huge houses, planes, automobiles, trips, experiences. But if you didn't know what they looked like, you typically wouldn't notice them when you walk down the streets because they're not super flashy. They don't wear their wealth on their clothes most of the time. Most billionaires are pretty frugal when it comes to material possessions. The great example is obviously Warren Buffett, same house, same car, same breakfast from McDonald's with change from his cup holder. And then you have others, Saudi royals, you have the Jeff Bezos's of the world. But then you have others, you have Elon Musk, who has no possessions, no houses. Billionaires will certainly spend money, but they'll spend money if it gets them return. A yacht is a great example. A yacht is incredibly expensive, but they have because it's an investment in future business. They can have other billionaires on that yacht, and that's where deals get done. Their houses as well, on the ocean in Malibu and Palm Beach, castles in France. They are investments in doing future business because they can say to other people, "Come to my castle, let's talk about the deal." And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but if you had a billion dollars, you would also probably have a castle or a beach house.
My biggest takeaway is that they only focus on what they are absolutely best at, at what they are uniquely qualified to do. They don't worry about any of the minutia, any of the work below the absolute biggest decisions every day. Now, obviously, they've gotten to that point where they don't have to do the painting and the building and the hammering. If I want to emulate the most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs in the world today, it's that most of my day should be focused on what I am absolutely best at. Focusing on everything else should be leveraged to other people. It's kind of a mindset shift as well. Using other people to leverage your work is a massive, massive, massive tool.
And last but not least, billionaires are just like us. They're regular people with regular problems, albeit higher quality problems. One of my earliest experiences with a billionaire client was going to a private airport to board their private plane, and he was talking to me about how his plane wasn't available because of a mechanical issue, and he was frustrated because he had to get another plane. Now, that sounds like a crazy problem, a one percenter or a point zero zero zero zero zero one percenter problem, right? Absolutely. But he wasn't crying about it. He wasn't crying to me or anybody else. You have a higher quality life, that means you also have higher quality problems. And it was my job to help with that. I immediately from that situation started helping the billionaire clients that I had fix their higher quality problems, and that's how I started to get to know so many of them. Because if someone has a private jet issue, they're not going to talk to the friends they had in college about it. They're not going to talk to people in their office about it because it would be weird and uncomfortable, it's an awkward display of wealth. So they need people to talk to about it, and I wanted to be that person. "I'll help you with your private jet." And while we're at it, "Need a new condo?" Oftentimes, yes, they do.
So, billionaires are just like us, kind of sort of. They're still humans, still go to the bathroom, still sleep, still want to be happy, still cry while watching The Notebook, just like you do. And if you can be someone who can solve the high quality problem that a billionaire has, that is your ticket into that society. There was even a New York Magazine profile article on me. They called me the broker to the plutocracy. And then you have to show the definition of what plutocracy means because most people won't know.
These are just a few things that I've learned in my 15 years of selling real estate to some of the most successful and wealthy people in the world. And I just wanted to share them because they've been really, really helpful to me in building my career, and hopefully, they'll be helpful to you. If you like videos like this, make sure to share, make sure to like, make sure to subscribe, and then leave notes in the comments for what you thought and what else you want me to talk about. And now I have to go back to work.