who wants to be a billionaire?

In June 2003, I attended the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference in Nashville. One of my clients had attended also, and since returning to the UK, she has doubled her income target. No prizes for guessing – she found it inspirational too.

One thing that stood out for me is how much bigger our American counterparts seem to think. Failure is not seen as a bad thing, but something that adds to one’s experience and wisdom.

One of the sessions I attended was called, "Who Wants to be a Billionaire?" The person who gave the presentation was Michael Lee-Chin, the CEO of a $15 billion company, AIC Limited, a mutual fund and financial services company in Canada. He built up the company from scratch and is himself a billionaire – a far cry from the bouncer job he had in 1976 earning $1.60 an hour.

To what does he attribute his success? Michael Lee-Chin’s story is truly inspirational. You only have to do a search on the internet and read the many articles reporting on his life and his achievements to know that this is a person from whom we can learn a thing or two. There are three main points which I took from Mr Lee-Chin’s talk that I would like to share with you.

Focus on What You Know Best

In studying successful people and businesses, Mr Lee-Chin noticed that wealthy people did not become that way from having a multitude of different businesses. Instead they focused on just one or two areas which they knew inside out. Mr Lee-Chin modelled this, and when other mutual fund companies were diversifying, Mr Lee-Chin did the opposite. He focused instead on a limited number of companies in which to invest. He insists that we cannot be as successful if we try to spread our knowledge too thinly, and must therefore focus our energies on key areas in which we can make clear informed decisions.

Mr Lee-Chin also noticed that successful and wealthy business-people made sure that they were in strong, long-term growth industries, and that their attitude to ownership is for the very very long term.

In other words, we must focus, have patience and a thorough understanding of the business that we are in.

Interestingly, this is an area that many clients I work with have a challenge. They are often brimming with ideas that projects can often get launched and never seen through to the end. I can sometimes be guilty of that myself!

Stand for Something

"Have a mission, a cause, a purpose," Mr Lee-Chin said, "I’ve added value to everybody I’ve touched". Having a cause, a mission, a purpose will give you the motivation and zest, and they transcend money.

This is an area that I also find many clients have difficulty, at least in the early stages. Getting in touch with their cause, their mission and their purpose are often clouded by the day-to-day challenges and concerns. Certainly, within many organisations, the words "Vision, Mission and Purpose" are simply terms bandied about in the annual accounts which have no real meaning for the employee.

In addition, most people don’t make the time to reflect on this. Or if they do take the time, they stop after five minutes, allowing themselves to be distracted or they simply give up too soon.

Mr Lee-Chin very clearly emphasised that we must persevere with this – because it is only by breaking through this that we will achieve at greater heights. He identified that the pre-conditions to success are energy, perseverance, focus, discipline, honesty, preparedness and a positive attitude, plus knowing what you stand for. He went on to say that being successful in the long run doesn’t need a high IQ but a sound philosophy for making decisions, and emotional control. Knowing what you stand for gives you this grounding.

What is also interesting is that Mr Lee-Chin said that he didn’t think so much of the end-result he wanted. He would never have dreamt it possible to become a Forbes billionaire, for example, and especially for a person who had no starting capital. However, he knew that if he applied the right behaviour traits, big things would happen. Indeed they did.

Look for the Opportunities

Mr Lee-Chin said, "Everyday there are opportunities but the problem is that most people don’t recognise them and when they do, they don’t grasp them. Opportunities are always clad in a crisis. The bigger the crisis, the bigger the opportunity."

The Chinese word for crisis is made up of two separate words – one meaning "danger" and the other meaning "opportunity". The question is, "Which one will you choose to focus on?" and the underlying question is therefore, "Where are the opportunities?" This really underlines the topic from the article on Achieving Even Higher Standards.

Mr Lee-Chin then told how, in 1999, a report was published in The Globe & Mail, Canada’s leading daily, advising anyone holding shares in Lee-Chin’s core funds to bail out. As bad as he felt, Mr Lee-Chin looked for the opportunity in this crisis. He published his response the next day. Instead of divesting, he invested further in a favourite stock. One year later, he doubled his investment, making $100m of profit. Of that, he used $80m to buy a bank in Jamaica. This investment is now valued (at the time of writing) at some $500m. Mr Lee-Chin chuckled as he reflected on how his 75cent investment in The Globe & Mail one day in 1999 had turned into a $500m asset two years later. He evidently phoned the reporter up and thanked him!

Finally, Mr Lee-Chin said, "Our behaviour today will be our history tomorrow. What you can control, do it very well. Success begets arrogance begets failure. Therefore you must carry on doing whatever it was that made you successful in the first place. Reading habits, eating habits, etc – continue them all. Remember what got you there in the first place and remember to keep on doing it."

Consider this Principle

We limit ourselves only through limiting our thinking.

Action Points

1. Focus, focus, focus. Focus on applying the Power of Three. Take a look at what’s on your plate. Be strict with yourself and identify your top three projects. Then focus on these and only these for 80% of your time. Delegate the rest and/or put them on the back-burner, as appropriate.

2. Identify your top values and what you stand for. Ask yourself, "What is most important to me in my [work/business/health/relationships etc]?" Then ask yourself, "What else?" Keep on going until you have some ten things written down. Then review your list and ask yourself, "Of these, if I could only have one of them, which one would it be?" This gives you your top value in that particular area. Now, see how much of this value you are living your life by. Make what changes you can so that you begin to live more and more by your top values.

3. Every single day, review the day and note down everything that went well, starting with even the smallest things.

Quote

"The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence." - Robert J. Shiller

"Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for 'opportunity'. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity." - Richard M. Nixon

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

"We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings." - Abraham Maslow

"The secret of success is constancy of purpose." - Benjamin Disraeli

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