My Worst Investment Ever December 2021
Ep489: Jofin Joseph – Just Start
BIO: Jofin Joseph is a third-time entrepreneur who chose education and early childhood development as an area to work within his new startup, Totto Learning.
STORY: Jofin and his friends closed their startup after college to seek employment. After two years, they realized that they learned more from their startup than from their jobs, so they quit and returned to their startup.
LEARNING: Today’s the best time to start. Stop thinking and start doing.
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Ep488: Smriti Tomar – Stay Focused on Your Customers
BIO: As founder and CEO at Stack, Smriti Tomar strives to make investing accessible and affordable for India’s 440 million millennials to help them save for their life goals.
STORY: Smriti took feedback from investors and used it to change her product. Customers hated the new version. After listening to her customers, she had to put in more time and money to build the product the customers—not investors—wanted.
LEARNING: Invest in your customers, not investors. Be very prudent about where you invest your time in. You need a narrow focus to be successful, particularly with a startup.
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Ep487: Michelle Seiler Tucker – Do Your Due Diligence So You Can “Exit Rich”
BIO: Michelle Seiler Tucker is the Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Incorporated. She owns many businesses in several different industries. As a 20-year veteran in the M&A industry, she is regarded as the leading authority on buying, selling, fixing, and growing businesses.
STORY: Michelle met a business leader at a conference, and he convinced her and others to invest in a tech company in South Africa. The excitement of investing outside of the US got the best of her. She invested over a quarter of a million dollars and even convinced her husband to invest a similar amount. The business leader got into a massive fight with the company’s CEO, and needless to say, the investors never made anything out of it nor got their money back.
LEARNING: Always make decisions based on logic, not emotion. Separate the research that you do on risk and return. Have trusted advisors.
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Ep486: Harry Spaight – Learn About Selling With Dignity
BIO: Harry Spaight is a Keynote Speaker, Coach, and Author of Selling with Dignity-Your Formula for Life-Changing Sales Results.
STORY: Harry invested in mobile homes in Georgia without researching. He trusted a young man he knew through the father. In just three months, the houses were run down, and the tenants refused to pay rent. Harry lost over $100,000 that he’d made from selling his home.
LEARNING: Get a financial advisor that you trust and consult before making an investment decision. Collaborate with the right people. Do your research.
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Ep485: Satima Meanlamai – Never Stop Investing and Learning
BIO: Satima Meanlamai, nicknamed Tao, is the founder of the Vietnam Value Investor group, Thailand.
STORY: When Satima started investing in the stock market, she’d only invest in companies she liked and hardly took time to study other stocks or learn more about the companies she invested in. Though lucky initially, this investment strategy didn’t work out for Satima in the long run, and she lost almost all her savings.
LEARNING: Invest in yourself and never stop learning. Move beyond home country bias and invest in global stocks.
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Ep484: Jack McColl – Access Debt to Grow Your Business
BIO: Jack McColl, the founder of Credit Stacking, has the knowledge and in-depth understanding of the credit stacking strategy. He has mentored thousands of entrepreneurs and been a part of growing multiple 7-figure businesses.
STORY: Jack lived in Bali for three months when he was 26. He saw an opportunity to create an Airbnb business there, got a few houses, and hired locals to help manage day-to-day business activities. He paid rent and wages in cash, but problems from the landlords and his staff were all he got. Jack barely made any returns from the venture.
LEARNING: Do a lot of market research before you venture into any business. Finance your deals with 0% interest business credit.
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Ep483: Donald Cohen – From Failure Comes Your Biggest Successes
BIO: Donald Cohen is the founder of doncohenconsulting.com. He is collaboratively empowering LinkedIn proficiency and performance.
STORY: Donald opened a successful store in Detroit and sold it after four years. He and his girlfriend got married and moved to Denver, where he decided to open a similar store. He didn’t realize that the two markets were different, and he couldn’t replicate his Detroit success in Denver.
LEARNING: Failure isn’t final. You don’t lose until you quit. Have a plan and write it down.
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Ep482: Collin Mitchell – Sales Is the #1 Skill You Need to Have
BIO: Collin Mitchell is a 4x Founder, Father of 4, and host of Sales Transformation.
STORY: Collin’s first business was a huge success, bringing in annual revenues of $5 million in just 26 months. He decided to diversify the business and got into print services, something he had zero experience in. He hired a consultant to help him do the job and paid him tens of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, he never saw any ROI; instead, he accrued so much debt he had to pull the plug on the new service.
LEARNING: Know the industry first before delving into it. Understand your core competency before diversifying.
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Ep481: Catherine Morgan – Always Be Curious About Yourself
BIO: Catherine Morgan is a multi-award-winning qualified financial planner and award-winning financial coach on a mission to reduce financial anxiety and increase financial empowerment and resilience for 1 million women worldwide.
STORY: Catherine and her husband bought a residential property at the markets’ peak. They sold that property for the same amount they purchased it seven years later.
LEARNING: Separate your sense of self from your money. Just take the next step, no matter how small.
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Ep480: John Osberg – Explore Who You Are and Build on That
BIO: John is on a mission to unlock growth in people, businesses, and communities to help them go from where they currently are to where they want to be.
STORY: John believed in what people said about him. This caused him to lose his greatest strengths—energy, youthful exuberance, and creativity.
LEARNING: Explore who you truly are and then build on that. Age should not stop you from dreaming big.
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Ep479: Manuj Aggarwal – There Is No Sure Shot When Investing
BIO: Manuj Aggarwal is an engineer, inventor, author, and entrepreneur.
STORY: Manuj was convinced by a dentist to get into forex trading, an area he had no idea how it worked. He traded $75,000 and lost it in under an hour.
LEARNING: Learn how to control your risk. There are no short shots.
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Ep478: Anthony Iannarino – Startups Need Strong Execution Skills
BIO: Anthony Iannarino is a writer, a speaker, an entrepreneur, and an author of three books.
STORY: Anthony invested $1,200,000 in two brothers working on a revolutionary nanoparticles project. When they needed more money, he found the brothers a good investor, but they decided to go with another who required them to move from their hometown. Halfway through the project, the brothers decided they didn’t want to work on it anymore and moved back home, killing the project.
LEARNING: When getting into a high-stakes investment, have a solid contract that makes you part of the decision-makers.
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Ep477: Garrett Roche – Don’t Forget the Macro When Investing in Stocks
BIO: Garrett Roche is Chief Investment Strategist at Uxbridge Capital Advisors, a private wealth advisory firm in New York City.
STORY: Garrett got caught up in the Nokia stock when the technology bubble hit. He hung on to the stock for too long even though it was clear the stock was not about to go up. He lost 60% of his investment.
LEARNING: Take a macro view when picking stocks. Have an average of 10 investments in your portfolio.
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Ep476: Mike Lung – Have a Defined Exit in Every Trade
BIO: Mike Lung is the Director of Brokerage at Allendale Inc, which is best known for specializing in the Agriculture sector since 1985, working with farmers, ranchers, merchandisers, and others to hedge their risk when it comes to buying and selling agricultural products/inputs.
STORY: Mike got into the wheat market without a plan or any research. The market went down and saw him lose his investment.
LEARNING: Always have a defined exit plan before you get into any trade. Use futures and options for effective risk management.
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DISCLAIMER: This content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Readers should not consider statements made by the author(s) as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. The author(s) cannot be held liable for any actions taken as a result of reading this article.